Swish

.10

"Virginia...hey..."

"Actually, you can call me V. If you're looking for my dad, he's-"

"No, I'm looking for you. I mean, I was...hey."

A stuttering, nervous Eli. That was a change of pace, for sure, no matter the fact that he still took my breath away with how he looked.

Windswept, his chestnut hair was pushed back and a bit spiked without that gelled look that most guys used, a pair of black ray-bans covering his jade green eyes and suddenly an unknown emotion pitched through my gut, almost doubling me over in its wake.

Tight denim jeans, high top sneakers and a tight black t-shirt spanning his entire broad chest, I was sucking in air and trying not to hyperventilate just as my keyboard (which was huge, by the way) began to slip out of my hands.

Eyes wide in fear that my favorite keyboard was going to fall to the concrete steps outside of the main entry, I bent down to save it just as Eli did the same, and all at once we butted heads.

What was this, some rom com where the two leads had a meet-cute by bumping their heads together? Hell no, this was me being frustrated and pissed that I was going to have a freshly forming bruise on my forehead just in time for one of the biggest shows my band had ever played.

"Ow."

Thankfully, Eli had the sense to catch my keyboard before it went tumbling down the stairs, but pretty soon I was seeing stars, and not just because I was in the presence of the great Eli Shepherd. No, this was for an entirely different reason. A stupid, anemic reason.

I swayed on my feet, reaching out to grab the thing nearest to me, which just so happened to be Eli's rock hard bicep. Why, world, did you have to make that the closest refuge I sought?!

"You okay? I didn't think we hit heads too hard," he said, sounding more concerned than I would've expected.

"Virginia? What's going on?"

Stars. I was still seeing stars, swimming around in my mind so prominently that I could've went fishing for them. Black spots adorned the stars, and a pressure pulsed in my head that accompanied the roar and rush of blood thumping rhythmically behind my ears.

"It's just some vertigo," I managed to ground out, but the fact that I was still unable to see on a bright and sunny day was disheartening. I had had multiple episodes of vertigo lately, but none that lasted as long as that one.

When the spots cleared, my father was in the entryway, concern and worry etched onto his face.

"Are you sure you should go to this show?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I'm probably already late. Can you hand me my keyboard please," I asked Eli who's arm I had finally (reluctantly) let go of. I missed the way it felt in my hands, strong, sturdy, and warm.

"She hit her head," Eli said for me, not picking my keyboard up. Pretty soon, the entire family plus Jared were crowding around me trying to make sure that I was okay, and the second the spots cleared up and the vertigo passed, I was crouched down with my head on my knees and Eli Shepherd was kneeling directly in front of me.

Without those glasses on, his eyes up close in person were breathtaking and captivating and I just wanted to swim around in them, allow them to melt me from the inside out as they shone and undressed me within their depths.

His stare turned from almost medically calculating, checking me over for injury, into something almost molten and forbidden, our locked eyes never parting even as my lips fell open and my tongue darted out to wet them, much like his did the night before.