Thank you all for your reviews, favorites, and follows. They mall ean so very much to me!

So this chapter is the shortest chapter yet. But something tells me shorter is best for this one.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything associated with The Originals...I just like to play around with the characters at times. I only own the plot...mostly.

Chapter 11 - Play Pretend

The first thing Hayley wanted when she woke up the next morning was breakfast. Elijah was still sound asleep and she didn't want to wake him. So she got up, got dressed, and quietly snuck out of the room. She headed up to the little restaurant that had her favorite breakfast, ordered her favorite food... everything was great.

Until it wasn't.

The last thing she ever wanted was exactly what happened. She ran into her ex. Again. Even worse... this time his new girlfriend was with him. It was just her luck this would happen when she didn't have Keelin or Elijah by her side to keep him at bay.

"Maybe he won't see you," she thought to herself, looking down at her food and letting her hair cascade into a curtain to hide her face. "Just sit here and don't look their way."

"Hayley?"

"No! No! No! Fuck! No!"

"Hayley? Is that you?"

"Ignore him. He'll go away."

"Hayley, I know that's you."

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Hayley huffed as she forced herself to look up at him. "Can I help you two?"

"How are you, Hayley?"

Hayley frowned. "Worse now that you're here, Jackson."

Jackson sighed. "I'm not being testy with you, so why are you being testy with me?"

Hayley scoffed, looking at the girl next to him. "Hello, Genevieve," she greeted not trying to hide her disgust at all.

Genevieve smiled back at her, apparently not understanding Hayley's mood towards her.

"You're not still caught up on me, are you?" Jackson asked.

Hayley could almost hear the excitement in Jackson's tone. She really wanted to slap him right then. He always did want Hayley to be stuck on him. Too bad for him, that's not the case. Hayley only dated him in the first place to shut him up. She came to actually care for him eventually. But she wouldn't say she ever loved him. Or at least she was absolutley certain she was never in love with him.

"I have a boyfriend so..." The words left Hayley's mouth before she could even think them through.

Jackson smirked. "We should do a double date then."

"Yeah, sure," Hayley said again without thinking.

"Great. I'll call you later and we'll set up a time," Jackson said already turning and leaving.

"Shit! No!" Hayley exclaimed but Jackson and Genevieve were already disappearing around the corner when she opened her mouth to protest. "Fuck!"

How was she going to fix this now? She didn't have a boyfriend. What the heck was she thinking? Wait. She wasn't. What was she going to do? This was not good.

After a minute or two of wracking her brain, it finally hit her. She had to find Elijah. Now. Maybe she could convince him to pretend he was her boyfriend. He was literally her last hope. Well actually he was her only hope.

Why did she let Jackson get away with his manipulation just then? Damn it. She was much smarter than that. But apparently not in that moment. if she was so smart then she wouldn't be in the situation she was in.

Hayley hoped she could talk Elijah into helping her out. She wasn't going to expect him to do it. That'd be too confident, and not the good kind of confident. She'd ask him to help, maybe throw a puppy dog expression in... but that'd be all. She wouldn't force Elijah to help her. She would hope and wish he would though.

This whole situation was too much. Why did this kind of thing have to happen to her? Relationship drama was something she preferred not to deal with. That's why she'd been with Jackson in the first place. He seemed good and nice and she'd assumed relationship drama would be small with him. Damn was she so wrong. Honestly him cheating on her and her finding out and breaking up with him was the best thing to happen in the end. Even if it did make it so all this was able to happen.

~AllAtSea~

Hayley searched the ship high and low for Elijah. Well alright... not the whole ship, but everywhere she knew he'd been before. But he wasn't in any of those places. The only place she hadn't looked yet was the card room aka the library. He was always reading a book when he wasn't with her. At least she guessed he was.

She made her way to the library, slightly panicking the whole way. She didn't want to ask too much of him. Playing her pretend boyfriend did seem like it was asking much. But she would leave the yes or no up to him. She wouldn't beg. Too much. Hayley didn't want to be that type of person.

Arriving at the library, she looked through the glass for him. Seeing him sitting there reading a book through the window, Hayley took a deep breath and walked down the hallway to the door.

Hayley walked into the library and over to Elijah, sitting down facing him on her knees on the couch.

"Is something wrong?" Elijah asked, taking in the somewhat panicked look on her face.

"So um... I kind of, maybe... possibly... I told my ex that I have a new boyfriend."

Elijah raised an eyebrow curiously, closing his book and placing it down on the other side of him. "And?"

"And that would be you."

"This is the first I've heard of it."

"Please, please, please, please do this for me, Elijah!"

"Hayley..."

"I need you to please pretend to be my new boyfriend," Hayley pleaded, putting on her best puppy dog expression. "Pretty please, Elijah."

"Alright. Okay. I'll do it." Elijah nodded his head. "For you."

Hayley smiled brightly, leaning forward and throwing her arms around him. "Thank you! Thank you! You're the best!"

Her smile only grew when she felt him hug her back.

~AllAtSea~

After Elijah agreed to pretend to be her boyfriend, she left Elijah to continue his book and went back to her room. She was channel surfing when there was a knock at the door, bringing her attention away from the tv. That's weird. She hadn't been expecting any company. Keelin was with Freya again and Elijah always texted her now before he showed up. At least usually he did. Maybe this time he was being full of surprises again.

Hayley turned off the tv as she stood up and went to answer the door. Opening the door, she was immediately frozen in spot. A pair of arms were outreached, holding in them her favorite type of flowers.

"I want to be with you, Hayley."