Not That Bad #Wattys2018

Chapter Six

"But the contract..." he mumbles.

"Fuck the contract." I say, "And I don't know if your stupid girlfriend told you but I won't be giving you food either. Now you're wasting my time, so if you could get off my property now, I could get going."

Eli looks slightly offended but he doesn't make a move to leave. He just stares at me, his blue irises piercing my helmet and then my skull and making me feel sorry for him. And I don't feel sorry for anyone except myself. 

The thing is, Eli was preventing me from figuring out what I was going to do and from coming up with suitable comebacks for the men who shouted perverted comments about my body. They wouldn't do it if I was with Chase. They wouldn't do it if I was with any guy. If it was one thing these biker guys respected, it was another guy's woman.

"Imogen is NOT stupid." is all Eli says, rubbing his arm as if it hurt. 

He's wearing a long sleeved blue plaid shirt, buttoned until it got to his collar bone. That gave me a peek of the skin on his chest, looking so soft and smooth and untouched. If Eli dressed a little different, he could have been an okay guy. He had already good face, a nice chiseled jaw and the height that could be intimating if he used it properly.

Then I have an idea. If I was in a cartoon, a light bulb would have appeared over my head.

"Maybe you should stay." I say, pulling Eli into my house and leading him upstairs. 

He doesn't say a word. In fact, Eli is so quiet I have to keep turning around to see if he's still there. All I hear are the sounds of my boots against the wood floor. Thunk, thunk,thunk. 

I push open my bedroom door and get the scissors from my drawer. Then I walk over to Eli, whose sitting on the edge of my bed staring at my glasses on my desk.

"What? You've never seen glasses before?" I say. Eli looks at me and  his eyes go big when he sees the scissors in my hand.

"Whoa. WHOA! If you don't want to be tutored anymore, I could work something out. You do NOT have to KILL me." 

Eli hurries to the door, fear and confusion plastered on his face. I can't help but laugh. But something, some organ or something twists inside me. I feel bad that he thought I was capable of murder. Yes, I could hurt him, but murder was on a whole different level. And the way he's rattling the door knob of my room tells me that he really thinks I would do that.

"I'm not going to kill you, you idiot." 

I throw the scissors on the floor and hold up my hands. "See? If I was going to kill you, I would have poisoned you or something. Stabbing  someone is a lot of work."

That doesn't appease Eli. His jaw drops. 

"What! I've never stabbed someone before. It just seems like a lot of work." I look at my nails, suddenly feeling like I was in court and I had to defend myself. "You know, from TV and stuff."

A barely convinced Eli walks back toward me and sits on the bed again. "I can fight back, you know. So don't try anything funny." he says.