The Closet Has a Sliding Glass Door

Chapter 4

"If you two would stop, that would be fucking awesome right now," Eli grumbled from where he was sitting on the couch.

Matt and Danielle pulled apart from each other and looked over at Eli. Matt looked mildly agitated from being interrupted while kissing his girlfriend. Danielle however, looked somewhat amused.

They were sitting on one of the lounge chairs across from the couch. Danielle was sitting on Matt's lap with her legs dangling over one of the arms of the chair. Matt had his arms wrapped around her middle.

"Jealous, Eli? Do you want a kiss too?" Danielle asked lightheartedly with a smirk on her face.

Matt rolled his eyes from behind her and rested his chin on her shoulder.

Eli perked up on the couch and gave Danielle a grin. He forced his excitement for comedic effect.

"Are you offering?" He asked eagerly, despite knowing that she was in no way serious.

She smiled wider at Eli playing along and said, "Sure am."

Glancing up to Matt, she motioned over to Eli with a wave of her hand and continued, "Go on, Matty. Eli wants a kiss."

Eli's expression dropped into annoyance. The joke was supposed to be at Matt's expense, not his. He slumped back onto the couch again.

Seeing Eli's reaction, Matt didn't laugh. He and Danielle looked at each other, silently communicating something with their eyes. Danielle suddenly looked guilty and faced Eli again.

"Sorry, I'm just kidding, Eli," She said.

"I know," Eli replied emotionlessly while staring at the ceiling.

The room was awkwardly silent for a moment.

"I wonder why Klitz couldn't come over," Matt said in fake thought.

Eli snorted in amusement.

It was so obvious when Matt was lying. His voice always raised a few octaves at the end of his sentences and he put too much emotion into his words.

"I don't know, babe. Maybe he was busy studying. I know he's in those advanced classes with you," Danielle responded.

She tilted her head towards Eli and asked, "Do you have any ideas, Eli?"

Danielle was way better at lying than her boyfriend. If Matt didn't fuck it up first, Eli might have half-believed her.

Eli and Klitz haven't talked to each other in a week. After the incident, Eli couldn't even look at him for more than a second without feeling sick or terribly upset. Unlike the last time Eli avoided him, Klitz didn't try to talk to him. He wouldn't look at Eli either.

As a result, Eli had been third wheeling on Matt and Danielle's alone time. This is the third time he intruded on them. There was no way Matt and Danielle didn't notice that the tripod was falling apart. Neither of them have outright asked him what was going on, which was odd. At least on Matt's part.

Eli shook his head in response to Danielle's question and said, "Probably studying like you said. He's a nerd and shit."

Neither of the couple seemed satisfied with this answer.

"Weird, I don't think we have anything he would need to study for," Matt said with an exaggerated shrug.

Even Danielle looked like she was annoyed with how obvious Matt was being.

"In that case, I don't think he's studying then. Maybe something's wrong. He looked so sad the last time we saw him," Danielle said with pity.

She looked directly into Eli's eyes. There was a challenge behind them. Eli raised his eyebrow in question.