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“Then what was it?”
Eli ignores my question and tilts his head toward the door. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
Once outside of the stifling club, we join a handful of others loitering on the sidewalk.
“Thanks for the drink and for sharing your nachos,” I mumble. “I appreciate it.”
He flashes me a grin, his good humor returning. “Are you sure? Because you don’t sound so sure.”
“It’s not that. I’m just going to have to answer questions about why you were there, I think. It’s awkward.”
“We were just sitting together. Is it awkward because you’re into him?”
“No, it’s going to be awkward because I’m not. I just...” I pause, sighing. “I promised myself that I’d go out more and do things. This was me keeping that promise. I don’t want to hurt his feelings or whatever.”
“Who cares if you hurt his feelings? You can do a hell of a lot better than that douchebag.”
We stare at each other before a buzzing noise breaks the weirdness of the moment, and he fishes his cell phone out of his pocket.
“I’ve got to go,” he says, tapping on the screen before glancing back up at me. “Have fun with Bucket.”
“Don’t be mean.”
“Don’t be with that guy.” He gives me a pointed look as he walks a few steps backward. “Later,Hol.”
“Yeah, much later.”
He turns away, but I can hear his snort of laughter as he heads off in the opposite direction.
Beckett comes out right at that moment, and I force my gaze away from Eli’s retreating figure.
“Ready to go?” he asks, looking down at me.
“Sure.”
In reality, the only thing I want to do is run back to the dorm and crawl under the covers, then dissect everything that had happened tonight with Eli.
Gah. I’m so screwed.
5
“Trust me, Holland, we’re going to have so much fun!”
I give Mandi a sideways glare as I trudge into Oakmire University’s hockey arena. “No,you’regoing to have fun. I’m pretty sure that for me, it’s going to be 60 minutes of misery.”
Mandi laughs and tugs on the sleeve of my shirt. “You really need to try more things, Holland. It’s why I insisted you come tonight. How do you know you won’t like hockey unless you actually see a game?”
I don’t even bother to reply. I’m only here because Mandi wore me down, and I didn’t have anything else to do on a Friday night.
Which is pathetic, I know.
Okay, maybe that’s notexactlytrue. Beckett asked me to go to a movie tonight, but I panicked and told him that I was going to the hockey game with Mandi.
So here I am.
We’d had a nice enough time together at Sal’s after his concert, but it had been pretty awkward, too. Lots of pauses in our conversation, though that was probably my fault because I suck at small talk. Still, it reinforced my feelings that we are only meant to be friends.
Also, I couldn’t manage to get Eli out of my head. Which pisses me off. I still have no idea how to take Eli Donnelley. My brain is always doing mental gymnastics trying to figure out what it is that he wants from me.
