An Artistic Duo

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Saturday, July 21

I walked over to my stool and sat down, wishing I was anywhere but here. I couldn't trust myself alone with Eli. And I could just walk back out, but my pride wouldn't let me. I sighed and dipped my brush in the paint, not yet putting it on the canvas though.

"So... asshole," I said, tyring not to sound weird, but I knew I did. When was the last time I insulted Eli and meant it? Today wasn't any different. "How far have you gotten?"

He was looking at me like he used to at the beginning of camp- with disgust. "Why don't you just work on your side of the piece instead of worrying about mine."

Ouch, I missed nice Eli. A lot. I tried not to show it as I nodded, not looking him in the eye, but I'm pretty sure I failed because of what he said next.

"I can't do this," he said with a sigh.

I immediately knew what he meant. "This is so weird. It used to be fun to make fun of you, now its..." I trailed off.

"One kiss can really screw things up." He said and looked at me.

"So what now?" I asked, looking at him, but at the same time avoiding his eyes.

"Well, we figure out why we did it," Eli said slowly.

"That's a little dangerous," I said. Getting to the root of a problem was always recommended, but it always brought up more emotions than you bargained for, and we could not risk that happening since we obviously had emotional problems concerning each other.

"Okay, let me rephrase that," Eli said with a half smile. "We figure out why we did it, and how we can prevent it from happening again."

I nodded and smiled, then I became serious. Who was going to say what we both knew first. "Well," I said. I guess it was me. "Obviously there is some unresolved sexual tension between us."

Eli nodded and we were both silent for a while, before he started snickering. I shot him a look.

"Eli this is serious!" I exclaimed.

"I know! That's why I'm laughing!" He said, then continued when I gave him the 'you're crazy' look. "I laugh when bad things happen. It calms me. And when I'm nervous."

I smirked. "Are you? Do I make you nervous Eli?"

"Oh yeah, it's because you're so hot," He told me, smirking also.

For that second I forgot about all my problems, and how Eli had a girlfriend and how much trouble we were in. But then I remembered.

"We need to stop this," I said and pointed in between us. In that one second we had gotten closer, almost about to do what we were in the process of trying not to do. How did we fall back into this shameless flirting routine so quickly? "This is wrong."

"Okay, so obviously there are some mixed feelings floating around in between us, along with that sexual tension, and we just gotta make sure we don't make any mistakes and act on them," Eli said.

I nodded. "This is a strictly business arrangement. We work on our piece, say hi to each other occasionally, but other than that, nothing."

He was nodding with me, "No feelings involved."

"None whatsoever."

"Because I do like Kelsey."

"You do, and you should stay with her."