'What do you mean?' I ask, looking puzzled and not quite understanding what he's asking of me.
'I'm asking you what you want, simple as that.'
His to the point and contextless answer does little to satisfy my bewilderment and wonder.
What do I want? I want a lot of things in life, most people do, don't they? Somehow though, I don't think he's asking me for my list of a 101 personal wishes of mine about things like world peace and a lifetime supply of skittles. After pondering about it for a second, I realise the most relevant and easiest-to-do thing that I want in this situation right now is for him to just leave my bedroom.
'For you to leave so I can go to bed?' I cautiously ask whilst tilting my head up slightly at him as I await his response.
'Ouch, you do break my heart, willy.' He smirks, playfully bringing up a palm to his chest and wincing as if my words have physically wounded him. 'But no, not that. Try again. What's one thing you want right now?'
I frown at the unnecessary use of that miserable nickname again before tapping my chin in thought. What's one thing I really, really want? Well my answer comes almost instantly to me when I think about it like that.
'To meet Yungblud.' I state triumphantly, a dreamy smile already settling on my face at the prospect of ever getting to see him face to face.
Eli's face blanks at my response and for a second he looks like he has no idea what I'm on about until a look of realisation dawns on his face and he shakes his head with a scowl.
'Something you want within reason.' He stresses, rolling his eyes at me and effectively snapping me out of my daydream.
I scowl at his straightforward and expected dismissal, not liking how he pointed out that he thought this was an unreasonable thing to dream of. I don't care what Eli thinks, I moodily sulk to myself, I'm meeting him one day. Deciding to leave the Yungblud idea alone for now when I see Eli is still waiting for a response, I continue trying to come up with a so called 'reasonable' thing for me to want.
'Okay... A puppy then.'
I really, really want a puppy. I have for the longest time now. My Mum's always tried to put me off the idea, saying that it wouldn't be fair on a dog considering our house is empty half the time with her at work and me at school. She does have a point but I so badly want one. It's one of the reasons why I spend so much time at Asha's place. She has a golden retriever called Teddy and he's absolutely adorable. I have to admit too, there has been a number of times I've gone over exclusively to play with him rather than to actually see my friend.
'Willow, are you deaf?' Eli scoffs, sounding incredibly tired of me and looking like he wants to facepalm himself at my answer.
'What? That is within reason.' I bicker, pouting at how negative he's being.
Sure, maybe me meeting Yungblud might be an idea that won't happen anytime soon and that may take a bit more planning and luck. But me getting a puppy? I mean strictly speaking, it's very possible- I could go out right now and get one, couldn't I?
'No, it's not.'
'Yes, it is.'
'No, it's not.'
I quickly grow tired of the back and fourth petty squabbling, scowling when I realise he could do this all night. And I, well I couldn't think of anything less painful right now.
'Well, how am I supposed to know what 'within reason' means if you keep being all cryptic and weird about it?' I declare in irritation, exhausted of this conversation that has the possibility of continuing to go around and around in circles.
'Look okay, I owe you one.' He sighs, emerald eyes turning suddenly turning serious and morbid.
My mind races at his response, thinking up all the reasons why'd he apparently 'owe me one'. It doesn't surprise me at all when I am able to instantly draw up several reasons why he might.
'No shit, Sherlock- you owe me for a lot of things.' I murmur beneath my breath whilst rolling my eyes in thought at all the countless times he had come for me for no reason at all.
'What the fuck is that supposed to mean?' He swiftly snaps, eyes blazing at my comment.
I flinch a little at the sudden increase in his voice, not having meant for him to have heard my little comment. Despite me wanting to snap back at him with something like 'you know exactly what' in reference to all our past incidences- I decide to keep quiet as I honestly just want him to get to his point and leave. All this back and fourth arguing isn't getting us anywhere and it's starting to become really exhausting.
'Nothing.' I mumble, hoping he'll just forget about it and leave it be for now. 'Just, what do you mean you own me one?'
Thankfully he doesn't seem to care to pry further into my earlier remark, his eyes losing their fire as he becomes serious again. Maybe he is just as tired by all of this as I am by now.
'For what happened in Art last week.'
My head instantly snaps up in shock as I stare in astonishment at him, forgetting all about the loose thread on my sweater that I had previously been mindlessly playing with.
What feels like the hundredth period of silence to have occurred tonight follows his words. I incredulously stare at him, my widened eyes slowly narrowing as I try and work out exactly what he's trying to achieve by bringing that up again.
What had occurred in that Art lesson hadn't been bought up again between us since then, not that I had expected it too either. That didn't mean I still hadn't thought about it since then. Because I definitely had, I had had a couple lessons since then in which I have been trying to recreate my drawing. And trust me when I say I have silently been cursing out Eli in the the back of my mind throughout. It's proving to be a long and tedious process though trying to reconstruct my bird, probably due to the fact this is my second time sketching it out all over again.
'So whatever you want, it's on me.' He continues, abruptly taking me away from my thoughts as I frown at him.
Aha, I think, that's why he keeps badgering me about what I want. I fix him with a suspicious look, shaking my head to myself in thought as I try and get my head around what he's saying and the underlying intention behind it.
'Why are you even sorry, what's so special about this time?' I quietly probe, eyeing him dubiously beneath my dark hair.
It's the main thought swimming around in my head right now. Why is he seemingly so apologetic about this specific time when it's not like he hasn't done stuff like this to me a hundred times before in the past? I hate to say it, and I dislike myself for letting it have gotten to this point- but what Eli had done in Art on Wednesday in a way had been completely expectant of him on my behalf and so it hadn't really surprised me.
'Because I realise I shouldn't have done that, it was an asshole thing of me to do.' He explains in a genuine tone, not letting his piercing eyes stray from mine even once throughout his reasoning.
Despite this being completely true and something I wholeheartedly agree with, I'm taken aback by his words. I never would have expected Eli Walters to be speaking in what could be considered a remorseful tone in relation to an incident of him picking on me.
'...And why are you saying sorry now? It's been awhile since then.' I point out, stating the obvious.
He had had countless opportunities since to say sorry to me about it, god knows we had bumped into one another a few more times than I would have liked since then. So why is he suddenly bringing it up now, what's changed since then?
'Because I've had time to think.' He begins, sounding earnest. 'That and the fact Miss Cruz made me feel like complete shit after. She kept me behind for a bit to help clean up. And she kept saying how disappointed you must have been about your work being ruined because of how much effort you'd put in.'
I can't say I'm shocked by this, I could tell how intensely Miss Cruz had felt about the whole incident when she had first walked in. She looked so disappointed and aggravated on my behalf, understandably too since she had been a first hand witness to how much effort and time I had been putting into it. And post-incident, she's been nothing less than an angel too by offering to help me out countless times since. Not to mention she's helped kept my morale and mood up whilst I've been redrawing the bird, making me laugh with her grumbling about 'a clumsy and incompetent Eli Walters'.
'And plus, every time I've seen her since then, she's been giving me the dirtiest looks.' Eli ends with a light chuckle.
'Oh... you do know that might be because you keep skipping her lesson, right?' I ask, thinking about how Eli has been absent in Art ever since the day he ruined my drawing.
'Nah, she never used to care before. Even when she'd see me, she'd ignore me. But now, damn, you'd think I'd have run over her puppy or something.' He shivers, seemingly thinking of these so called evil looks she has been sending him.
His justification makes me smile a little as I am easily able to imagine the scenario playing out in my head. But the smile is soon wiped off my face when he has to go and open that big mouth of his again and ruin it all.
'Besides it was really immature of me. We're not kids anymore, I could have done way better. I mean really speaking, I could have taken a lighter to it- that would have been way cooler.' He reflects thoughtfully.
Of course, he'd have to ruin his 'apology' at some point. I'd be foolish to think he could last being so seemingly authentic and sympathetic for so long without having to make at least one cheeky and thoughtless comment somewhere down the line.
I glare at him in anger, my previously neutral expression turning into one of vexation as I shoot him a fierce frown.
'You know what, Eli- just leave. You're obviously not sorry about it. So why don't you just go and stop wasting both of our times?' I lash out, not wanting to look at his face for even a second further.
He looks startled at my outburst, even more so when I proceed to jump up from my bed in a fit of rage and turn my back to him. Heading towards my desk chair to get a little much needed space between us, he stops me in my tracks however. I breathe in a sharp intake of breath when I feel his fingers wrap around my wrist.
'No, Willow. Wait.' He says urgently in an effort to get me to stop and listen to him.
I violently shrug off his grip and spin around to face him with impatient eyes, lowering myself to sit in my chair.
'Wait, I didn't mean it.' He continues to say once he sees has has my attention. 'I was just kidding, you know what I'm like. I shouldn't have said that, it was... inappropriate of me to do. But I really do want to get you something to prove to you that I feel guilty about what I did.'
I stare at him with big eyes, suddenly feeling urged to believe him. Either I'm just being a dumbass and he's a brilliant actor or he is actually feeling ashamed about what happened. Looking at him now though and how he's almost shyly avoiding my gaze with a guilt ridden look on his face, he does genuinely look like everything he is saying is the truth and is coming from his heart.
Honestly I never thought I'd ever live to see the day Eli Walters seeming even the least bit sorry about something he had done to me. I almost feel like I have pinch myself just to make sure this isn't all a dream. Eli seems to pick up on the fact that I'm having a hard time taking all this in and uses my speechlessness as an opportunity to finish pleading his case.
'So yeah, that's why I need to do this for you- to show you that I really do mean it when I say I wish I could take back what happened.' He reinstates with a sigh, watching me closely as he takes a few steps back to sit himself down on my bed so we are once again on an eye to eye level basis.
'You do know you could just apologise, right?'
I state with a shrug despite knowing fully well that's not an option for him.
And, oh boy, am I proved right when my suggestion seems to strike a nerve in him a second later.