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23. New Friends and Awful Excuses

"But, Eli," I whine on the phone, as his friends do the same. "I want to meet them, and you said that I would!" It was a Saturday afternoon, a couple of weeks after the dinner. He didn't say anything about kissing me on the forehead, and neither did I. Ha! As if I would actually bring up anything related to us before he did! Nope, never. I guess, as you can tell, the whole "stepping up my game" that I was told to do wasn't really working out for me as easily as they thought. I mean, it was me they were talking about!

"Eli, come on man!" Austin shouted. I hear a pause, before he started again. "We all want to meet her, and she wants to meet us. What's the problem?"

"Yeah," Michael says secondly, "I agree with Austin! She seems pretty chill, and you're always talking about how cool she is." I smiled at this, kind of happy that he talked about me.

"Hey!" Eli yelled, and all of the guys laughed.

"Y'all want to meet her. I already know her," Jackson says, boasting. And then there was another round of laughter. "Real mature guys." I chewed on my cheek, hoping that Eli would give in to all of us.

"But Chase's not here," Eli starts, trying to make an excuse. I spoke before I could lose my chance.

"Its fine, its fine!" I yell out quickly.

"God, Cass, not so loud!" Eli exclaims. I smile sheepishly, feeling bad.

"Sorry, Eli!" I say as I hear the boys laughing. "But I don't mind meeting him some other time! And I'm really bored, so you need to come here and pick me up so that you guys can entertain me." Eli scoffs at this, and I grin.

"Am I the one who always has to entertain you? I have a life too you know, Cass," he replies sarcastically into the phone. I could easily hear the smile on his face through the phone. "I'll be there in a little bit." I do a happy dance before replying.

"Ok, cool! I'm going to get ready." I didn't even give Eli time to respond before I hung up the phone. I hurried to my room, pulling out all of my clothes. I obviously didn't want to wear jeans, and I didn't make the mistake of not washing my shorts this time. I grabbed a pair of my dark jean shorts that stopped mid-thigh, along with a white belt, and put that on.

And then I went through all of my shirts. I needed something that wasn't too dressy, but not to laid back either. I searched and searched, and then found a striped shirt. I wasn't a big fan of stripes, but everyone always told me that I could pull them off. The shirt was big; I had wanted a XXL because there was more room. The shirt was black and blue, and the short sleeves were large and connected to the sides of the fabric. I threw the shirt over my head, and looked at myself in the mirror before nodding my head. I slipped on some dark blue low top Converse shoes.

I got some mascara out of my drawer, putting a thin coat on, before stuffing my hands in my hair. I pouted and looked at my watch. It had only been 30 minutes, and Eli didn't tell me when he would pick me up. I looked at my hair, wishing I washed it before now. I decided to braid my long bangs, and pinned them to the back of my head. And then I sprayed some dry shampoo and conditioner in my hair, scrunching it up quickly to make it wavy. I didn't like it, but it didn't look bad.

I was finished. All I needed to do was wait for Eli.

I was sitting on the counter, eating some Nutella, when I heard footsteps. I peeked around the fridge, and saw a gray van shoe. And then another. I looked up into the face of Eli, and he shook his head at me.

"Why are you on the counter? And why didn't you run when you heard me, because I could've been some crazy person." I smiled, shrugging my shoulders. "Are you ready?" he asked me as I jumped off of the counter. I swung my bag on my back, and started to walk to the front door. But then I turned around quickly.