The Things We Do (Under Editing)

Dues Paid

I really love the smell of food, especially when someone else buys it for me.

When Elliot and I met up to study, he said he was starving and offered me food as it was the only way he could convince me to let him get some.

I'm still not sure he understood the whole 'broke college student' thing considering he tried to drag me to some food place almost every time we met up. Either that or he was just always unreasonably hungry.

If he was going to offer to pay, though, I wasn't going to stop him. How could I turn down free food?

In the end we ended up at a Japanese place and he taught me stuff I should already know while I shoved my face full of rice. Like the elegant loser he is, Elliot calmly ignored my eating habits by somehow managing to teach and eat sushi at the same time without talking with food in his mouth.

I was half tempted to smash his face into a bowl of food, but that would have been a waste of perfectly good food.

After about an hour, the food was gone and my brain was once again fried. How I wasn't dead after doing this to myself so often, I'm not sure, but here I am, so... Evidence towards me being unkillable I guess.

I leaned forward and put my chin in my hands, supporting my elbows on the table, and closed my eyes. There were few customers in the small restaurant, and the only real noise was the unfamiliar language of the shopkeepers.

After a moment, an awkward cough from Elliot drew my attention. My eyes peeked open slightly to reveal him sitting across from me, fiddling uncomfortably with his chopsticks and not looking at me. This drew my full focus. I'd never seen his "I'm better than you" attitude dropped so completely. He coughed again when he saw me looking at him.

I was about to ask him if he was sick to poke fun at whatever had him looking half nervous and half like he'd very much like to not be here.

Elliot sighed and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, still not meeting my gaze. "I need to cash in that favor you owe me."

I squinted. "What?"

He may have noticed the wariness in my voice, but he was too busy looking anywhere but at me. His answer was directed at the wall on the other side of the restaurant. "My father is holding a gala that I'm required to go to."

Seriously? A gala? I mean, I knew his family had some money, but I'd thought he was at Kacie's level. A gala was something that Bruce Wayne held. This was like, actual rich people crap.

Elliot continued, "I'm also required to... uh..." If he tried any harder not to look at me, he'd be facing in the opposite direction. "I have to take someone with me."

I have never seen a human being look more awkward than Elliot did at that moment. As for me, I was too startled to speak for a moment. Then I dropped my chopsticks, immediately suspicious of the rice.

"... Are you asking me on a date?"

He sighed again, finally meeting my eye. "Honestly, I'd rather you just shoot me so I don't have to go at all, but I figure if I take you, then at least somebody will hate being there as much I will."

I had to admit that that was some sound logic. As far as payment went, I figured forcing me to suffer along with him wasn't the worst thing ever. There was a small problem, though.

"I'm afraid I don't have anything to shoot you with, but I can offer light to heavy stabbing. As for your other plan, I highly doubt that I own anything suitable for a gala, and I certainly don't have the money to buy something."

Elliot visibly relaxed now that I'd basically accepted. "Don't worry. I'll take care of that."