The Sweetest Summer

Chapter Twenty - Nine - Slow Motion

An incessant buzzing woke me some time later, pulling me from my dream of Eli and back to my current even better reality with my head on his warm chest. Still, I begged the dream to pull me back under, wanting to escape into the fantasy of Eli and I on a mountain, making love in a cozy snowy chalet.

Buzz, buzz, buzz....

"Fuck." I groaned. "Make it stop..."

"Someone's grumpy." Eli laughed, and his gravely voice vibrated against my cheek. "I'd like to think you'd be in a better mood given the morning we've had..." I blinked open my eyes to find his sapphire eyes glimmering like the deep end of a swimming pool, and his cheeks a little pink beneath a fresh tan from the desert yesterday.

"I vote you get your cellphone to stop buzzing, so the morning doesn't have to end..." I licked my full lips, and he smiled against them as he dipped his head to kissed me gently.

"You don't have to ask me twice." He reached over me and grabbed the cellphone from his nightstand, freezing immediately.

"What is it?" I asked, tilting my head to try and read the screen but he sat up quickly, dumping me sideways onto the bed.

"Ow!" I held my head dramatically, but he didn't even glance back at me as he stood.

"Andrea, tell me what's happening?" Eli asked, sounding immediately like a businessman and not my best friend.

I sat up and drank from a glass of water on the nightstand next to my still dead cellphone and watched him pace the floor. His dark eyebrows knitted together and he bit his thumb between his teeth as he listened.

"So TMZ has already posted the photos? Fuck." He groaned and eyed me sideways as he spoke. Photos?! What photos?! Immediately my mind raced to the possibility of naked photos of Eli or of screenshots from some sordid sex tape with one of his conquests back in Vancouver.

"What's our next step?" He paused his pacing and nodded enthusiastically. "Okay, yeah. She's right here so I'll send her back in the chopper and take a car back with Tommy." He nodded again, and looked at me for a moment longer, but his eyes weren't their usual warm shade of blue, they were dark, almost black.

"Thanks, Andrea. Yeah, yeah I promise we 'll be more discreet." Discreet? I raised an eyebrow. "I'll call you later."

"Everything okay?" I asked quietly after he hung up.

"No. Not really." Eli tossed his phone onto the bed and waved his hand as if to say 'take a look'. I carefully picked up his iPhone with the hard all black case, and looked at the TMZ webpage that was pulled up.

Elijah West : Spotted with mystery blonde at Coachella

My eyes scanned past the headline to the photo of Eli and I kissing, his hands shoved into the back pockets of my jean skirt while my arms were snaked around his neck. My face angled up under his baseball hat, shielding our faces, but there was no denying it was us. I smiled at the way we looked like two lovers, enjoying one another, while also enjoying some damn good music.

I scrolled again to the next photo of us dancing, the photo was taken from behind so you could only see my back, but Eli's bright white smile was unmistakable. He looked so happy, so free...

"Am I missing something?" I asked, setting the phone back down on the comforter and Eli strode over to me, looking like I'd lost my mind.

"Did you see the photos? The headline?" He demanded scrolling through the article, finding the section he found most offensive, holding up a finger while reading out loud.

"And I quote...'Onlookers report that Elijah West and a mystery blonde were very much into one another, hanging all over each other, and kissing openly. They looked very natural and very much together...'" Eli groaned, slumping down onto the bed and holding his head in his hands.

"I'm sorry, what's so bad about that? We were together. We were kissing. It's not like they're lying...." I stood from the bed and slowly crossed the room, feeling my heartbeat begin to pick up a little. "Why are you so upset by it?"

"I'm upset because we're not together. I mean we're not a couple." Eli explained and my heart halted for a moment.

"What?"

"We're friends Avery, friends who've had a great time exploring some new terrain." He stood and placed his hands on my forearms in the middle of the bedroom. "But now this article is out there, and people are going to think we're dating. I'm supposed to be single this summer. I've got a romantic comedy coming out next year. It's one of my first big movies, and my agent Andrea was already planning for me to be seen out next week with the lead actress. You know, to drum up some publicity before we start shooting..."

My head swam so hard I staggered a little. Eli was planning on being single all summer, he never wanted more with me. He'd told me from the very beginning that he couldn't give me anything more, and it wasn't because of his parents, it was because of his career. He literally cared so little for our friendship that he was willing to risk everything to enjoy my body, but without any strings because it wouldn't be convenient for him. I'd never felt so cheap.

"Anyways, I think it would be a good idea if you went ahead and took the chopper with Leisha and Tommy and I took a car service back. We wouldn't want people to get the wrong idea...."

"No Eli, we wouldn't." I agreed, turning away, feeling absolutely humiliated and wanting nothing more than to be back in my house in Malibu and never leave again. I wanted to crawl under the covers in my UCLA sweatshirt, and forget that I'd ever loved Eli. That I'd ever given my entire self to him, body and soul, without condoms or concessions and all he did was throw me away.

But was he really the only one to blame? Not entirely. Eli had told me all summer he didn't want anything serious, and that he was selfish and messed up, but I had chosen not to listen. Shame on me for believing he could be more, and that I could make myself less.

"I'll see you back in Malibu. I'm going to shower." He kissed the side of my hair and I fought every instinct not to cringe away from his touch.

"Yeah, okay." I croaked, begging to not start crying. I remained stoic, not shedding a single tear until I was off the helicopter and back in front of my house, crumpling on my front porch. I sobbed for what felt like an hour until Collins found me and dragged me back upright.