David and Eli
The letdown was a familiar feeling. Something that David had endeavored to avoid for a long, long time. This was why he kept to himself most of the time. Spending too much time around people, he started getting ideas. Like being friends when they actually weren't or, in this case, he'd really deluded himself into actually thinking that maybe he'd had a snowball's chance in hell with a girl like Allie. He was usually more self-preservative than that.
It had been a good long while since he'd felt this type of disappointment. It took him back to junior prom, when he'd actually built up the courage to ask Irene Welch... the one girl in school that he believed that he had a shot with... and been told that she saw him as a little brother more than anything else. Or, more recently, when he'd been at the convention and Kira Hendricks had "rocked his world" but told him that he was "sweet, but it was just for fun." As he walked away from Allie and Brandon, it was hard not to notice that Allie had basically already forgotten that he existed. Pulling in a deep breath and letting it out twice as heavily, he slid back into the chair he'd been sitting in and his attention went back to Allie for a second. She looked so happy.
Well that was good. She deserved to be happy.
Besides, how could David have allowed himself to believe that a girl like that was single? She was... everything. Pretty, smart, nice, funny, talented... women like that had been diamonds in the rough before the world went to hell. And guys like Brandon, tall, tough and infinitely better looking than David, snagged them up then. Why should now be any different? Even if she had been single, girls like that never went for guys like David. It just didn't happen.
He tore his eyes away from Allie again, however difficult it may have been, and scanned the rest of the dance floor.
He caught sight of Elliot with Rae once more, and a clash of emotion met up in his chest as he rested his chin in his hand and looked down at the table. He was happy for them still, obviously. Rae made him so happy, and she looked like nothing in the world could take her down, too. No two people deserved it more; that was David's story and he was sticking to it. But the jealousy that he'd been able to push away so easily was a little bit tougher to ignore without Allie there.
Turning his eyes back up to give them one more glance, he caught sight of Rae pointing David's way, a concerned look on her face. She leaned to Elliot and whispered something, before grabbing a beer from the cooler and handing it to him and nodding her head David's direction.