The Second Tour of 44West

ch. 7 - the house

Rion

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~ Twelve Years Ago ~

    "This is the biggest project grade of the semester, so I need you to take this seriously, and choose a partner who will help your grade, and not hinder it." Mrs. Vega said as she addressed the class. "You will be creating a thirty second ad for a random product that will be assigned to you. You will need a completed storyboard concept of the ad, a physical poster like you would find in a store that matches your video, and the video itself. Any questions?" She asked as the class just shook their heads and waited for her to continue. "Okay, then. Use this time to choose a partner and come to me when you do. I will give you your product then."

    I immediately felt nervous about this. I was pretty confident in myself, but I only wanted one person as my partner, and I didn't know if she would feel the same. She was one of the only things in the world that made me nervous.

"Rion, stop overthinking this and be my partner." Elizabeth said from beside me, clicking the pen in her hand.

"You want to be my partner?" I asked. Shit, Rion what the fuck are you doing? Don't question this, just let it happen.

Elizabeth just smirked as she slid out of her chair and walked up to Mrs. Vega to tell her who her partner was and to grab our assigned product. She quickly walked back with a large smile before sitting back in her chair and giggling.

"You'll never guess what our product is." She said with a sly smile.

"What?"

"It's a vibrator."

I choked on my own spit as she said that and snatched the small, folded piece of paper out of her hands to look for myself. "Are you fucking with me?" I whispered, unfolding the paper now in my hands.

"Oh, Rion. You're not that lucky." She shot back winking at me and making my entire body freeze at her comment.

What the fuck was that supposed to mean?

Then, she leaned in to whisper, "Yet," making my brain short circuit.

The bell rang, signaling the end of fifth period. She grabbed her things and started walking towards the exit, pausing to look at me and finding me still frozen, staring at my hands. Giggling, she continued out the door and into the hallway.

"Ms. Elliot? Is everything okay?" Mrs. Vega said, pulling me out of silent gay panic and allowing my body to finally move.

"Yes, Mrs. Vega. Thanks." I threw my book bag over my shoulder and sped walked towards my next class, finally looking at the paper in my hands to read what we were assigned, groaning to myself when it read 'cereal'.

"That fucker." I mumbled to myself, feeling slightly annoyed that I let her affect me like that, but also not being able to wipe away the smile on my face that was steadily growing.

We spent the next few days storyboarding the commercial in class. Luckily, I wasn't half-bad at drawing so I made it look pretty nice. Elizabeth offered to be the one in front of the camera which was fine with me. It just gave me an excuse to look at her for an extended period of time.

I say that in the least creepy possible way I can.

"Do you want to come over and work on the project tonight?" Elizabeth asked as we packed up our belongings at the end of class.

"Really?" I asked, trying not to sound too excited about the prospect of spending even more time together.

"Don't sound too excited." She said with a teasing grin. Damn it. I guess I wasn't very good at hiding how I felt just then.