Distant {{boyxboy}}

Five

'I thought I already told you, I'm not going,' I frowned and slipped on a regular t shirt, tossing my night shirt aside. 'Stop pestering and go by yourself. Or with Logan. I don't give a shit.'

My mother did a little dance. 'I'll buy you a donut. C'mon, Robin! Who can refuse a donut? Even if it means you have to go somewhere you don't want to go?'

'I don't want a donut,' I said.

She pouted. 'Two donuts? I don't want you to get fat. Two is the limit.' I raised a brow at her. '... And takeaway for dinner?'

'Mom, for the last time,' I sat down at my desk and opened my laptop, turning away from her, 'I'm not going to that bastard's home.'

'What did he do wrong?' She put her hands on her hips. 'Did he try to hurt you? Did he start bullying you? He seemed like such a lovely boy, too...'

'He's not bullying me.'

'Did he steal your phone and see all those naughty things you've been looking up?' She asked with a smile. 

'I don't look up anything bad,' I shrugged and glanced at her.

'I know, I know,' she chuckled. 'Just testing. But really, why can't you come? Please?'

'Why should I?' I sighed and turned fully to her. 'You're starting to piss me off.'

'I'll make you move in with Logan and I'll turn your room into my study,' she smiled.

 'Are you kidding?'

'There's only one way to find out,' she shrugged one shoulder and left the room with a smug glance toward me.

I groaned and stood, slamming my laptop lid closed. 'You know what? Fine.'
There was a victorious laugh from the hallway.

[_][_][_]

'Mm, so you ended up coming anyway?' Ellis hummed, leaning against his doorway. I leaned against a wall as our two mothers politely exchanged greetings in what I supposed was the dining room. 'I would've organised something in advance if I knew you were coming.'

'It was a last minute thing.'

'Oh, I see,' he nodded. 'Blackmail?'

I shrugged.

'Ah, knew it. I doubt that you would come by your own will, having what you said to me the other day.' He smiled warmly. 'Would you like a snack?'

'No,' I sighed and turned away.

'Hey, just a question,' he chuckled. '... Do you ever smile?'

'Smiling is stupid,' I frowned and turned back to him. 'It's meaningless.'

'Hm,' he tilted his head. 'I never thought about it like that. See, I'm used to thinking that smiling displays your happy feelings. But I never realised that maybe people with less happy feelings could feel different about it.'

'You're annoying,' I raised a brow.

'I get that a lot,' he chuckled guiltily. 'Hey, do you think that being pretty is a good quality?'

'If you're asking about whether your appearance matters, in terms of you, then yes,' I said. 'Your personality is too boring to be able to just be by itself. It needs looks to back it up.' I tilted my head at him. 'Though I heard that having blond hair and blue eyes is a deformation, so there's not much to say.'

'Hm,' he smiled. 'That's rather lovely.'

'A deformation isn't a good thing,' I frowned.

'It could be, if you look at it in a good way,' he shrugged calmly. 'There was once a woman I knew who owned a stubby tailed cat. All the children in the street made fun of it for being different, but there was one child that said that they think it's a beautiful thing for the cat to be different from all the other cats. So I like to think that it qualifies for humans, too.' He looked up. 'Meaning, if you look at the rumour about my type of appearance in a good way, it makes me special. And that is rather lovely.'

'Is that story really true?' I raised a brow.

'Don't sweat the details,' he shrugged his arms. 'Stories don't have to be true to have meaning, right?'

'So you made it up,' I turned away.

'Oh, El! Come and taste these delicious cookies!' Ellis' mother called from the dining room.

'May I?' He called back, looking at me and gesturing toward the doorway to indicate for me to follow him. We made our way into the dining room and his mother had a tray of cookies, in which my mother had baked beforehand, set on the table. He picked one up from the tray and smiled. 'It's a pleasure to have you here, Mrs. Black,' he greeted my mother. He took a bite of the cookie. 'Mm, this is amazing! How in the world do you do it?'

'I used to own a bakery,' she grinned. 'I'm glad you like them. You can have as many as you want, dear.'

'I needn't be rude,' he shook his head. 'I'll take just this one.'

'If you want, you two can head up to Ellis' bedroom,' chuckled his mother. 'You know, do whatever adolescent boys do.'

'Sure,' Ellis waved them off and gestured for me to follow him down the hallway. 'So, what do you do in your free time?'

'Why do you care?' I frowned.

'Oh, just to get an idea of what we could do whilst you're here. So.. What do you do in your free time?'

'I sleep. And I do homework. And when I have a girlfriend, I text them sometimes.'

'I imagine you've had a lot of girlfriends in that case,' he opened the door of his room, but I didn't enter; I instead leaned against the door frame. 'You can come in, if you want.' He perched himself on his bed.

I ignored his polite remark. 'Girlfriends are necessary in high school.'

'Is that so?' he inquired. '.. At my old school, you had to be super popular to get in a relationship. Is it the same at this school? Could it be that you're super popular?' He leaned forward in anticipation. 'Oh, Robin! Tell me how you do it! Is there a certain trick?'

'I'm not popular,' I sighed.

'Oh, I see,' he thought for a second. 'So it's just normal to have a girlfriend.' He chuckled for a second, slightly awkwardly. 'I've never had a girlfriend.'

I shrugged a shoulder. 'You're so boring and annoying. I can see why.'

'Hm, I suppose,' he smiled, 'but to be fair, I have been in a relationship before.'

'But you said you never had a girlfriend before?' I frowned. 'You're contradicting yourself.'

'Oh, see, I said that I haven't been in a relationship with a girl before,' he raised a brow. '.. I didn't say that I haven't been in a relationship at all before.'

'What are you implying?' I glanced at him.

'Robin! We're leaving!' My mother called.

'Maybe for another occasion,' he chuckled softly and proposed a small wave. 'See you.'

~~

Ahh, I'm so so sorry for not updating sooner! I've been busy and I've been through so much damn shit lately that I've found hardly any time to myself. So I hope you'll take this crappy update.

So what do you think Ellis means by what he said? What could he be implying? Feel free to drop a comment and take a guess!

Ah, one more thing -- I don't know if this actually happened or not -- I updated this chapter using my new laptop, meaning that the lining between paragraphs may be a little more distanced than in the other chapters. If it bugs you, leave a comment and I'll fix it up. Have a lovely day!