Sweetest Pain || Hawk Moskowitz

09 Blush

When asked to hangout by Demetri, Eli had said yes and went over to his house, but he was distracted most of the time. His phone stayed in his hand or it was nearby. He kept the ringer on even when they were watching Star Trek: Voyager because he didn't want to miss a message from KT. He knew Demetri had quickly grown annoyed with it, which Eli didn't really blame him for. Whenever Demetri tried to hold a discussion about an episode, Eli was consumed by his phone and the happy little emojis KT sent.

"Alright, I give," Demetri sighed, pausing the show and turning to face Eli fully. "What has gotten into you? It's like you're not even here."

Eli looked up after sending a message to KT, a light blush coming onto his cheeks. He looked back down, exiting out of their string of messages only for one of her newest posts to load onto his feed.

It was a picture of her and Yasmine, smiling and posing in front of a mirror as they showed off their outfits. He could care less about what Yasmine was wearing, focusing his attention on KT and her high-waisted skinny jeans. She had paired them with a black and pink striped cropped tee, both pieces hugging her figure in all the right places. The pose she struck while taking the picture did wonders, too, with her weight on one leg, her hip out, and leaning into Yasmine with her free hand held over her exposed navel.

How is someone that pretty? Her smile literally lights up a room and her laugh is like a chorus of angels. She looks like she walked right off a runway, but she looks like that everyday. She's so put together, like she lives and breathes fashion. I wouldn't be surprised if she became a model or designer, she'd be so good at it. She probably already knows what she's doing with her life, while I have no plan at all... God, she's so smart and pretty and kind, she-

"Oh, man, don't do that to yourself."

Eli jumped. He hadn't even realized Demetri was looking over his shoulder. He clicked his phone off and put it down, turning to his friend. He didn't have to say anything, casting his gaze down and staring at Demetri's mom's throw pillow with the geometric dog on it. He didn't want to hear any of it, but he knew as soon as Demetri found out anything that he wouldn't shut up about it.

"I hate to be the one to say this, but that'll never happen," Demetri said. He reached over and patted Eli's shoulder, which didn't make him feel good at all. "She was probably just being nice to you when she asked to dance."

Another way of saying she was pitying me, but that wasn't what happened. Not at all. At least he hoped not, because when he thought about the Halloween dance, he thought of how she had helped him get away from Kyler and his goons, helped him calm down, not just their dance. She had been so patient, so caring and gentle with him. That was genuine. She had asked to dance because it was almost the end of the night and she wanted one more dance. And with him!

"No, she meant it," he rasped, keeping his head down as his fingers began messing with the fluffy pom-poms on the throw pillow. He pulled it onto his lap to have better reach of it and its soft textures. "You weren't there."

"I was there," Demetri said pointedly.

"No, I mean-" Eli took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "You weren't dancing with her."

A beat of silence, then two, then his phone pinged.

Eli grabbed it and immediately went into his Instagram messages. He felt himself smile. They'd been talking about everything and nothing all at once. It started off just about classes and extracurriculars, her track and field mostly, then it went into TV and movies they liked - she was still a huge Disney princess fan - and he'd even told her about his favorite Doctor. The conversation had turned to comics and comic book movies, which he was a little surprised to find out she knew a lot about. It hadn't crossed his mind that she might like comics alongside fashion and makeup and track.