The Neighbors

Chapter 4

"Are you going to sit?" he asked me motioning to the desk next to him.

"You have the same first hour as me?" I asked him sitting in the seat next to him.

He leaned back and took out a notebook and started writing something quickly before putting it back in his bag.

"Yeppers." he said pulling my desk over to his with a swift movement of his foot.

I laughed and looked up at him, "That was fun." I said grabbing his hand and going over the lines if his tattered hand. His hand looked very worn. It was very dry and callused. It looked as if he had sanded them down. They were the hands of a mechanic or carpenter.

"You work on cars a lot?" I asked him still messing with his hand.

He smiled slightly, "Kind of." he said looking at his other hand, "Are they that bad?"

I kissed the inside of his cold hand, "They aren't bad. I think it's nice."

"Okay lovebirds get a room we have a lot of work to do." the teacher, Mr. Garner, said as he walked into the classroom. And at that I let go of Elis hand and sat back into my seat as everyone looked at the two of us.

"Sorry sir." I Heard Eli say with a smile on his face. After that I felt Eli's cool hand go back to my stitches and it felt great on my hot skin.

"Thank you." I said nuzzling into him slightly, "That feels nice."

I heard him chuckle a throaty chuckle as we started class.

I ended up having three of my six classes with Eli and the other three with Sydney. So my schedule ended up pretty well. After school Eli came up behind me and poked me on my left shoulder but when I looked over there he wasn't there but then I looked over my right shoulder and saw him laughing.

I punched him, "That's not funny!" I yelled at him as he fell into step with me.

"I thought it was." he said taking my bag yet again and slinging it casually over his shoulder.

"You know I'm going to get used to you holding my stuff for me." I said bumping him jokingly with my hip.

"I hope so." he said smiling at me.

"Alaina!" I heard a girlish scream from behind me that could only be Sydney's, "Oh my god! Is this a love connection? Are the two of you going to grow up and get married and have babies and name one after me?" she kept screaming until she got to us and looped her arm through mine, "Do y'all know that there is at least a foot difference between the two of you? It's so droll to see the two of you together!"

There she was trying to use "Smarter" words to make her seem more intelligent. "What the hell does 'droll' mean?" I yelled at her much to eli's entertainment.

"Amusing in an odd way. Whimsical even." Eli said halfheartedly. As if it were normal to know the definitions of words on cue.

"You're a strange lad. Did you know that?" I asked him smiling tenderly. He returned the smile before murmuring something I couldn't understand and wrapping his arm around my shoulders.

"So what are the two of you?" Sydney asked me delightfully.

"Neighbors." Eli replied, "I thought you knew that." he said with a laugh. Making it clear that he was joking.

Sydney made a sound that made it clear she was not in the mood for joking and glared at Eli expectantly, clearly making him uncomfortable.

"Um," he said running his hand through his hair, "I think Alaina and I should be going. I have to take a look at her car and see what's wrong with it. You know before it gets dark so..."