Take Me Home | ✔

Chapter Nineteen

     "Have you actually been?" I retorted. 

     "No, that's the point," he told me, with a sheer look of duh that suited him well. 

        "I'd rather get my diploma, thanks," I stretched my arms into the sky, groaning at my tight muscles.

  When I peered up at him, his nose was upturned slightly and he was judging me through those eyes that I felt uncomfortable. "You're no fun," was all he said. "I bet'cha your boyfriend's more fun. Look at him. He's practically jumping." 

    Before I even thought of correcting the fifth person who thought Elliot and I were a couple, I squinted dimly ahead and sure enough, Elliot was skipping -- at least, my faulty vision had assumed. But it wouldn't surprise me at the least. 

    "He's Mr. Optimism, of course he's skipping to Wichita like he won a million bucks," I scoffed, but surrendering to the smile that crept onto my face. "And we're not a couple. He's not my boyfriend. His girlfriend's back in California." 

    "So you say." 

     Oh no. Had he caught the flickering wave of disappointment that graced my face at an ungodly moment? Had he had a chance to see me unregrettably pout for a couple of seconds? Had I honestly let a look like that slip? 

   I had. But Eli said nothing more about it, instead choosing to smirk and squint at his phone under the sunlight, adjusting the brightness and keeping eerily quiet. 

    "What about you?" he said after a while. "Is your boyfriend back at home too?" 

   Austin. Oh God, Austin. How long had I gone without thinking about him? However long it was, it was probably a record. Before that forsaken Outer Banks trip, I hated to admit that I was one of those pathetic girls that oggled at his very presence and following Austin like a puppy dog, doing his bidding, going to whatever parties, attached to his very hip. Whether I was happy, satisfied, or just plain confused as to how long we were 'together', I was there even if his mind or heart wasn't. Was he really waiting back at home for me? 

    "Yes," I answer before my mind could intervene with good reason, "He's waiting back in San Fran." 

       Eli shook his head, "You hesitated." 

  "I didn't." 

     "You did." 

   "Since when did you become such an observer? Just listen to your music," I deadpeanned, and when I realized it had come out quite brash, I started to apologize. 

     "I've met worse girls than you, Vienna," he mumbled, as if to himself. "One little comment doesn't hurt me, alright? You apologize way too much."

      "Sorry." 

 He scoffed, and seemed to turn up the volume, whatever music he was listening to pounding in his ears. He was so lucky that he had a distraction, and I ached for my phone even more. I was a human, and I was a teenager, and even though I had a motorcyclist for somewhat company and a highway full of cars, I've never felt so lonely. 

- x - 

    Since Elliot bragged of his ability to memorize anything and everything he had ever seen in his entire life, I let him guide us to a suburban neighborhood with medium sized houses that seemed to be all littered with plastic somethings. Whether it were plastic basketball hoops or little primary-coloured bikes, Fisher-Price toys were scattered all across the close-clipped lawns.

     And during all of this, I was aware of the time slipping away from us like sand through my fingers. The sun was above us and I expected it was close to noon. I was hungrier than ever, and I contemplated what grass tasted like. The last suitable meal I'd had was almost two days ago, in the fancy-schmancy palace of a hotel in Arkansas, right before we got chased out for identity fraud.