This is the Result of One Question?

21. Didn't I Say Not to Pop Up?

“Cassia,” my mom says. I was by the laundry room, getting the vacuum cleaner out of a closet. I, sadly, took out one of my ear buds to hear what she wanted me to do. “You’re about to start on your chores right?” It was Friday, and all of us had to do our chores. At first, Ethan would mow the lawn, Annie would clean all of the bathrooms, and I would vacuum. And then there was picking up Jack’s poop in the backyard, and cleaning the kitty litters. Ethan and I were over those two things, and we had made a deal a long time ago that whoever had to clean the kitty litter didn’t have to pick up the poop. But now that Annie's gone, the great honor of scrubbing toilets has been passed down to me.

“Yeah, mom,” I said, pulling out the vacuum. “I was just about to start them.” I see my mom just nod her head as she walks away. I walk up stairs, where I always start first. It was pretty easy, of course, doing my chores. It just took a while to finish everything. Luckily, I don’t have to pick up the poop just yet because Ethan had to work this morning.

I was getting in the mood where I forgot about actually cleaning and was just listening to the music by the time I was halfway finished. I was about to start on the rooms when I felt my ear buds leave my ears. One thing that you don’t want to do, no matter what, is take my ear buds out of my ears. Unless, of course, you want a death wish.

I turned around sharply, already having my eyes set to glare at the person guilty of this crime. And I saw Eli grinning down at me. I slap his chest before I could even think about it.

“Don’t take my head phones out!” I say. Eli rubs his chest, frowning.

“You could’ve told me that instead of hitting me,” he says, and I immediately feel bad.

“You just don’t go around, coming up behind people, and take their head phones out. You know that you would be annoyed if this happened to you, Eli,” I say, putting my hands on my hips. Eli sighs before nodding his head.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok, so am I,” I say, pausing my music. “And didn’t I tell you not to pop up? I’m busy.” Eli looks around, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“It looks like you're almost done, Cass,” Eli says simply. “I’ll just wait.” I shook my head at him.

“I’m not almost done, Eli, I still have to pick up the dog poop in the backyard and the bathrooms.” I look at him, expecting him to turn and leave, but he stays where he is, thinking. I scrunch my eyebrows, knowing that I won’t like the result.

“I got it!” Eli exclaims. “I’ll help you finish everything, and then you’ll be done quicker.” He looks at me as if he’s come up with the most brilliant plan ever. I know the outcome of him “helping” me. We will just end up working later than what I would’ve done by myself because he would distract me. I look at Eli, and he starts to shake his head immediately. “Nope, I’m helping and that’s final.”

“Dang it, Eli!” I say, turning my back to him as I get ready to take the vacuum to my parents’ room. As soon as he realized that I was trying to pick it up, he slipped his hand under mine, slapping my hand away. He grabbed the vacuum by the handle, and smiled at me childishly, and made me lead the way.

This was how it was most of the time when Eli and I were vacuuming. I wouldn’t let him actually vacuum, so he just held the plug cord, and made sure it didn’t get tangled or anything as I was moving. It was pretty easy, until we got to my room, which I had saved for last. You see, I only have one outlet that is reachable and usable, but I have to charge 3 things at the same time. So, I have an extension cord, and I plug that into the bottom outlet, my DS and phone charger in the cord, and my laptop cord in the top outlet.

“Gosh, Cass!” Eli exclaimed. I turned and saw him crouching to the ground, trying to unravel the mixed up cords. I’ve had the extension cord in my room for so long that everything kind of mushed together after a while. “You really need to fix this before next time.”

“Next time?” I ask credulously. “Oh, heck no. There’s not going to be a next time!” Eli doesn’t reply, just chuckles and unplugs everything and plugging up the vacuum. “I told you not to pop up, anyways, so I want this to be the last time.” Eli cocks his head to the side, smiling at me with the hint of a laugh in his eyes.

“You think I’m going to listen? We wouldn’t be like this if I did. And I personally like how we are together.” I start the vacuum, but Eli and I still carry on our conversation by yelling over the vacuum.

“Aw, that’s so nice! Now, could you possibly explain to me how we are together?” I asked sarcastically. Eli just keeps on smiling at me, shrugging his shoulders up and down.

“This is taking too long, Cass,” Eli complained as we started tackling the bathrooms. We decided to get mom and dad’s bathroom done first because it was the biggest. I scoffed at him.

“Now, don’t you start that complaining with me, mister! You're the one who wanted to help me badly, so you have to suffer.” I look at him sideways as he blows out a loud breath, before nodding his head and starts to scrub the sinks. I didn’t actually want him to do the gross stuff, so I hit the toilet first, and then the shower. I was about start on the tub, but Eli grabbed my elbow.

“Stop it,” he orders, a small smile playing on his lips. “I know what you’re doing, and I want you to stop. We’ll get this last thing together.” I made a face at him, pursing my lips out in defeat. I had never met someone who was as stubborn as me, until Eli came into the picture. He could break down my walls easily, and I didn’t like that. It was an awful feeling, knowing that if I really didn’t want to do something, but he did, I would give in 9 times out of 10.

It was like that with the other bathrooms, too. They didn’t take as long though, considering Ethan and my bathrooms were half the size of my parents’. And then there was the poop gathering. Eli kept muttering under his breath, about how gross it was. “You shouldn’t even be doing this,” he kept telling me, “you're a girl.” As if this was only a guy’s job to pick up the poop. Jack was my dog too. It was really bright when we went outside, seeing as it was around 12 pm. So I gave a pair of my sunglasses to Eli as I put on the second pair I had. We didn’t start picking up poop until 5 minutes later because I was laughing too hard at Eli, who was supposedly going to be a “sunglasses model” when he grew up because he had the face and the eyes.

“Man, I did a good job!” Eli says, stretching once we had thrown away the poop. I raised my eyebrows up at him.

“You mean we did a good job, right, Eli?” I asked, making sure he didn’t get big headed about anything. He looks at me with a sheepish smile, nodding his head. We walked back inside after closing the garage, and I put some dish soap in my hands. I started to lather it all up, only to have Eli rub his hands over mine. I looked at him with shock.

“You are so generous with that soap,” he says. I shake my head as we both put our hands under the water, letting it rinse away the bubbles. “I guess I’m no longer needed here then. I’ll be on my way.” I started to wave at him as he started walking to the door, but out of nowhere, my parents came into the kitchen.

“After all this time? We didn’t even reward you for helping Cassia with her chores.” I shake my head at Eli, and he gives all of us a look that says he doesn’t need to be rewarded. “How about you stay for dinner?” mom asks excitedly. I put my hand on my forehead, hoping to god that he will decline.

“I don’t want to impose…” he says slowly. That’s right, Eli, reject their offer. They’re just going to embarrass us both!

“No, you wouldn’t be at all! We insist; we would love to have you stay for dinner.” I shake my head, taking my hand away. Eli looks at me, as if he’s terrified of the idea. As he should be; I was to the longest extent. I mouth an “I’m sorry” to Eli, and he just shakes his head smiling. Eli turns his attention to my parents.

“What are we having?”

A/N: Aww! Now isn't that cute? The next chapter is going to be pretty funny, mostly because it's really embarrassing for Cassie! So, get ready! Don't forget to fan vote and comment! :D