Dancing in the Rain | ✓

Chapter 2: Stumbling Upon a Mystery

Eli and Sophia were incredibly lucky to have their own apartment instead of having to live in a dorm. Even though the place still felt more like a storage room than an actual home Eli was glad that he could share his living space only with his best friend. His parents had been very generous to rent the apartment for them even if their motives were a bit questionable.

"You want to order something?" Sophia called from the kitchen while Eli was still unpacking in his bedroom. "Because honestly I don't feel like cooking anything."

"Yeah, sure." Eli said stuffing his clothes into a small closet. His room was quite tiny, barely able to fit a bed, bookshelf and the closet. While Eli wasn't a big fan of small closed spaces he didn't mind it that much. It was big enough for him to feel comfortable and cozy.

Not feeling up to continue unpacking Eli left his bedroom and walked into a small and still a bit cramped kitchen morphed with living room. Sophia was lounging on the sofa with her cell phone in her hands and her legs up on the coffee table. When the girl noticed him though she lifted up her gaze to look at him and smiled. "I ordered pizza."

"Nice." Eli said sitting down next to her and putting her legs down on the floor. The girl grunted and put her feet in Eli's lap instead. He glared at her faking annoyance but let the girl use his thighs as a pillow anyway. "So was your first day as stressful as mine?" He asked.

Sophia groaned putting away her cell phone. "Don't even start me on that. I am way too tired to talk about it...or you know what? I will tell you." Eli smirked loving the way Sophia would always talk about things that irritated her and work herself up even more. Eli was quite fond of listening to her rants even if it meant having to calm her down afterwards. "I mean...it wasn't bad." She kicked lightly Eli's knee, but still hard enough to cause pain indicating that she wanted a free feet massage. Eli glared at the girl but still obligated rubbing her toes and heels.

"The classes were fine...some of them boring but mostly alright." She said, for now remaining calm.

"So what's the matter?" Eli asked.

Sophia's eyes were half-closed and there was no anger evident on her face yet which made Eli believe that she was really enjoying the feet rub. "In the drama class when we were supposed to act together in small groups there was this one girl." Sophia paused for a moment wrinkling her forehead. "She wouldn't really talk to us about anything and she seemed like she thought she was better than us. She was so...judgmental and bitchy. I mean...she wasn't talking shit about me or anything but every time she looked at me she...it felt like she was making some false assumptions about me. I don't know. She seemed off."

Eli frowned. "Is that what made you so angry?"

Sophia looked away and bit her bottom lip. "Well, yeah. And then the teacher said something about her being way better than all of us combined and it just pissed me off. I didn't think he would just go and pick his pupil!"

Eli sighed. "Did he, Sophia? Did he really say exactly those words?"

"Well...no." Sophia said rolling her eyes. "Does it matter though? I could understand what he was saying between the lines."

Eli shook his head. "Whatever you say, Sophie."

When they ate the pizza and Sophia announced that she was going to do some acting exercises Eli decided to unpack the rest of his things. Just as he entered his bedroom however his cell phone started buzzing. It turned out to be a text message from his mother asking if he was alright and how he was doing in New York. Eli replied with a short text saying that he was fine and proceeded to continue unpacking while trying to push the annoying pangs of conscience out of his head.