Neither Mike nor El spoke of what happened when they studied for the exam. El ended up scoring a 93% and Mike couldn't help feeling a little proud. Not that he told her.
The week after the exam, El dropped a bit of news on Mike that he hadn't expected.
"What are you doing tonight?" She asked, laughing internally at his shocked expression, no doubt assuming she was asking because she wanted to do something with him. She didn't let him answer. "Because I have a hot date." With that she turned on her heels and exited the building, leaving Mike standing there dumbfounded.
She's not mine. She can date anyone she wants. Annoy them for a change.
This is what Mike told himself but he didn't feel it. His chest felt funny and he could hear his pulse in his ears.
For El's part, she thought that if she dated someone she could stop thinking about Mike. It bothered her how he was always there in her mind, just under the surface. She knew how she felt but he didn't share her feelings so El wanted to move on; to have a life with no mention of Mike Wheeler.
So obviously it irked her when she and her new man went to a party and she saw Mike standing in the corner. Not able to help herself, El thought it would be fun to parade her new beau around, maybe make Mike jealous.
Mike kept his distance, fuming more and more, until he saw El's new guy in the kitchen about to snort a line of cocaine. He immediately went to find El, to let her know how dumb she was being for even associating with this guy.
"What the fuck, El? Dude is a cokehead? Is that what you're looking for? How stupid are you?"
"Excuse me?"
The loud music booming through the speakers forced El to yell at Mike. Not that she wouldn't have even if the room they were in had been completely silent. She didn't appreciate his accusatory and acidic tone, nor the fact that he was calling her stupid.
"Why do you care and who gives you the right to tell me what to do?" She continued, this time grabbing Mike by the front of his polo shirt and whispering in his ear so he could hear her loud and clear.
When they broke apart, she didn't miss the hurt look on his face, despite his eyes blurred by anger. El knew they were in for a long, eventful night and even though she couldn't help but feel flattered that Mike still cared about her enough to question her decisions and scold her, she was still infuriated that he even dared to come talk to her about it. He had no right, not after everything he'd done.
"I don't care. I'm just a decent person. And as such I don't think you should be dating someone who does drugs. Those are hard drugs, El! What else does he do? If you want to date an asshole cokehead then go ahead. At least I'll know I tried. I thought you were smarter than that. But hey, I'm wrong a lot apparently."
Mike had pulled her by her arm away from the speakers to the corner of the room by the kitchen...where the coke snorting was happening.
El thought that Mike was wildly unreasonable, especially when his long fingers wrapped around her bare arm and he succeeded in leading her to where the action took place. She could now clearly see her date doing the thing Mike had already mentioned. Not that El needed proof - she didn't care because she wasn't in love with the guy. He was just a distraction from the only boy she had ever loved, but even seeing her with another person didn't stop Mike from tormenting her.
"So what? Not everyone is a stupid...church boy like you. You're a fucking nerd, Mike, and you should mind your own business! Since when do you care about what I do?"
Mike wasn't sure how to answer her. Truthfully it was, short answer, I don't. Long answer, I love you but he didn't know where to begin. Her words were venomous and Mike felt it.
But he couldn't have answered her anyway because just then El's new boyfriend came bouncing in from the kitchen.
The guy was threatening just by simply being - his vulgar mannerisms coming out through every pore of his body. Mike was disgusted beyond words and he had no idea how someone as angelic as El could ever have eyes for something so grotesque. Even so, he couldn't deny the fact that the guy seemed attractive as he was well built and as tall as Mike. Even his face, which still had white powder around his nose, was universally attractive. Mike hated him with all his might already.
"Is this dude bothering you?" The guy asked from behind El but loud enough for Mike to hear.
The boys' eyes locked at the same time and El gasped when she felt a strong arm encircling her waist and coming up to cup her breast. She lowered her head in embarrassment. As much as she wanted to get on Mike's nerves until he left her alone, she didn't want him to witness to something like this. It felt wrong and almost like cheating.
"No, it's okay. He's just a childhood friend." She forced out a smile in the guy's direction and put her small hand on top of his until he dropped his arm and their fingers intertwined.
"Yeah? Then why is he looking at you like that?" El's date insisted as he let go of El and stepped in front of Mike. "She's hot, isn't she? Gonna be hotter later…"
"Dude, you're high. Don't be so degrading." Seeing him put his hands on El made Mike feel sick and as much as he just wanted to get out of there, he also couldn't resist pointing out the guy's flaws.
"You'd fuck anything in here, man. You're just goin' fast, right? I bet you'd fuck that guy over there if he gave you a shot. You're just looking for a hole." Mike gestured toward a group of three guys, one ripped guy, a short, thin boy, and a guy who looked like he never left 1975. It was a motley crew and Mike thought it was funny that he hadn't said whom in particular he was talking about. "There's probably some cottage cheese in the fridge if you look. Knock yourself out, asshole."
Mike's temper was up. He could tell he had touched a nerve when the guy stepped closer, his fist clenched. Mike couldn't help himself.
"Or I'm sure your mom'll let you fuck her again when you get home."
Before El could even register every hostile and mocking word that flew out of Mike's mouth, her date was already throwing a punch at him. She couldn't do anything but scream when the mop of dark hair bounced along with Mike's face and by the time El had managed to intervene, Mike was already covering his busted lip.
"Why did you do that?!" She yelled at her date, although she already knew the answer. The guy was on drugs and, besides, everything that Mike had just said was asking for trouble, but it still broke El's heart to see the blood trickling down his pale fingers while she still tried to hold the perpetrator back.
Mike looked at El, blood dripping down his face. "Great choices. Have fun with that." He couldn't be there anymore. "Sorry I cared. Guess I'm the stupid one after all. Get out of my way." He brushed past her, feeling angry and embarrassed and hurt, and headed out the front door. Mike just wanted to be alone. It was really happening; El was moving on. He hated that any of his feelings for her had been stirred and rekindled and really wanted nothing more than to disappear.
El didn't even think twice before deciding to follow Mike, but her date seemed to have a different opinion.
"Are you fucking kidding me? You're not going after him, are you?" The guy spat as he grabbed hold of El's arm and held her in place.
"Just...leave me alone!" She slapped his hands off her and pushed him aside.
At that point El just ran out the door and into the darkness, the outdoor floodlights being the only source of lighting as she tried to reach Mike. His legs were obviously longer and therefore his stride was faster, apart from also fleeing the house before El.
It took her a while, but when she finally managed to hold Mike in place, they were at the end of the back yard, right next to a greenhouse and away from all the commotion happening inside the house. She didn't have to yell anymore, but her tone was still aggravated as Mike turned around and she saw the bloody split on his bottom lip.
"What were you thinking?!"
Despite her harsh words and enraged tone, her hands carefully ghosted over Mike's face as she tried to examine the wound. It seemed like it hurt, but not as much as it did to have Mike yank her hands off him.
Mike pushed her away, albeit gently. "Don't pretend to care if I'm hurt. You can save your Florence Nightingale routine. No one is looking. Why did you even follow me? Don't you want to be back in there with Less Than Zero?"
He had flinched when she touched him, fighting his first instinct to melt into her. His lip hurt but not as much, Mike realized, as seeing that guy's hands on her and El not minding.
"You'd probably like him right now anyway. He's got a lot of energy, could go for hours. Fuck, maybe you could fuck him so long he'd have a heart attack. Awesome that you're dating someone where that's a possibility. A brilliant move. But hey, if that's what you want, who am I to stand in your way? It's not like my opinion ever mattered anyway." Mike looked down at El who was standing so close the condensation of their breath mingled together in the brisk autumn night.
"Not like I ever mattered."
"Stop saying that, you dumb-" El let out an exaggerated sigh and, once again, she reached for Mike's head.
She could tell it took him a lot of self-control to not push her away as warm fingers caressed his injured lip, the back of her thumb wiping away the excess blood before their eyes met.
El couldn't pretend being chary around Mike anymore and not even his belligerent actions were going to push her away this time. Maybe they had grown over the years, but there were times when she still considered Mike the same innocent, pure kid who didn't deserve to be hurt. At least not physically.
"I'm sorry. I had no idea he was going to do that and I'm just-" No, El thought. This was not the time for her to be candid about her feelings. "It was your fault, okay? Just mind your own business and stop worrying about who I'm-" she decided to twist the knife, hoping to get a reaction, "sleeping with."
There it was. Mike didn't realize how much he'd feared it until she said it. He was glad it was kind of dark because there was no way she would have missed the look of utter disappointment he knew was plastered on his face.
"Not worried about it. It's clear that I shouldn't worry myself with anything you do. You leave. You leave and you disappoint so I don't know why I was even surprised. Of course you'd find someone like him. You never-"
Mike stopped. He had been going to say something about how she never thought she was good enough for anything she actually deserved but he didn't think now was the time to embarrass himself further by letting her know he cared about her self-esteem and had always held her in much higher regard than she'd ever held herself.
"I never what?"
El's brows quirked up as she pulled back to look at Mike. She was getting sick of his petulant complaints. It was one after another, always something to throw at her, always the one to be blamed by Mike.
"I never learn my lesson? I always let someone destroy me? Is that what you wanted to say?"
Her silvery tone was replaced by something more abrasive, the disgust written on her features as she asked one question after another and tried to see what Mike was about to tell her but stopped.
"If you aren't the one to ruin me, it will be someone else, anyway. So what? Why do you fucking care, Mike?"
She waited for an answer, but there was none coming out of Mike's mouth.
"I'll tell you why. Because I'm the best, and probably the only fuck, you'll ever have. That's why you're so wounded right now, right? You're scared no one is gonna want someone as lame as you. But you know what?"
El had no idea what she was doing as the jabs kept on coming while she tried to see what was about her that made Mike care so much. Mike watched her in shock, but she still took it a step further and led him inside the greenhouse before forcing his big hand down her skirt, right where her womanhood was.
"I don't care, Mike. I'll be the greater person and continue to fuck you. You can always have me. Are you happy now? Happy to know that your fuck toy won't leave you? Now you won't have to worry about who I'm seeing or fucking as long as you still get to do the same, right?"
Mike's fingers grazed over El's pussy before he pulled his hand away. He was getting angry.
"My fuck toy? Is that what you think?" For a moment he softened and his voice was quiet. "Is that really how I made you feel? El, you were never that. I...you were the most important...you sti-"
He stopped again. "Why would you ever want to bother with me anymore? Why draw it out?" Mike's anger bubbled up once more. "Maybe you don't want to stop fucking me. Is that it?" He had been taking small steps forward as he spoke, El stepping backwards. Soon she hit the wall and Mike was only millimeters from her. "Tell me, El. Are you turned on right now?"
"Yeah, right." El scoffed, apparently unimpressed. On the inside, though, her blood was coiling, her eyes searching Mike's as she tried to decipher the look on his face. It seemed like a mix between lust and anger, and El knew she could never be anything but putty in his hands. Especially now when he was hovering over her, his intimidating gaze staring her down. Her pussy throbbed in anticipation, but she wasn't ready to let Mike be in control.
"At least my dick isn't about to pop out of my pants." She pointed at the bulge in Mike's jeans, contented that even with just a simple gesture of pressing his hand over her pussy she had still managed to get him hard.
"And don't worry. You don't have to use your sweet little fake words to try to make me feel better. I don't care if I was your fuck toy," she lied, her fingers coming down to Mike's cock and giving it a generous squeeze.
"You know why? Because you were mine, too. Say whatever you want, but I taught you everything, Mike. I taught you how to move your tongue over my pussy." El used her free hand to bring Mike's to her panties once again, this time hooking his knuckles around the edge of the fabric until he grazed his fingertips over her clit.
"I taught you how to finger me...how to use this small dick of yours."
She emphasized her words by squeezing his cock, hard. At the same time, she urged his hand to go lower down her slit until it reached her hole and Mike's middle finger eased in. He was compliant for the most part, his hand mellow as she used it for her own pleasure while still not forgetting about Mike's own needs.
Mike tried not to give in but El clearly had an effect on him. It was primal.
"Stop it," he pleaded but his body said otherwise. El unfastened his jeans. "Please, just stop," Mike whispered.
El sighed softly as Mike's finger continued to move even as his words said the opposite. He knew exactly how to make her feel good.
"You don't want me to stop." El's lips were almost touching his, his head hung low as he fingered her slippery cunt. "You don't," her lips brushed against his, "want me," gently over the busted part, kissing there as though she was trying to make it feel better, "to ever stop." She held Mike's raging hard dick in her hand, she always did like how it felt to hold it, and started pumping him.
Mike melted into the kiss. It hurt, but she was being gentle which only made her hotter and it angered him that she turned him on so much but he was helpless now. Without breaking the kiss and without removing his fingers from her pussy Mike used his free hand to tear her panties down her leg. She gasped but didn't stop kissing him. In fact her body squished more against his.
"You shouldn't have ripped them, Mike."
El sighed against his mouth as she deliberately avoided pressing over his busted lip. It seemed like it hurt and when she tried to nibble on it, he croaked out a hiss and El was quick to press apologetic kisses all over the split. She tasted iron as she did so, but it didn't stop her from lapping at the wound.
"What am I going to tell my date?"
She egged him on, trying to elicit any kind of reaction that would make Mike punish her in return. It didn't matter that she was lying and had never had sex with that guy and most definitely never would after what he'd done to Mike, but he didn't have to know that. El wanted him cruel and indignant just so she could feel less bad for what she'd done to him.
But even while she tried to stick to her masochistic plan, she still massaged Mike's cock with fervid strokes, her thumb encircling around the swollen tip as she spread his pre-come around while their tongues still battled for dominance. Pulling back, she breathed over his mouth.
"Or do you want me to go back like that? To know that you did that to me? You can do that. I might've taught you everything, but I have to admit I've always been a slut for you so I guess I shouldn't mind."
Mike gave in. Feeling her always made him feel at home and the way she was kissing him was too much. But he knew her. Mike knew El possibly better than anyone ever had, at least he thought so. She wanted him, it was definite by the way she was stroking him, her hand touching him in all the right ways. Because El knew Mike too.
But he knew that she wanted to feel small, punished, wanted to feel powerless against him.
Maybe that's why she's dating that ultra-alpha type dude.
Mike had never been able to deny her what she wanted.
"You can tell him you took them off. Tell him you wanted to be ready for his coke filled frat boy cock." He kissed her roughly, not caring about his lip. So what if I get blood on her face? His hands lifted her skirt, pushing it up so that her naked ass was showing.
"I'll be fast so you can get back to him. That's what you want, right? For me to, how did you put it, use you?" Before he got really rough he kissed her for real, just like he used to. It was deep and loving and he noticed that El gave back, but just as quickly he stopped it. "Turn around," Mike whispered, his face still almost touching hers. "I...can't look at you right now."
He spun her, holding her hips and not letting her move much. She was a little short for what he had planned to do so he improvised. He picked her up, bridal style crazily enough, and carried her to the back corner of the shed where there was a potting bench that was about at the level of a table. It would have to work. He set her down.
"I want you to bend over. I don't care if you get dirty. You're gonna take my cock right here and now. You got me hard so you're gonna fix it."
Mike pushed her down, liking the gasp that escaped from her. He knew that sound. El wanted this maybe more than he did.
"You can still say no. Now is the time, El. Your ass and pussy look so good. Your thighs are wet, El. But I'll stop. If you want me to I'll stop." Mike bounced his cock off her ass, rubbing it all along her crack and her slit, feeling how warm and wet she was. How ready for him. He leaned down. God, she always smells so good. His breath ghosted over her ear as he licked it, moving to the back of her neck. "Do you want me to stop, El?"
"I don't care," El lied for the umpteenth time that night as she tried to ignore the pang in her chest at Mike's words. I can't look at you right now. Of course he couldn't. The fact that she wasn't worthy of anyone's love was embedded in El's mind. But much to her dismay, she only wanted Mike's. She needed it and the realization dawned on her a lot stronger when she was so vulnerable in front of him, all bare and submissive.
She did what she knew best, provoking Mike with tantalizing moves, her ass swaying in front of his hard cock as she silently begged him for something, anything. He didn't seem to get the hint or maybe he just simply pretended not to but either way, El was thirsting for more so she left her pride aside.
"Do you want me to beg you? Because I can do that, if that's what gets you going. Nerd pretending to be fierce in bed and denying girls, oh wait, just me...denying me the pleasure of being stuffed by cock just so he could be begged in return and feel almighty? Is that what you need, Mike?"
El couldn't help it.
"What are you talking about? You like begging me. You always did. You're wasting time right now. Do you want your after-school-special boyfriend to miss you? Come looking for you and find you crying my name as I fuck your brains out? Gotta hurry now."
With that, Mike entered her. He could have just rammed himself in like he knew she was expecting but he went slowly, wanting her to feel everything as he returned his dick to the place, if he was being honest with himself, he most liked it to be.
"I want to make this count. Want you to remember. Remember how it feels, El. I know you love it. I can feel that you do." Mike was rocking into her, his fingers stroking her hair and occasionally grazing her scalp, his other hand caressing her ass. He started to increase his rhythm, thrusting harder and deeper every time.
"You can think about this next time you're fucking him. Or do you already? Does he fuck you better than I do? Does he know what you like? Do you...ever...think...about...me?" Harder still, El was crying out with every punishing stroke.
"Never," El mewled and held back from rocking herself onto Mike's hard rod. "But he does...fuck me...so much better," she lied unabashedly.
Her fingers skimmed the wooden bench as he pummeled his hard cock into her and she found herself overly obedient and compliant to his touches, despite the snarky remarks that didn't let up. Mike didn't deserve to get away with it so easily.
"He's so...much...better…and I, oh, I...I come so hard on his cock..."
Even as she continued to lie, all she could picture was Mike doing that to her instead. Mike was the only one who had ever made her come and, despite her stubbornness, El was adamant that she wanted him to be the only one who could do that. The only one who could feel her that way, so intimate and vulnerable, while she experienced him just the same in return.
Mike felt her words like wasp stings. Even if she was lying, of which he wasn't sure, it hurt to hear her say someone else loved her better than he ever had. He fucked her harder.
"Well no wonder. I'm just a stupid church kid you had to teach everything to, right? Guess you didn't teach me how to be the best at making you come."
Mike reached around her, standing her up, his breath fanning over her neck as they moved together uncontrollably. He gently massaged her clit; quite a contrast from the way his dick was pounding her.
"And yeah, maybe no other girls will ever fuck me. Maybe I'm not that special. Maybe you'll be the only one to ever make me come." Mike kissed her neck. She was sighing and pooling into him. He could have sworn she was trying to get closer. He sped up his movements. His hand was so slippery as he played with her clit, he could feel his cock moving in and out of her. She was meeting him, her ass suctioned to his body. She was already starting to shake and tremble.
"But maybe you won't be. Do you ever think about that? About some other girl riding my cock, milking it? Me screaming her name as I come deep inside her?"
"N-No," El stammered. "Who would ever...want you?"
I would. I do, she thought to herself and just the mere thought of Mike touching some other girl the same way spurred something inside of El. There was a distressing vexation inside of her, just picturing Mike pounding someone other than her, and it didn't take long until her irritability showed through every fiber of her being.
El zapped out of Mike's hold until they were facing each other yet again. She succeeded in hoisting herself up onto the potting bench and pulling Mike by the shoulders until their chests were glued. Her fingers went through soft strands of hair as she tugged on them, her free hand guiding Mike's cock inside her cunt. He obliged and filled her up immediately, and El sighed in response.
"And tell me...Mike...do you sometimes dream about me? And don't...lie," she managed to utter through feral thrusts.
El knew that she could easily expose herself anytime soon if she kept on poking fun at Mike and especially his wet dreams, like the one he'd had back when they had shared his bed, but she couldn't control her need to mock him. It was the only weapon at hand against his dominant demeanor and the way he fucked her so hard.
"Dreams don't come true. Who cares what I dream about?" His mouth went to hers, both of them relenting and accepting the other. In a moment of blissful weakness Mike spoke with his heart.
"Not weird to dream about the only girl I'll ever love."
Oh fuck me! I did not say that out loud!
He tried to just ignore it, to cover it up by changing up his strokes, pulling almost all the way out and holding himself there while he went back to kissing her. He could feel her wiggling as she struggled to get him back inside. Her legs tightened but Mike wouldn't give in.
"What? Did you need something?" Her annoyed grunt made him chuckle. Mike rested his forehead on hers. "I know," he whispered. "I want to come too. Just give me the word."
"Please?" El tried, her face docile and on the brink of tears as she tried to ignore what Mike had just admitted.
He's just saying it. He likes to torture me, she repeated over and over again inside her head. It was her coping mechanism, but her body still couldn't resist his.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and refused to relax her tight grip as her lips sought Mike's until she found them. She kissed him almost by force, not bothering to have her kisses reciprocated as she just whimpered against his mouth, her hot breath fanning over his face.
"Please, Mike."
El was desperate already and just wanted to feel herself connected to Mike in every possible way. Maybe there would never be an emotional connection again, at least not an admitted one, but that didn't meant she could ever deny herself the pleasure of their bodies becoming joined.
Mike couldn't have stopped himself if he tried. He had never been able to deny her, especially when she begged him so sweetly. He could feel his heart breaking at the thought of this being over soon. They were nothing to each other now, that was clear to him, but in moments like this it was easy to remember how much he cared for her. Mike knew he always would, even if she didn't care about him.
He hugged her close, plunging his cock back into her as deep as the position would allow.
"Take it then. Right now it's yours, El. Come for me. Just like you used to. Just give me that? I got my lip busted trying to stand up for you."
Mike could feel El contracting her muscles, clenching around his cock, not letting him go. He could feel the telltale beginnings of her orgasm.
"You know when you suck me in with your pussy like that you're gonna make me come. Is that what you want? Do you want me to come in you while you're quivering around my dick? Let's make each other feel good just one more time."
Despite agreeing with each of Mike's inquires, El was too overwhelmed by her approaching orgasm to form coherent sentences. All she did was thrash in Mike's arms, her legs tightly wrapped around his torso while he plunged into her at full force.
And then she came undone, her whole body quivering while she gasped and moaned in Mike's ear, hearing him do the same in return.
"Don't...stop..." she whined while still climaxing and Mike didn't go against her words.
His cock pummeled her insides the whole time she climaxed, only for El to feel Mike dumping all of his semen inside of her moments after. The warm liquid filled her and she sighed, her fingers slowly detangling from Mike's hair as their orgasms subsided.
They stood in silence for a little longer, panting and holding each other. El couldn't tell if Mike wanted to pull back, but her hold was so firm around his body that she was certain he couldn't escape even if he tried.
"I've never had sex with him," she offered all of a sudden and cringed right after. There was no way Mike was going to believe her now after everything she'd told him while having sex, but she still felt the need to come clean.
"Right. I believe you like I believe in God." He allowed her to slide away from him to start putting herself back together. Mike didn't know why but he wasn't feeling resentment toward El at the moment, he was resenting his father for making him think things that never happened. If he hadn't gone to church he'd have never met El, would have never fallen in love with her, would have never felt the blinding pain of losing her and then the new pain of her being back in his life just out of reach. He wouldn't fall asleep thinking about her every night. He wouldn't have to think about someone else touching her, holding her. He wouldn't have to think about someone else loving her.
"It's fine. Really. I mean, we're not anything. You're in college, you're just doing what college kids do." Mike felt spent, his lip hurt, and he was dreading going home and thinking about this. His whole body smelled like her now.
"Just be careful, all right? I can't...just be careful with that guy."
Their clothes back in place, Mike wasn't exactly sure how to depart.
"Umm, well, see you around I guess."
"Wait-"
El had a hold on Mike's arm before he could exit the greenhouse. The lean muscles stiffened under her touch and she could feel her heart shattering. It wasn't supposed to go that way. Mike wasn't supposed to be surprised or unfamiliar with her body outside of sex. And yet he was.
She wished everything hadn't been so complicated and, more than anything else, she wished Mike would have contacted her in those two years she had spent by herself. All he was saying right now seemed to come from a place of love and kindness, but El was reluctant to trust him again. How could she, after she had spent two years just praying for a sign from him that she had never gotten?
Despite her disappointment at the boy she loved so much, she still needed him. Just one last time, she tried to promise herself.
"Kiss me," she croaked out, almost scared. "Like...like when we were younger. Just pretend. For a moment."
Mike didn't speak. He could hear his own heart beating. Her hand felt warm on his arm, so much sense memory. He cradled her head in his hands, gently brushing his thumbs over her cheeks before lowering his head. Their noses touched as Mike's lips hovered tentatively over hers. The anticipation made him shiver.
And then he kissed her. Slowly, just using his lips at first, and then letting his tongue explore when he felt hers trying to do the same. He liked how her hands were in his hair. He liked the sounds she made, the soft sighs that would escape as their heads tilted together.
His hands moved to her body and he held her close, not wanting the kiss to end.
"I've never been good at pretending if goblins and orcs aren't involved," Mike whispered as they finally brought their kiss to a close, both still offering small tender pecks before letting go.
"You were good now," El argued with a sad smile plastered on her face.
She didn't even want to think of a time without Mike next to her, and the only thing that was barely alleviating the pain of their more or less breakup was the fact that she could at least see him around campus. That would be better than not seeing him at all for two years, she figured.
"I guess I should go..."
Their eyes locked and El could read the desperation on Mike's face. It was almost like he was twitching and aching to pull her back against his body.
"And...I lied. I'm sure anyone would want to be with you. You're a good guy."
But not to me, El convinced herself.
With one last kiss pressed to Mike's cheek, she sauntered outside the greenhouse and back to the party. She tried to deal with the uncontrollable tears on her way to the house, but it was to no avail and she was forced to spend the next half an hour bawling on the bathroom floor and rocking herself until the pain slowly faded away. Until there were no more thoughts of a future with Mike. At least for now.
Author's Note: They both need to be shaken. I'm just as irritated. I mean, actions speak louder than words but c'mon, guys, use your words! They'll get there...probably. Thanks for reading and riding along with me. And thanks to my constant reader partner for finding my mistakes. I don't know what I'd do without you. I'd probably be as hurt as Mike and El in this fic.