Sweetly & Home Economically ✔

The Troublemaker & The King

~ The Troublemaker & The King ~

~¤*°*°*°*¤~

All I could think about was the what if of Theo coming out to the garage.

He would see us inches apart.

He would see Eli's thumb stroking my cheek as he moved in closer.

And in mere seconds, he might see Eli kissing me.

I didn't know why my heart was beating out of my chest. I didn't like Eli as anything more than a friend, but who's heart wouldn't race in our position?

What else could it be?

Then just before his lips touched mine, the answer struck me upside the head.

I cared about what Theo thought of us. Of me.

I didn't want him to see us like that, even if it was one-sided by Eli. Theo would still misunderstand the situation because of how we've acted in front of him.

I tensed up, ready to shove Eli away to prevent anything from happening.

Before I could do it, Eli backed away on his own accord. His shoulders were shaking with laughter. I blinked, hands poised palms out to push him.

"You look so scared! Relax, Abby. It's not like I'm gonna devour you or anything."

My head was spinning from Eli's behavior, but at least he was back to himself. I crossed my arms and huffed, demanding an explanation.

"Theo is like a brother to me. I wouldn't do that to him." Then he added under his breath, "And I'm already risking a punch to the gut."

He indicated Theo would be the one to hit him, but I considered doing it myself. He was lucky that I wouldn't act on my irrational urge. It bordered on being merited, but there were other people more deserving of a nice, hard punch.

Even if I couldn't personally deliver the knuckle sandwiches.

"And you're hot," he continued, "but not worth losing someone more important to me. You know the saying, 'Bros before respectable, lovely, and beautiful women.'"

I couldn't quite wrap my head around what he was trying to say, so I just flatly remarked, "You two have a strange relationship."

"Like I said, I owe him a lot. More than he'll ever admit." Eli leaned against the table with me. "He kept me out of trouble."

"You? Trouble?" I wasn't trying to be sarcastic. I couldn't see him being any sort of real troublemaker.

"Before I became A.F Smooth, my middle name was Trouble."

"I highly doubt that, Eli."

"It's true. My grades were bad, I skipped more classes than I attended. Got in with the wrong crowd of older kids..." He trailed off. "Then when I hit Theo with the car and he punched me, we called it even and went out for burgers."

Eli chuckled at the memory and I found myself smiling too.

"He started finding me at school, and dragged me to class with him. We did skip, still do sometimes, but he makes sure I'm studying so I won't fall behind again."