Elliot ditched his jock reputation after high school. He happily traded his cleats and shoulder pads for college cafeteria food and seminars notes. Now, without the distraction of football, he has managed to find success at the University of Minneso...
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"Do you know how to say my intro?" Nicki, the vlog icon, asked.
Elliot looked as if he had been repelled. "I don't actually watch your videos, Nic," he admitted.
He was brushing a shade of blue onto his wall. There were twenty-seven half-used paint cans on the floor - indigo, teal, cobalt, Cinderella-hued, and every color in between. The junkyard wasn't allowed to dispose of paint, so whenever they acquired a can, the workers added it to a stockpile. Since it didn't cost anything, Elliot took all the blues and stacked the canisters onto a tarp in his bedroom. He needed to cover his white walls - he felt like he was living inside a multi-dimensional blank canvas, and somehow, he always had the urge to paint Pierce's face.
Elliot tilted his head, examining the row of disorderly paint streaks on his wall. He voiced, "What about this one?"
Nicki was browsing through his closet. She was about to steal his good fleece when she turned and said, "It's giving me Facebook-logo vibes." Her face distorted.
Elliot reassessed his choice, dropping the brush and saying, "Maybe I'll send this one to my mom. She might want to repaint her office."
Nicki looked confused, thinking of the Norfolk family's East Coast home. "Didn't she repaint the whole house last year?" The YouTuber had spent a week with Elliot's family during the summer. It was the first time she had been in the Hamptons.
"I think she redecorates every eight months." The Hamptons house, their Wisconsin ranch, the Massachusetts townhouse, even the apartment in Paris.
Nicki blinked like her lashes were attached to springs, astounded.
Quinn peeped her head into the room, announcing, "Pierce and Wyatt are here." She put her earbuds in, leaving for the gym.
Elliot impulsively glanced out his window. Indeed, Pierce's ugly little green car was parked in their driveway. He squinted at the cloudless day, the sun bouncing off mounds of snow. He craned his head slowly, stiffening with confusion. His eyes demanded an answer from Nicki. She was oblivious, though - unaware of Elliot and Pierce's complete history. She only knew they had lived together.
"The hockey team is redoing their locker room," Nicki explained. "Hayden convinced Wyatt to ask the coach to give me some of the old storage stalls for my room - my Fenty collection is taking up too much space in my closet. In exchange, Wyatt asked to be in one of my videos. It's free marketing - it was Pierce's idea. Apparently they need new uniforms."
Elliot was hyper-focused on his paint-splattered jeans. He hadn't even showered yet. "I thought this was a makeup video?"
"It is," she nodded. "He said they wanted to be in a video. He didn't specify what kind of video."
