The Beautiful Monster

Alyssa narrowed her eyes slightly, wondering if he was messing with her or being serious. Maybe she just wasn't in the joking mood right now. She tightened her ponytail and merely nodded.

"I'll keep an eye out," she replied evenly.

"I'll let you get to it," Elias said before leaning forward and kissing her cheek. He then turned and walked down the path into the overlapping shadows that she just ran out of.

Alyssa let out a sigh and started walking down the path. She still felt uneasy. He was being totally weird, and why wouldn't he have mentioned a business meeting earlier?

He talked about his classes with her. It just seemed like something he would've told her. Instead, he just said that he was busy.

She shook her head, willing herself not to overthink. She was so close to him that she sensed the slightest off behavior from him.

Maybe he was taking a walk to think, and she interrupted him. Maybe he wanted a moment alone. She hoped it was something like that.

Anything else made her nervous. There were some big scenarios in her head that she wanted to get rid of. She knew that she loved him, and she trusted him.

There was no reason for her not to, so she wasn't going to worry. She wasn't going to think anything differently.

With a deep breath, Alyssa picked up her pace and headed down the path toward the dorm. She was ready to shower and end this day.

Hopefully, tomorrow would be better. Hopefully, it would be far less confusing because this was a type of stress that she didn't know how to handle.

***********

Of course, Alyssa lied to herself. She couldn't stop thinking about Elias and his odd behavior last night. They texted a little this morning, but she hadn't seen him since then.

She was planning on eating lunch with Zoe in a few minutes, so she hoped that would take her mind off of what happened.

Alyssa walked into the small sandwich shop right on the border of campus. She ordered a grilled chicken club with a lemonade before sitting down by the window and waiting for Zoe to arrive.

She didn't want to be like this. She didn't want to doubt her boyfriend.

Thankfully, Zoe walked in five minutes later before her thoughts strayed too far again. She waved at Alyssa before going up to the ordering counter and buying her food.

She strode over to Alyssa and sat down across from her.

"How's it going?" Zoe asked casually as she leaned back in her seat.

Alyssa wanted to plaster a smile on her face and tell Zoe that she was doing great and that everything was fine, but she couldn't. She just didn't have it in her to lie right now, and she could talk to Zoe.

Besides, she probably needed to talk to someone about this so that they could drill some sense into her brain.

"Do you think Elias gets in fights?" she asks. She didn't mean to blurt out the words like that, but she couldn't stop them.

There was blood, so she automatically thought of him fighting for some reason. Did he have enemies that she didn't know about?

Zoe stared at Alyssa in confusion, not expecting the random question.

"I don't think so. He doesn't seem like the type. Why?" she asked.

Alyssa sighed as she buried her face in her hands for a few moments. She didn't want to get into this, but she felt like she had to for her own sake.

Maybe Zoe could calm her down or show herself that she didn't see before.

"I was running late last night and ran into him. He told me he was busy, but he was on campus randomly.

He also had blood on his lip," Alyssa explained in a rush of words. That probably didn't make any sense, but that was what was on her mind.

Zoe blinked a few times as she tried to process what Alyssa just told her.

"Blood on his lip? Did you ask him?" she asked.

Alyssa nodded. She wished that it was as easy as that. She asked a question. He gave her a believable answer, but that hadn't been the case.

Instead, everything got all weird and twisted up. She thought about the situation in ten different ways with a million different explanations and theories.

"He said he ate something. I know what blood looks like," she huffed slightly. She knew what she saw, but he told her otherwise. She just didn't believe that.

"You said that you were out late, right? Maybe it was something he ate, and it was just dark and hard to see," Zoe suggested.

Alyssa gave her a pointed look. She knew that she wanted Zoe to talk some sense into her, but she also kind of wanted her worries to be validated by someone else. She wanted Zoe to agree with her that it was weird.

On the other hand, she wanted Zoe to calm her down and make her feel fine about the situation. She didn't know what she wanted at this point. Maybe just the truth.

"I mean, do you think he was out with someone else or something?" Zoe asked as she lifted an eyebrow.

Alyssa's shoulders wilted as she shook her head slowly.

"I don't think so, but… I don't know. He acted on edge. It was weird," she sighed. She didn't see him as a cheater. She didn't want to see him like that.

She had never been cheated on before, but she really didn't want to find out what that felt like now.

"Maybe he was just surprised to see you. I don't think he'd ever hurt you or anything," Zoe replied with a softer expression.

Alyssa gave her a small smile. She didn't think that he would either. It just wasn't like him, and she wanted to think that she somewhat knew him pretty well.

They were incredibly close. Sure, there were some mysterious things about him, but they weren't alarming or anything. At least she hadn't previously thought so. Now, she was overthinking those things too.