just fine

~

"Are you okay?" Eli asked. I looked up from my history book at him and tilted my head sideways.

"Yeah, why?"

He shrugged, adjusting his gaze to somewhere behind me. "We're the only ones here," he said, "I mean, except for the librarian, but she's on the first floor. I just wanted to make sure that you didn't feel..." Eli trailed off, a slight smile forming on his face. I did a quick scan of the second floor of the library to find that we were, in fact, the only ones that remained. Noor left earlier, and as the day went on, so did the other students. "We can move downstairs if you want." Eli said finally.

And we could have. But for some reason, I liked how we were the only ones on the second floor, how the dim table lamp hit Eli's face just well enough to make out his facial expressions, and how I didn't feel like going downstairs. I was tired and lazy and the amount of books we would have to lug downstairs was too much for me to handle. I didn't want to, and that was just fine.

"It's okay," I told him, going back to read my history book although I had no intention on actually reading it.

"I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable or anything, Faith." And he didn't.

"You're not." I said, "I trust you."

When I glanced back up at him, the smile I saw on Elijah Caden's face made me -- just for a moment -- forget about all the nightmares, boys, and shit I experienced before I moved here. Before I met him. Before I found someone I could trust. The happiness Eli expressed that day was something I'd never seen before, and I couldn't help but feel happy, too.