I agreed, but I couldn’t help but wonder if I was making a big mistake.
Chapter Five
The next few weeks seemed to pass in a blur. Even though I tried fighting Ella’s friendship, she’d completely lured me in. She was funny, blunt, and a breath of fresh air.
We stood from our desks as we both walked out into the hallway together. “Coffee shop again, or are we ready to brave the Student Center once more?”
“Coffee shop.” She’d been mentioning the student center more and more lately.
“Ugh, fine.” She pouted. “It’s just that the coffee shop is so much farther to my next class.”
“So, you’re getting lazy on me?” She had yet to tell me about being supernatural, which I didn’t blame her for. Hell, I hadn’t told her about me being one either.
“Hey, it’s hard to be so put together.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder as she snorted. “I can’t keep rushing to class. I get all sweaty.”
“I’m sure you can handle it.” I had a feeling eventually she was going to wear me down.
“Ella.” A deep, raspy voice echoed in the hallway.
“Great.” She huffed and turned to face the person head-on.
I took a few steps off toward the side and continued my march to the front of the building. That was until Ella grabbed my arm.
“Don’t you dare try to sneak off. This won’t take long.”
“Hey.” The guy I’d seen in the hallway that day after I ran from the student center was standing right in front of me. His eyes darted to me and kept hold. “Who are you?”
“Nobody.” A shiver wanted to rock through my body.
“You sure don’t look like a nobody.” A small grin peeked through the corner of his lips.
“No! Do not hit on her.” Ella stepped in between us and pointed her finger at him. “She is my friend, and you better back off.”
“What?” He stepped around to look at me once more. “I mean, I should know your friends, right?”
The bastard was hot and arrogant. I should be disgusted, but my damn body was responding to him in very inappropriate ways. I had no clue who he was, but he was definitely a shifter, which meant that was not good. “Nah, I think you’ll be fine letting me keep my secrets.”
“Maybe I…”
“Mason, stop.” All humor was removed from her face. “Seriously, she’s my friend. One I don’t want to share with you because then when you break her heart, she’ll not want to be my friend anymore.”
Something passed through his eyes. “Hey, that’s not true…” He winced and nodded his head. “Fine, since you asked so lovingly.”
I couldn’t believe this was her brother, and of course, he’d be a womanizer. “Glad we’re all three settled on that.” I turned my back to him and nodded at Ella. “I’ll wait for you out front.”
“Yeah, okay.” Her shoulders seemed to sag a little. “Be there in a second.”
After I was a few steps away, Mason whispered to Ella. “Who the hell is she?”
Of course, they hadn’t realized I was a shifter and that I could hear them from this distance.
“Seriously, she’s one of my friends.” Her tone took on an edge. “So don’t mess with her. For once, someone wants to be my friend for me.”
“All right.” He huffed.
“Stop looking at her.” I heard a loud thump.
“Dammit. Okay.”
If I had any doubt they were related, that would’ve been erased now. I headed outside, effectively cutting their conversation off from my ears.
It was a gorgeous day, and I moved over to a vacant bench and sat.
“Hey, Elena.” Connor waved and headed over in my direction.
Great, maybe I should’ve stayed inside and eavesdropped on Ella and her brother. “Hi.”
“How is class going for you?” He glanced at the ground and adjusted his backpack straps on his shoulders.
“Fine.” It was a straightforward business ethics class. “How about you?” The tension between us was thick.
“Boring, but okay.” He cleared his throat and darted his eyes to mine. “Would you wanna have coffee or something sometime?”
“We’ve already had this conversation.” At this point, I wasn’t sure how much more blunt I could be. “I’m not interested.”
“I mean as friends.” He scratched the back of his neck with his hand.
“Still no.” I guessed I was going to have to be a bitch. “I don’t think you mean that.”
“No, I do.” He lifted both hands in the air and tensed his shoulders. “You made it blatantly clear, but I’d like to have you in my life in some capacity.”
“Are you really trying to work the friend angle?” Ella breezed through the doorway and sat right next to me. “I thought you’d at least be a little more original than that.”
“He says he’s okay with being friends.” I arched an eyebrow at her. “Do you believe it?”
“Hell, no.” She motioned toward my body. “You’re hot stuff, so he’s trying to find another way in.”
“What? No.” He shook his head until Ella crossed her arms.
“If you want to be her friend, that means you want to be mine too.” She bumped her shoulder into mine. “It’s a package deal.”
“Uh, sure.” He tilted his head and squinted his eyes for a moment. “Of course I want to be friends with both of you.”
“So you’re saying I have a hot body too?” She tilted her head and tapped her foot on the ground.
“What? No.” Connor shook his head hard.
“Now I’m not hot?” She turned her head in my direction and widened her eyes. “He’s not very nice is he?”
“No, I didn’t mean that.”
Poor guy. Ella was having fun at his expense.
“Of course you didn’t.” She huffed and stood again. “Come on, let’s go. We don’t need to stay here all day and get insulted.”
I would’ve felt bad for him if he hadn’t brought it on himself. But I didn’t want to leave being an asshole. “Look, if you want to be friends that’s fine. But I don’t hang out or anything like that. Essentially, it’s just you
