Between the Lines | ✓

Cliche 23: Hotel Rooms Are Small

Elias just stared at me, shell-shocked. His sparkling brown eyes were almost unfocused as he seemed to struggle to find his words, but I wasn't faring any better, whipping myself into a frenzied panic.

'Think Lex, think!' I thought to myself frantically, brain scrambling for a way out of this hole I had dug for myself. 'Elias looks so freaked out by the accidental homo, what if he finds out how you actually feel and wants nothing more to do with you?! Lex, you gotta at least try and pass as straight!Just play it cool, play it cool! Pretend that slamming lips together with your best friend does not make your heart feel like it's about to explode!'

"Oh, shit, sorry, dude! I didn't mean to bring you down with me, my skis got caught on something, haha..." Yeah, that something being the author's shitty plot. Forget plot holes, this world is just full of literal holes in the ground that are out to end me! "Are you okay? You landed pretty hard, even if there's a lot of snow... Ah, and you cushioned my fall, too, dude. Shit, I'm really heavy, that's gotta hurt!"

I winced at the thought of how Elias's body must be genuinely sore after getting hit by a projectile plank made of muscles harder than bricks. Helping Elias up while avoiding eye contact with him, even though he couldn't see my eyes behind my goggles, I forced out a stiff chuckle. Elias was almost in a daze as I hoisted him up. This blank state made me frown as I began to worry that he bumped his head and had a concussion or serious brain injury.

"Elias? Are you okay? You didn't hit your head, did you...?"

"No, I'm fine... But Alex, you... we..." Elias started, his line of sight obviously dropping to my lips, which still tingled with lingering warmth of Elias's own.

Ah, shit, maybe it would've been better if you hit your head. Author, where's the amnesia cliche when I need it?! I really don't want him to think that I want to pull his magic sword out of his pants and let him play whack-a-mole in my poop chute! Please erase Elias's unfortunate foray into homosexuality from his stick-straight main-lead mind!

But... wait... maybe I'm onto something. The accidental touching of lips happened so fast, I don't think Elias processed what happened properly. If I pretend nothing happened and just ignore it, maybe Elias will also think nothing of it and we can move on to straighter, less homo pastures. Genius, Lex!

"Hm? Huh? We what? Ohhh, shoot, look at the time! It's getting really late now, we should head back. Since I'm essentially Bambi on snow, I'd rather not be out on the slopes once it starts getting dark! Plus, Aubrey and Ambs are probably wondering where we are. Since you're not hurt, we should hurry and head back!"

I gave Elias a blindingly wide smile and pat his shoulder in a super non-homo way, before trudging a few paces downhill to fetch my runaway skis. Taking a second of under-my-breath swearing before getting them on again, I quickly ushered Elias down the hill, clunkily managing to make it back down in one piece while Elias trailed beside me silently.

When we got back to the chalet, Aubrey and my sister were waiting in the foyer on their phones. Since leaving the mountain it looked like they had both showered and were now dressed down in cosy casual clothes, and yet the atmosphere was not cosy in the slightest. Aubrey was staring at her screen like it was the most interesting thing in the world, while my sister's face was carefully blank and her foot tapping on the ground, a tell-tale sign that she felt exceedingly awkward. 

It was almost similar to the way Elias and I awkwardly walked side by side now, the soccer captain strangely quiet with his head hung down while I nervously fiddled with the zipper on my ski jacket. 

The moment Elias and I walked in, the girls' heads snapped up simultaneously, the two of them rushing towards us with relief in their features.

"Elias!" Aubrey called out, just as my sister reached me and grabbed my arm desperately.