“Maybe it’ll be good for him to go on a date with someone else,” he says, gesturing for me to take his hand. Yanking me onto my feet, he adds one final thought. “I think it’s inevitable that she won’t measure up to you. Let’s go meet Abby for lunch, I already texted her.”
The thought of Griffin on a date with someone else makes me sick to my stomach, but Jack is right. I dated someone else for over a year while Griffin waited around. It’s my turn to be patient. I can do that. For him.
***
“Griffin, hey, wait up!” I yell, half-running down the hallway to catch up to him. He turns around, and a fresh wave of guilt washes over me at the residual hurt in his eyes.
We haven’t spoken since I, for lack of a better term, lost my shit on Friday. Jack and Abby gave me a combination pep talk slash scolding, and I’ve been trying to find the words to apologize since then. After my dad told me he wasgetting whiplash from the number of times I kept picking up my phone and immediately putting it back down at the dinner table, I decided it’d be better to just apologize in person.
Now that I’m here, every word I planned has escaped me.
After a moment of silence, Griffin says, “Okay I waited up. Did you need something?”
Okay, so he’s definitely still mad.
“Yes,” I say breathlessly, nervously wringing my hands, dropping my gaze to my shoes. “I wanted to say sorry.”
When he doesn’t say anything, I look up at him, and find him waiting expectantly, eyebrows raised.
“I’m sorry. That was unfair to you. You’ve been nothing but patient and kind to me, and I had no right to snap at you. If you want to ask Katie out, you should.”
Unable to stop myself, I keep babbling on.
“Not that you need my permission, you can do whatever you want. I just want you to know I support you, and I’m glad we’re friends again, and kissing you was great, but we don’t have to do it again if you don’t want, which obviously you don’t since–”
“Eleanor, chill,” Griffin interrupts with a laugh. “We’re all good, darlin’. I appreciate the apology.”
He grins at me brightly, and I smile hesitantly in return.
“I’m sorry I lost my temper, too,” he says, raking his hand through his hair. “You and me sure bring out the fire in each other.”
That’s one way of putting it. More like “Fun fact, I’ve felt like I’m on fire since we kissed.”
“I don’t know if I’m going to ask Katie out,” he continues. “Either way, I hope things can stop being weird. David is gonna be crushed if Ellie & The Dudes are breaking up again.”
The smile on my face is no longer hesitant, but full and genuine. “Tell David not to worry, the reunion tour is still on.”
He moves to my side, putting his arm around my shoulders as we continue down the hall. My heart skips a beat at the warmth of his touch, but I remind myself that it’s just friendly–the same way he would throw his arm around David or Jack.
I feel him tense up, and he drops his arm. I look around for what made him clam up, and spot Katie walking toward us. When she spots Griffin, her face brightens, waving at him with a coy smile.
He waves back, one corner of his mouth tipping up in a smirk. I don’t know if he’s worried about my reaction, or spiraling about whether or not he’s going to ask her out, but there’s no denying the way my heart sinks.
He gives me an awkward pat on my shoulder and mumbles out a hurried goodbye before darting inside his classroom.
The rest of the way to my own class, I can’t shake the feeling that this is going to be much harder than I thought.
Chapter 26
Ellie
October, Age 28
“Ellie, you’re a genius.”
Sitting in the crowded coffee house with Tori, my notes are strewn across the table as we hash out some of the reunion details. Once we came to terms with the fact that reunions are inherently cheesy and there’s no avoiding it, we finally landed on a theme–A Walk Down Memory Lane.
Today we’re focused on how we can reminisce without having some lame slideshow accompanied by Time of Your Life by Green Day.
