Ella & Evan - Valentine's Coupons Pt. 03

"Hey Ev, you look great!" Shanti called as I hustled up the steps towards her. The sudden use of my nickname that only Ella uses regularly wasn't lost on me.

"So do you Shanti," I said sincerely. As I stood before her, she grinned and sketched a bow.

"Ev I'm so glad you agreed to come. I know it might feel weird with me being Ella's friend and all, but I talked to her and she was fine with it."

I... rather doubted that, but I just nodded and said, "Well I wouldn't want to make things at all difficult between you two, you're her best friend here and she loves you to death."

With an exaggerated nod, Shanti rather loudly said, "Agreed! So let's just have a fun dinner with no big expectations and see where the night goes?"

Smiling politely, I felt I had to say, "Sure thing, but I really don't know if we can date or anything. It's not about Ella," ok that was a total lie but an understandable one I felt, "but I just don't know if I can see anyone right now." See, that part was totally true at least.

"Oh I know," Shanti started walking towards the courtyard between the buildings and took my arm as she did, "we're just two friends going to have a nice dinner and listen to some music. Just to see if maybe there's something there, you know?" She looked at me with a wicked gleam in her eye, and I had to chuckle at her brashness.

Before we got inside I felt it was as good a time as any to just come out with it. "Shanti did you find anything at the Beanery today? I think someone dropped a booklet or something."

Shanti paused, then cocked her head to the side and said, "Nope, not me. No one said anything about it. Was it one of your friends? Ella left just after you guys did, she didn't say anything, and I was there with Ridley and one of her friends for a bit but no one found a book that I know of."

Her demeanor was simple and honest, and she hadn't seemed the slightest bit uncertain. I realized after we took another few steps that she had just asked me out coincidentally, and that her talk about not worrying about Ella and how we were very close wasn't a vague warning about our secret but just her trying to convince me to go.

I was relieved that she didn't seem to have the coupon book, but also disappointed. Even if she had found it and discovered our secret there had been a chance she would keep it to herself, and now I was right back where I was earlier, praying no one else found it and realized what it meant.

As we approached the door Shanti stumbled into me slightly, and apologized with a loud laugh, "Sorry Ev, little clumsy tonight!" She used the chance to hold my arm tighter and get closer to me. Her breast was pressing into my side and she looked up at me and smiled widely.

"I was bored waiting on campus all day after classes, so I was hanging out with some friends, pregaming for tonight. May have had one or two too many drinks already! I better go easy on the wine with dinner for sure or you'll be carrying me out of there!" She giggled and stopped walking, making me turn to face her.

"Ahh, I see," I replied, and now that I was looking at her I could tell, she was clearly more than a little tipsy. Standing before her I could smell a whiff of alcohol and wondered how I was going to beg out of the dinner without causing more offense. Maybe it would just be a lot easier for everyone if I had the meal with her and chatted for an hour? Ella would understand, and I could make sure I let Shanti down gently. If nothing else, I could make sure she didn't drive home.

Shanti took another step toward me and I took a half step back, until my back was almost up against the glass wall of the atrium next to the doorways. People walked past us in a steady stream, many of them clearly going to the same Valentine's Day event.

"Evan," Shanti said, taking hold of my jacket in her hands, "I know this isn't like a date date or anything, but I do like you. Maybe we can just figure out something without worrying about being all serious about it. I'm sure Ella would understand, or we don't have to bother her about it. One of my cousins rents a place in West Point Grey and she's away visiting the family in India and I have a key so we could just..." she looked up at me, her eyes sultry and inviting.

"Shanti I don't-" she quickly stepped in and kissed me. I was surprised more than anything, and she was tall enough that when I pulled my head back she simply leaned up and kissed me again. This time I took hold of her wrists and held them gently, moving backwards slightly.

As I opened my mouth to say something, I realized someone was standing 10 feet away staring at us. Shanti was just about to try to kiss me again when mom came up beside Ella. They both stood there in shock, and as I felt my stomach fall at the look in Ella's eyes.

"Ella, no!" I said loudly. She turned and quickly disappeared into the crowd as our mom tried to stop her.

"What?" Shanti said, confused and suddenly embarrassed. She took a step back and held her hand to her lips, saying, "Oh shit I'm sorry Evan, I shouldn't have done that, you're right." She hadn't seen Ella but had obviously heard me shout her name.

Mom came up to me, her face a mask of cold anger. "What the hell is going on Evan?" She demanded, her voice quiet but not quiet enough. Several people had noticed me call out loudly to Ella, and then seen her run away as Shanti and I had guiltily separated. I could see some smirks and dirty looks from passersby as they made their assumptions about what they had seen. Most of them were probably somewhat correct.

Shanti was now staring at mom in unsteady confusion. "Uh, Mrs. Gardner? What are you doing here? Ohhh god, was Ella here? She saw? Oh shit. Shit!"

If she had wanted to make my mother angrier at me Shanti couldn't have done a much better job than that. Mom glanced around at the crowd, at least a few of whom were clearly amused by whatever drama was happening before them.

"Follow me. Now." Without a backward glance mom stalked off down the sidewalk to a more private location. Shanti and I trailed meekly behind.

Chapter 10 - Fleeing The Scene

-Ella-

I wasn't crying, not really, I was just walking away very fast so I didn't start crying. The crowd helped, I was able to just walk quickly through the streams of people going into the building and in a matter of seconds I was alone again. Past the courtyard now none of the people around me had seen me staring in shock as my best friend kissed my brother, and none of them had heard my brother yell my name in dismay at me seeing them. No one around me now was looking at me with curious pity (oh god did that girl just catch her boyfriend cheating on her on Valentine's Day?) or smirking enjoyment (haha check out that dumb chick who just had her heart broke! Get your phone out this will be such a great Tik Tok!). In less than a minute I was out the other side of the crowd heading towards the Barber library.

It was growing dark and the cold wind was making me shiver as my brain just endlessly looped what I saw. I went north for a while and then turned left for no reason and walked for another few blocks, just going straight ahead and eventually turning back towards my apartment when I was getting too far away. I guess I wasn't quite as pulled together as I thought, because as I was walking slowly near the UBC flagpole I passed by a woman standing outside talking to another woman having a cigarette. The first woman glanced at me, then looked again. I must have had a weird expression on my face and now that I wasn't storming away in a rage.

"Hey, are you looking for something?" she asked when I made eye contact with her the second time. Her friend stopped talking and turned to look at me too. They were both a couple of years older than me, and I could see a friendly desire to help masking a slight concern on her face. "If you're looking for the Valentine's dinner, you're on the right track, it's at the AHS a block thataway."

Ah the Valentine's Day supper. Fuck, I had almost forgotten about that. Suddenly, a spasm of emotion hit me as I remembered Shanti's messages from earlier in the day. I had just basically ignored them, then fired off a dumb "oh whatevs don't mind me!" reply to her because I didn't want to talk to Evan about it. So I hadn't... was this my fault? No, maybe I should have told Evan that Shanti was interested in him, I obviously had known for a long time that she was falling for him a bit, but that didn't excuse him for kissing her! How could he!

The woman was still looking at me, and her concern was clearly growing. "Oh no, I'm not going there, thanks," I said slowly, my voice thick.

I was about to wander off when she shared a quick look with her friend and said, "Well if you're lost we can help you. This campus is pretty big even when you've been here a while."

My mouth was dry, and I stopped walking. Looking at her friendly, open concern I said, tonelessly, "I just saw my best friend with... with a guy I really like and it surprised me that's all. I guess they're on a date, but I didn't know." I could feel a tear stinging my eye and I angrily wiped it away.

"Ahh, that sucks," the woman said, wincing. "Well rather than just be alone with your thoughts, why not tell Beth and I about it? My name is Christa but most people call me Chris, and this is Beth. Like I just said I guess."

Beth, the second woman, looked to be maybe early to mid 20's, with short hair, a heavyset build and a broad, friendly smile. She quickly got rid of her cigarette and nodded, saying, "Nice to meet you, even if it's under shitty circumstances for you. We're both in grad school, in Applied Science for Planning. What are you in for?"

"Uh, I'm in first year engineering. Foundations. My name is Ella," I was sniffling a little, but neither woman mentioned it.

"Nice to meet you Ella," said the first woman, Chris, "but I guess you're having a rough night huh?"

My lip trembled and I struggled to collect my thoughts. I knew that the truly smart thing would be to say nothing at all, but I was just so sick of it all. I wanted to say something so I decided to mostly tell the truth before I exploded and showered the whole campus with angsty teenage girl bits. "I guess my friend didn't know about my feelings. I'm not mad at her, but I knew the guy for, well, a lot longer and she wanted to know if I'd be upset if she asked him out and I said no because that's what I was supposed to say but I didn't know she'd ask him out immediately and I didn't have time to think about it and I thought he lo- I thought he liked me."

Both women nodded and looked so sympathetic that before they could say anything I blurted out the rest, "And my parents are going through a separation and last night my Mom told me she's moving out and my Dad is so sad and today I got in a big argument with my brother and he's mad at me because I was a giant bitch and tried to hurt him because I felt guilty about doing something dumb I just don't know and then I saw my friend kissing that guy and it's just all too much shit and I guess I lost it!"

I was shocked at the end to realize it really was all of it. Not just the Evan stuff, but all of it. I felt somehow lighter just having said it out loud, and I was breathing hard, my eyes open wide.

"Wow. That's a lot." Beth said after a few seconds.

Chris added, "Yeah, I'm really sorry Ella, you've had a shitty time of it lately it sounds like. Do you want to be by yourself? Beth and I were just going to head back into the library, and it would be awesome if you came with us. If you have somewhere to be that's obviously understandable but if you're just walking around alone, I'd be much happier if you hung out with us for a while. Just until you're over the shock maybe."

Beth nodded again, "It would be fun for us, frankly. We're both sick of each other, if you're there we won't have to talk about civic planning and the thesis that's trying to kill me."

I wiped my nose and nodded. "Ok. I'd like to just sit down inside somewhere anyway, for a few minutes at least. I've been walking all over today, and my feet are sore and I'm cold."

"Excellent!" Chris said, "There is a halfway decent cafe next door, it closes soon but I wanted to grab a hot chocolate, come with us and I'll treat you too if you want one. It'll warm you up. And you can tell us about your problems, if you want, or just listen to us complain about every little thing."

I gave a bitter chuckle at the thought of going to a coffee shop again, but I smiled at these polite, very sympathetic women and nodded. "Thank you both. I am really hungry now that I think about it." And I followed them as they talked about whether the cafe's paninis were overpriced and bad or overpriced and pretty good. I could tell they were being extra chatty for my benefit, but I didn't mind.

By this time my phone was constantly buzzing, and I could see alerts from Evan and Mom popping up. I was about to unlock my phone and read one when I got a missed phone call alert from my Dad. I just couldn't handle that right then, so I turned my phone off while Beth and Chris watched without comment. When I was done and thrust my phone angrily back in my purse they continued as if nothing happened, talking about obstructionist research supervisors and fickle bursaries. I turned off my brain and followed along, suddenly famished.