*Edited*
I chose to ignore Elijah for the rest of the concert as I sat on his shoulders. Pierce the Veil was so amazing and I never wanted the concert to end. But of course, it did.
Elijah reached his hands up to lay them on my hips and I sucked in a breath as he grasped me tightly before setting me down on the ground.
"Now that we're officially dating in secret-"
I smacked his arm and narrowed my eyebrows at him. "First you tell me that you want me to tell Mae that you guys are breaking up and then you tell me not to do that and to instead secretly date you? I'm sorry, but you must be insane. I've kept my mouth shut this whole time so I could enjoy the concert, but now it's over."
Elijah crossed his arms. "Fine," he said, holding up a finger, "But, I will be your first love."
I grinded my teeth together, getting angrier by the second. "No, I already love..." I trailed off as I was about to say Uriah's name.
"My brother? You don't really mean that."
The thing was, Elijah was right. I didn't love Uriah yet. Sure, I really liked him and felt a strong attraction towards him, but I couldn't call that love. I'm sure I'd know when I fell in love with someone and I also knew that it wouldn't be with Elijah.
"Shut up," was all I could think to say.
"Wow, Ronnie. You're so mature," Elijah said with a smirk.
"How the hell are you going to make me fall in love with you if you're always such a jerk to me? You're freaking delusional," I said, stepping away from him.
Over his shoulder, I could see a merchandise shop set up towards the back of the crowd. Without telling him where I was going, I made a mad dash towards the shop. I shoved through everyone, earning a few curse words thrown my way as well as tons of eye rolls.
I immediately locked my eyes on a signed poster from each of the band members that was sitting up on a high shelf. I scurried over to it and groaned in frustration when I couldn't reach it. I stood on my tippy toes, jumping up and down to try and reach the last poster when someone else suddenly grabbed it off the shelf.
I spun around and yelled, "Hey! I was getting that-"
"Jeez, I was getting it for you, shorty," Elijah grumbled, handing the poster out to me. My eyes widened and I blushed, reaching out for the poster. I wrapped my hand around it and mumbled a quick, "Sorry, thanks."
When I tried to pull it out of his grasp, Elijah tightened his hand around it and raised an eyebrow.
"You just said you were getting it for me," I said, tugging on it.
"That was before you yelled at me and before I realized this was the last signed copy." Elijah tore it out of my hand and strode over to the cash register with me fuming at his back.
I couldn't believe he just did that! I clenched my hands into fists as I watched him pay for the poster. When he was finished, he met me by the door and shoved his change into his pockets, holding a plastic bag with the poster in it.
I opened my mouth to point out how mean he was and how it wasn't helping his case of making me fall in love with him when he shot his arm out towards me. The plastic bag swung side to side on his fingers as he held it out to me.
"Here, take it."
My jaw dropped as I took the bag from him and he left the store. I wrapped my hand around the bag and bolted after him. By now, he had gotten pretty far away from me since I had been staring in shock at his back for a while. I sprinted as fast as I could until I caught up with him.
I launched myself at him just as he turned around, green eyes widening. He stretched his arms out and caught me in mid air just as I was about to crash into him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist as I squeezed him.
"Thank you, Elijah!" I said, beaming at him. His eyes darted away from mine as he held onto me.
"Yeah..." He muttered as I felt his arms drop from around my back and I was plopped on my feet. I glanced up to see a faint, pink tint to his cheeks so I squinted and poked his face.
"Are you blush-"
Elijah smacked my hand away and brusquely turned away. "No."
Okay, damn. I had just been joking. What was his issue?
I followed behind him, happily swinging the bag back and forth with a huge smile on my face. I couldn't wait to get home and hang the poster up in my room. Believe it or not, I didn't have any posters in my room so this would be the first one. I swung the bag a little too hard, hitting something solid.
I went to apologize, "I'm so-"
"Hey, sexy," a guy a few years older than me sneered with his lip raised. His ears were pierced with gauges and every inch of his skin was covered in inky tattoos. He slinked his arm around my waist and pulled me right up to him, squishing my bag in between us.
"Let me go," I bit out, trying to escape. He just tightened his grip on me and lowered his head, tickling my ear with his lips. I stiffened as he whispered, "You make me want to-"
I was torn from his embrace and my back was pressed against a sturdy chest as an arm circled around my shoulders, holding me in place.
"This one is mine."
My heart sped up at hearing Elijah call me his and I involuntarily got goosebumps. I was surprised to see how I reacted to his possessive words. But then I realized that he didn't mean anything behind what he said. He was just trying to save me from a creepy guy.
Without giving the creepy weirdo a chance to do anything else, Elijah spun me around and gently laid his fingers on the small of my back to guide me through the crowd until we reached his car in the parking lot. He wordlessly opened the passenger side door before getting in the driver's side. I hesitantly slid inside and shut the door as I stared at him.
"I know I'm attractive, but jeez, Ronnie, you stare a lot," he said as he strapped on his seatbelt.
"N-No," I stuttered as I pulled my seatbelt on and hid my face that was burning in embarrassment behind my short hair.
Elijah shrugged, turned on the ignition, and backed out of the parking lot. We didn't speak the whole ride home until he pulled up in his driveway. Uriah would've pulled up in my driveway, but whatever.
I unbuckled myself and turned my face to thank Elijah only to stare right into green eyes just inches from mine. We hovered over the consul in the middle of the car that was separating our seats, just staring at each other.
His eyes dipped to my lips and I sucked in a breath, drawing his gaze back up to mine. He let out a sigh, sat back against his seat, and ran a hand through his hair, mumbling, "I can't do this."
I was about to ask what he meant when he opened the door and got out. I followed suit and waved as I walked back to my house.
"Thanks, Elijah. I had a great time!" I yelled to his back. He raised a hand in response and headed inside his house.
When I entered my house, it was almost midnight. My parents were both asleep upstairs, so I quietly tiptoed up to my room. My phone had died during the concert so I put it on the charger while I went to shower. When I went back in my room, it was at half battery.
I had a few unread text messages from my parents asking if everything was alright and I had one from Uriah asking if Elijah was behaving. I typed out a quick response saying that he had been fine and that I'd had a good time.
I collapsed on my bed with the poster in my arms and a grin plastered on my face. I couldn't believe how much fun I'd had with Elijah. I mean, he had still been an ass at times, but there were a few moments when I had actually found myself enjoying his company.
Like when he had lifted me on his shoulders so I could see, and when he bought me this poster, and when he saved me from the creepy dude. Then I suddenly remembered how close we had been in his car and my heart started beating rapidly in my chest.
Had we been about to kiss? Had I wanted him to kiss me? No, there was no way. We hated each other and even if we had been about to kiss, it wasn't like it would be the first time it happened. He stole my first kiss afterall, so maybe he just wanted to play with me again or something.
I ended up falling asleep with thoughts of the wrong Reed brother circulating around in my head. I guess you could figure out who's green eyes plagued my dreams that night.
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Oops! Sorry I haven't updated this story in a while. I have been busy concentrating on completing "Don't Fall for Me" so now that I have finished it, I will be able to update this more frequently. So look out for my updates and leave a vote or comment about this chapter! :)