Page 14 of Foul & Fake
His gaze flicks over to mine. “Don’t tell me you’ve never had a drink before?”
“Of course I have,” I mumble. “I was just distracted for a moment.”
“Distracted how?”
He tugs me closer and bumps me playfully, nearly knocking me over. Yeah, the height difference doesn’t help.
“People were staring.”
“Ah, I see. You’re embarrassed to be walking with a jock,” he teases.
“That’s not it,” I say quickly. “I was just wondering why.”
“Probably wondering how I pulled you. Little do they know I couldn’t.” He laughs loud enough to make even more people glance over, but he ignores them all. His eyes are either on me or the mountain range behind campus, and when he abruptly stops walking, it takes me completely off guard. “Wait, stand right here for me.” He pulls out his phone and positions his camera near his chest. “Smile. Or don’t. Whatever feels right.”
The first one he takes has me wide-eyed and still in shock, but the second, I manage to be a human — smiling and all — despite the heat in my cheeks. No one has ever taken a picture of me like that before.
“Beautiful. I wish I had my Polaroid though. I wouldn’t be able to edit it, but some things don’t need editing. You’re blushing again, cupcake.”
He tosses an arm over my shoulder so we can keep walking, and I find myself melting against his side. Is this what it’s like to be with a guy who actually sees you, and wants to see you? Most of the guys I’ve met have been… different. It almost feels like Elias actually cares.
“Why do you call me cupcake?”
“Because they’re sweet and I’m dying for a taste. Nah, I don’t know… they seem small and innocent and I thought it would annoy you.” He flashes me a grin. “You like it, huh?”
“Nope, you hit the nail on the head if you were trying to be annoying.” The chilly air makes me step a little closer. “How much further?”
As the campus disappears behind us I spot other small groups of people heading in the same direction as us. “Like five minutes.”
It feels more like ten by the time we arrive. The sun has almost completely disappeared, and the music is so loud I don’t know how someone hasn’t complained.
It’s in a fancy enough looking townhouse for me to know he and his parents have money, all sharp grey edges and perfectly groomed bushes. The backyard is nicer than I want to admit with built-in seating around the fire, and the huge lit-up windows of his house weirdly make a great backdrop.
I find myself clinging to him a little tighter as the ground becomes uneven and I see all the people I have to fool. This wasn’t a good idea. “Which one’s your roommate?”
“Man bun.” He points over at the one I noticed earlier on the field, and he’s poking at the flames with a huge branch in one hand and a beer in the other. “He’ll come over when he spots us. What’s your drink?”
Eli takes my hand and tugs me toward the liquor tables against the house, and there’s so many options I don’t know what to choose. I usually just drink whatever’s handed to me. “Um… surprise me, just no tequila.”
“You got it.” I watch him grab two red cups he fills with ice, then pour three different kinds of alcohol, two of which I don’t recognize and the other pineapple Malibu, before he tops it off with soda and some kind of juice. “Here. We call thisEl Gato con Botas.”
I screw up my nose, moving out of Blake’s way when she starts to make one for herself. I don’t know her well, but she’s been nice the few times I’ve met her, so after a quick hello I take a peek into my cup. “The cat with boots? Like the one fromShrek?”
“Yup,” he says with a chuckle. “Don’t ask why, I don’t know the reason.”
Hesitantly, I take a sip, then smile as it goes down. “That’s actually really good. Likereallygood.”
I drink again, chugging this time, and it makes Eli do the same before he steps in to whisper in my ear. “Slow down there or I might let you take advantage of me,baby.”
“Might?” I ask, grinning up at him. “All of a sudden I have to work for it?”
“Mmhm. I’m not that easy.”
My breath hitches when his hand finds my hip, stopping me short from calling him out on how easily he offered his services the second we met, and then someone interrupts us before I can even find my words.
“Stop flirting over here, Reyes. Who’s this?”
Eli rolls his eyes and takes another drink. “You know who this is. Riley, this is Vito. My roommate.”
