ʟᴀᴄᴇᴅ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʜɪᴍ- ᴄ.ʜ

Vol 58: collateral damage

From the sidelines, you'd think that Lacey had moved on from the one person who was always stuck in her mind all day and all night. Well, that's what Calum thought- and you would too if you saw Lacey push lips with Eli on the dance floor.

But there was another side to it. Lacey's side is more to what the eyes see- so this is her story.

~*~*~

There should've been a warning, but it happened so quickly.

One moment Eli was twirling around Lacey on the illuminated dance floor and her dimples could be seen from a mile away. But then the next minute she saw Eli staring at her, eyes staring at her lips as he inched closer. And then the next moment she was pressing lips with him. Her hand was held by his, and his other arm was still on her waist.

The music that was playing suddenly seemed muffled to Lacey. The time slowed, and she didn't know if she was dreaming or in reality. She knew the others were staring at her; Angie and Sarah shrieking with excitement; probably saw Luke staring intensively and Micheal clapping- but she couldn't pay attention to them.

As Eli's lips parted ever so softly and slowly off of Lacey's, instead, it wasn't Eli that was standing before her it was Calum that was standing before her; more so imagining. She saw him looking down with his wide brown eyes that wrinkled at the sides due to his charming smile. A sense of safe familiarity fell into her chest. But when Eli asked her if she was okay as she stared into the boy who wasn't who she'd hoped, she jerked back to reality and realised what she had just done. She had imagined she was kissing Calum.

And that's when she realised that as soon as she saw Eli and the moment he kissed her lips, she felt nothing.

She wanted to believe it. She wanted to feel what Eli did. She wanted to feel whatever it is that you feel when you've just kissed someone that you're infatuated with as much as someone that is infatuated with you. But she felt nothing.

Eli was everything all the guys before she dated was not. He was a catch. He was sweet, kind, funny and Luke approved of him- hell, everyone approved of him. But the thing was, he wasn't Calum.

"Lacey, are you okay?" Eli's concerned voice suddenly felt clear as day, dragging Lacey back into reality, where all of her senses went back to 100% where the music pierced her ears and the chattering of everyone filled her head. His hazel eyes were filled with concern and she noticed his hair was starting to fall out of place.

"Um- yeah, no- sorry." Lacey attempted to swallow hard as she suddenly let go of Eli, but it was like she had a firm rock in her throat.

Lacey stepped back and silence fell between them for only a moment.

"I- uh- I really like you, Lace.." Eli awkwardly blurted out which he tried to cover with a chuckle, but Lacey could tell he was nervous. "Really.. like you."

Lacey tried to force a smile of some sort, but she couldn't.

This was all wrong. All of it was wrong. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Eli was supposed to kiss her and she was supposed to kiss him back and then he was supposed to ask her out and she was supposed to say yes. But the one thing that was missing was that she did not feel it.

Lacey tried to say anything, something, fucking anything- but the words ran away and she felt like she lost her voice.

Eli was staring back at her with wide eyes, intriguingly; like he was desperate for any word of confirmation that she felt the same way.