Friends, Lovers, or Nothing

Chapter Twenty-Six - Gravity

I'm making my way to work on Friday afternoon when my cell phone buzzes from the back pocket of my jeans. Looking down at it suspiciously, I smile when I see Eliza's name pop up. I swipe my finger across the bottom of the screen and answer the call.

"Hey brat," I say into the receiver.

"Hey, pseudo-guardian,"  I laugh at her response.

Eliza and I had been getting along a lot better ever since the day I picked her up from her school suspension. I still wasn't thrilled about that whole ordeal, however, she had kept her word and had been staying out of trouble ever since. I was proud of her. Deep down I knew that the trouble she had been getting into was mostly one-sided and she was simply defending herself so I was grateful she'd decided to be the bigger person. She was better than it anyways.

"So, what's going on?" I ask her when I remember she had been the one to call me, "Go trick or treating last night?" I ask her. Did middle schoolers still go trick or treating?

Eliza snorts at my question, "As if Ellen would let all of us out after six. But I did get to watch Hocus Pocus in the living room which was kinda cool I guess," She says, trying her best to downplay her obvious disappointment surrounding Halloween. I was all too familiar with the scenario as it seemed to be hit or miss depending on who I was living with if I would be allowed out on Halloween night back when I too was a foster kid.

We talk aimlessly for a while about how she's been doing in school until a comfortable lull of silence presents itself.

"Well," Eliza says, "I'm home now so I guess I'm gonna go... do homework or something."

I roll my eyes knowing good and well she's not about to be sitting down at the cramped desk in her bedroom on a Friday night and cracking open the books but I don't comment on it.

"Okay, Liza, I'll talk to you later," I go to hang up the phone but I hear her call out my name before I click end call.

"Wait, Blake?" I place the phone back to my ear.

"Yeah?"

"I uh... I guess I missed you," She tells me, her voice getting quieter as she strings her sentence together, "That's why I called you."

A soft smile graces my face at her admission.

"I've missed you too, brat," I tell her, and I mean it, "Let's hang out next week, okay? I'll contact Mr. Milton and Ellen and we'll set something up."

"Okay! I mean uh... yeah, sure if that's what you wanna do it's cool with me," She says and I silently laugh at her attempt to remain cool.

I look up at the Pavement Coffee sign and sigh aloud, "Well kid, I just got to work. I'll call you later this weekend okay?"

We say our final goodbyes as I rush towards the back of the coffeehouse, nodding to Makenzie who is already stationed behind the register with a long line of customers set in front of her. We give each other a knowing look as I step into work next to her, my mind shutting down from any lingering thoughts about Eliza and zoning into coffee mode.

A few hours pass when a lull finally hits the Coffeehouse and Makenzie and I are granted a short break. The weather had gotten colder in recent days so we settle for sitting at a cramped table in the backroom, splitting a blueberry muffin between the two of us.

"So Lay and I will be over around six tomorrow so we'll have plenty of time to get ready together before the party. Is Jaxon still driving us?" I don't miss the way she suggestively wiggles her eyebrows at me at the mention of Jaxon's name.

I shake my head at her and raise my eyebrows at her question, "Yes, he said he would," I tell her, thinking back to the morning Jaxon and I had spent together just a few days ago.