Annabel

Chapter 7

a/n: Honestly had such an insane crush on Eli Goldsworthy in Degrassi. <3

I sat on the beach watching the waves crashing on the shore. After a moment, I realized the beach wasn't as peaceful as usual. I could hear loud music and when I turned around, I could see people lined up and filing into a door a couple of houses down. Belinda's party. I could see a few people running on the beach in front of the two story house throwing a Frisbee and kicking up sand as they continued to yell and laugh. I suddenly regretted coming to the beach as I watched the young guys, yelling out slurred fragments of speech. I thought about walking on the boardwalk further down but when I saw Eli sitting on one of the many benches that covered the strip, I decided to stay where I was.

I leaned back on my arms and closed my eyes, trying to focus on the sound of the waves instead of the noise from the party but it was nearly impossible to concentrate when there were guys running back and forth behind me. It happened so fast that I barely had time to react when I felt something hit the side of my head hard. I wrapped my fingers around the yellow Frisbee and stood, a headache emerging from where the hard plastic disk had hit me.

Before I knew it, someone was gently pushing me back by my hip, barely enough so that I didn't collide with someone running full speed ahead towards me. My head was spinning from the suddenness of it all. When I looked up, I was met with Eli's dark eyes peering straight into mine. Then I noticed a rough looking guy with dirty blond, spiked hair who had almost collided with me. My first impression of him wasn't a good one and I knew he was drunk by the stench coming from his breath and the way he stumbled around, never finding his balance. No wonder he couldn't catch the Frisbee and almost ran into me. I was lucky that Eli had pushed me back or else I would be on the ground.

It all happened so quickly and I struggled to not look into his chocolate eyes that were beyond beautiful. I was still disoriented from the Frisbee incident and the way Eli was looking at me didn't help with the light-headed feeling that had washed over my body like a wave.

"Who the heck are you?" the unfamiliar guy asked me, his eyes raking up and down my body.

"Um Annabel."

"Anna...Annabel." He mumbled, stepping forward and grabbing my hips with both hands, his grip like clamps around my body. I was beginning to feel uncomfortable but when I tried to back up, he only tightened his grip on me.

Eli stepped in between us, shoving the guy back a good four feet, sending a harsh glare in his direction.

"Back off Lance. Now." Eli growled and I'd never been so shocked in my life.

"Oh look. Murder boy has a new girlfriend."

Murder boy? Eli's mouth opened slightly to speak but he didn't look surprised in the least, instead, keeping his face relaxed. It was so obvious that he was trying to remain calm and something about that made me nervous and anxious, especially when the guy, Lance, took a step forward to meet Eli's eyes.

"What's wrong Eli? Scared of getting beaten up in front of the new girl?"

Eli just stood there, expressionless. He didn't seem phased or affected by Lance's words and I kept waiting on him to get mad and throw a punch. Instead, he remained calm and collected, never once getting riled enough to let it affect his actions.

"Leave. Now." Eli repeated.

"Me? Leave? This is...Belinda's party. You leave."

When Eli grabbed my wrist, leading me down the beach, my heart skipped a beat at the foreign contact that I never in a million years expected to receive. He let go as soon as there was a safe distance between us and Lance. When he turned around, I hoped that he would say something because I was speechless. He sat down on the sand and so did I. I was right beside him now and I'd never been so close to him before. On the wall, we sat a few feet apart and in class, we barely ever talked. I looked at him, the dim glow of a porch light reflecting off his flawless face. I was trying to imagine what he was like before. I tried to picture what Sophia looked like. She had to be beautiful to be with Eli. He had the perfect arrangement of features and his beauty certainly didn't go unnoticed by me.