Within The Stars | ✔️

44

~Samara's POV~

It was a couple of days later, on Monday to be specific, when I got a call from Poppy late at night after I'd gotten off of work.

"Hey, Poppy." I greeted into the phone, rubbing my eyes as I flopped onto my bed. "What's up?" I asked, as I hadn't been expecting her to call when it was almost eleven PM already. She didn't usually call this late at night, especially not on a Monday.

Poppy was silent for a moment before she spoke. "So..Eli told me you guys are dating now." She stated, like she was unsure whether or not that was true, and I couldn't blame her for that. I bit down on my lip, as I didn't have my piercings in to fiddle with like I usually would do. My silence seemed to be plenty enough of an answer for her because she huffed softly. "Why didn't you tell me, Sammy?" She whined into the phone, causing relief to flood through me. At least she wasn't mad that I hadn't said anything yet.

"Well, it wasn't official until yesterday. I didn't ever know exactly how to explain it before then, so I just didn't say anything about it aside from when I told you we kissed and that I like him." I told her, my fingers fiddling with the ends of my hair nervously. "He only asked me just last night, actually." I added softly.

She giggled softly, like a school girl almost. "Tell me more!" She exclaimed, a pleading tone to her voice. I imagined it must've seemed rather odd for her to be hearing me actually talking about being in a relationship. I'd never even really mentioned boys the entirety of our friendship, really. Maybe this was somehow exciting for her to finally be able to hear about, and I was admittedly kind of happy to be able to talk about something like this for once in my life.

"Well, it was kind of simple, really, but I thought it was sweet. He asked me when he was in front of my apartment, after he had walked me up to my door. It came out of nowhere, at literally the last second." I recalled with a smile on my face, stretching my legs out across my bed. "Right as I was about to go inside, he just sort of blurted it out. You know, I don't think I've ever seen Elias nervous about something before, so it was cute how nervous he seemed to ask me that." I told her, giggling softly. The memory of his nervous fidgeting with his fingers and the slight color in his cheeks was one that I would never forget. I'd never seen him that way before, not even once. Admittedly, some part of me liked that he'd been nervous to ask because that meant he was still fearful that I'd reject him, even despite the fact that he knew I loved him already.

"I'm so happy for you, Sammy." Poppy said to me with a giggle. Then, in a playful manner, she added, "But you let me know if I ever need to kick his ass if he hurts you."

I just smiled, because I doubted he would.

**

On Tuesday afternoon, I left Allsaints to go home after my shift had ended, my combat boots crunching against the occasional pebble beneath my feet as I walked. It was six o'clock at night, so unfortunately the drive back to my apartment was longer than I would've liked, purely because a lot of people were now getting off of work.

Eventually, though, I reached my apartment building and stepped out of my car, making sure to bring my purse with me. As I was heading up to my apartment, I spotted Elias in front of my door, just waiting there with his hands in his pockets. I furrowed my brows and walked closer, wondering what he was doing here. "Eli?" I called his name as I walked down the hall, the sound of my voice making him look up at me. Sure enough, it was definitely him. "I didn't know you were coming over." I said, fiddling with the strap on my purse.

"Well, duh." He said in a playful tone. "It wouldn't be a surprise if you did."

My lips twitched up and I pushed up on my toes, wrapping my arms around him in a hug. "Maybe, but you should at least let me know sometimes, especially if I'm working. I don't want you to just wait here like this." I scolded him, which just made him squeeze my butt and chuckle in response.

"I just wanted to see you." He pouted as I pulled away. "Is that so bad?" He asked, to which I raised my brows at him and snorted. It was easy to tell by the tone in his voice that he was being honest, but also slightly playful. I couldn't help but to smile, which just seemed to please him.

While I unlocked my front door, I could feel Elias checking me out, taking in my black thigh high socks with little white spiderwebs on them and my black leather skirt that fell just a bit below my butt. My black denim jacket was cropped and so was the little black tank top I had on with a black fishnet top over it, his blue eyes seeming to linger longer and longer the more he looked at me. "You look beautiful." Eli murmured, following me inside once I'd gotten the door unlocked. I smiled, feeling my cheeks warm, and shut the door behind us. "I suppose you don't look half bad either." I teased, grinning as I looked up at him.

He hummed and leaned down, scooping me up into his arms so suddenly that I yelped, clutching his shoulders in a mix of fear and surprise. "Hey!" I exclaimed, gasping when he kissed me deeply as he carried me down the hall towards my bedroom. We entered my room and he then gently crawled into my bed, laying me down before he settled himself beside me. I kicked my shoes off onto the floor and Elias did the same, pulling me into his chest afterwards. "Did you eat dinner yet?" He asked, grabbing my laptop from where I always left it beside my bed.

I shook my head and he set my laptop just between the two of us, causing me to smile to myself. Though the first time that I had convinced Elias to watch anime with me had been quite a struggle, it had now become like our little thing. He probably didn't care for it, but he watched it with me anyway. "You pick what to watch and I'll order us something. Does Mexican food sound good?" He hummed, to which I nodded my head.

So he got up out of my bed and took out his phone from his pocket, heading into my bathroom to make the call. I watched him go, a little smile on my face as I did so. I'd never imagined that I'd have someone who loved me the way that he did, and it was incredibly easy now to see all the little ways he showed it.

Perhaps the most strange thing about Elias and I was that he had hated me for a long time, and I hated him for that. I had hated that he seemed so against me for no reason. The fact that such a drastic change could occur between us and the feelings we had for one another was something I'd never wrap my mind around, probably. Maybe he and I were never meant to hate one another the way that we had.

"Did you find something good?" Elias asked me suddenly, slipping back into my bed beside me. I looked up at him and blinked, a smile growing on my lips. "Yeah." I said after a second. "Yeah, I did."