Who's Fault?

Chapter Five

The universe is against me, I thought to myself. Something weird was going on with Xavier. Yeah, he'd always been annoying—on purpose—but recently he'd been... worse. It had been a little over a week since Eli confronted him about the nickname, and things were getting weird.

I didn't know what exactly changed, but Xavier was starting to make me uncomfortable. The other day I was walking to my theatre class and he pushed me up against the wall, put his mouth to my ear, and told me that I looked really good—"sexy," in his own words—that day. I was wearing a pair of baggy sweatpants, a t-shirt that was two sizes too big, and my hair was in a mop of a messy bun at the top of my head.

Yeah, I know. Not my best, but I had cramps and was nauseous after already throwing up earlier before leaving the house, so I wasn't about to try to look my best.

He would do things like that a lot. I was going to have to figure out some way to stop it, and quick.

Also, remember how I decided that I was going to shy away from Eli a little bit? Guess what? It didn't work. I had no control over how I felt for him and I couldn't seem to stay away. I mean I did... for two afternoons. The same afternoon I decided that, and the next. The first, I went to work and then home, worked on homework, and watched some TV before going to bed; I still couldn't get Eli out of my head. The next, I went over to Chloe's after work, to try to give myself a better distraction, but all she wanted to talk about was Eli and how I felt about him. Obviously, that didn't work out for me too well either.

In fact, I was at home now waiting for Eli to come pick me up. Earlier in class he mentioned wanting to try out this new pizza place and I, being the idiot I am, offered to go with him. He was so excited that he didn't have to go by himself, that he suggested we go after our class. He later realized he had to pick his four-year-old sister up from preschool before we could go. I was still being a dumbass, and told him he could just pick me up after he was done.

Let me just tell you, the smile that lit up his face was out of this world. I think my heart melted a bit when I saw it.

So, there I was, freaking out about what to wear to hang out at this pizza place with Eli and trying to ingrain in my head that this was not a date. He doesn't like me like that. This is not a date. Stop making this such a big deal. I sighed and finally decided on a pair of skinny jeans and a long-sleeved, striped, scoop neck top.

As I was finishing touching up my makeup, Eli texted me saying that he would be waiting outside. I quickly finished and made my way to his car outside.

I sat myself in the passenger seat and buckled myself up as Eli reversed out of the driveway. He quickly greeted me before focusing his attention back to the road, "hey Birdie."

"Hey!" I replied, hiding my face from him as I felt the heat rush to my cheeks.

I could feel his excitement radiating off him and it was contagious. His radio was playing music lowly and he finally spoke, voicing how he felt, "I'm so happy you volunteered to come with me. I really didn't want to go alone! You look beautiful by the way."

"Thank you! Pizza is my favorite, so anytime anyone mentions it, I'm definitely in." I told him, trying to mostly ignore the compliment he gave me. He's lying. I'm not beautiful.

"Mine too," Eli informed me, "what's your favorite kind of pizza?"

"Hmmm... that's a difficult one. Honestly, I think cheese is my favorite. What about you?" I swear all bets are off if he says something disgusting like-

"Pineapple."

"Please. Please for the love of all that is good... tell me you're joking." Bet he's not. He busted out laughing and didn't stop. "This is not a laughing matter! Pineapple does not belong on pizza!!" I said, trying to get through to him. It was a little amusing to watch him be so carefree like that, even though I made it clear that this wasn't funny.