Whose Fault? (Editing)

Chapter Two ✔

Eli seemingly decided to let the flinching thing go, and settled for an "okay."

When we got back to Eli's place, we had a little more than half an hour left before I had to leave for work. So we wasted no time and quickly gathered everything and got to work. Half of that time we spent finishing the construction of our Stirling engine, the other half we spent troubleshooting and making it work. In between discussions on the different methods that we could use to make it work, I made sure to type out thorough notes for the paper that was required to be submitted with our project.

By the time my alarm went off for me to head out for work, we had gotten the engine working and I was finishing up the notes for the progress we had made. After saving the file, I quickly gathered all of my things. As Eli walked me out, I offered to come over after I got home from work, warning him that it would be late at night or extremely early in the morning. To which he looked almost horrified that I worked and would be up that late, and politely declined the offer.

After I got in the car, I watched to make sure that Eli had gone back inside and closed the front door before changing into my work shirt; I then backed out of his driveway and made my way to work for the very long day ahead of me.

I got home from work around 1 a.m. Immediately I ran upstairs, dropped my things on the couch, and headed into the kitchen. I pulled out a frozen meal from the kitchen to chuck into the microwave so I could eat. While I waited, I turned the TV on and put on the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

I was in the middle of washing my silverware, after finishing eating, when my phone started ringing. Pulling it out of my pocket, I checked the caller ID to see Max's picture on the screen. I quickly dried my hands off and answered the call saying, "hey Maxie. Can't sleep?"

"Hey! You know me so well." He said excitedly, "what are you up to?"

"Not much, I was just washing dishes. What about you? I miss you!" That was true, I missed Max. He was the only person I felt truly comfortable around and knew almost everything about me, outside of Chloe, but I saw her a lot more than Max.

Max was Chloe's older brother by seven years. He'd been away at college since the start of this semester, but we hadn't talked in over a month. He was studying to be a Special Education Teacher at the Elementary level. He was almost done, only had two semesters left if I remembered correctly.

"I miss you too. I've been super busy with papers and internships. It's driving me nuts! But I'm so glad that I'm closer to the end than I am the beginning." He vented. It took Max a while to get back into school after graduating from high school. He worked at least two jobs at a time for a few years before deciding he was ready and knew what he wanted to do in life. "But that's not why I called. How's school going for you? What classes are you taking again?"

"U.S. Government, Fundamentals of Physics, CAD, Intro to Audio Production, Intro to Stage Lighting, and Principles of Economics." I listed off as I made my way back to the couch to lay down.

He let out a huff of a breath, "staying busy, huh? You got any classes with friends?"

"Yeah! And I guess I've made a new one from my Physics class. He's my assigned partner for the semester, but he's okay."

"That's good! What's his name?" He asked me.

"Eli. What about you? Got a girlfriend yet?" I teased, changing the topic. I didn't necessarily want to dive into more details about Eli with him just yet. I still hadn't figured out exactly what had happened today and what that all meant.

Max chuckled before answering me, "not yet, Wren. To be honest, that's the last thing on my mind right now. It's all about finishing school and getting a job for me. Maybe after that." He said and then quickly turned the conversation back around to me, "any classes with that douchebag of an ex?"