Storm {A Light Novel}

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R

I rap the end of my pen on his paper. "Hey. Hey, hey, hey."
He prolongs a groan before he picks his head up.
"You're normally a good worker. Why are you being so difficult now?"
"I normally don't get forced to work at nine in the morning."
"You're right. You're used to being forced to work at seven in the morning. And getting off at three." I smile as though I played no guilty part in him sitting at a cafe corner at 9 am.
"It's. The. Weekend." He slides his paper to the wall and leans forward like I am. "I. Should. Be. Slee-ping."
"Look, it's not my fault the museums all open at 10. We have to get there early to get the student discount. You said it yourself. "
He tilts his head a bit and sarcasm toys with his smile. "Right, and it's a good thing you had me do all the trip planning too, yeah? Or we would have never known there was a student discount. What would we have done?"
"There you go! See? You're catching on! I taught you so well," I say, reaching my hand up to ruffle the top of his head.
He locks a hand onto my wrist before I reach his head, stopping me in my tracks. My smile drops. I don't know if it's because he's tired, but he stares at me in a way that communicates he is void of any of my intimidation. His eyes are steel, as is his grip on my arm. The AC blares overhead, making his hair blow about in wisps, tickling the edge of my palm.
I jerk out of his grip and sit correctly with my back to the chair, my eyes going straight for the table separating us.
He lets out a large exhale and rubs the sleepiness out of his face, taking the air. "So we're going to this art museum first," he slides the paper map back over and points between two points, the highlighted locations on the map and the itinerary he carefully annotated on the side. "Since the exhibit with all the art therapy drawings are basically our main feature and we can't afford to go without it. Then, we'll take 11th Street and make a left and a right to get to the Children's Museum, take pictures, notes, interview... And see what else we can hit before we can make it home and be done by 5."
Does Eli realize how much of a personality change he goes through when he's tired? Unbelievable. Taking charge like this.
"Don't make me laugh." I turn my head to the side with a smirk.
"What?"
I turn back to him with widened eyes when I realize the thought meant to stay in my head was in fact verbalized. "I mean... Hahaha! Don't make me laugh! How can we be done that early when you didn't even mention time for us to eat or anything?"
Eli nods in acknowledgement. "Okay. We'll eat first before we set off. What do they have here?" He leans off to the right to look past me at the chalkboard menu positioned in front of the cafe counter.
I dip myself to the right as well, blocking his line of sight. "And then after, right? For lunch?"
When he dips further to the right to see the menu again instead of answering, I repeat, "Right?"
I throw my hands down and exclaim "Eli!"
He looks at me without hesitation, along with the few other patrons sprinkled in the back of the cafe. Slowly, he straightens his posture to focus on me. "I did not schedule time for us to sit down for lunch. Normally you make it a given that you don't want to spend any more time than needed on the pro—"
"Yeah, but this is different!" I nearly yell, hardly fazed at this point by the attention drawn to me in the small space.
Eli lowers his shoulders to the table along with his voice. "I am listening but I think you should lower your voice before we get ki—"
"They can kick us out if they want to! You're missing the big idea here!"
Eli reenacts the white-guy-blinking GIF he loves to use. "Sorry. What big idea? I wasn't aware you were giving me details to follow just now."
"You really don't know?" I deadpan him, slight fury rolling off my body. He shakes his head and I roll my eyes, a smile full of hysterics just waiting to crack. "Unbelievable. You mean to tell me you really don't know?"
At this point he looks pitifully confused, just on the brink of irritation.
I gesture to his form on the other side of the glossy wooden table. "I mean you didn't even make an effort to dress up or anything!"
His expression doesn't change, but from the way his eyes drift to the side I can tell he is trying to piece together my meaning. "Why would I... dress—" He trails, but I cut him off.
"Don't act stupid!" I gruff and plop my back against the plasticky wooden chair.
Elijah's eyes flicker with a moment's recognition. "You don't mean to tell me that this is a—"
I cut him off again before he can say the d-word and exclaim, "How are we meant to take any pictures together when you're dressed like that?" I try to play on my frustration a little more and hope that's what it looks like is the reason for my blazing cheeks.
I'm getting downplayed by a nerd? Embarrassing.
Elijah rips into my incessant thoughts with an apology. I wonder how many times he had to repeat himself to get my attention considering he's actually speaking at an audible volume.
Despite his tired eyes, an arrogant smirk plays down at the table from his lips leaving me wondering what on earth kind of thoughts are running around in his brain. Okay, maybe it's not arrogant, but still, how dare he.
I'm even more annoyed when I receive that smirk probably means he now thinks taking pictures wasn't the main reason he should have made the effort to dress.