Chasing Ella (Love Ever After 1)
I laugh at how clueless she is about how this school works. “No, we don’t have a dance, silly. My fraternity has them twice a year.”
“And you want me to come? Um…okay. What do I wear?”
“It’s not a dance, Ella. We go away for the weekend with all the guys in my house and their dates.”
“Oh,” she whispers and bites down on her bottom lip. “I’m still grounded, and there is no way Clarissa will let me go anywhere for the weekend.”
“No pressure. I wasn’t planning to go until I found you, but I completely understand if you can’t go. We can do something else. I’ll stay behind and come rescue you from Hell House.”
“So, it’s for the entire weekend, as in we would have to sleep in the same room as your fraternity brothers.”
I laugh. “No, we each get a room.”
“So, we would have to share a room.”
“We don’t have to. You can sleep in a room by yourself if you want.”
She shakes her head. “Out of the question, Shawn.”
“I don’t want you to feel pressured into going with me. After what you said about not having any fun, I thought maybe you would want to go. The formals are fun, maybe even a little too wild. We have another month before the trip, so take your time and think it over. I’m good no matter what you decide.”
“I can’t believe we are doing this. The frat boy jock and the nerd. How cliché are we?”
“Hey, there is more to me than football and frat life, I will have you know.”
&
nbsp; Ella brings her hand up to my face and brushes her fingers along my jaw. “So much more. You are so much more than what you lead people to believe, and I’m glad you share that part of yourself with me.”
I lean in to kiss her and whisper against her lips, “Me, too.”
Ella
After another day of tutoring, Shawn left the library to meet one of his fraternity brothers, and I went about my usual routine until it was time to grab my road soda.
Tori flags me down on my way to the SAC and jogs over to me with an irritated look on her face.
“Girl, you need to stop that power walking through campus,” Tori says, out of breath. “I was calling your name from the time you rounded the corner, and you kept hauling ass.”
I laugh. “Shawn always says that about me. I guess I walk faster than I realize.”
“Speaking of him, Finch told me he asked you to go with him to his Spring Formal. That is a big deal for him.” She squeals the last part.
I nod, smiling so much that my face hurts. Because of Shawn, I do that a lot now. “Yeah, I know. Can you believe it? I had no idea what to say when he asked me.”
Tori adjusts the strap of the bag on her shoulder and gives me a weird look. “What I can’t believe is that you are the girl from the masquerade party and you did not tell me. I thought we had a girl code between us.”
I let out a puff of air. “You said you weren’t mad.”
“I’m not just a little offended that you didn’t confide in me. But don’t worry, I will get over it.” She flashes a grin at me, and then focuses back on the building in front of us. “I haven’t seen Finch this happy since…ever. He talks about you all the time now that he’s allowed to mention you to everyone.”
“I feel the same way about him. I lucked out with Shawn, you know.”
“I think it’s cute that you call him Shawn.”
“Are you kidding? He won’t even answer to Finch. From the start, he had insisted that I call him Shawn.”
“That’s because he likes you,” she says, dragging out her words, as her voice reaches a higher octave. “You have no idea how excited I am for you two. If you guys were any cuter together, I would die from cuteness overload.”