Change For Me

23. better that way

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Jae's pov

"What did you do with the candy?" Roman throws his arms over me and Conrad.

We're walking to our spot for lunch when Conrad frowns, "I gave it all to my sister."

"Why?" Roman asks.

"I gave it to her because my mom told me to."

"What did you do?" I laugh at how disappointed he truly sounds by it.

"I told her slender man would crawl out of her bed if she didn't give me her skittles." Conrad sighs sadly.

"Dude," Roman shoves him to the side. "I would've been terrified. Honestly, good for her. You should've given her the whole candy store."

"Hey, I'm just saying she deserved it." Conrad throws up his hands in defense.

We approach the picnic table. "Who deserved it?" Taron asks. I go to take a seat, but when I don't see Ellie at her usual seat, I become curious at her disappearance. I even begin to wonder where she can possibly be.

I kind of need her help with math again. And she's the only person who makes it easy for me to understand.

"She's office monitoring with Sofie today." Eva whispers when she notices me staring.

"Why would you do that?" Taron exclaims. I look over in time when she slaps Conrad's arm repeatedly. "She's too cute—why?" She pouts.

"Awe, don't worry she's fine now." Conrad winks at her before facing the rest of us with something serious overcoming him. "Anyways, I actually wanted to ask you guys about Ellie. What happened to her last night?"

"Oh yeah," Roman's eyebrows shoots up. "She just disappeared."

"I feel bad," Eva frowns.

"I think she was being a little over dramatic." Taron says. As soon as everyone looks at her with a questionable gaze, she raises her hands in defense. "Just saying. You don't have to be mad about my opinion."

I furrow my brows, "wait, what happened?"

"She was freaking out because we went trick or treating and that she had to 'wait for her mom'." She rolls her eyes.

My brows furrow further, "why would she freak out?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm saying 'over dramatic'." Taron shrugs.

"I did think that." I say.

"What do you mean?" Taron tilts her head as I realize that they are quietly listening to our conversation.

"Me and Claire bumped into her and she was acting...unusual." I hesitantly say. "We told her to have fun but she ignored us. In my head, I thought she was over reacting but when I realized that she was genuinely stressed—" I'm not able to finish my statement as Conrad punches my shoulder.

"Really?" I glare at him and he returns one as well.

"Whatever, that's irrelevant. Where is she?" Conrad changes the subject.

"She's with Sofie." Eva replies, writing in her notebook.

"To be honest, it's better that way." Taron takes a bite of her carrots. An intense feeling drops into my stomach. It makes me suddenly uncomfortable, only for a second, before I'm forcing my gut to ignore it nonetheless.

~

Ellie's pov

"And she said, 'just have fun'." I explain. "Who says that to someone who's clearly panicking?"

"I would've hit her with my sister's candy bag if I was there." Sofie takes her textbook and smacks it in the air.

"You should've came with us," Dustin sighs.

Sofie and Dustin are Everton's office monitors. Since teachers take any excuse they can get for a break, the both of them monitor the office during their spares as well. The principal, Mrs. Pearce, made me a substitute as extra help.

Usually only two monitors are allowed at a time. However, today's an exception because Dustin's supposed to do a few tasks around the school. He ended up crashing with me and Sofie to wait for further instructions when in reality, he's too lazy to finish those said 'tasks'.

"Are you sure I'm allowed to be here?" I glance from where I'm seated then at the principal's office.

"Here? Yeah of course." Sofie looks up from her book and gives me a smile.

"Either way, it's more fun with you here." Dustin rubs his hands together. "You can tell me what's going on with you and Jae."

I basically choke on air, not prepared for his abruptness.

"Nothing," I roll my eyes at the change of topics to him. Out of anything else to talk about, he chooses that.

"You guys are adorable," his shriek practically shakes me in my chair.

"Ew," I scrunch my nose.

Dustin covers his mouth, "omg! You like him!"

"No...maybe.." I mess with him too soon because as soon as his jaw drops, I've realized how easily the joke went over his head.

"Shut up," Sofie grabs me by my shoulders and looks at me with wide eyes.

I think back to last night. "I don't know, he's complicated." We may have had our moments in which I overanalyze too much but after what happened, I'm nothing to him—like always. I have to start accepting it.

They exchange looks, then smirk at me. "In what way?" They ask in unison. I sigh, knowing I'll regret it later.

I tell them what happened these past few weeks, specifically last night. I trust them enough because of how long I've known them. It also gives me some relief from how awful of an over thinker I am.

"So, is that why you're monitoring with us today?" Dustin laughs after the realization.

"Hell yes! I'm too scared to see them. Especially after all that. I'm embarrassed." I snuggle my bag, which sits on my lap, closer to me.

"Don't worry, they probably don't care." Dustin distracts me by spinning me on the chair.

I laugh as he continues to do it. "Okay, I get." I compose myself after I begin to be dizzy. His distraction doesn't last too long since I have the rest of the day to dread about.

I groan, "I have to get over gym first."

~

As I approach my locker, I notice that Eva's standing near it. "Hey!"

"Hey," I look at her surprised. "Why aren't you at the gym?"

"I wanted to walk with you. They were starting to get annoying." She takes out my bag of gym clothes and closes my locker door and yes, she knows my code.

"Oh, okay." I grab my stuff gratefully and force myself to walk in silence with her. It usually isn't this uncomfortable because out of all of them, Eva is the easiest person to get along with.

"They were talking about you." She says after a moment. As if it has gotten to a point where she couldn't possibly hold the truth in.

"What?"

"They were calling you over dramatic. Right in front of me."

"Oh," is all that I can say because I don't expect less.

"Don't listen to them," she's quick to include. "I didn't think you were."

"It's okay Eva," I shrug. "I really don't care. It happened and I can't change that." I mostly say to reassure myself.

"They're acting like it's not normal to have shit happen." She rolls her eyes, making me laugh.

"I know." I say, walking into the change room at last.

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