Crazy but Sweet, Sweet but Crazy

46: choices

"What? You have a problem?" I demanded.

I sat in the nearly empty cafeteria, eating out from a takeaway box of soup and bread that Brooks had ordered and brought to the infirmary room.

Elliot sat across me at the round table, resting his chin on his fist, leveling me with an openly displeased look.

"You have your way with pretty words," he sighed.

"Look, I'm perfectly fine. Even if I go to the hospital, I'm going there by myself- or with Bianca or Ester- after I finish my English exam."

"I'm your boyfriend, by the way," he said, sounding a little disgruntled. "When are you going to use me?"

My hand that'd been holding the plastic spoon with soup, froze.

"What? Do you have a problem?" he parroted, the hint of a mocking grin on his face.

"Don't say that word. It's...gross."

"What- boyfriend?" Elliot blinked.

"Yeah."

"You're not okay with me saying 'boyfriend', and you're okay with Brooks Taylor bringing you lunch?"

I would've thought he almost sounded offended.

"Oh. Didn't know that he was a Taylor."

"So was that your type?" Elliot questioned off-handedly, swirling the straw in his cup of coke. "The sports playing, smiley type of guy?"

"Sports playing and smiley sounds a lot like someone," I muttered, putting down the spoon. "Are you not busy? Why're you hanging out here?"

"People are saying we're still together because it doesn't look good to have broken up immediately after all that happened."

"There's literally like, four people in this cafeteria right now." I pursed my lips. "Including the two of us, by the way. Publicity's not exactly very far-reaching."

Elliot stirred the coke, his eyes still on me.

The ice in the cup was already melting. "Very sharp," he shrugged.

The sparse population of the cafeteria must've been what gave me the idea.

I leaned in, and pressed my lips onto his.

His mouth tasted like the sickly sweetness of the coke.

I heard his slight indrawn breath, and felt him become very still.

Just as he relaxed slightly, I pulled away, and as casually as possible, took my first spoonful of soup.

"What are you- what was that?"

It was my first time hearing Elliot stammer.

Unable to look at his face, I took a bite of the bread. "Mm. This is good."

"Wow, Horan. Didn't know you're the very- open type. Things like this- they're no big deal for you?"

"Why're you pretending to be all so innocent? That was just a child's play, a peck on the lips for you right? With all the pop stars and actresses you've been in scandal with-"

"Scandals!"

I took a glance at Elliot. He blew out an exhale of air. "Of all people, you don't know that one out of ten scandals are stories fabricated by tabloids?"

"Yeah, I know that one out of ten scandals tends to be true." I washed down the bread with another mouthful of soup. "This is really good."

"So what was that?"