Twenty-eight
Eli
Javier and I studied on a weekend because the third round of the competition was coming up. After my mini breakdown from the last round, Javier made some changes in the way we prepared. He was a lot more focused than before, ditching the cocky ‘I don’t need to prepare because I already know everything’ attitude. It was sweet, but it was apparent that it was truly me who needed the extra practice.
Every time I did something right he congratulated and praised me, and I couldn’t deny how much better it made me feel about the entire competition. I would have thought it would make me feel like a dog that needed to be praised after it successfully shit in the grass, but each time he told me how good my heart swelled with pride.
After spending the entire day grinding out practice assignments Javier grew tired of being productive. He said that I was stressing myself out and we needed to take a breath. I did not want to pause, but he was not giving me much of a choice.
We ended up heading to Alex and Killian’s place. Javi had us take his motorcycle because he remembered me mentioning how exhilarating it was the couple of times I rode it. He had a spare helmet that he let me borrow, but it was a little dusty sinceit had been rotting in a corner in his garage for a while. It wasn’t too bad besides the cobweb I had to rub off. I was more thrilled that I got to ride on the back of a death-trap again. Statistically, that's what motorcycles were: death traps.
Alex welcomed us in and let us know that Killian was not there. He didn’t specify why, so we left it at that. He immediately apologized for the messy state of the apartment. There were some clothes spread out across the furniture and toys on the floor that I was sure belonged to his niece, but it wasn’t a disaster.
Seeing the toys made me wonder if Alex was currently babysitting, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was correct. A young child with long, curly pigtails came bouncing toward us.
"Eli, wanna take a picture?" Millie shouted excitedly. In her hands she held a small yellow toy camera decorated with tiny unicorns all over it. She waved it in my face to ensure that I saw her item.
I bent down and kneeled so that I was on her level. "I would love to take a picture."
Millie pressed her cheek against mine as I wrapped my arm around the side of her. She held her arm out to the side and faced the camera backward to snap a picture of us.
"Here." Javier took the camera out of her hand and flipped it around. "I'll take the picture."
"Cheese," Millie cooed as she held her big smile. When she saw that I was not saying 'cheese' with her, she reprimanded me sternly. "Say 'cheese.’"
I straightened up. "Cheese."
Javier handed her the camera after snapping it and Millie giggled with approval at the image. She let me get a quick glance at it before she left me to sit on the couch and watch whateverwas on the television, losing all care about me and the picture at that point.
"Sorry," Alex chuckled while he picked up a pile of clothing on the armchair, "she hasn't stopped taking pictures since she got that thing."
"I don't mind, she’s sweet.”
“You'll probably end up on her wall. She's put every damn picture she's taken with that camera on her wall right above her bed."
I turned to the girl lying upside-down on the couch with her head hanging off the edge as she stared at the television. She did not have a care in the world while she popped candy into her mouth, which I thought was a bit dangerous considering how she was positioned. Alex did not seem worried, though.
I didn’t know very many kids and I didn’t interact with them often, but Millie was definitely my favorite.
Javier took a seat. "Man, I'm kinda offended I didn't get asked to take a picture."
"That's because you aren’t picture-worthy," I said with a crooked smile.
"Are you saying I'm ugly?"
I rubbed my chin and raised a brow. "Am I?"
His lips parted in appall before he trailed his fingers lightly on the back of my neck playfully. "You and I both know you don't think I’m ugly."
"Don't touch me." My shoulders shrugged up to my ears in response to his fingers grazing over me as I ducked and swatted his hand away.
Ignoring my initial swat at his hand, he tried to do it again. I grabbed his wrist and pushed his hand away but made sure to hold my grip firm so he couldn't try it again. Javi had a contagiously cheeky smile that made its way onto my face too.
Alex, however, was staring at us with a blank expression. "Did I skip a chapter?"
Javi tried to pry my hand off of his wrist, but I resisted. "No, you just haven't been paying attention."
"No...no I think I’m missing something.This,” he was waving his finger between the both of us, “was not the Javier and Elias I was with last time. Or at least, I don’t think it was."
