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17. That Time He Stayed

Wow, my life is so boring. I literally have nothing to do, so I just look at the TV. So depressing. My life kind of sucks right now, I love it, but I need something. You may be wondering: what the heck is going on? How can her life suck if she’s looking at TV? I’m too bored to actually watch something; I’m staring at a black screen. Welp, I’m home alone. Not really; my mom’s here, but she’s in her room. Annie went back home and Ethan's at work. I could turn on the TV, but the remote… is on the table, and I would have to actually reach. And that requires energy. And that’s something I don’t have.

I blinked slowly a couple of times, thinking. The past week wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Eli and I never once mentioned the dressing room incident, and he didn’t make it awkward, thank god for that. It was literally the exact same as it had been before. Oh, except for the fact that whenever I was around him I would get really nervous. Yeah, that sucked, because I ended up chewing off some skin on the inside of my mouth. When I told Eli, he just laughed, saying that that was what I got for having a habit like that.

The doorbell rang soon after that. I didn’t even turn my head to acknowledge it. I knew mom wouldn’t get it no matter what. I didn’t feel like getting up either. If it was Eli or the girls, they would call or text me. It rang a second time. If it was a neighbor, they would leave soon enough; it’s not like we talked to them on a regular basis anyway. The bell rang one more time, and I finally turned my head. And then my phone started vibrating on the top of the couch.

“Hello?” I answered bored. I wasn’t really interested in talking to anyone as I felt my eyelids start to get heavy.

“Get off your fat butt and open this door for me!” Well, Eli’s yelling at me definitely woke me up. I took the phone away from my ear, raising an eyebrow at it, and almost laughed. I was so tired that I thought he had normally called me, but this time he was FaceTiming me. I looked at the screen.

“I don’t think so,” I said casually.

“You know w –” the rest of his sentence was cut off by me hanging up on him. You may think that there’s something wrong with me, considering I kind of like this boy, but he’ll be inside sooner than you think. He knows where the spare key is.

“Cass!” I hear Eli exclaim as the front door closes. “Why didn’t you come open the door? I rang the doorbell –” Eli stops mid-sentence as he walks into the living room. I still don’t turn my head towards him. “Why are you looking at a blank screen?” he asked, confusion in his voice. I shrug my shoulders.

“I didn’t feel like getting the remote to turn on the TV,” I said nonchalantly.

“But… It’s right there,” he states clearly. I raise my eyebrows, nodding my head. The more I talked, the more I did of anything really, the more tired I got. I didn’t say anything to Eli after that, and I guess he realized that something was wrong. Before I could blink, Eli’s face was in front of mine with worry on it. He pulled his hand up and put it on my forehead while putting his other on his. “Are you sick or something?” I shake my head.

“Not that I know of, I just thought I was being lazy. But I’m really tired, Eli,” I say, slowly moving his hand away from my forehead and going deeper into my couch.

“Well, that’s no good. I even had something planned for us today,” Eli says, standing up and walking away. “I guess I’ll just have to hang out with you here then.” I shrug my shoulders before I lay my head on the arm of the couch. I yawned, closing my eyes, and almost fell asleep had it not been for Eli tapping on my head. “Come on, Cass,” he said, “we’ll go upstairs and watch Netflix.”

“I don’t feel like going upstairs, Eli,” I say lamely. I wrap the blanket that I had closer to my body as I ignore his attempts to get me to get up. And then he picks me up bridal style. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t find the energy to yell at him, so I just laid my head on his chest, closing my eyes again.