Effortless

Twenty-six

"Eli!" Screeched a high-pitched voice. The voice belonged to Milly. She hopped up from the couch and ran to me with open arms.

I crouched down and opened my arms wide before she practically flung into me. I almost fell backwards when I caught her, but I kept my balance. Milly squeezed my neck as tightly as she could and refused to let go. I wrapped my arms around her and held her as I stood up.

"Milly, sweetheart, don't squeeze him too hard." Alex said gently to his niece. He was trying to read my facial expressions to determine whether or not I was okay with Milly's affection.

Milly buried her head in my shoulder and shook her head, she didn't want me to put her down. I hugged her tighter. "She's fine, I don't mind."

Once he got the okay from me he didn't seem concerned by Milly's behavior anymore. Alex didn't want his niece to invade others' personal space, especially someone that she had only met once. However, I was more than okay with it.

I knew it was stupid. Milly was a child, she probably latched onto many people that she didn't really know. Children do things like that because they're kids. It had nothing to do with me personally. Still, Alex and Killian had no idea how happy it made me that Milly was so excited to see me. I didn't think she'd remember my name, let alone be happy to see me.

After a few seconds, Milly decided that I was allowed to put her down. Once I set her down she grabbed my wrist and led me over to the table. On the table was an entire nail polish kit. It had a bunch of different colors, a dryer, stickers, and a nail file. It was a whole nail salon.

"I'm doing your nails." Milly stated. Based on her tone I couldn't object. "What color?"

Killian laughed gently. "Mills, I'm not sure that Eli wants that."

"Purple." I responded to Milly's question before smiling at Killian and Alex. That was my way of telling them that it was okay. It wasn't that I wanted my nails done, I just wanted the kid to be happy. I would have to take it off the moment I got home because I would never hear the end of it if anyone saw, but for the time being it was fine.

As Milly got to work, Killian asked me about what had been happening to me lately and I was ready to tell it all. I had been dying to tell someone else about all the shit that had been going on between Javier and I. I wanted to hear a different perspective.

I started from the very beginning. For them to understand everything that I was gonna say they needed to get the background information. I started from freshman year when Javier first came to the school. He got great grades on tests, he bonded with the teachers, and everyone started to know his name. He started showing me up and that's when I decided that I had to hate him. I had to hate the guy who was crumbling all of the hard work I had put in ever since I skipped a grade.

Javier never even seemed like he tried to be perfect, he just was. He completed the test faster than anyone else and then scored the highest out of the whole class. It pissed me off. He'd rub it in my face because he knew it pissed me off, the entire thing was a game to him. Maybe he didn't realize that it wasn't a game for me.

Then I explained to them about how things started changing this year. I told them about the nights he picked me up and brought me home and the nights he brought me to his house instead. Javier had never done things like that until recently. In the years before this I was convinced that his sole purpose was to be unapologetically better than me in any way he could. Now I didn't know what his goal was. It was easier for me to hate the guy that never did anything but show me up than the guy that was actively showing that he cared.

"--and he's confusing me." I finished ranting.

"Wait, wait, wait." Alex said as he readjusted himself in his chair. "This guy has picked you up multiple times, taken care of you drunk twice, let you spend the night at his house, and you're still confused on whether or not he cares about you?"