Who Killed Sarah Kaplan? » Places

         Lifting an eyebrow, Ellie looked at Cassidy. Coffee? Ellie glanced back toward the room she would be sharing with Cassidy and shrugged. “Sure,” she agreed. Her agreement was not because she actually wanted to have coffee with the girl… but more because she didn’t want to go into their shared room just yet. There was nothing that made her feel more trapped than the small shared dormitory rooms… and always with a roommate that wanted to talk… or that pretended that Ellie didn’t even exist. Always that. No middle ground.

As Ellie’s eyes moved over to Jonathan, she considered him for a moment. Despite the fact that he seemed to only have eyes for Cassidy, he had included Ellie in that plural greeting, hadn’t he? She looked between the two of them for a moment before taking a step back. “If you’d rather have coffee with him, it’s okay,” she muttered, tugging her sleeves down.

Blown him off. She’d blown him off. That was unacceptable. Completely unacceptable. Hiding his frown behind a confident grin, Jonathan positioned himself between Cassidy and the mostly empty hallway, resting a hand against the wall and leaning, taking up most of the corridor and effectively blocking her path. “Ah, Cassidy, I was wanting to speak with you.” His eyes never left her face. Instead, they bored into her own eyes, ignoring Ellie completely. “I wanted to offer my condolences. Nasty business, this stuff with Sarah. It just doesn’t make sense. You know, that night, I was walking through campus, and I swear I saw—“ He trailed off, shifting his eyes to Ellie before clearing his throat. “Well, I’ll tell you later what I saw.” His eyes lingered on the awkward redhead for a few moments before he straightened and removed his arm, allowing the two access to the corridor again, once more staring intently at Cassidy. “Please, come see me when you have a moment. There is something I would like to discuss with you.” One more pointed look to Ellie. “Alone.”

Cassidy nodded, but not necessarily because she wanted to go. She was willing to agree to just about anything if it meant getting Jonathan away from the pair of them. "You have my number." she told him, stepping back and glancing to Ellie.

"Uh, later."

She started to walk away, glancing at Ellie to make sure she was still following. As they walked, side-by-side, Cassidy kept her thoughts to herself, if only for a moment.

"Look...this isn't easy for either of us, but since we're sharing a dorm room we're going to have to establish a couple of things so we don't end up wanting to kill each other by the end of the semester." It wasn't hard to tell that Ellie was uncomfortable. Cassidy wasn't all that eager either. She would have preferred to be in a private room. "I mean, I'd like for us to be amiable, at least, but I won't bother you if you don't want to be."

She knew Ellie was the loner type, from what she'd gleaned from Sarah. In fact, Sarah hadn't much liked the girl, something that surprised Cassidy.

She couldn't help sensing that there had been mutual dislike.

Jonathan chuckled quietly. “Yes, I have your number,” he muttered, allowing his eyes to roam over Cassidy’s body as she walked away. “I definitely have your number.” As they disappeared around a corner, Jonathan ran a hand through his hair and turned to walk the other way, whistling to himself as he began planning.

Ellie fell into step beside Cassidy and dug her hands deep into her pockets, her shoulders hunched up as she listened. “Amiable,” she repeated, falling silent for a few steps. “Look, I’m not the type that enjoys slumber parties and gossiping and telling secrets and pillow fights and whatever else you normal girls do. It’s not my scene. I’m not looking for a friend, so don’t feel like you need to try to force yourself to like me. Previous roommates have found that pretending I don’t exist seems to work pretty well for them.”

"Well, I'm not going to ignore you, but I'm not going to paint your fingernails and play dress-up either."

She swallowed.

"Sometimes, it feels better knowing that there's someone out there to be lonely with."

She shifted her gaze to the ground, picking up a hand and running it through her hair. "But, like I said, wont' force anything on you."

A small snort escaped Ellie and she stared straight ahead as they walked. “Yeah. Like you’re lonely.” The scoff and disbelief was impossible to ignore.

A sudden flare of barely suppressed anger made her breath cut off in her throat.

"Oh, thank God. I thought I was going to have a boring room-mate who couldn't read my thoughts."

Rolling her jaw, she wordlessly stalked past Ellie, disappearing around the corner and on out of sight.

So much for the coffee date.

-----

Later on, Cassidy had her phone in-hand during class, shooting off a text to Alex that she felt was a necessary one to send.

Meeting up with Jon later since he asked. Going to the run down building. Meet us there around midnight so I don't have to suffer him by myself?

She breathed a sigh, sending the message and snapping the phone shut before tilting her head back against the back of her chair.