Elliot and Julia have a complicated relationship. Since they met in the seventh grade, the only heart-to-heart conversations they've had have been strictly over text. But they don't mind this lack of intimacy. If anything, they enjoy it.
Don't thi...
I didn't know what to expect when Eli pulled me away from my party, and my cake, and had me sit with him on some bench across the street from the house. Okay, I kind of knew what to expect. I was just scared I was going to be right. I had made my feelings on our whole complicated relationship thing very clear and I had a feeling that he was about to ignore all that. Couldn't he just listen to me for once?
As soon as we sat down, I tried to tell him that this was a bad idea. That we should just stick to the plan I agreed to. But Eli didn't give me a chance to tell him that, he just started talking. He was talking in a way I hadn't seen before. It was almost... desperate. There was no way I could stop him when he was talking like that. All I could do was sit there and wait for him to give me a second to tell him to kindly never talk to me again. If he would just give me a chance to do that.
He told me a lot of things, I can't really describe it well enough to do it justice (even though I'm sure you want to know), and when he finally stopped talking I didn't know what to say. But I knew that I had to say something and do something, I couldn't just sit there forever. I just had to figure out what I wanted to do.
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"Eli, could you please just tell me what's going on?" "Sit down first." "Fine, I'm sitting. Now talk." "Okay, here it goes. And before I start talking, just know that I don't want to upset you or piss you off. Please let me finish before you say anything." "All right... But-" "No buts. Just let me talk." "Okay." "When I met you, you scared me." "Wha-" "Jules." "Sorry." "When we met, you scared me. Like you seriously scared me. Like I thought I was going to shit my pants scared. But then I got to know you." "And then?" "And then you scared me even more." "..." "And, if I'm being honest, I'm still really scared of you." "You're-" "I'm getting to my point, don't worry." "Fine." "But even though I'm still scared of you, I don't think about it anymore. Because I've realized other things about you." "What do you mean?" "I've realized that you're more than the awkward girl who scared me in 7th grade. You're way more than that." "Oh really." "Really. You're also beautiful." "Keep talking." "There's no need to fish for compliments. You're also beautiful and smart, way smarter than me-" "Don't you forget that." "Like you would ever let me. Not to mention you're kind, you try to pretend you aren't but you are, and you love Ava as much as I do." "She's easy to love." "Only sometimes." "As long as you're not trying to convince her to do something like take a shower, she's easy to love." "There's one more thing you are." "And what's that." "You're someone I love. Which isn't surprising, because I've always loved you. It was a given, like I knew that you loved me. But I realized that I'm also in love with you. You're someone I'm in love with. And not just for right now, this isn't a temporary thing. You're someone I'm going to be in love with forever." "Eli-" "Don't say anything yet." "..." "I know it's a lot to ask but I can't just let you try to brush me off. I know that I love you, and I know that you love Ava, and I'm hoping that you love me back. Please tell me you do." "..." "This is the time where you say something." "I... I don't know what to say." "Say you love me too." "I can't." "You can't say that because you don't love me or you can't say it because you don't want to?" "I don't know. This is all just too much. You had to tell me all this now?" "Better now than never." "But it's my birthday! You had to drop this bomb on me today? You couldn't have told me when I had time to process?" "I'm your birthday present?" "What's wrong with you!" "Julie, you can take your time to process. But we both know that your gut feeling isn't going to change. So do you want to be with me or not?" "I don't want to not be with you." "Is that a yes?" "I don't know." "I've waited for you to know for years. If you're not ready now, I don't think you ever will be." "Eli..." "I'm just going to go back to the party. There's no reason to stand out here if you're just going to stare at me all confused." "Please don't walk away." "Do you want me to stay?" "Yes." "Then just say that." "I want you to stay. Please stay." "Anything else you want to say?" "No..." "Really?" "No." "Then what is it?" "I love you." "As a friend?" "Are you really going to make me say it?" "If you mean it, yes." "I'm in love with you." "I know." "Don't get cocky." "Too late, I was born this way." "You know what? Never mind, I don't love you. I hate you, actually." "Say that all you want, I know the truth." "Whatever. You're still ann-" "..." "..." "You were saying?" "Who said you could stop?" "..." "..." "..." "You promise not to be a flighty dipshit?" "I promise." "And you promise to not be an asshole?" "I'm kind of always an asshole, it's kind of who I am. It's who you are too, actually. But I promise to do my best to not be insufferable." "Good." "..." "..." "Julie?" "Yeah?" "Am I getting laid tonight?" "Do you have to ask?" "Yes." "God you're annoying." "But you love me anyway." "For some reason, yes." "For some reason." "Eli?" "Yes?" "Doesn't this feel a little, well, wrong? Do you think Nora would approve?" "I don't know if she'd be completely enthusiastic but I think she'd be happy for us. I think if she had to choose anyone to be with me other than her it would be you." "Are you lying to make me feel better?" "Do you think I'd lie about something like this?" "That's true." "Any other concerns?" "What do we tell Ava?" "The truth." "The truth is a long story." "Then we'll just tell her the highlights." "That could work." "Ready to head back to the party?" "Sure." "Hey, Julie?" "Yes?" "I love you against my better judgement. "Who do you think you are? Mr. Darcy? "Jesus, Jules, I was trying to be romantic. Besides, it's a good line." "Well I'm sorry that I'm not used to you trying to be romantic." "Well get used to it."
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I apologize for the wacky formatting, my phone hates me. I'm working until 7 again today and I wasn't able to finish the update before I left (I was literally a couple sentences away!). So I decided to be nice and finished writing the update on my break on my phone (it was awful). Anyway, there wasn't much I could do about the formatting. But yay there's an update! I'll do my best to get the last two updates up on time but you know how things go.
Was this update satisfactory to you guys? I think it's fitting so I hope you like it. The next two updates will be the two halves of the epilogue, with each half narrated by Eli and Julie. See you all then!
