The other guys came back with their trays, and the table got crowded once more. We were quiet as the rest of them talked among themselves.
“Hey, we should go out sometime, do something,” one guy said, to noises of approval from the rest.
“What are we gonna do, though?”
“Yeah, the coach already said no parties on campus.”
“Idiot, we’re talking about going out of campus grounds…”
“Why don’t we go see a movie?” someone offered. “The latest X-Men movie is out right now; we can get it at the theater if we go over Friday after classes.”
“Yeah, good idea! Hey Elijah, come with us so you can pay, all right?”
I rolled my eyes at the assumption that I would be paying for them, then scoffed.
“No thanks,” I said.
“Dude, why not! It’s a hot movie.”
“Yeah, come with us.”
“Or if you don’t want to, then give us the cash, and we’ll go ourselves.”
“It is a good movie,” Logan said. “And it’ll only be showing this week.”
I looked over at Logan with a frown. “It’s not like you don’t know I can't stand them, Logan.”
His eyebrows shot up, and his expression strange. I wondered what he was trying to tell me until his eyes shifted, and I followed his gaze to see Sophia frowning at me.
“Since when?” she asked, her voice so quiet no one else would hear since they were still chatting loudly.
“Uh,” I floundered, looking back at Logan with alarmed eyes, before calming myself down and smiling at Sophia. “Sorry, I think I misheard something. I wasn’t paying attention.” I looked over at the guys. “What movie did you say you wanted to see again?”
Some of them gave me strange looks, but someone was helpful enough to keep the conversation going.
“The latest X-Men movie. You’ll be coming along, right?”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said dismissively, sighing in relief as the conversation moved forward, everyone talking about going to see the movie.
When I glanced over at Sophia, though, I noticed she was still looking at me with suspicion, and I wondered if I’d ruined things. I might have been a great player, but I was a shit liar. I should have sounded a bit more enthusiastic, but for a split second I forgot myself.
Chapter Fourteen
Sophia
It was Friday already, and I was waiting for the rest of the group so we could all go and watch the latest X-Men movie. I still felt a little awkward about going out with a bunch of hockey players. I wondered if any of them knew I’d hated them silently earlier, before I started dating Elijah?
Elijah had told me we could make it a date and sit separately from his friends, though, which made me feel so much less anxiety.
My classes ended earlier in the day, but Elijah had one in the afternoon, so after my class, I ended up in my dorm room, waiting. Logan and Dana both got lucky, and they were out doing whatever, they would meet up with the rest of the group later.
As I waited for Elijah, I sat at my desk and studied. Just because I was dating someone and got to go out more than I stayed in now didn’t mean I could be lax in my studies. My mom was going through a lot of trouble to pay my tuition because it was the school I’d always wanted to go to. Somehow, I wanted to pay her back, and I couldn’t do that if I weren’t taking my studies seriously.
Thankfully, I’d gotten a lot of assignments done before, so I opened up the school’s portal and got caught up, then went on to studying.
The moment my cell, right beside me on the table, rang though, I dropped everything and picked it up. It was a text from Elijah, letting me know he was on his way up.
I put the books aside and closed my computer, then got up. I’d been dressed for a while already, so I just touched up my hair and make-up a little and put on my sneakers. When he knocked on the door, I was ready, and I didn’t keep him waiting. I pulled the door open and paused as I looked up at Elijah. He grinned at me, looking radiant in his dark blue shirt and black jeans. The shirt brought out the deep color of his eyes, and my breath hitched.
“You wanna drag me into your room for some fun again, right?” he guessed, arching an eyebrow at me as his grin turned into a smirk.
My face warmed as I scowled at him. “Let’s go, or we’ll be late.”
He placed his hands on either side of the doorjamb and leaned closer to me, so close that I could feel his breath on my face. I didn’t move back, though. My head tilted up instinctively, wanting a kiss from him.
Elijah’s eyes flashed, then hid behind his lids as he pressed his lips to mine, and my own eyes fluttered closed. I pushed back on the tips of my toes as he rose up to full height to keep my lips pressed against his, but the difference in our height was unmistakable. The kiss was too short for me, and I frowned up at him with a slight pout, already heaving slightly.
“If we don’t go now, we’ll be late,” he said cheekily with a crooked grin.
“If you knew that, then why would you bait me,” I muttered, closing the door behind me, but I was smiling.
Our hands naturally reached for each other, and I let Elijah lead me out of the dorm. The movie theater we were going to was close to the school and popular with the students because of this. Whoever built it had an idea of what they were doing. It was a Friday afternoon, and between today and the weekend, a lot of students will be going there to watch movies. As long as it wasn’t during exam time, there was almost a guarantee some student from our school would be there, and we were going with an especially large group today.
If we went too late, we wouldn’t get any good seats, so we were going separately from the rest of the hockey team. We walked holding hands the whole way, with me sticking close to Elijah’s side. I was feeling giddy, because we were going on another date, and it was to watch something we both liked.
By the time we got there, there was already a crowd forming, though not everyone had moved to the ticket booth yet. We headed over there first, and I let Elijah pay for the tickets, my face warming up as I smiled to myself, biting down on my lip. It had been so long since I went on any proper dates, and the last guy I dated didn’t always pay for stuff if we went out at all. Usually, he took us to his place, or followed me to mine, or hung out wherever we could be alone if it were free.
Thinking back, with all the cues he’d been sending, he was probably only after me to sleep with me. He didn’t even look for me after our disastrous first time, though at the time I had been glad for it.
“Would you like something to eat?” Elijah asked as we moved away from the ticket booth with our tickets. “There’s plenty of snacks around. The movie won’t be starting for another half an hour, so we could go to the food court and sit down to eat?”
“Why don’t we buy some stuff we can go in with?” I said anxiously. “It might get crowded if we go too late.”
“All right,” he said, looking around. “Let me know if there’s something you want then.”
I didn’t want to be greedy, but Elijah kept nudging me, and I ended up picking a lot of snacks. This wasn’t my first time at the theater. In my first year, I’d come with Dana, and we ended up watching a romantic fantasy movie. We were both on a budget at the time, but going out with Dana was so much different from going out with Elijah.
He bought some stuff for himself, and by the time we made our way into the theater our movie would be showing, we had arms full of snacks. I felt a little embarrassed since there were already people inside and even before we went in, there were people looking at us in surprise.
Elijah opened up a packet of chips and started to eat even before the movie started. I wanted to talk to him about the movie before it started, but I hesitated, seeing him stuff his face. He must have been hungry. Thinking that I looked forward and waited in excitement, practically vibrating in my seat. I already knew the movie was out, and I’d thought I would have to wait a few weeks for the movie to be released online before
I could watch it, and I would still have had to buy it.
This was so much better.
I munched slowly on popcorn as I waited, the room slowly filling up as we waited. Ten minutes after we walked in, other movie trailers and advertisements started rolling on the big screen. By the time the movie was about to start, the theater room was filled up. Elijah’s friends had come at some point, and I’d heard them catcalling at us for coming ahead without them, and at the bunch of snacks we bought, but Elijah just shouted at them. I didn’t even turn around.
When the movie started, I was transfixed.
“Do you want me to get you something else?” Elijah asked.
I spared him a quick glance, not wanting to miss the start of the move, and shook my head at him.
“Um, no? We still have so much stuff. Watch the movie, okay?”