"Elijah," I beamed quietly as I opened the door. My face shifted from enjoyment to confusion. "Xavier, what are you doing here?"
He weakly leaned on the door frame and looked past me. "I... I came to say...s-s-sorry," he drawled out.
"Oh God, you're drunk," I sighed and helped him into the apartment. Most of his body weight was on me and I struggled to get him properly on the couch without making any noise.
"What are you sorry about?" I asked, irritated.
"About earlier... the E-Elijah thang," he said, moving his hands around.
I ran into the kitchen and grabbed a slice of bread. I handed it to him and told him to eat up. I always saw my mom giving Hal a slice of bread whenever he walked into the house drunk. She said that it helped absord the alcohol. I'm not sure if it was true, but I gave it a try.
"Mmm..bread..." Xavier smiled.
I rolled my eyes and then quickly perked up when I heard little knocks coming from the door. "Oh shit," I muttered.
Xavier attempted to stand up. "I'll beat them up!"
I pushed him back onto the couch. "Its Elijah. Plus, keep your voice down, Pia is sleeping."
"Shhhhhhhh..."
"Oh my God," I muttered as I walked towards the door.
"Baby," Elijah smiled as he cupped my chin with his hand. He noticed that excitement wasnt reciprocated. "What's wrong?"
I opened the door further and revealed a drunk Xavier.
"Yo, what up," Xavier greeted as he gave a weak peace sign.
"He's drunk. Did you guys drink?"
"No, he literally came about three minutes ago. I'm not even sure if he drove or walked."
Elijah stared at Xavier. "He walked. I saw someone walking around the neighborhood. I thought it was a homeless man, so I ignored it."
"I have a home. A big home," Xavier interjected as he wiggled his eyebrows.
Elijah cocked his head to the side and took a step forward. He was threatened by Xavier's sexual innuendo.
I delicately grabbed Elijah by his coat and pulled him close to me. "Ignore him. He's drunk, remember."
"What are you going to do with him?" He asked, clearly annoyed by Xavier's presence. "Do you want to go to my place?"
"No, I'm worried he'll wake Pia up. She'll end up killing him if he destroys the place. Let's just go to my room. He looks like he's about to pass out." We both stared at Xavier who was slowly leaning toward his side.
I threw a blanket over Xavier and proceeded to grab Elijah's hand to pull him away from the embarrassing scene. I quietly closed the bedroom door and collapsed onto the bed.
"I'm really sorry."
Elijah started stripping everything down except for his boxers and slid into the bed. "Its okay, I understand where he is coming from."
I turned to my side and faced him. "What do you mean?"
Elijah sighed and shifted around. "Morena, it's obvious Xavier is in love with you. He became drunk and walked miles to come see you. Theres always a deep rooted reason for an intoxicated person to do that. He loves you and I can understand why."
I felt like heart lowered into my stomach. I knew that Xavier liked me and it was obvious from his behavior when I introduced Elijah but love? I couldn't believe it. We were best friends and there was nothing romantic, at least on my side anyways. What was going through Elijah's mind?
"I'm taking it by your silence that you don't believe me or you're still processing it."
"A little of both," I mumbled.
"I'm not upset. Its bound to happen if you're with an amazing girl," he beamed as he leaned over to kiss me. "Just, tread carefully. Don't give him the wrong impression."
"Okay," I whispered almost inaudibly. Elijah reached over and pulled me into his chest. He knew I was bothered by the information that he just revealed. Although, he could be wrong, not all adults are right. I rolled my eyes at my naivitivty. Its Elijah, he's always pretty damn right.
Elijah and I woke up to a high pitch screech. I ran out the room while Elijah stayed back to dress himself into the clean pair of clothes I had for him. As I entered the living room, I watch Pia look at the floor and couch in disgust while Xavier cupped his head in agony.
"He freaking vomited on the couch and floor!" Pia yelled as she stared at me. "How the hell did he even get in here?"
"He came here last night. He was drunk. I let him sleep in the couch because I didnt want him walking back home at night," I informed.
"Oh my God. How are we going to get the stain and smell out? We cant clean this up. We will be late!" Pia placed around the room as she freaked out. She was never good at remaining calm in stressful situations.
Elijah came out of the room in a posed manner. He buttoned his cuffs up and rubbed my back. "Dont worry. I'll have someone come in and clean it up. You two get ready and I'll take care of him."
"Life saver!" Pia cried and ran to Elijah to hug him. "But how the hell did you get here?" She asked.
"I told him to come over after you slept."
"Might as well leave the door open for everyone to come in."
I rolled my eyes and waved her off. I went over to Xavier to see how he was doing but Elijah grabbed my hand and told me to get ready.
Pia and I ran into our own bathrooms and got ready in about twenty minutes. I walked into the living room and saw Elijah and Xavier talking. They abruptly stopped mid sentence and stared at me with cautious eyes.
"Hey beautiful," Elijah said to break the awkwardness. I smiled at him and then looked at Xavier.
"You look ten times better."
"Yeah, Elijah made me some disgusting concoction and gave me two tylenols."
"Its a mixture of spices and other stuff. It was my dad's savoir after my mom passed away. He would get drunk every night, but would drink the concoction in the morning and go straight to work with no problem," Elijah shared.
Pia ran into the leaving room and threw her backpack over her shoulder. "Alright, I'm ready."
We all walked out and into Elijah's jeep. He had been driving it around more often which surprised me. He usually only drove it when he was heading into Maryland.
The car ride was only five minutes, but it felt longer due to the silence. Pia still seemed annoyed with Xavier, Xavier looked disappointed, I felt embarrassed, but Elijah looked unbothered.
Elijah parked on the side of the road, which he usually did when he dropped me off to campus. Pia and I quickly jumped out of the car but Xavier stayed behind for about thirty seconds longer. I could see Xavier leaning over and talking to Elijah. I couldnt read their lips, all I could was see Elijah's facial expression become more lighter. He nodded and gave his hand to Xavier, which X shook.
"What was that about?" Pia asked. I was glad she did since I was curious enough to know, but not nosey enough to ask.
"Thanking him for helping me out this morning."
"Aww, bromance! So cute!" Pia cooed. "Anyways, I'm gonna go this way. See you guys later!" She walked into a different path, leaving me and Xavier by ourselves.
"Sorry about last night," Xavier whispered. "I'm not sure what got into me last night."
"A lot of alcohol that's for sure," I joked.
He chuckled and kicked a pebble that was on the floor as he walked. "I guess."
"Xavier if ---"
"Can we talk later, Mo? My head stills hurts a bit and I'm mourning for the good grade I couldve gotten on this math quiz."
"Yeah, no problem," I mumbled.
We walked into class and sat in our usual seats. I noticed Xavier struggling more during the quiz and I was tempted to slide my quiz over to him but he had his arm up, creating a barrier between us. I just had to wait until class was over to get some clarification. I needed to know where we stood in our friendship. Every fiber in my body was hoping that Elijah was wrong since I desperately didnt want to be in a love triangle.