Anxiety Attack

Chapter 16

Finley’s P.O.V

“What are you watching?”

“Shh,” I hushed him, eyes glued to the screen as Kara was ranting to Hunter about being sick.

“What-”

“Shut up!” I snapped, pausing my show and turning to face Luke.

He held his hands up in surrender. “Just wanted to tell you that Eli’s here.”

“Send him in,” I said, turning my show back on.

“Okay,” Luke said, turning around and walking out. As he left, I heard him mutter, “God, my family’s insane.”

“I heard that!” I called after him.

“You were supposed to!”

I rolled my eyes as Hunter started to explain why we was the way he was. I was so focused on my show that I barely noticed Eli walking in, plopping down next to me, and swinging an arm around my shoulder.

“So what are-” he began, his voice drowning out the TV.

I paused my show, Red Band Society, and turned to face Eli. “Shh!” I hissed. “This is a very delicate moment in the show!”

Eli raised his arms in surrender. “Sorry, sorry, what show?”

“Red Band Society,” I sighed wistfully. “Great show.”

“If I didn’t know better, I would think you love the TV show more than me,” Eli teased.

“Oh, I do,” I said cheerfully.”The guys are way cuter.”

“Oh really?” Eli puffed out his chest. “Do they have- these?” Eli raised his shirt and flashed his abs and the part of me that was crushing on him squealed while the teenage girl in me was anxious to get back to my very important show.

“They have something even better-brains,” I retorted and pressed play on my show.

Eli made a sound somewhere between a grunt and a shout of indignation. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I ignored him, focusing on the much more important TV in front of me, which was going to Dash, Leo, Jordi, and Emma going to get presents for Charlie.  I stayed focused on the show for longer, purposely ignoring Eli, who was whining about how he did have brains. He eventually resorted to poking me, and when that didn’t work, he pounced on me, tickling me.

I squealed, swatting at his arms, trying to get him off me. I managed to push him off and I straightened my sweatshirt before simply recording Red Band Society, having to resort to watching it later as Eli wasn’t going to leave me alone until he got some attention.

He’s rather like a puppy in that sense.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“I wanted to hang out with out,” Eli said, trying to sound distinguished.

“Uh-huh,” I said, disinterested. “And you couldn’t wait until after my very important show?”

Eli shrugged, not looking particularly ashamed. “I wanted to see you. Aren’t you glad to see me?”

He had me there. “Yeah, I am glad to see you, Eli.”

…

We were sat on the roof, lying next to each other, sharing my iPod, listening to Sam Smith as we watched the stars.

“There’s a cloud cluster over there,” I whispered, pointing to our left.

“Where?” Eli craned his neck, trying to see what I was pointing at.