MY BEST FRIEND ELI ⁂ E.M.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"You're really going back?" Flossie asked Eli as they rode their bikes toward the Reseda strip mall that held the Dojo. "I thought since Demetri wasn't going you wouldn't either," she stated honestly.

Eli shook his head, pedaling forwards. "I still want to go," he said shortly, glancing over to the girl.

He saw how going to the dojo made her strong, strong enough to take out Kyler and those goons, and she had only been going for less than a month. He saw how Miguel got a lot more respect at school, how he could talk to anyone now. Eli wanted that for him, he wanted that confidence and respect among his peers, and, most of all, he wanted to finally stop being so afraid when it came to saying what he really thought around Flossie.

Eli had been there for all of Flossie's childhood celebrity crushes, all the times she made him watch romantic comedies, he knew everything she likes — but, yet, he felt like he was none of that. He knew he had to change, he just didn't know how to do it.

After Flossie had changed into her Gi at the dojo, her and Miguel stood in the front again. "Where's everyone?" Sensei asked confused. "Crater-face? Nose ring? Slingshot?"

"They quit, Sensei," Miguel said quietly, giving a nervous glance toward Flossie who shrugged.

"You serious?" Sensei Lawrence said shocked, but then shook off his true feeling. "I mean, good. That was a test. I wanted to see who the quitters are. Not you guys. You're in it to win it. Right, you could be at home, playing your iComputers, playing your video games, eating candy. Instead you're here, doing pushups, learning how to fight."

Flossie rolled her eyes at the pathetic attempt of a pep talk— she didn't think those kids were quitters just because they were verbally harassed, after all one of them was her best friend. Those kids had been bullied all their life, the last thing they need is an extra circular where they get the same treatment.

"Lip. Look," Sensei pointed, and made Flossie turn around once again. Talk about déjà vu. "Even Lip's tougher than those guys. He's no quitter."

Flossie made a fist, glaring at the Sensei, but before she could come up with her snappy remark she was surprised. Eli had actually stuck up for himself, had actually said something.

Though it wasn't as witty or sarcastic as Flossie's, or definitely not Demetri's comments, he still stood up for himself for one of the first times. "Could you please not call me that?" He asked quietly, still not used to this.

Flossie looked at him wide eyed, like she was shocked about what she was hearing. He glanced to her for a second, taking a breath. He promised her he would start making the first move, strike first, and he was trying. He didn't want to be the defenseless Eli anymore, and he didn't want Flossie to keep throwing herself into danger for him.

"Excuse me, what?" Sensei Lawrence questioned, moving closer to the boy.

The girl gulped, biting her tongue to stop from saying anything that would make her have to do push ups.

"I said, could you please not call me that," Eli said more surely this time.

The look in Sensei Lawrence's eyes made the two top students nervous, and she glanced to Miguel with a desperate look.

Miguel pushed past her, like he heard her pleas for help and cut off the Sensei. "Um, I'll warm 'em up, Sensei," he said uncertain.

Sensei Lawrence just shook his head though, and Flossie groaned — not liking where this was going at all. "No, no, no. Lip has something he wants to say," he reassured. "Sorry, speak up, Lip. Or is your tongue messed-up too? Are you one of those challenged kids?"

Flossie cringed at this, like being intellectually disabled was a bad thing or something? Eli seemed to have the same attitude as his friend. "Um, the doctor said I could be on the spectrum," he informed uncomfortably.

"I don't know what that is, but get off it pronto. All right?" Sensei Lawrence was sadly uneducated about things like this, and it made a pit begin to form in Flossie's stomach. "If you don't want me to call you Lip, then don't have a weird lip. Can't you get surgery for that?" The man pressed on rudely.

"I was born with a cleft lip," Eli defended. "This is the scar from the surgery."

When he looked at Flossie, she gave a nod, assuring him that he was doing good. To be honest, Flossie thought that Eli was being a lot nicer than she would have been.

"You mean it was worse before that?" Sensei Lawrence questioned rudely. "Or did the doctor just screw up? Because if this is the after photo, that sucks, man. You should sue."

Flossie saw Eli shrink into himself, becoming mute as he often had. This time, she pushed past Miguel, not being able to take it anymore. "Sensei," she called out. "Can we please just start the drills and stop talking about Eli?" She questioned desperate.

"You don't think I want to?" He asked her sarcastically. "It's tough when it's right in front of me."

Flossie crossed her arms at this, she hated her best friend was getting picked on for something that he's already insecure about. That kind of shit sticks with you forever.

But Sensei Lawrence didn't seem to get the message, he just kept pushing it. "If you want to be something other than a nerd with a scar on his lip, then you gotta flip the script," he stated sternly. "Okay? Get a face tattoo. Or gauge your eye out. We'll call you Patch, all right?"

Before anyone could say anything, Sensei took back the last part. "No, don't do that one. You'll still look like a freak."

Eli couldn't bare the verbal assault anymore, and stormed out almost in tears. Flossie's heart swelled at this and she ran out after him, still barefoot.

"Uh, great, really? Another quitter?" She could hear her Sensei behind her but she didn't care.

The metal door slammed behind her when she stepped outside, trying to catch up with Eli.

She called out to him but he didn't turn around. "Please, Eli, wait," she said desperately, now grabbing his arm and gently forcing him to turn and face her. Tears started to build up in his eyes and she almost started crying too at the sight. "Eli," she whispered sadly, pulling him closer to her.

Flossie tried to embrace him, give him a hug like she always had when he was upset, but he was already cold. "You don't get it," he said — half angered, half sad. "I know what you're going to say."

The girl looked toward him confused, unsure on how to comfort the boy but he still rambled on. "I know I'm not supposed to care what people think, but I can't keep living this life where every time I go outside people only see me as this repulsive... monster!" He said desperately, now clinging to the girls arms.

"But—" Flossie started, "but I don't see you like that," she said solemnly.

Eli only nodded, too busy with the thoughts droning on in his head to create a response. So Flossie decided to continue on.

"Eli," she said seriously, making him look her in her eyes. "You're my best friend. You're the reason I can bare going to school even with all the nasty comments and messed up bullies and shit. You don't need to change anything about you for me to believe that — because I already do, and I have since the day I met you."

The boy stared at her for a moment before stepping back like he realized something. "Best friend?" He questioned confused but then quickly cut himself off of that thought. "Y-you know what never mind. Thanks Flossie," he said, turning around and hoping onto his bike.

The girl watched as he rode away, still standing on the concrete with bare feet and a breaking heart. Her eyes, though her face was saddened, never dimmed as she watched him disappear among the horizon. It was in this moment that she realized the thing she should have known all along — she loved Eli, she always had.