The Boy From Everywhere

Ch. 15: The World

Now that I think about it... after every weird thing Eli has said and done... I actually ended up going on what was somewhat a date with him, huh?

Oh, now why am I thinking like that now??

I shook my head to shake the thought away, before I looked past the crowd, towards the stall where I left Eli at just so I can check another stall not too far away. He remained busy, looking through the acrylic keychains they had displayed. There were a lot of them after all, but I couldn't stay for too long over there, not after I saw the stall I stood in now, displaying all sorts of astronomy-related plushies and other things.

Either way, I stopped upon noticing that one of the keychains seems to have caught Eli's attention. He picked it up from the stands, examining it closely for a moment, before he lifted his head and searched the crowd before eventually meeting my eyes. His eyes widened, and then he blinked, before he smiled and waved enthusiastically like now was the first time we were seeing each other today.

I ended up chuckling, no longer holding my smile back as I did a small wave back before looking back at the astronaut plushie I had in my hand.

Who knew the nearby city put up stalls at one of their streets during the weekends? I certainly didn't. I guess this was just a thing they started doing recently, and to think I was lucky enough to have free time and a companion today to see this.

Yeah, who am I kidding? This definitely looks like a date.

"I found these!" Eli eventually popped up beside me a few seconds later, making me scream and jump for a second before turning to him. He looked back at me with wide eyes, but eventually, my gaze turned to the pair of exactly similar keychains hanging from his hand.

A doodle of a grey cat touching its hind feet with its front ones.

"Oh. Cute," I mumbled at the sight, before Eli separated one of the keychains and then took my hand to place it there.

"Isn't it? You can keep this to remind you of me whenever you see it," he spoke playfully, before he raised the other one for me to see again as he continued, "and this can remind me of you, too!"

"You know, I'm starting to think you're actively putting effort into making this look like a date."

Once again, Eli laughed. Not that he denied what I said. Should I be concerned by that?

"What? You've never really been on a date before?" I then asked with my brows furrowed, before I froze and widened my eyes when I realized my mistake.

Eli, on the other hand, looked on at me in surprise before his face lit up again. "Oh, so you agree that this is a date?!"

"What? No–! I mean, yes– Wait, no– Tha's not–" I couldn't come up with a proper sentence in the end. I just sighed in defeat before giving Eli a sharp glare, which he receives with a playful smile. "Call it what you will! I don't even care anymore."

Eli agreed a bit too happily after I said that. "Alright, I will!"

Ooh, boy. Seriously...

Eventually, I set down the astronaut plushie I was looking at before keeping the keychain Eli gave me into my bag. Then again, not like I can buy anything as big as a plushie. I'm not even supposed to be going outside today, so any obvious evidence shouldn't be something I'm buying.

My attention is taken abruptly once again, when I felt Eli grab my hand. When I had turned to him, he was already pulling me behind him and exclaiming excitedly like a child. "Let's go check out the other stalls!"

For someone that had been previously hesitant, he sure did get excited about this really quickly. Still, I'm really glad he was here. That way, I wouldn't have felt alone wandering this place.

~•~

"I see trees of green
Red roses too..."

The old song played loudly from the house across the road. Not that it bothered me, but it definitely did a great deal bothering my aunt who had arrived home just after dark.

It's 9:00 now. To be fair, it's supposed to be bedtime in this house already, so I guess it's a given that she would be annoyed to the point she had crossed the road just to talk to our neighbor. Not that it was bad song to listen to at night. It could even be a lullaby if she could just look at it positively.

I let out a sigh as I heard her banging on their door. She's too sensitive to sounds. I don't even know why she'd choose to live near a city if that was the case, anyway. She has the money, after all. What's the point of choosing a place that will most likely be noisy at night?

From the window of my room, I spotted the neighbor finally opening the door, just right before the song was stopped. My aunt, despite almost crashing their door down with her "knocking" a while ago, tried her best to keep her composure as she talked to them, but apparently, she couldn't keep herself from raising her voice. Passive-aggressiveness sure is her favorite thing to do when it comes to outsiders.

I should probably pretend to go to sleep already. Sooner or later, she's gonna be coming back in with a hot head, and who knows if she'll try to take it out on me again when she sees that I'm still awake?

Anyway, I don't think I'll be seeing Eli again until Monday, but that's okay. Today was spent really well with him, and honestly, I think I can stay and wait. After all, despite everything, lately this world sure has been feeling like a wonderful one.

I drifted off to sleep eventually with the song playing in my head like it was never stopped. I guess it does fit as a lullaby.