“Oh god,” Eli groaned as he read through the texts. What was wrong with him?
Noah cast a worried gaze in his direction. “What is it?”
“Nothing,” Eli scrolled down through the messages.
Eli: Actually even better than that
Eli: wbu? All good?
Cameron:…
Cameron: Are you on something?
Eli: Ma car
Cameron: You’re on a car? You mean inside right?
Eli:
Cameron: Eli you have five seconds to answer me
Eli: Or what?
Cameron: Don’t
Eli: ;)
Cameron: I’m going to call Noah
Eli: Go on go on, tell him I luv him
Eli: wait come back
Cameron: where are you?
Eli: No
Cameron: On the way home?
Eli: On da wai hum
Cameron: Stop that
Eli: Make me
Eli had to look away. He couldn’t fight back another groan. Why had he been talking like that? They were only two minutes away from the school, and Eli knew he had to finish reading this before they arrived. There was a big gap in the texts, and the activity log for Cameron had a phone call that lasted five minutes. Eli had no idea what was said in that five minutes.
Cameron: You’re ridiculous
Eli: Dontcha know it
Eli: Oh
Eli: oh no
Eli: you twat
Cameron: What now? Why am I a twat?
Eli could picture Cameron’s amused, humouring expression as he wrote out these messages.
Eli: I kno you were being a hero
Eli: And a good person
Eli: but you broke my door
Cameron: You’re welcome for saving your arm
Eli: My arm is replaceable, my door is not
Cameron: It’s the other way around
Eli: It costs money to fix a door though
Eli: FUCK
Cameron: If you’re that upset I’ll fix it for you
Eli: The hospital bills, that’ll be expensive right?
Cameron: They
Eli: What if Noah gets mad
Cameron: Why would that make Noah mad?
There weren’t any more texts. Eli had either decided he was over-sharing, or much more likely, he’d fallen asleep at that stage. He put his phone away, and couldn’t stop cringing. Why had he been talking like that? It was already awkward with what Cameron had walked in on, and now he had to
Eli
Eli groaned and physically covered the screen with his hand. “Don’t read them.”
Cameron chuckled, “I take it this is how you drunk text?”
“I wasn’t drunk,” Eli grumbled, pushing him out of the way.
“Right, right,” Cameron leaned to the side, facing him as he spoke, “You were just high.”
“I hadn’t eaten, and the painkillers went straight to my head” Eli refused to look at him, but his cheeks heated
Cameron just hummed.
Eli manoeuvred all his books into his bags as best he
“Don’t rumple them up.”
“I believe the words you’re looking for are ‘thank you’” Cameron kept his bag in his arm, “How sore are you?”
The way Cameron phrased it made Eli hesitate. The question didn’t lend itself to an ‘I’m fine’ answer. “The painkillers are doing their job,” Eli shrugged, dismissing it as best he could.
Cameron titled his head, meeting Eli’s eyes. He
“What?” It was hard for Eli not to just look away when he was being stared at.
Cameron’s lips tugged down, and a slightly irritated expression made its way onto his face. “You’re not allowed to lie
“I didn’t lie to you about… that” Eli’s brow creased. Discomfort crept along his skin and made him glance around to make sure that was nobody within earshot.
“I mean just now,” Cameron muttered.
“just now?” Eli repeated blankly.
“
“Hey,” Eli scowled, grabbing the wrist that a hold of his face. Cameron wasn’t forceful enough to hurt him, but the grip wasn’t one Eli could just push off.
“You
Eli finally pulled out of Cameron’s grip. “I hate taking tablets, and I can’t behave like I did last night in school.”
“So take a few days off.”
“No, I need good attendance.”
“Why?”
The school bell rang, saving Eli from answering Cameron’s question. Eli was grateful for it. He was getting the feeling that Cameron
“Are you busy after school?” Cameron walked him to class.
Eli didn’t really have a choice, since he was holding his bag hostage. Eli didn’t want to answer ‘no’. “Why?”
“That’s a no,” Cameron nodded to himself, “tell Noah to go on ahead, you
Eli
As they arrived at class, Cameron handed him his bag. “Take it easy.”
*
Sinclair looked him over head to toe before class started. “Wow.”
“I know.”
“I got Noah’s text, but wow.” Sinclair shook her head. Her eyes
“A week or two,” Eli cut the time
“If you’re not up for it’s fine
Eli latched onto those words. “I can?”
“Sure, I’ll let my mom know.”
“That would be great, thanks” Eli let out a relieved breath, but his anxiety didn’t disappear entirely. Four months wasn’t enough to earn what he needed if he was only working weekends. If wanted to pay back Jenny, he’d need to do something else, but given the rules his dad had lay down that ‘something else’ was evading him. He needed more time to think of a solution.
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