Dancing in the Rain | ✓

Chapter 14: Little Paradise

Eli's face was starting to hurt because of how much he was smiling. People on the streets kept giving him weird looks but he didn't really care about that and just marched through the city with his head held high. He felt so great that he even gave some change to a homeless man.

When he reached his apartment surprisingly Sophia wasn't out with anybody and instead she was watching TV with her feet up on the coffee table. "Hey, you." Eli greeted her cheerfully.

Sophia looked at him raising her eyebrows. "Well, someone's on his way to murder a few people."

Eli grinned widely, ready to tell Sophia all about his conversation with Avery but his smile quickly faded when he realized just what response he would get. But he knew he couldn't keep that away from her. "I talked to Avery...just like you told me to." He decided to just say right away.

As predicted Sophia didn't look pleased. She immediately looked much less relaxed and her body seemed suddenly tense. "And?" She questioned with her eyes wide open.

Eli stood in the middle of the room with his hands gripping tightly his bag. He didn't want to hurt Sophia by forcing her to interact with someone she disliked so much but Eli knew he should focus mostly on his own happiness. "She feels the same way." Eli said softly, barely able to stop himself from grinning like a fool.

Sophia blinked her eyes a few times looking down at her hands. When she looked back up at Eli her face seemed a bit dead, devoid of all emotions. "What are you going to do about this?" The girl asked quietly.

"We're going to try it out." Eli said with a shrug. "If we both want it then we should see if we're good together."

Sophia nodded her head raising from her seat. "Okay." She said softly. "Good for you."

"Hey, don't be mad." Eli said walking over to her. "You're still my best friend. That doesn't change."

Sophia's eyes were motionless and dead cold as she stared into the distance. "I am not mad." She finally said. "I just...I have homework to do."

Eli rolled his eyes. He was seriously getting sick of all of this. He loved Sophia and he didn't want to hurt her feelings but for some reason she was behaving like a child. "Oh, stop being such a little spoiled brat." He spat out, not really thinking this through.

Sophia's eyes darted to him as she just stood there with a mask of indifference on her face. "What do you want from me?" She asked. "I'm not doing anything."

"I just want you to be happy for me." Eli said, this time adjusting the volume of his voice so that it wasn't that loud.

Sophia's eyes suddenly seemed to come back to life but only to be filled with an ocean of tears. "I am happy for you!" She screamed at him, scaring Eli a bit. He didn't remember ever seeing her behave this way towards him. "How the fuck am I supposed to prove this to you? Do you want me to go climb to the roof and scream it out so that the whole fucking world can hear it?"

"Sophie." Eli said softly using the girl's pet name that would sometimes calm her down. "I'm sorry, okay?"

Sophia wiped away her tears and sniffed miserably before looking back at Eli. "It's okay. Just don't expect me to give you things that I don't have." She said before walking towards her bedroom.

"What things?" Eli asked.

"It doesn't matter." Sophia said before disappearing into her room.

Once Eli was left alone he sat down on the sofa and had to do his best to keep himself from crying like a child. He could get through a lot of things. He could get through his whole life turning upside down. He could deal with years of bullying and being treated like shit. He could even deal with Avery rejecting him. But there was one thing that scared him more than anything else. The mere thought of losing the only thing that was steady in his life.