number neighbor / mileven texting au.

fifty-two.

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO;
HER BOYFRIEND.

once lunch time rolled around, el was pretty set on finding her boyfriend and putting their spat to rest. while him admitting that her insecurities were an inconvenience had hurt, she missed the boy terribly.

she knew max was right and that she couldn't hold who he used to be against him. it wasn't fair. sure, she wished he might've mentioned that the odds of him bumping into a girl he slept with is much higher than her running into one of his exes — but he didn't and it's fruitless to dwell on it now.

her eyes scanned the lunchroom, which was surprisingly harder to find than she was expecting, for a glimpse of him. her lips pursed when she realized he, along with the rest of their friends, were nowhere in sight.

just as she slipped her cell phone out of her pocket to text max, a not entirely unfamiliar voice rang behind her, "el, hey!" she spun around to find the same blonde from her first smile wearing a bright smile. "you can come sit with us, if you'd like," she offered, nodding her head towards the lunch tables to the right of the cafeteria entrance.

el finally found her voice, "oh, that's really sweet, but i would hate to impose. plus, i-"

"nonsense! you're not imposing at all. now, come on before the weight lifting class gets here. it's meat lover monday and the football team will trample anyone for some pizza," she joked as she wrapped her hand around el's wrist and began pulling her towards a table of girls. "everyone, this is el. she's new. she moved here from newcastle. el, that's whitney," she nodded toward a gorgeous girl with tan skin and ebony ringlets. she then titled her head toward her friend from economics, "you remember mira, right?" she didn't wait for el to nod before moving on to the last girl, a girl with locks even brighter than lucy's and much, much straighter, "and this is gracie."

gracie. she knew that name rang some bell in the back of her mind and she wasn't sure if she wanted to know which.

el forced a smile and reluctantly sat in the empty chair in front of her. "it's nice to meet you guys, but i actually can't stay for long. i'm supposed to sit with my-"

a gasp interrupted her once again. she was beginning to think she would never finish a sentence with these people. it was whitney who spoke, "oh, my god, lucy! you will never guess who's staring at you right now- wait, no! don't turn around! don't make it obvious." el also had to resist the urge to look out of fear that she'd get yelled at too.

gracie, who had just as good a view as whitney, scoffed, "you know, for someone who claims to hate him, you're kind of obsessed with him."

el's eyes widened, immediately having a good guess as to who this "him" was that was staring in their direction.

lucy's eyes also widened, probably figuring out his identity at the same time. "mike? he's looking at me?"

mira nodded with an encouraging smile, a smile that el wanted to knock off because she had no business to encourage anyone of anything pertaining to her boyfriend. her grip on her phone tightened just as it vibrated once.

"what does it matter? doesn't he have a girlfriend or something?" the platinum blonde posed. when she received questioning looks from her friends, she further explained, "olivia o'connor ask him out before the holidays, and apparently he told her he has a girlfriend."