For Elise ✓

Chapter Seven

"Are you sure it's okay if I come over?" I asked, making myself comfortable in his passenger seat.

"It's fine, really. But if my aunt comes home, then we have to be quiet and sneak out. She wouldn't like me skipping, especially with a boy. And she's really hard on me and my siblings sometimes. I think I told you that I lost my parents, and she's my next closest relative but she's not... she's not family, you know?"

"Red. It's okay. I get it. I know what it's like to not have a parent, even if it's just one."

He nodded, and a silence fell over the car.

"What are your siblings like?" I asked after a while.

"I have two. Delta is twelve. He's at school right now. And Ruth is eight. She's at school too so the house will be quiet." He told me.

"That's cool. Do you guys get along?" I continued.

"We don't really talk that much." He said with a shrug.

I just nodded.

"Did you and Elise get along well before this?" He asked me.

"Yeah. We did. We've always had each other's back. But now that I look back on it... it's more like I had her back and she didn't care about me. She was better at everything. Smarter, more popular, better looking, more athletic... and I'm just sick of being second in everything." I finished, sighing as I slouched in my seat.

"Well I don't know about everyone else, but personally, I think you're better looking." Red laughed.

"Of course you think that. You're gay."

We pulled into the driveway of the house where the party had been held, and I almost forgot that it was Red's.

"That's where you punched me." I said, pointing to the sidewalk in front of the house as we walked toward the front door.

We entered the house and Red pointed to the top of the stairs.

"That's where you told everyone you were gay and stole my spotlight." He said with a small smile.

We walked up the stairs and into a room that seemed familiar to me.

"I came in here during the party. After I came out, Angel dragged me in here and apologized cause she thought it was her fault." I said with a laugh.

"Oh my god, who's Angel?" He asked in his best girl voice.

"Don't be jealous, baby. You know I only have eyes for you." I smiled and winked at him.

"You're flirting again. You need sleep." He laughed.

"What are you gonna do while I nap?" I asked.

"I'm gonna sleep." He said, fluffing out a pillow. "Duh."

"In the same bed as me?" I questioned.

"If you think you can handle it." He laughed, slipping his shirt off.

"Of course I can handle it." I grunted with a blush, collapsing onto Red's comfortable mattress.

He flicked the lights off and leaped into the bed, landing partially on top of me.

"Hey!" I protested. "Stay on your side."

"What side is my side?" He teased.

"The side that I'm not on." I slapped his arm as it lay across my chest.

"But you're my boyfriend. Boyfriends don't really have those boundaries." He smirked, wrapping his arm tighter over my torso, pulling me closer to him.