Chapter Twelve
❝It is an art of the most exquisite kind,
to touch someone's soul before touching their skin.❞
The crowd cheered below him.
"And it looks like we're going to have a new runner-up, folks! Give it up for Zachary Wright, fresh from California!"
Theo scoffed, but not in the bad way. He knew Zach loved the attention, and no doubt the innocent announcer had just boosted his ego to a triple.
He and Chase were currently enjoying the VIP privilege as they lounged in high-end balcony seats, overlooking the waves below. They were given it for free since they were part of the candidate's entourage, but even without, it wasn't hard to get. Their family might be fucked up and dysfunctional, but they were both basically trust fund babies.
"Yeeees! Go Zach!" Chase stood up, clapping his hands.
Theo's lips lifted into a smile.
He liked seeing his brother happy. And he was also glad to avoid all that crowd — from his vantage point, it looked chaotic. Spectators flocked the scene and people ran from opposite directions. He found himself searching for a particular girl.
And he found her.
It'd been a few days since he'd laid out everything to her. And he felt good. Really good. Lighter. Even if he didn't want to admit it out loud. He wanted to hold on to this rare, once-in-a-lifetime feeling.
Of course, that didn't mean all the burden he'd been carrying had disappeared. There were some things he'd kept to himself — things he wasn't ready to tell her yet, or felt like it could be brought up another time.
Healing yourself involved baby steps.
All because of the girl with the soft brown eyes.
In the distance, she cheered with them, waving and cupping her mouth with her palms as she let out a happy hurray. Was she cheering for Zach as well? He thought so, since her gaze was fixed on the surfers.
"El!"
She paused. Whipped her head back and forth, trying to find the source of his voice. Theo's mouth twitched. She looked cute.
Then, as if the universe had tapped her shoulder and whispered hey, over here, she looked up.
Her face split into a wide grin as soon as their eyes met. Theo's chest hammered against itself, and it was only until the girl disappeared from his view that he was able to breathe again. He wasn't nervous, was he? He couldn't be. What reason would there be?
Oh, just that she now who knows your full life story.
Or maybe that she's kind and beautiful and everything you didn't expect.
Theo grunted.
She arrived shortly by their sides at the balcony, which was easy considering she was a sponsor. El beamed so bright it almost felt like she brought the sun with her.
"Hey, guys!" she chirped. "Why didn't you tell me you guys had VIP seats? I thought we were friends. Now I'm terribly hurt." She pouted and put her hand on her chest.
"Boo-hoo," Theo said, deadpanned.
"Lenny!" Chase let out, tackling her arms around her. El staggered back with a little oof! before returning the boy's enthusiastic hug.
"It's good to know at least one person misses me," she quipped, giving Theo an amusing glint behind Chase's head.
"Correction, he misses your free food," he said back, but her smile was getting contagious. He shook it off. "By the way, slow down, tiger. You're suffocating the poor girl."
Chase blushed and let go as if she was on fire. "O-oh my god, I'm sor — are you okay — I'm s-sorry," he stammered, his face full of guilt.
El just laughed lightheartedly, giving the boy an amused look as he started biting his nails. "Good job, Theo, you made him all embarrassed." She walked forward and ruffled his hair. "Don't worry, your big brother's just not used to conventional terms of affection."
Theo grumbled an incoherent curse. "Clever today, are you?"
"Aren't I always?"
When Chase returned to the edge to watch the surf scene below, El plopped down on an empty seat and crossed her legs.
"Aren't you suppose to be working now?" He truly didn't mean it to sound harsh, but he couldn't help the tone of his voice sometimes. Lucky for him, El knew what he meant — either that or she wasn't offended by it. Knowing her now, it was likely both.
"I am, but I thought I'd offer my cheers."
"I'm sure Zach has enough fans to cover for it."
She let out a short laugh. "That's why I'm giving them to someone else." Before he could get into it, her eyes brightened again and focused on him. "Listen, I have a plan."
A raised eyebrow. "A plan?"
"Not just a plan," she repeated, grinning. "The plan. The brilliant plan."
"Okay, El, you're not making sense right now."
"Just hear me out." She leaned forward against the table and spread her arms wide, her eyes full of determination. "I've been thinking a lot about what you said. About... what you've been through." Theo's heart lurched. "It wasn't easy, and I can't imagine how not easy it is for you to move on from that. Which is why I have brought forward the plan."
He pursed his lips. He's had this type of conversation before.
"Therapy doesn't work well with me," he said slowly. "You don't think I've tried it a million times? I have, El. And they were professionals. It's not going to work."
"How do you know if you've never tried it yet?"
"Why would I have to try, knowing it would end up all the same?"
"Because of that one percent," her eyes glinted, leaning in. He felt himself being pulled in as well. "There's always that one percent, Theo. That one percent that could change everything."
"Like birth control pills?"
El smacked his shoulder.
"I'm serious, Theo," she sighed. "Why do you let the world hold you back? No — why do you let yourself hold you back?"
He didn't have an answer.
"Look," she said solemnly, and Theo shifted uncomfortably, realising the sudden change in the mood. "I told you that if you want me to back off, then I'll back off. But you can't expect me to sit back and watch you... watch you — "
"Watch me what?" he said quietly.
She bit her lip. "Watch you self-destruct."
His heart dropped.
Self-destruct. That's what he was doing, wasn't it? The entire past year, in fact. He'd been crawling into his own hellhole, standing idle by as his faults and mistakes were whispered in his ear. Maybe it was time to make a move.
Maybe it was time to get out.
"This isn't going to be a version of Eat, Pray, Love right?"
"No, unfortunately, you're not going to travel around the world. But our small town right here might be an exception." Theo was quiet, hesitant. "Come on, it's not like you have anything better to do, right? Isn't this what you came here for? To end your existential crisis over this one summer that will change your life? Like, you know, in movies?"
"Don't get too clever on me, McKinney."
She giggled. "Hey," she added softly. "All jokes aside, I think this would be good. Maybe not the solution, but... a path. A path to a road's end."
"And if we end up lost?"
"Sometimes it's good to wander."
Eleanor was an odd girl, he thought. Odd in a way that made him want to see the world through her eyes, to make him want to know exactly what she was thinking.
It was really too late to turn back, was it?
"Okay," he conceded. "Let's hear your — I'm sorry, the — brilliant plan."
She grinned.
***
The next half hour consisted of the following: her telling him to recount the things he didn't like about himself, and the things he did like about himself.
It was absurd as it sounded.
"Is it too late to back out?"
El gave him a look. "Come on, Theo, it's not rocket science. I'll give you an easy example." She paused. "I don't like that my curiosity often gets the best of me, but I like that it's for the good intentions of other people."
He raised an eyebrow. He knew she was referring to their previous situation. "I told you that you didn't do anything wrong, right? Except for being a constant pain in my ass." Then his words actually registered to him, and he flinched. "Sorry. But it's the truth."
"Exactly my point." She leaned back on her seat. "Now I want your truth."
People were still cheering below as surfers were taking up their first rounds, followed briefly with announcements. How El managed to make him feel like they were in their own world, he didn't know.
"I don't like..." he paused, his mind somewhere else. "I don't like that sometimes I speak without a filter, and that could potentially hurt people."
El smiled softly. "That's good."
"And I like that... it's enabled me to be honest. I need to think more before I speak, yeah, but it's definitely better than lying and pretending that everything's okay."
Holy fuck.
Why did he find it so easy to talk to her?
"I hope that look on your face means we can keep going," El teased, tilting her head slightly. "That was impressive."
"Gee, thanks."
She giggled. "Alright, two more, and I'll let you off the hook."
Two more. He felt like there was so much more than that. But he licked his lips, knowing what his next words would be, one that was dying to get out of his chest. "I don't like that I only did certain things to impress other people, and I like that they're not in my life anymore."
"I like that, too."
For the last one, he wanted to make it count. As he was contemplating, his eyes drifted to the sight near them. Of Chase, who was waving his hands on the air, probably trying to catch Zach's attention. He must've finished his rounds, then.
"I don't like that I've been a horrible brother," he said quietly. "But the one thing I absolutely like about myself... is that Chase is my brother."
A slow smile began to pull at El's lips, and god, when she smiled, she smiled with her entire being. Her eyes crinkling at the corners, a spark in them, and the way her body seems to lift. He couldn't not smile then.
"Um, guys," Chase let out from the front, voice laced with confusion. "What's going on?"
Theo blinked. But Chase wasn't talking about the two of them smiling at each other like fools. No, he had his sights on the beach itself. El and Theo exchanged a worried glance before walking over to the edge.
Below them, sounds of shouts and people pushing each other were persistent. But if Theo was looking correctly, there was a circle forming right in the middle of it. And this time the cheers weren't directed to the ocean — it was directed at shore.
He had a bad feeling.
El's eyes widened. "Oh, stars. Not again."
And without another word, she pulled away and rushed downstairs. Theo's head whipped back.
"El! Wait!"
He saw how big the crowd was. So after telling Chase to stay, he raced downstairs, not thinking twice about running after her. Even if he had no idea what was going on.
Little did he know that she was going straight to the mayhem.
A/N:
Ooooh. Everyone loves a mayhem.