Stress Relief

Dress to Impress

"Why are we speeding to the nearest clothing store again?" Elijah asked from the passenger seat, putting the "oh shit" handle to use with a vice grip in both of his hands.

"Because all of us forgot homecoming was moved to the weekend after the homecoming game due to weather." Carson explained on the phone. "And so none of us have good suits."

"That is three days from now! Why the hell are we speeding?!" Elijah scolded back at him. Chase just laughed in the driver's seat as his exclamation.

"So we can get the good stuff before it's all gone!" Carson was more so making an excuse to get there faster, for some reason he was practically bursting at the seams with excitement to buy something to wear for homecoming.

"I am positive every guy will just buy the first thing they see, we don't have to-Chase put that hand back on the fucking wheel!" The hand trying to comfort him on his leg retreated back to the steering wheel.

"He doesn't like going fast." Chase explained to the guys on the other line. "Fast cars make him nervous."

"Sorry Eli! This is an emergency." Jase hollered into the phone. Stealing a glance over, he noticed the death glare he was giving the phone and snorted.

"We're going to get pulled over." Elijah reiterated for the fourth time in the last ten minutes.

"No we're not, everyone else is going eighty in a seventy. We're just going eighty-five." Chase tried.

Elijah wasn't having it though. "We're going to crash."

"I'm a responsible driver Elijah, I wouldn't put you in harm's way just for a suit." Maybe if he held his hand it would lessen his worry? Then again he'd probably get yelled at for taking his hand off the wheel again.

"It sure feels like you are!" He yelled.

Chase sighed, and slowed down, matching the speed of the other cars. "Guys, he's right, we need to slow down." Even with his eyes on the road, he watched as Elijah noticeably deflate with relief at his change in speed.

"Awe come on Chase!" Carson whined.

"D' tell them." They usually listened when Diego said something. It was about a fifty fifty chance with him because he liked to join in on the tomfoolery, but Diego had a better sense of responsibility than him.

"Matt, slow down, we can't buy suits if we're dead." The authoritative tone of his statement earned several groans, but up ahead he noticed Matt's car slowing down.

"There, is that better?" Carson sassed.

Taking note of one of Elijah's hands no longer trying to rip the handle off the roof of his car, he sighed contently. "Yes it is. Thank you Diego."

"No problem." He said, nonchalant to the common request.

Briefly looking over at Elijah, he noticed his lack of words, and felt a conversation was in order. "I'll see you guys at the store okay?" A cacophony of goodbyes came through and he chuckled a little, ending the call.

It was quiet, apart from the humming of the engine. Chase didn't really blame Elijah. Taking into account what he said yesterday plus the scare he just gave him, he didn't expect the awkwardness in the air to really lift anytime soon.

Speaking of yesterday-why the hell did he say that? "You're cute when you're red, I like it." What the fuck kind of sentence was that? This whole ordeal was supposed to help him figure himself out, see how he felt about kissing guys and here he was. Flirting with Elijah. Elijah. Coach's son.