Chapter 6
678 Words
Elijah’s POV
Sunday night was long.
I couldn’t get her off my mind. Grace. The church girl with eyes that didn’t even look at me twice.
I tried to sleep, tossed around, got up, scrolled through my phone, even texted a couple of girls who usually jump at the chance to come over. But nothing. All I kept thinking about was that one look she gave me. Or more like the way she didn’t even see me.
Me. Elijah Cole. The guy every girl wanted to touch, wanted to be seen with. And this girl walked past me like I was invisible.
What the hell?
I wasn’t even mad at her. I was mad at how it made me feel.
Like I wasn’t enough.
Monday came too fast, and I wasn’t in the mood for school. But I knew she’d be there. I could’ve avoided her—but that’s not me. I don’t run.
So I came in late, like always. Hoodie on, chain around my neck, smelling like expensive cologne and sin. That’s how people see me anyway. Might as well wear it like a crown.
Jake and Liam were waiting by the car park.
“You look like s**t,” Jake said.
“I didn’t sleep,” I replied, yawning. “Got stuff on my mind.”
Liam grinned. “Let me guess. Grace?”
I didn’t answer, just lit a stick and leaned on the hood of my car.
Jake laughed. “Damn. Elijah losing sleep over a girl that told him ‘no’? What’s the world turning into?”
“Shut the hell up,” I muttered. “It’s not like that.”
Except it kind of was.
I spotted her after lunch.
She was walking near the school garden, her bag clutched in her hand like it held the whole Bible in it. Skirt flowing. Hair tied in that simple way church girls do. Not too flashy, not trying too hard. She looked fresh, clean, untouchable.
But that ass still sat right under that skirt like it had something to say.
I adjusted my hoodie and walked toward her.
“Grace,” I said, keeping my voice calm this time, smooth like butter melting on warm bread.
She paused, turned to me slowly, eyes unreadable. “Yes?”
No smile. No giggle. Just that polite, Christian blankness.
I stepped closer. “I think we got off on the wrong foot the other day.”
She looked at me for a second. “We didn’t get off on any foot. I don’t know you.”
Oof.
I smiled, trying not to let it sting. “Okay. Fair. Then maybe we should fix that. I’m Elijah.”
“I know who you are.”
She said it flat, like it wasn’t a compliment.
“Then that makes it easier. Want to grab a smoothie or something? I know a spot that—”
“No.”
She didn’t even let me finish.
“No?” I raised a brow, confused. “I’m trying to be nice here.”
She tilted her head. “And I appreciate that. But I don’t want to get to know you. Not today. Not any day.”
Silence stretched between us.
I stared at her. Not even anger boiling in me—just confusion. Curiosity. This girl was built different.
“Why not?” I asked, voice low.
“Because I’ve seen your type,” she said. “And I don’t want to be another story you tell your friends after you’re done.”
Then she turned and walked off. Just like that.
Like she didn’t just shake my whole ego to the ground.
I stood there for a minute.
Still, silent.
Damn.
Jake and Liam saw me later and asked how it went. I didn’t say anything. Just shrugged it off.
But in my head, her voice kept playing. “Not today. Not any day.”
Nobody talks to me like that. Nobody walks away from me like that. But she did.
And the messed-up part?
I liked it.
- Writer
