Checkers

Chapter 23 - The Dancing Lesson

Despite the fact that Elliot didn't specifically tell me to meet him at any time, I still found myself outside his door at 9 o'clock. I knocked and as soon as he opened the door I stepped past him inside. He seemed shocked to see me but rubbed his eyes and closed his door.

"Yes please come in," he muttered as he faced me. I looked him up and down finding him shirtless and wearing sweatpants which seemed to be his usual nightly attire.

"Were you in bed?" I wondered.

Elliot walked past me and lay on the side of his bed. "Yes, would you like to join me?"

"It's only 9." I ignored his comment.

Elliot looked over at me then covered himself up with his blanket, "I'm tired."

I walked over and joined him on the bed but I stayed above the covers since I was neither cold nor tired. "You poor baby," I teased.

He smiled lazily at me. "Are you going to wake me up?"

"Not like the way you're thinking," I assured him as we turned to face each other.

Elliot bent his head down and brushed his lips against mine and I smiled against him. When he pulled away, he wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his hands there. I reacted by putting my arms around his neck and letting myself relax.

"This is nice," I whispered. Elliot closed his eyes and rested his head against my arm and we both stayed in that position for a while.

"What's your favorite color?" I broke the silence.

He blinked his eyes a few times before focusing on me. "What?" I repeated my question only more slowly this time.

"Blue," he answered with a yawn.

"Why?" I questioned as I moved my arms to my sides since they were getting a little stiff. Elliot pulled me closer to him so that my loss of contact couldn't affect him. I rested my head on his chest and I soon felt his chin on my head.

I felt him take a deep breath. "I don't know, it's just pleasing to my eyes. Why do you want to know?"

"I just want to know you more," I replied tracing random patterns on his skin.

"Hm," he mumbled in reply. "What's your favorite color?"

"Green and I like it because the sky can be every color except green." I explained easily. "What's your favorite food?"

The night went on that way with each of us asking the other the same questions. I found out that his favorite food of all time was a Big Mac from McDonalds but he hadn't had one in years due to a strict diet. He also said his favorite weird food combination was dipping fries in chocolate milkshakes. His favorite type of food though was Chinese.

We got away from food and talked about some random things like favorite shape and normal things such as favorite movie. Then we got into thing slightly more personal such as our favorite color on the opposite sex. His turned out to be pink and mine was of course, still green. Then we got more into our past like I told him about my time at the orphanage and what little I remembered of my mother.

He told me that at the age of 8 he stopped spending time with his family because they pushed him off to be a prince. His relations with his parents had been very strained from then on. It made me realize that maybe I wasn't the only one with such a horrible background in this competition.

"I'm so sorry," I said earnestly when he was finished. Elliot seemed to be wide awake now and I was lying on his chest as well as under the covers while he was stroking my back.