Elias spent the night with me. My family had gotten back early that night, but he asked if he could stay over anyway. He had been staying over more often than not lately. I was not sure how he had been making that possible with his aunt’s craziness, but he assured me all was fine.
It felt like he was asking me every ten minutes if I was alright, and I had to repeatedly tell him that my condition hadn't changed from ten minutes prior.
Eli pulled his knees into his chest, an embarrassed grin on his face. "Sorry. It's just that...you're always making sure that I am okay. I wanna do the same for you."
I felt bad for asking him to stop. His persistence was annoying but came from a place of care. When I let him know that he did not need to ask every second, he listened by waiting two seconds to ask instead.
Eventually I fell asleep and woke up to him still awake. That always happened. Eli never went to sleep until really late into the night—practically the morning. He always downplayed it as nothing but him being restless, but it had to be more than that. I knew it was, I just couldn’t get him to admit it.
It was now Friday and school had just let out. Eli was coming home with me, as he did most days now. He was rambling about how excited he was for the student council trip which was a little over a week away.
“I can’t believe I get to fly on a freaking plane!" he was leaning over the console as he spoke eagerly. “Are you excited? I’m so fucking excited.”
His giddiness was heartwarming. “I’m glad you’re excited. I’m kinda scared of planes, but I’ll manage."
Elias reached into my lap and put his hand into my free one. "I will hold your hand the whole ride. Does that mean I can have the window seat?"
I squeezed his hand. "Of course."
"I've been trying to downplay how excited I am for this trip, but you have no idea how long I’ve been ready for this. I get to room with you, Ricky, and Paxton for a whole week. Can time just hurry up?" he groaned dramatically.
My mother was the chaperone for our room. We got to pick who we wanted to stay with, but it could only be four students in a room. All students had to be the same gender, so that cut out Bella and Kailey. Justin made the decision easy when he said he already had other people he was sharing a hotel room with.
"Have you ever been to a theme park?" Eli asked after a beat.
"A couple of times, but I was really young. I don't remember most of it."
"Well, are you excited?"
"Duh, I get to miss a week of school to go to an amusement park with my favorite person," I said joyfully as my thumb rubbed the back of his hand.
“Same.” Eli was doing that lip-biting thing he would do when he was flustered, I saw before he turned his head to the window. “Hey, can we stop at my house? I need to get clothes for tomorrow since I'm spending the night at yours."
I especially wanted him to spend the night at mine because I was planning on asking him on a date. We had been in the weird limbo of acting like a couple but not officially being one for much too long.
Most of that was my fault. After the on and off relationship with Diane that lasted forwaytoo long, I was afraid to jump back into one. I did not want to take away what Eli and I had by adding a label to it. I felt like doing so could spiral into another situation like the one with my ex, and it would crush me if that happened with him.
Until I realized that I couldn’t go any longer without calling him mine.
All I had to do was ask if he would go on a date with me. I couldn’t lie, I was nervous. I was so afraid that I hadn’t even worked up the courage to ask yet. He knew we were going out tomorrow, but he had no clue it was a date.
Is he even going to agree to it?
I planned an entire day of fun. We would go to mini golf, I booked an hour-long cooking class since Eli had proven that he desperately needed one, then we would see a movie, and lastly end with dinner at a nice restaurant I picked out. Okay, maybe the day was too packed, but I wanted it to be memorable.
After I nodded, he asked, "What's the dress code?"
I shrugged. "Just look nice."
"Thanks, that helps so much," he muttered, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
I chuckled. "Nothing fancy. You can show me what you're thinking, and I'll tell you what I think."
He chewed on his lip and nodded his head as he leaned it against the window.
Not too much later I was parking in his driveway. Eli insisted that he would be super quick, he just needed to grab an outfit for tomorrow. He also needed to give his sister her mathproject that was due next Monday. Eli finished it for her during class earlier today.
I sat on his bed while he rummaged through his drawers. He presented a couple of shirts and told me to pick which one I liked best. My condition was that he had to pick out my outfit when we got to my place, and he agreed.
