Graffiti Boy

Chapter 7 - The Date Incident

"Nothing," Eli stated.

"Nothing?" I repeated making sure I hadn't misheard anything.

Dad nodded, "Yep."

I waited for them to say they were just kidding. But they didn't.

"What do you mean?"

"Val, we have a huge advantage at the moment. Xavier doesn't know that we know," Dad explained.

I huffed, "Why can't we just use our advantage to kill the loser? He won't know what's coming at him."

"Whoa. Who said anything about killing?" Eli questioned.

"I did," I snapped.

"Val, if you kill Xavier, it makes you just as bad as him."

Dad nodded, "I'm gonna have to agree with Graffiti Boy over here."

"We can't just do nothing! I want to kick some ass and put Xavier behind bars!"

Dad stroked my hair, "I know sweetheart, but your arm needs to heal first."

He had a point, but I wanted us to at least start to plot something, Xavier needed to pay for what he had done, "So, what? We sit around and hope that I don't get killed?"

Eli smirked, "Precisely."

"Um, I was kidding. I don't want to die! I still have so many avocado recipes to try! I still need to find true love! I need to travel the world! I have so-"

Eli cut me off before I could finish listing everything on my bucket list, "You're going to attend every single party and act like you're completely oblivious to what the graffiti means. You need to pretend you don't know who Xavier is. Like you're not scared."

Easier said than done.

"You're going to go to school and I'm going to do some digging and figure out what Xavier wants," Dad added.

I didn't want to deal with school. What had happened today was horrible and I wasn't prepared to face Scarlett again.

Dad left the room, saying he was going to bring the car to the front of the hospital so that I wouldn't have to walk that much. Eli and Dad had seemingly bonded over their "genius" plan and it was kind of weirding me out. Dad was usually very picky about my friends. The fact that he was buddying it up with a criminal's nephew was an oddly pleasant surprise.

Eli and I sat in silence for a moment.

Then randomly I blurted, "I want to beat someone up."

Eli laughed and gestured to my arm, "Sorry to say it Princess, but it appears that you won't be beating anyone up for a week."

I flipped him off, "I still have my left arm."

"It's not your dominant arm, is it?"

"Guess who I'm going to beat up first?"

"Xavier?"

"Nope."

"Michael?"

I raised a brow.

"The guy who cut your arm," Eli explained.

"No." I totally wanted to beat him up though.

"Who?"

"You."

Eli placed a hand on his chest and gave me a shocked look, "Even after I saved your life?"

"Please. You just wanted an excuse to almost kiss me."

Eli shrugged his shoulders, "True."