Page 22 of Ominous: Part 1
My chest heaves, skin tingling, when the door is pushed open, the person inside with me grunts as they’re thwacked with it, and my eyes dart from them, to Eli, looming in the doorway, light spilling into the room.
“I think you blinded me,” Fred grunts, his meaty hand slapped over his eye.
“I think you deserve it.” Eli’s voice is cold as he takes in the dropped spray bottle, me clutching the gym towel, and Fred, who was the last person to use this bed. I know, because I set the timers, but that was half an hour ago.
I’m still catching my breath, but relief swims through me at the sight of Eli, especially when he flicks on the light switch.
When it illuminates the space, I turn my head and find Fred glaring at Eli, one of the former’s eyes red and swollen. “What are you even doing back here, dude?”
Eli smiles, but there’s nothing nice about it. “I think you should leave.”
I find words, finally, and ask, “Why were you in here?” looking in Fred’s direction.
He swallows, his thick neck rolling as he looks at me. “I thought I left something,” he mutters, glancing around the room. There’s a small trash can with the backings of stickers in it, a stack of towels on a ledge screwed into the wall, and a little fan, plugged in but off. Nothing else. “I guess not.” He glares at Eli but looks apologetic when he turns to me again. “Sorry, Eden. Didn’t mean to scare you,” he mutters. He shuffles toward the door, and Eli turns only enough to let him walk by, but he doesn’t move from the doorway.
Fred is thick, but Eli is taller, and when he passes by, Eli says, so quietly I barely hear him, “Don’t follow her again.”
Fred stiffens, his hands curled into fists, T-shirt pulled tight over his wide shoulders. But he doesn’t say a word as he leaves the room, disappearing down the hall, leaving me alone with Eli.
Eli swoops down to pick up the spray bottle, and carefully hands it to me. I take it without touching his skin, my movements jittery.
He stares down at me, and for a second, I’m reminded of bully romance novels.Is he going to, like, slam me against the wall?
But instead… he backs up.
“You have fast reflexes,” he says quietly, sounding almost proud of me.
I’m looking everywhere but at him, my fingers clammy around the plastic bottle, but I hear a smile in his words.
I wait for him to admonish me for that sneak attack Fred pulled, but he doesn’t. Instead, all he says is, “Do you want a ride home?”
“My brother can pick me up.” I clench my fingers in the gym towel, still looking down.Did Fred touch me on purpose? It was probably an accident, right? What if Eli hadn’t come back here?
Eli huffs the softest laugh. Then he says, “I’ll wait ‘til you’re done. Meet me at the front. Preferably without that bottle.” He walks out before I can argue, and with the lingering feel of Fred’s fingers on my low back, I don’t even want to.
* * *
“You’re takingme straight home, right?”
He’s standing at the driver’s side door of his car, my bag in his hand, hanging by his side. He insisted on carrying it out, just like he insisted on opening the passenger door for me.
But I’m still standing outside his car, and I keep one hand on the top of the door, the scent of leather and coconut strong enough to feel like a physical warmth in my chest.
In the lights of the parking lot, I see him roll his eyes. “I did Monday night, didn’t I?”
True enough. I glance at the bandage on my middle finger. It’s easier than looking at Eli without a shirt on. It’s around his shoulders, like a towel, and his body is covered in sweat, which makes me feel a little less alone with the sheen of it on my forehead, even though only one of us was working out. He only slipped his shirt off—one handed, curving his back, in that hot way boys do—after we’d walked out into the night. I clear my throat before I speak again. “But Monday night, I didn’t know you knew my entire schedule, and where I worked. I also didn’t know you were planning on stopping by my place of work, spending over three hundred dollars on a membership so you’d have an excuse to stalk me harder and get me alone in your car again, instead of just… I don’t know, texting me?”
He bites his lip, his cheeks lifting with a half-smile. “Stalk you harder, huh?” His tone is suggestive, and I feel every inch of the suggestion in my core. He glances at the gym. “Looks like you’ve got a few stalkers.”
My stomach flips with the reminder.Fucking Fred.
Resting his forearm on the roof of the car, Eli looks toward the grocery store of the strip mall. “You upset I didn’t text you?”
I don’t give that question an answer. I’m afraid it’s painfully obvious and I feel kind of stupid for making it so. I mean, he showed up here instead. “How did you know where I work?”
“People talk.”
I stare at his side profile but I refuse to give that non-response a retort.
