Post Four: Ex Ex Ex

Morgan

As soon as the words left her mouth, I saw on her face that she was embarrassed by them, maybe even a little surprised. I couldn't help but laugh. Her neurotic phobia ramblings had only convinced me further of how adorable she was. Not to mention, this did not seem like something a teenager would talk about. Most teenagers wanted to be on drugs.

As I continued to laugh at her, or rather, with her, if she had joined me in the laughter. She nervously bit her bottom lip, then placed her hand against her face to hide the blushing. Perhaps I took it too far, because the more I laughed, the more nervous she seemed to get. So much so, that she forgot her fear of me drugging her flask, and took a few rather large gulps from it.

“I'm sorry,” she apologized.

“No. Don't be,” I tried to assure her, “you're cute.” Her eyes lit up as she registered my compliment, and the blushing continued. She slid down the wall that she was leaning on, and plopped onto the floor. I sat beside her, pressing my arm against hers. There was an undeniable heat between us.

“You didn't want to go back to the festival, did you?” She questioned, kind of looking around. I took the flask from her again, my hand grazing hers.

“No. Truthfully, I didn't want to be there in the first place.”

“Me either...” she trailed off, taking the flask back and finishing it off.

“Yeah...that guy...your...boyfriend?”

“Ex ex ex...” she repeated several times, with a certain bitterness to it. She zipped open her waist-belt, nestling the flask inside of it.

“Right, sorry, ex,” I corrected, “there's a story there, I imagine.” She sighed deeply, as if deliberating what she should tell me.

I was intrigued, I wanted to know more about her. She had a certain familiarity that I just couldn't place. I turned a bit so I could face her, compromising my lingering touchy lean I had going on. But I wanted to look at her. When she noticed my effort, she moved so she could face me as well. She looked over my face, trying to suss me out.

“Just a small one,” she finally said, “six months ago...”

“Six months? He made it sound rather new.”

“He likes to do that,” she shook her head, “but it was six months ago. See, things hadn't been well between us for awhile. They had been kind of fizzling out, you could say. I suppose we both knew it. But then I was getting some more attention and...well...he felt the way most people do when something they feel they own starts to get popular. They get more interested, try to stake their claim. So he proposed to me.”

“Proposed? As in marriage?”

“Yes, and for about 15 hours, I was a fiancee.”

“Well...what...what happened?”

“He fucked someone else,” she spat out, “he proposed in front of a giant room full of people. Our friends, family, all that. I felt obligated to say yes, even if I was exactly enthused about it. Then began the partying, of course. Big celebration. I lost track of him sometime during the night. The next day I went over to his apartment, and there was another girl there.”

I was dumbfounded. I had never heard such a terrible story. Elli seemed so sweet. It was hard to imagine any guy doing such a horrible thing to her. I instinctively put my hand on hers. It was warm and tiny. Delicate, even. Soft, so soft. She jumped a little when I touched her, but she didn't pull away.

“I am so sorry, Elli.”

“Oh, it's okay,” she shrugged, “we were together for over 3 years, and it just never felt right, you know? What really bothers me is him still incessantly trying to get back together with me. Even dragging me friend into it, if you can call her that.”

“He must be a real piece of shit to think you'd still want to be with him after what he did,” I clenched my teeth. Her story was getting me, and by the look on her face, it was getting to her too.

“Yeaaaah...” she trailed off, looking down. I could see it was upsetting her. I stood up, smiling, hoping it would catch. I held out my hands to her, gesturing to help her up. She took them as I pulled her to her feet, almost falling into me again.

“Come on, I'm buying you a drink, there's a pub a couple blocks from here.”

“Okay,” she agreed, forcing a smile.

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