"So, Eric's a piece of shit," Melissa said - so loudly that a few other people in the restaurant looked over at us.
"Mel." Louis looked at her reproachfully.
"What? Tell me I'm wrong."
"You are not wrong." Ellie grinned. "A steaming puddle of condescending narcissism."
Melissa chuckled. "Satan, but without the winning personality."
"If evil could take living form in a human, that human would find Eric a bit much." Ellie leaned back, and Melissa doubled over laughing.
"Guys!" Louis frowned, looking across at me.
I just smiled at him, and shook my head, which made him relax slightly. Ellie and I had taken up Mel's invitation to the movies, and the four of us had already gotten food. We'd paid, and were just hanging out at the table while we waited for John and Sarah to arrive.
Ellie's phone went off, and she looked down at the message. "Oh god. Jamie wants to join us. Would that be okay?"
"Who's Jamie?" Melissa grabbed one of Louis' leftover fries.
"A guy from their school," said Louis.
"Does he know Jay's gay?" she asked.
"No. Why?" I asked.
"Well, we can't really talk about the Eric stuff if he doesn't know."
I crossed my arms. "If you think I want to talk about Eric tonight - at all - then we've got more problems than Jamie coming."
"Okay, fine. I'm just tired of new people. No offence." Melissa smirked.
"Some taken," I said, and Ellie narrowed her eyes at Melissa and nodded, but we both laughed.
"Why'd you invite him anyway?" Melissa asked.
"I didn't. I just told him what I was doing, and now he wants to come." Ellie shrugged. "He's been hanging out a lot with me and Jay recently. His girlfriend's being shitty to him, and he's fighting with his friends, so he needed a backup plan that wasn't sad."
"And sitting around with us single fuckers - watching John and Sara make out - isn't sad?" Melissa cocked her eyebrow.
"Apparently not," Ellie said. "Plus, he's nice. You'll like him. Right, Jay?"
"Yeah, he's okay."
"What a ringing endorsement." Melissa arched an eyebrow.
"Okay, fine, whatever." I sighed. "He's great. Fun to be around."
"A solid chap!" Louis laughed.
"Okay, good. I'm telling him he can come then," Ellie said. "Although I think he might already be on his way."
"Is he the guy you had a crush on?" Melissa asked. My eyes darted to her face, but then I realised she was talking to Louis, not me.
"No." Louis said - a bit too quickly. "What are you even talking about?"
"You told me you had a crush on someone at their school."
"I don't remember that." Louis leaned back casually into his chair, but he was blushing slightly.
"Ooh, scandalous." Ellie giggled.
"I did not have a crush on Jamie." Louis said indignantly.
"But it was on SOMEONE." Melissa leaned in, taking another fry from his plate.
"Oh my god, it must have been Kyle. Was it Kyle?" Ellie bounced in her seat.
Louis crossed his arms. "I am not indulging this."
"Jay, care to weigh in?" Ellie looked across at me, her eyes sparkling.
"Yeah, you're being annoying. Leave Louis alone." I frowned. He'd been so nice to me just a day ago, and I didn't want Ellie to pick at him like that. I also didn't want to seem too earnest, though. And I thought it might help him to muddy the waters a bit. "It could have been Matt."
"WAS it Matt, Louis?" Ellie asked.
"I also think it's mean of you not to include Sid." I added, before Louis could answer. Sid wasn't particularly good-looking, and he was also an awful person. I was still trying to casually derail the conversation.
"Eww. Sid's an asshole." Ellie grimaced.
"Exactly. Bad boy." I smirked. "Totally fuckable."
Melissa guffawed, and Ellie's eyes went wide - whether her shock was about me using a word like 'fuckable' or whether it was about the absolute impossibility of anyone having a crush on Sid, I didn't know. The conversation moved on, and I looked across to Louis, who gave me a slight smile and a nod.
Jamie walked around the corner a little later, and when he saw me and Ellie, he started weaving his way through the tables towards us. He looked good - almost too good, for what we were doing. He'd styled his hair with gel and was wearing a really nice blue button-down shirt. Very overdressed for the movies, but it was hard to criticise someone when they looked like they'd just stepped out of a cologne ad.
"Wow." Melissa said under her breath, while he was still just out of earshot. "Objections withdrawn."
"Hey guys. Thanks for letting me join."
"Oh, it's no problem. The more, the merrier." Melissa's voice was slightly higher than usual. "I like your shirt."
"Oh, thanks." Jamie smiled at her. "I'm Jamie, by the way."
Melissa blinked, and took a second to respond. "I know. Cool. I'm Melissa."
"Awesome. Nice to meet you, Melissa." He gave her a wink, and turned to Ellie, not seeing the way he'd just made Melissa blush. "I'm going to that party tonight after all."
"Then why'd you even come here?" Ellie sighed deeply.
"I kind of need to prove a point. I'll just go afterwards. I just need her to know that she's not going to be running my whole life."
"That'll go well." Ellie scoffed.
Jamie just grinned, and shrugged. Ellie's phone buzzed again, and she took it out and typed a response.
"That's Sara - they're going to be a bit late." She stood up. "I'll get their tickets, but we should probably go do that right away."
We made our way further into the mall. Jamie and Ellie led the way, while the rest of us lagged behind. Melissa's eyes kept darting to the back of Jamie's head, and Louis was looking at her with an amused grin. We reached the movie theatre, and joined the queue for the tickets counter.
"The line's too long. We're not going to have time for the concession stand. Jay, will you get tickets for us, and we'll sort it out later?" Ellie asked. I nodded, and she turned to Jamie, fluttering her eyelashes. "Jamie, be a dear and come with me to buy Whispers."
"No, thanks. I don't want anything."
She pursed her lips. "Jamie, come with me, or I'll text your girlfriend and tell her where you are."
