My Civilian Goddess

Chapter 16: Competition

By the time Eli and Lilly had calmed down properly, it had been a good five minutes since Maria first knocked on the door. Of course this resulted in a fair bit of complaining from the ginger girl as soon as the door was finally opened for herself and Kevin. At least, that's the people who Eli believed would be at their house, but Maria had failed to mention she also brought Ellie and Cassie along.

Now, Eli didn't mind the other two girls. In fact, he quite liked them. However, Eli also quite liked knowing when he has to socialise with people. Even so, it was a good few minutes after the four guests walked into the apartment before Eli had even noticed at all more than the expected number of guests had shown up. In fact, every time he even looked in Lilly's direction his mind wandered, his face got warm, and his shoulders got stiff.

"You okay, Eli," Cassie asked, though Eli was sure she wasn't the first to notice.

"Fine, I'm fine," Eli replied haphazardly through gritted teeth, trying his best not to blush.

The thoughts stayed in his mind until Kevin shoved a controller into his hands. Him and Marie were sitting next to Eli on the couch, while Cassie and Ellie had both grabbed a chair from the kitchen island. Lilly jumped onto the couch on Eli's other side, and together the group had formed a circle around the tv.

"Tournament," Lilly whispered in his ear, to which Eli shot up. She was close. Was this a problem for him before?

Regardless, the gang had started a fighting game and been making a roster without Eli's input. Luckily, he was usually fairly quiet, so this mustn't have felt out of place. Or so he hoped.

The tournament progressed fairly quickly. Eli easily beat Cassy, and Lilly beat Kevin just as easily. Maria vs Ellie was a much more intense battle. So intense, in fact, the four others had been shouting on the couch. Kevin, after his loss, had taken up the role of commentator, and seemed to be enjoying that more than trying to learn the game's controls mid-fight. Eventually, though, Maria came out on top.

"That's right, game queen," she yelled as she danced through-out the living room.

With these high spirits Maria came up with the plan to have the final three all fight each other. First, her against Eli, then her against Lilly, and finally Lilly against Eli. "The first to win two wins the entire thing," Maria said with full confidence.

Eli knew what her plan was. She thought she was gonna beat Lilly and Eli both in a row, resulting in a triple win she could gloat over her heads. Sadly for Maria, the fates weren't with her, as both Lilly, and then Eli beat her in their respective fights.

This meant in the final battle, whoever came out on top won the whole thing. Maria didn't seem to care any more though, as she was now sulking in the corner while Kevin tried to console her.

"It's alright to lose, you did way better than me," he said while patting her head. "They own the game and you don't. It's only natural they'd be better at it."

This seemed to cheer Maria up as she immediately jumped up to put one of her little schemes into action.

"The loser has to kiss the other," She said, staring down on Lilly and Eli.

This made Eli nervous. He rubbed his legs together as he looked over at Lilly. Surely, she would never-

"Sure," Lilly answered straight-faced.

Everyone in the room immediately turned to Eli, who now felt like he had no choice.

"Fine, we can do that," he groaned, to which a giggling was heard throughout the room.

Eli didn't quite understand what difference it would make regardless of who lost, but he tried to set it aside. Not that it mattered much as Lilly absolutely destroyed him.

"I'll have that title of game queen now," she said to Maria, who had been standing behind her and giving her tips the entire game.

Eli put his controller down on the table and sighed as he leaned back again. He would sometimes almost think she used her powers to make herself win if that wasn't something that would go against her character. It was just unbelievable sometimes how much better Lilly was at certain games.

"Aren't you forgetting something," Maria said in a quite deep voice while glaring at Eli over the brim of her glasses.

Eli started back with an unassuming and silent gaze.

"Gotta give her a kiss, stud. You agreed."

"Fine, I'll do it, I'll do it."

Lilly blushed, looked away, and then right back into Eli's eyes. It wasn't the first time, right? So was it okay? Or wasn't it. Whatever!

Eli shoved all thoughts out of his head, grasped Lilly's chin, tilted her face up, and quickly planted a kiss on her lips.

The room burst into yelling and cheering, but not the kind Eli was expecting. Kevin had almost falled over for some reason, Cassie's face was hidden behind her hands, and Maria was laughing hysterically.

"Damn, Eli," Ellie smirked. "I didn't know you had balls like steel."

Eli gritted his teeth "You guys made up the damn thing, I only followed through with it. I just had to kiss her."

"Not on the lips," Maria wheezed between laughing fits. "You could have done cheek or forehead or something. Hand, whatever! But holy shit, I-"

Maria, at this point, had joined Kevin on the floor. Lilly herself had not moved her head from where Eli left it. She looked perplexed and surprised.

At that point Eli already knew this was a night none of his friends would ever let him forget. No matter how badly he wanted to right now.