Love Comes Last

10. Two Wrongs

Being the ridiculously petty person that I am, I couldn't bare to face Eli until I had to, so I texted him to be ready a little after three so that we could leave to my parents. The fact that his only reply was a thumbs up emoji didn't sway my anger towards him any. When we left the house, no words were exchanged, but finally, as he parks in my parents driveway, he finds his voice.

"Wait, I want to talk before we go in," he says just as my fingers begin to pull at the handle of the car door.

My hand falls back into my lap with a heavy sigh, and hesitantly, I glance over to him. "About what?" I ask, calmly.

Eli stares back to me for a long moment, searching for words. "I- I just don't think we should go in there without talking about this a little more first."

"What more is there to say?" I reply, trying to bite back the agitation seeping into my voice. What more does he expect from me?

He huffs, dropping his gaze to his lap. "That I'm sorry, and that I never planned for it to be like this. I really was going to try."

I scoff. "And when were you going to start doing that?"

"Last night," he snaps, suddenly looking back up to me. I flinch, surprised by his sudden change of tone. "I wasn't sure how to go about it, because I didn't know if you had any real feelings for me or not. I figured that we had been thrown in this together though, and that we might as well make the best of the situation together."

I feel my heart sink at his words. "Oh, yea. Because that's what every girl wants to hear- 'I was forced to be with you, so I might as well bang you in the meantime.'"

His jaw drops, and for a second, he is speechless. "That is not what I meant, Ellie."

We sit there for a few moments, letting the uncomfortable silence fall over the car. I stare out the windshield, fixing my gaze on the house so that I don't have to look at Eli. I can't cry just minutes before I enter my parents house. They would never stop asking questions.

"Ellie," Eli says quietly, breaking the silence. He pauses, and I glance back over to him out of the corner of my eye. "I want us to be OK. I mean, even if you don't want anything like that with me, I still want us to be friends."

Grabbing for the handle again, I open the car door and step out. "Get out," I reply.

"What?" He asks, confused. I shut my door and walk over to his side of the car just as he is shutting his. He looks over to me puzzled, but before he can ask another question, I pull him into a tight hug, resting my head against his chest. He tenses for a moment, confused, but then his arms wrap around me, and he pulls me closer. "What are you doing?" Eli asks, resting his chin on the top of my head.

"Relieving some of this damn tension," I mumble against him. "What happened last night, I will put behind us. We both need to accept that we have our own separate lives, and that this is not a normal marriage. If you want to be with Tonya, go for it. I'm not stopping you."

"But-" He starts.

I cut him off, pulling away, just enough to look up to him. "If we don't come to an agreement, this is never going to work, Eli, and then we will be in our early twenties, already divorced, and both of our families will be beyond angry with us. We do what we can to make this work, and that's all we can do."

His jaw flexes, and for a moment, it looks as though he is about to argue, but instead, all he manages to do is pull away and mumble, "I don't want Tonya. Come on. Let's get this over with."

His hand finds mine, intertwining our fingers, and he leads me up the walkway, to the front door.

"You nervous?" He asks, noticing how hard I am squeezing his hand.