Dancing in the Rain | ✓

Chapter 4: Convenient Inconvenience

"Are you out of your mind?" Eli sighed from his position on the sofa looking away from Sophia and focusing on the view behind the window. "Don't even think about it. Just sigh up and go for it." Sophia was in the middle of making chocolate soufflé, which they both adored. They both preferred a healthy lifestyle but every once in a while they would let themselves eat something with some extra calories.

"Who would I dance with though?" Eli asked, already tired of this conversation.

Sophia rolled her eyes putting the cake into the oven. She plopped down next to Eli brushing her blond curls behind her ears. Then she moved closer to Eli looking at him with her huge doe eyes. "You know...if you wanted I could be your dance partner." Sophia said softly and for a moment Eli thought she was joking. But then he saw the hopeful glint in her eyes and realized that she was being serious. "I can dance, you know that." She stressed all the words looking straight into her best friend's eyes.

Eli just sat there, staring at her and thinking what he should say to her. Sophia could dance but she was nowhere near as good as Eli's classmates. "Sophia...I'm not taking part in this competition. And you have so much work. I couldn't ask you to do something so stupid with me. We wouldn't win it anyway."

Sophia looked away and slowly nodded her head. Eli hated seeing her so sad. He knew that the girl could see right through his lies but she just didn't want to confront the truth."Okay." She said at last looking back at Eli and once again a smile was attached to her face. "You just think I would turn out to be better than you."

Eli smiled back. "Yeah, sure."

Sophia punched him painfully in the shoulder. "You know it's true."

"Oh, whatever." Eli said. "Go check on the soufflé. I'm starving."

The ate the dessert in complete silence apart from happy moans and some tales about their day. Eli didn't mention talking to the mysterious girl since he was still mad at himself and he knew it would just piss Sophia off.

When they were done eating and doing the dishes they both went to their bedrooms to study for the next day. Just as Eli was about to make contact with bed and let the pleasant pillows make him feel like in heaven he realized that he hadn't phoned his parents yet since his living his hometown. All their conversations consisted of short text messages.

And to his great surprise he really found himself wanting to call his mother. So without giving himself time to change his mind Eli took his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed his mother's number. The woman answered right away. "Eli! Hi!" The boy could hear how both happy and surprised she was to hear from her son. It made him feel a little guilty about not keeping in touch up to this point.

"Hi, mom." Eli said sitting down on the bed and getting himself comfortable.

"We both miss you so much, sweetie. How have you been?" She asked.

"Good." Eli said. "It's hard but I've been able to stay on top of things." He decided not to mention how little sleep he would get sometimes, not wanting to worry her.

"I'm glad to hear that, Eli." The middle-aged woman said and for a moment an awkward silence fell between the two of them as clearly neither of them really knew how to talk to each other. "And how's Sophia?" She asked at last, obviously unable to find anything else to talk about.

"She's focused on making friends mostly." He replied truthfully.

"What about you? Do you have any new friends yet?" She asked softly.

"I talk to a few people." Eli said even though in fact apart from Sophia he talked only to Finn occasionally. "But it's nothing too serious." He added. When his mother didn't say anything for a while Eli knew that their conversation had become awkward and it was time to end it. "I really have to go, mom. I have a lot of studying to do."