The universe is against me, I thought to myself. Something weird was going on with Xavier. Yeah, he'd always been annoying—on purpose—but recently he'd been... worse. It had been a little over a week since Eli confronted him about the nickname, and things were getting weird.
I didn't know what exactly changed, but Xavier was starting to make me uncomfortable. The other day I was walking to my theatre class and he pushed me up against the wall, put his mouth to my ear, and told me that I looked really good—"sexy," in his own words—that day. I was wearing a pair of baggy sweatpants, a t-shirt that was two sizes too big, and my hair was in a mop of a messy bun at the top of my head.
Yeah, I know. Not my best, but I had cramps and was nauseous after already throwing up earlier before leaving the house, so I wasn't about to try to look my best.
He would do things like that a lot. I was going to have to figure out some way to stop it, and quick.
Also, remember how I decided that I was going to shy away from Eli a little bit? Guess what? It didn't work. I had no control over how I felt for him and I couldn't seem to stay away. I mean I did... for two afternoons. The same afternoon I decided that, and the next. The first, I went to work and then home, worked on homework, and watched some TV before going to bed; I still couldn't get Eli out of my head. The next, I went over to Chloe's after work, to try to give myself a better distraction, but all she wanted to talk about was Eli and how I felt about him. Obviously, that didn't work out for me too well either.
In fact, I was at home now waiting for Eli to come pick me up. Earlier in class he mentioned wanting to try out this new pizza place and I, being the idiot I am, offered to go with him. He was so excited that he didn't have to go by himself, that he suggested we go after our class. He later realized he had to pick his four-year-old sister up from preschool before we could go. I was still being a dumbass, and told him he could just pick me up after he was done.
Let me just tell you, the smile that lit up his face was out of this world. I think my heart melted a bit when I saw it.
So, there I was, freaking out about what to wear to hang out at this pizza place with Eli and trying to ingrain in my head that this was not a date. He doesn't like me like that. This is not a date. Stop making this such a big deal. I sighed and finally decided on a pair of skinny jeans and a long-sleeved, striped, scoop neck top.
As I was finishing touching up my makeup, Eli texted me saying that he would be waiting outside. I quickly finished and made my way to his car outside.
I sat myself in the passenger seat and buckled myself up as Eli reversed out of the driveway. He quickly greeted me before focusing his attention back to the road, "hey Birdie."
"Hey!" I replied, hiding my face from him as I felt the heat rush to my cheeks.
I could feel his excitement radiating off him and it was contagious. His radio was playing music lowly and he finally spoke, voicing how he felt, "I'm so happy you volunteered to come with me. I really didn't want to go alone! You look beautiful by the way."
"Thank you! Pizza is my favorite, so anytime anyone mentions it, I'm definitely in." I told him, trying to mostly ignore the compliment he gave me. He's lying. I'm not beautiful.
"Mine too," Eli informed me, "what's your favorite kind of pizza?"
"Hmmm... that's a difficult one. Honestly, I think cheese is my favorite. What about you?" I swear all bets are off if he says something disgusting like-
"Pineapple."
"Please. Please for the love of all that is good... tell me you're joking." Bet he's not. He busted out laughing and didn't stop. "This is not a laughing matter! Pineapple does not belong on pizza!!" I said, trying to get through to him. It was a little amusing to watch him be so carefree like that, even though I made it clear that this wasn't funny.
When he finally calmed down, he said "of course I'm joking! Pineapple on pizza is just nasty!" Oh good, I thought to myself. "My favorite kind of pizza is pepperoni."
I nodded, the ride settled in a comfortable silence for a couple minutes. Well, that was before I heard the start of one of my current favorite songs being played on the radio. I turned the volume up a little, so I could hear it better. It was Thirty Seconds to Mars' song called Walk on Water. It was such a good song.
As the song went on, I found it more and more difficult to enjoy the song in silence. Apparently, Eli did too, because the both of us gradually started singing along to the song louder and louder as he turned the volume up more and more. We were both fully committed to jamming out to it, head banging, and crazy car dance moves included.
When the song ended, I let out a carefree sigh and I leaned back into the seat. I thoroughly enjoyed doing that, no question about it—for once. I let out an excited and happy giggle before looking over towards Eli and saying, "I love that song!"
He nodded, "So do I. But you really knocked it out of the park. I thought I had the car jamming down to a science, but you... you have surpassed me. That was amazing!!" He told me chuckling. Eventually I joined in with his laughter and the car was filled with it as we pulled into the parking lot of this new restaurant.
The sign out front read 'The Pizza Box.' How cute, I thought to myself. When we walked in, it seemed busy, but we were lucky that there was a table open for us to be sat at quickly. Eli picked up a menu and looked at the different options they had as we waited for an employee to get to us. Every once in a while he would comment on something he thought was interesting, saying he had to try it sometime.
Soon a waitress came by and quickly took our orders before returning with our drinks. She first turned to me asking what I wanted to eat, I was about to reply when I thought about it for a minute. What if I order the wrong thing and Eli gets mad at me? I looked up to him to gauge his facial expression and reaction. But he was smiling at me waiting for me to respond to the woman, "um.. a slice of cheese pizza, please?" I hated the way it came out, it sounded like an insecure question. When I looked back at Eli his expression held a questioning gaze, crap. I ordered the wrong thing. Before I could ponder on it more, he smiled at me and then ordered for himself.
When the waitress left, Eli and I talked about different things we had going on, at home and at school. Seemingly forgetting about what had just happened. That screw up will come back to haunt me later. I just know it. Eli had been preparing for basketball season recently and told me I should go to one of his games.
I was excited for the show we're going to put on in the theatre. It was a musical called Bye, Bye Birdie. I couldn't wait to be a part of it. When Eli asked me if I had auditioned, I shook my head and explained that I wasn't big on being onstage, I liked being in the background doing some of the stage work. Setting up props, lighting, and sound, things like that.
We were in the middle of talking about our recent progress on our science project when the both of us eyed someone walking by with a pineapple pizza. Immediately the both of us started laughing, commenting on how gross it was.
The pizza there was delicious, "I think this is the best pizza I've ever had." I stated before taking another bite. I saw Eli nod out of the corner of my eye as he continued eating his pepperoni slice. The rest of the time we ate in comfortable silence, enjoying the food too much to want to talk anymore.
As we finished, we each paid our own way and left my new favorite restaurant. As we settled into the car, Eli sighed and turned to look at me, "I don't want to go home yet. I'm having an amazing time with you."
My face warmed up and I tried to hide the rising blush on my cheeks from him. That was the last thing I needed him to see. To distract myself, I spoke without thinking, "we can go to my place. Watch a movie or something." Idiot. He's going to question the living arrangements.
A smile lit up his face, "yeah! That sounds good."
The drive to my place was quiet. I was stuck in my head, arguing with myself about my own stupidity and Eli seemed to have all his attention on the road. The silence was starting to make me uncomfortable, but I tried to ignore it as I figured out my excuse as for why things were the way they were at my house.
By the time we got there I was no closer to having a solution than I was when I got myself into this mess. But it was happening, so I had to come up with something quick.
As I unlocked the front door, Eli spoke, "you know, I just realized I've never been in your house before. We always hang out and do class work at my place."
Anxiously, I replied, "yeah. Haha, you're right. Well, there's a first time for everything!" Eli simply smiled and nodded.
Should I give him a tour?
No, dumbass. It'd be like digging my own grave. I thought to myself as I made my way upstairs. I put my things down on the kitchen counter then made my way to the couch, trying my best to ignore how Eli was still standing by the door at the top of the staircase taking it all in. This was a mistake.
I turned the TV on and pressed the button to get Netflix to come up. As I was waiting I made my way back to the kitchen, "you want some popcorn?" I asked, trying to diffuse how uncomfortable things were. However, it seemed Eli was in his own world. I had to repeat his name, for him to snap out of it. I giggled at his confused face before repeating my question.
To which he dazedly replied, "sure." I shook my head and put the popcorn in the microwave. I did not like the way the atmosphere immediately became uncomfortable. It was a few seconds before Eli said anything, but when he did, there was no beating around the bush, "so you pretty much have your own little apartment up here, huh? That's pretty cool!"
I nodded and came up with something, quick on my feet, "yeah. The house was built with this mother-in-law thing up here. My mom and I started to butt heads a lot and she wanted me to learn some responsibility and shit when I was younger, so it kind of worked out." Lies. Lies. Lies.
"That's pretty cool. Your dad thought the same too?"
I tensed and probably took too long to reply, "he's... not around anymore."
"Oh, shit. I'm sorry. You don't have to say any more about it." I nodded, and it was awkwardly quiet for a minute or so. "So, what do you want to watch?" Eli asked as he made his way to the couch. He sat down and started scrolling through the options.
"It doesn't matter. You pick. I'm gonna make another bag of popcorn then I'll join you." I told him, placing another bag in the microwave. I poured the first bag into a big bowl, then watched Eli search for something to watch.
"How about Men in Black?"
"Never seen it."
"We're watching it," he said, matter-of-factly. After the second bag of popcorn was done, I poured it into the bowl with the other and joined Eli on the couch. As I did, he pressed play. When I asked what the movie was about he looked at me incredulously, "you really haven't seen it or heard about it?" To which I shook my head. "It's about aliens living on Earth without the whole world knowing and stopping the aliens that are a threat to exposing their existence to humans."
"Sounds interesting." I said as I ate a piece of popcorn, then focused on the movie.
The next day, I had a report due in class and I was extremely anxious about it. My head kept telling me that I did everything wrong and that I was going to fail. I was trying to control the urge to cry and I wasn't looking where I was going. Luckily, I didn't run into anyone as I made my way into my English Comp class.
Xavier was already in his spot next to mine when I got there. So, I took a deep breath and made my way to my seat. During the first couple weeks of class I had tried to move around so I was away from him, but he always followed and eventually I gave up.
"Hey Wrennie." He tried to start up with me right as I sat down, but I ignored him. I was way too focused on not panicking to be able to deal with him. "Don't ignore me."
"Please just leave me alone, Xavier." I begged him, I didn't have the energy to do this today.
"Now why would I do that?"
"Because I told you to," I said bravely. I shouldn't have said that. Fuck. What's he gonna do now?!
He grabbed my elbow, pulling me closer to him as he chuckled. It was a sound that I always hated hearing from him, "don't test me, Wrennie."
He grabbed me by my shoulders and shook me furiously, "don't test me, Wrennie." He shook me some more, before punching me so hard that I landed on the floor. He then began kicking me in the gut repeatedly. When he was finished, and I could barely keep my eyes open, he leaned down close and in my ear, he menacingly whispered, "you have no idea what I'm capable of."
Immediately, I ran out of class and out of the building to try and find a secluded corner where I could handle the panic attack without anyone noticing. The tears were already falling, and I was trying my hardest to move as quickly as possible without dragging unwanted attention.
When I found a place, I slumped down and tried to remain as quiet as possible as I struggled to breathe. I felt like my whole world was collapsing in and I didn't know how many times my eyes swiped over the area to catch any threats, well anything could've been a threat at that point. I didn't know how long I was sat there trying to gain control of my breathing, but it felt like a lifetime.
I faintly recognized footsteps from around the corner and my panicking somehow got worse and my breaths shorter, I couldn't force myself to look up when I could no longer hear them.
"Birdie?" I knew that voice... how did I know that voice? Think. Think! Dumbass. I couldn't focus long enough to remember. Out of my peripheral I saw someone sitting down in front of me. No, no, no. This is bad. This is very bad. "Hey, hey. It's okay. You're okay."
All I could do was shake my head back and forth. No, I'm not. This is not okay. I am not okay. This isn't normal. I'm going insane. I might die.
"Look at me, Wren. Look at me. You're going to be okay." He spoke calmly, but for the second I could glance up at him, I could tell he was internally freaking out and wasn't sure of what to do. "Um.. okay. Hey, tell me something I don't know about you yet. Like... like... I don't think you've ever told me your favorite color. Wren, what's your favorite color?"
It took me several minutes to focus on what he said and to think of my favorite color, but somehow, I got it, "g-green."
"Good to know. Mine is orange." He thought for a minute then asked me another question, "how about your favorite movie that's not Disney?" I wrack my brain for an answer but come up with nothing. I'm such an idiot. I don't know. I don't know! "It's okay, Wren. Take your time. Your favorite non-Disney movie?"
As I tried my hardest to concentrate, I could feel my body starting to relax and my mind started to clear up, "Megamind."
Eli. Eli was the one who was trying to help me. Shit. Shit, shit, shit. He smiled and spoke again, "okay. Mine is the first Avengers movie. How about your favorite musical or play?"
"Shrek the Musical," I answered right away, and I could feel my muscles relax. I was finally able to take a couple breaths at a normal pace. It took me a minute to be able to look up at him and when I did, Eli was smiling at me again. It was so wide that if it was possible, it would have fallen off his face. I'm not exactly sure why seeing as this was not a normal interaction that people had with each other but seeing him smile was comforting to me.
Eli slowly moved closer towards me to make sure I didn't have a negative reaction towards his movements, but I wasn't able to process what was going on fast enough. Before I knew it, he had wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug. For a moment, I didn't know what to do, but when he had mumbled, "you're okay, Birdie. I gotcha" just loud enough for me to hear it, I couldn't help but wrap my arms around him as tight as I could in return.
❤️💜
Hey all!
This chapter is 3,143 words. I hope you liked it! Please, leave a vote or a comment to let me know what you think; it really helps me out, especially when it comes to motivation.
Thanks a bunch!
TM