Who's Fault?

Chapter Eight

"Soooo... what are we doing tonight?" I asked Eli.

Class had just ended and we were making our way to our cars. He thought for a moment before answering me, "something fun that we haven't done before."

I rolled my eyes, "that doesn't help much. That's what we usually do when we're not working on our project."

"Whoa. Are you saying I'm not fun to be around when schoolwork is involved? I'm offended, Birdie."

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying," I spoke, sarcastically. He was joking. He was joking. He was joking.

"You hurt me, Wren. You hurt me real bad." He joked, practically laughing as he spoke. His hand was over his heart as he feigned a hurt look on his face.

I couldn't help but laugh at how terribly adorable it looked, "You need to work a little bit more on your acting skills. They're not exactly up to par." To that he just laughed, "alright. Well if you won't tell me, at least tell me what I should wear."

"Something casual... Something like what you're wearing right now is good." He said, shrugging it off.

I was wearing a pair of loose jeans and a t-shirt. Easy enough, I thought to myself. I nodded to him in response and unlocked the driver side door to the Jeep. Before parting ways, Eli said he would pick me up at my house at seven and waved as I got in and ready to drive off.

As of right then, it gave me a total of five hours to get ready. Which meant I had four hours to do whatever the hell I wanted.

Which was hang out with Max. He stayed over the night before and mentioned that he didn't have to go to class since it was midterms week and he already took the one for his class that was normally on Wednesday. When he told me that I begged him to stay and wait for me to come back so we could hang out a bit more before he had to go back. I was ecstatic when he agreed.

Speaking of midterms, I had just taken my biology one and I think I'd done well on it. It was something I was happy about. I somehow got lucky this time around to have had one exam each day this week. So I've only had to attend one of my classes each day, which was nice. I had three exams down and only one more to go!

I rushed upstairs when I got home and saw Max with a bag of popcorn in one hand, the remote to the TV in the other, sitting on the couch, and scrolling through Netflix. I watched him quietly to see what he would pick, but every time he stopped and hovered over something, he would change his mind and move on.

"I say you just put on some Kevin Hart and call it a day," I finally chimed in and made my presence known.

"You know what? You're right! I could use a good laugh." He said. It wasn't the reaction I expected from him, so he must have known that I was there.

"You comfy?" I asked, when I noticed how slouched he was against the couch.

"Yes. Your couch is much comfier than my bed. How is that even possible?!"

I laughed at him in response and sat down next to him and sighed. My thoughts returned to mine and Eli's date that night. Shouldn't have agreed to it. Mistake. "I feel conflicted about Eli." Max sat up as I spoke and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, "I mean... I like him. I really like him. But I've made the mistake of trusting the wrong people too many times now. I don't think I can handle another repeat."

"While I don't approve of this Eli guy and you going out with him and think you should definitely just be friends..." he started. I was tempted to roll my eyes because I knew this was just his protective, brotherly side showing, but I didn't because there was a part of me that thought the same, "...it's not hard to see that, for some reason, you have a more positive reaction to him than to most everyone else. There's nothing wrong with putting yourself out there and being vulnerable, Wren. Not everyone is like those who have hurt you. I know how hard that is for you to believe, but it's true." I nodded in reply. The two of us watched a couple movies, every once in a while I brought up my worries to Max and he always had a sensible reply. And even though I wasn't entirely sure about everything he said, it did make me feel a bit better.