She squatted in front of the building, trying to keep the rain off her as best she could, when Eli pulled up.
He hurried out of the car and pulled off his jacket, wrapping it around her. It was thick and warm, and still smelled like him, like chocolate and spice.
She glanced at him. Without it, he was left in a long sleeved black tee.
“What . . . about . . . you,” she chattered. He gave her a small smirk. “I’ll be fine. I don’t get cold.”
He hurried her to his car, and turned the heat all the way up. She continued to shiver as he drove, but was thankful for the warmth of his coat.
“I’ll take you home.”
She glanced at him, and noticed how young he actually looked. Not much older than her. Funny, she thought. She had always seen him as older. But there was something about Eli that exuberated ancient, as well as agelessness.
“Your soul is old. Like mine.” She thought back to the first time she had told him that. He had left and never come back. But in the car, he couldn’t escape.
Remembering it too, he glanced sharply at her. “Why do you say that?”
“Because you don’t look much older than me. Nineteen. Twenty’s pushing it. But when you look into your eyes, there’s something weary there, you know? Like you’ve seen all there is to see, and you’ve grown tired of it.”
Eli was silent, and she smiled to herself, thinking. “We’re both old souls.”
“Why do you say that about yourself?”
She didn’t answer right away, but continued to watch the rain come down, not believing that only a few minutes before she would have faced the same fate as the homeless she had encountered.
She turned back to him and studied his profile. He had come for her . . .
She thought of what he asked, and finally said quietly, “Sometimes I feel the same.”
They were quiet for a long time after.
Finally, Eli broke the silence. “What were you doing out here? This is a bad place to be stuck at night.”
“There was a man. He was standing in the road. I tried to avoid him but hit a light pole instead. David needed me at the café.”
“Where is your cell? Why did you call me from a payphone?”
She blushed, dropping her gaze to her hands.
“I must have left it at Ivan’s.”
YOU ARE READING
The Everlasting
Romance"Who is he? And who's memories are these that continue to haunt me through the night?" Rose Keller meets the boy with the startling gold eyes, after moving to a small town in Massachusetts,. She doesn't know him, but he seems to know her. But before...
