- Queen; Loren Gray -
- No Judgement; Niall Horan -
- I Wish; Cher Lloyd ft. T.I. -

Aurora Holland

"I'll give you my apple slices for those cookies," Cameron spoke, holding the bowl of apple slices in his hand.

He looked to Griffin, who narrowed his eyes at him. "Does it look like I'd rather have apple slices over Oreos?"

"Does it look like I'd rather have apple slices--" Cameron mocked in a high-pitched voice, "Fuck you then."

I giggled at the interaction. I loved being around Cameron and Griffin, their friendship was something else. They were constantly picking on each other and making fun of each other, and neither of them got offended.

Cameron also acted like a dad to Griffin, as Griffin constantly found himself doing stupid things such as streaking down the hallway or pulling the fire alarm to get out of taking a test. He was reckless, and I don't mean it in a bad way.

"You can have mine, Cam." Naia offered, scooting her tray across the table for the blond boy.

"Thank you, Naia. This is why you're my favorite friend." Cameron sent a cute smile to the girl, switching his apple slices for the cookies.

"Excuse me?!" Griffin exclaimed, offended at the other boy's words. "I see how it is."

"You won't share your cookies," Cameron pouted, taking a bite of the sweet treat.

"Okay? That shouldn't knock me down your list of friends. After everything we've been through." He fake cried, holding a hand to his chest.

"Hey, guys!" Logan greeted as he sat down at the giant lunch table. He sat across from me and in between Griffin and Z. Naia was on the other side of Z, who was directly across from Cameron. I was to Cameron's right, and the other spot next to me was filled by Layla. "What'd I miss?"

"Nothing really. Just these two annoying fucks going at it," Layla answered. She'd been just as interested in their banter as I, so she made sure to put on a cute smile as she insulted the two.

"Hey!" Griffin and Cameron exclaimed at the same time, looking at her in shock.

"I'm just saying what we're all thinking," She said, holding her hands out in defense. "Aurora, back me up."

"I--" I stopped, feeling awkward at the attention on me. "It was interesting," I finally decided to say, twirling the ring around my finger.

"You know what, you're my favorite." Griffin pointed a finger at me, a smile on his face.

"Hey! I'm supposed to be your favorite," Cameron said, his light brows pushed together in confusion.

"Well, you did call Naia your favorite," Z said, cutting into the conversation.

"Cause she shared with me!" Cameron defended.

"Anyways," Layla changed the subject. "I heard there's a college party this weekend. Who's in?"

"A college party? What is this, Riverdale?" Griffin asked, sending the girl a look.

"I don't think Riverdale has--"

"Cam, don't even start." Griffin cut the other boy off, sending him a look. "Anyways, I'm down."

"You're always down," Logan said, taking a bite out of his pizza. "Me too though."

"Carpool?" Layla then asked, typing away on her phone. "It's a bit of a distance away, so we'll need some DDs."

"DDs?" I asked, looking at her in confusion.

"Oh sweetie, you're cute." Layla cooed, pinching my cheek. I just blushed, feeling awkward.

"Designated drivers," Cameron answered for me.

"Designated drivers for what?" A British accent cut in, meaning that Elijah had finally arrived at the lunch table.

It wasn't long before he pushed himself down between Layla and me, wrapping an arm around the both of us. "Hello my beautiful friends," He greeted, kissing the top of my head before sitting down as he usually did when he saw me.

"Elijah Layton, what a pleasure." Layla sarcastically smiled at him as she shoved his arm away from her.

I, on the other hand, ignored his arm and continued to eat. I've been attending Riverway for two weeks now, so I was more than used to his affectionate personality.

Of course, it still made me flustered every once in a while, but I'm at a point where I'm not that uncomfortable when he touches me. It's always friendly, and him being like that with everyone else made me feel a lot better.

"There's a college party this weekend, we're planning on going," Logan answered. "Think you can talk Carter into being a DD?"

"I can talk that beautiful man into anything!" Elijah exclaimed, "Doubt he'll drive his car though."

"Depending on who's all going we may need more than one vehicle." Cameron spoke up, "I'm sure Bailey will go, and I'll go as well."

"Paige will too," Layla said. "How many is that so far?"

"Seven, including me. But that's just so far." Elijah said.

"You gonna go, Ror?" Cameron asked, tapping his hand on my knee to get my attention.

"I'm not sure." I shrugged.

"Oh, please!" Elijah exclaimed, wrapping both arms around my torso. "I haven't had the pleasure of actually partying with you!"

"Because she doesn't party," Paige said as she sat down. She sat on the other side of Layla, to where I couldn't really get a good view of her.

"But she was at the last party," Layla said.

"Because I made her," Paige spoke. She stirred her strawberry yogurt, her eyes on her food instead of anyone else. "We also had to lie to her parents."

"Well she doesn't need to worry about her parents," Logan spoke up. We all looked at him in confusion, to which he just rolled his eyes. "They're going to Arrowway to do this couples night with my parents. They've gotten close."

"Then it's settled!" Elijah shook me once more, "You'll have time to come to a party!"

"I'll think about it," I said, mostly to get everyone off of my back.

I didn't have too much fun at the last party, plus this was a college party. I heard they're much more intense than high school parties, and if I barely have any experience in high school parties how am I going to survive a college party?

"Good enough for me!" Elijah spoke, letting go of my body.

"How'd you even get invited to a college party?" Logan asked, putting the attention on Layla.

"I have my ways," She spoke with a shrug.

Before anyone could push any further, the bell rang. People began to scatter almost immediately, and I just began to clean up my trash. I stood up and gathered my things, ready to leave and head to Mr. Maroni's class for homeroom.

"I'll see you guys later," I told the group.

"But I just got here!" Elijah exclaimed, his dark brows pushed together as his expression softened.

"Not our fault you and Paige decided to show up right at the end of lunch," Cameron said as he stood up himself.

"Wait! Z, Naia, you guys coming to the party?" Layla asked, bringing the topic of the party back up even though it had been forgotten about.

"Two juniors going to a college-aged party doesn't sound too smart," Naia said.

"Not like you'd be hooking up with any of them," Griffin said.

"Plus I'm a junior," Layla cut in.

"True," Z thought about it. "Let us talk about it and we'll see closer to time."

"Once again, good enough for me!" Elijah smiled at the two, standing up from his spot at the table.

I took that as my signal to leave since I'd already said my goodbyes anyway, and I backed away to return my tray. As I walked, someone roughly bumped into me. I went to apologize but stopped myself, seeing who it was that had pushed me.

"Oops!" Ashley smirked. She was standing against the wall with two girls I didn't recognize, a smug look written on her features. This reminded me a lot of Kaya when she purposely opened my pencil bag and spilled it everywhere on my first day of school.

"Might wanna watch where you're going," The dark-haired girl standing next to her giggled.

The situation wasn't funny at all, so I just rolled my eyes as I continued to walk past them. As soon as I put the tray away, I turned to exit in the same direction I came from. This meant walking past them, and despite thinking their attention was elsewhere, it wasn't as a foot was suddenly propped in front of me, causing me to trip.

I stumbled against the wall, seeing Ashley snickering with her friends. The blonde in the group pulled her foot away, showing she was the one that tripped me.

"Can you like, chill out?" I rudely asked, fixing my backpack.

"Can you like, shut up?" Ashley mocked. She was your typical cliche mean girl, no doubt about it. Surely it was because of the fact that I embarrassed her in PE. Then again, that was well over a week ago. There was no point in continuing this.

She and James Hanneman were a lot alike in that sense.

"Hey Ashley, Gwen, Maya--" A voice spoke from next to me. I looked to see Elijah, who wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "Hey Gwen, how's that wart on your foot doing?"

The shorter blonde gasped, covering her hand over her mouth. The dark-haired girl looked at Elijah in shock, while Ashley stared daggers at the boy. This clearly upset them, and I wasn't sure if it was because they weren't expecting something like that from him, or they just didn't like him altogether.

"Let's go, love," Elijah mumbled in my ear, pulling me away from the three girls.

"You didn't have to help me out," I spoke as we walked through the double doors. "But thank you."

"Eh, don't mention it." He kept his arm slung around my shoulders, walking us through the crowded hallways together. "They're jerks and Ashley's just butthurt you're close with Carter."

"I wouldn't say I'm--"

"Shh, love!" Elijah cut me off. "Let me walk you to class, yeah?"

I looked up at him for a second, my brows pushed together in thought. He was usually extremely nice with the nicknames and the kisses to the top of the head, but he's never offered to walk me to class like this before. Instead of arguing, I decided to stay quiet and accept it as it seemed Elijah wasn't going to give me much of a choice anyway.

"Okay," I agreed.

I looked ahead of us, my eyes continuously drifting down to my feet as there were stares and whispers. At this point, it could be about anything.

It could be about the fact that Ashley was just embarrassed yet again, or at the fact that Elijah was walking me down the hall with his arms around my shoulders. It could even be about the fact that Kaya and James spread those horrible rumors about me within the first two days of me attending Riverway.

The gossip at this school was insane, it was a lot like something I'd seen in a cheesy, cliche, poorly made movie.

"You should come to the party, Rory," Elijah spoke up, sparking a conversation.

"I'm not too sure," I said. "Paige is right, parties aren't really my thing."

"You'll have all of us there with you!" He told me happily, "I know I'm usually plastered at every event we go to, but if it gets you to go, I'll surely stay sober."

"You'd do that?" I asked, finding myself not able to believe it.

"I can try," He said. "I bet I can have just as much fun sober as I can drunk. As a matter of fact--" He stopped as we stood in by the door to Mr. Maroni's classroom. He removed his arm from my shoulders and touched them with both of his hands instead, his grip gentle. "I know for certain that I can."

"Let me think about it," I said.

"No pressure," He assured, removing his hands.

Before I could think of a response, my eyes drifted behind him to where James Hanneman stood with some of his buddies. He was looking over, whispering things I couldn't hear to his friends. Although I'm very curious as to what he's saying, I know that it's for the best that I never find out.

It'll do nothing but hurt my feelings anyway.

Elijah saw the expression on my face and turned to see James and his friends. He rolled his eyes, and before I realized what was happening he walked up to the lanky boy.

He was shorter than Elijah by a few inches, as well as much skinnier. He didn't compare to Elijah, I realized, as he stood next to the British boy.

"I see you've gotten a piece of the new meat, Layton." He spoke, my face turning in disgust at the choice of words.

"What's going on?" I heard a soft voice ask beside me, and I glanced to my right to see Katherine standing next to me. She wore her usual light-washed black denim jacket, along with matching ripped jeans. Her shirt was a cropped band shirt, and fishnets peeked out from the top of her jeans.

"I don't know," I answered honestly, putting my attention back to the boys in front of us. She stayed by my side, watching the scene.

"You--" He pointed a finger at the boy, his fingertip barely touching his chest. "Touch her?" He then asked, pointing the same finger at me. "You die--" He pointed to his chest again, this time applying pressure to his touch. "Got it?" He then asked, flicking his finger up, hitting the tip of James' large nose.

Elijah had a smile on his face, despite the threat leaving his lips. He stared James in the eye, his light icy blue irises a much brighter contrast from James' dark ones.

James' eyes shifted between Elijah's, his face expressionless at the threat. Finally, he smugly smirked. "Would you look at that?" He looked around at his friends, his ego inflating at every second. "Carter sent his little lapdog to do his dirty work for him because he's too much of a pussy to do anything himself."

Elijah chuckled, and it was very offputting because of the fact that what James said was anything but funny. He turned his back for a second as he nodded, seeming to think over his best option.

Within a blink, he shifted back to James. His hands gripped James' Riverway High T-Shirt roughly, tossing him against the wall. James' friends moved at the action to stay out of the line of fire, their eyes wide at the sudden action.

James looked at Elijah in both shock and fear, realizing the mistake he made by continuing his snide remarks.

"What did I say now?" Elijah taunted. He continued to smile as he did this, and despite it being a little scary and offputting, it was quite attractive. He wasn't scared of James at all, and the way he managed to stay calm all while defending both me and his best friend was kind of hot.

Extremely hot.

James mumbled something, something quiet to where neither Katherine nor I could hear. Elijah cocked his head to the side, his grip on James' shirt tightening. "I didn't quite hear that, what did you say?" He asked, leaning his ear closer to James' mouth.

"You said if I touch her I die," James admitted defeatedly, his face flushing a deep shade of red in embarrassment.

"Looks like you got it down, man!" Elijah exclaimed happily, loosening his grip and letting go of James completely. The boy slouched in relief that Elijah finally stopped touching him, his breathing uneven. "Now I really do mean this, because I can guarantee it won't look too pretty for ya!" He tapped James' cheek a couple of times, winking at one of his friends. "That goes for everyone, yeah?" He turned, looking around.

His eyes bounced from person to person, even the people who weren't friends with James. Simply anyone who just stood in the hallway watching the interaction. "Anyone even thinks of touching either of these girls here, you'll regret it, yeah?"

People nodded, seeming to be afraid of Elijah. He smirked in victory, his bright eyes lighting up. "Good, now what are we standing here for? Don't you have a class to get to?!" Everyone scattered at the question, even James and his friends.

James ducked his head as he walked in front of me to enter the classroom, seeming to take Elijah's threat quite seriously.

Elijah, whose ego was boosted by the simple interaction, strutted his way over to Katherine and me. He stood in front of me again, almost as if he'd never stepped away. "That should shut him up for a while, if not forever." The dimple on his cheek popped out as he smiled down at me.

He was back to what I usually saw of him, soft and gentle. It was almost as if he didn't seem completely psychotic, threatening to kill another student over something that shouldn't be taken that seriously.

I mean, the comment about him being Carter's lapdog was a little out of pocket, but other than that it's not like I haven't heard horrible things before.

"You didn't have to do that, Eli." I softly said.

"Of course I did," He shook his head. "Hanneman's always been a prick. He deserves whatever's coming to him."

"Well, thank you." I bit the inside of my cheek.

Oddly enough, it gives me comfort knowing Elijah's sticking up for me. Although the bullying here at Riverway is much worse than it ever was at Point Prep, it feels good knowing I have people to stick up for me. I didn't have that at Point Prep unless you count Paige, but even then it was only when she was around to stop it. I feel as if he'll always stick up for me whether I ask him to or not.

The final bell rang, indicating we were late for homeroom. Elijah rolled his eyes at the sound, not seeming to care he wasn't anywhere close to his homeroom. He pressed a quick kiss to the top of my head -- as he usually did -- before pulling away.

"See you, sweetheart," He said as he began to walk away. His eyes landed on Katherine -- who'd seen the entire interaction -- and winked at her as he walked by.

Her face flushed a deep shade of red, almost as red as the lipstick she was wearing. I giggled at her reaction and grabbed her arm, pulling her into the classroom so we wouldn't be considered late.

++

What relationships would you like to see? (Friendship, romantic, etc.) Like who would you like to see end up together (like your opinion, doesn't mean it'll happen) and who would you like to see have a best friend/sibling type of relationship?

Personally, I'm living for Elijah and Aurora's relationship :)

* This chapter is not edited *