Page 36 of Ominous: Part 1
8
Eden
“Get it over with.”I know he’s savoring all four of his wins. Three pins and the final match by points, I think he would’ve had the pin if he hadn’t been so tired. Even though I knew it would add another question to the tally, I still couldn’t stop from standing in the bleachers, and while I didn’t clap like the Trafalgar parents around me, my smile made him reflect one back to me as the ref held up his arm,again.
I waited while he showered, the aftermath of the tournament no less busy than the duration of it. People mopping down mats, rolling them up, chairs carried back to classrooms, wrappers picked up from around the edges of the gym. I felt I should do something, but no one asked me to help out, and the boys from both the home and away teams seemed to have it under control.
I watched Eli interact with his teammates. His coach seems to quietly adore him, the coach’s wife too, with glasses just like her husband’s. She hugged Eli close, and he towered over her, giving her a squeeze back. Not for the first time, I thought about his mom.
His teammates seem to regard him with awe, and he’s the quietest in the group, but he’s the clear leader by the way everyone pivots toward him after a match, at the end of the tournament, before they got on the mat, anything at all, it’s like they’re looking at him to decide which step they should take next. Asking silent permission.Submission.
What would it feel like, I wondered more than once, to take control of someone like Eli? Does he ever let it happen?
Now, behind the wheel of his car, smelling like soap and the sea, his hair damp from the shower he had in the locker room while I read Chaucer from my backpack, he’s smiling like a cat, the faintest dimple showing in his cheek.
The day has gotten grayer, and as he pulls through the high iron gates of Trafalgar, I see a crack of lightning fork violently down from the sky, the boom of thunder seconds later. I think of Mom at the trailer, Sebastian on the road, and I slip my phone from my back pocket, waiting for Eli to ask the first of his four questions.
Mom: Are you still going to your friend’s house?
Me: Yeah, is it raining there?
Eli turns up the music at the same time he increases the speed on his windshield wipers, cool air from the vents clearing the smoggy glass when he turns right at the light outside of the school.
Mom: A little. We’re keeping an eye on tornado warnings. Be careful. What time will you be home?
I bite my lip, bouncing my knee as I glance at Eli. He’d told me to stay the night with him, but I can’t do that.It was a joke, anyway.Besides, tomorrow I have to work, and I shouldn’t be considering a sleepover.
Before I text Mom back, there’s a loud ringing through his speakers. I jump with the sound, and Eli glances at his dashboard. I see his eyes narrow, but surprising me, he answers the call.
“Hey.” His tone is dull and subdued.
My heart feels like it’s going to fly out of my chest, and I don’t even know why.
“How did it go?” The voice through the speakers is cheerful. Deep and male and attractive.
Eli’s grip tightens on the shifter. “Great.” His tone is clipped.
I frown, dropping my eyes to my phone screen, which has gone dim.
The person on the other line laughs, but it sounds a little tired. “Just great?”
Eli takes his time replying as he drives. Thunder booms outside of the confines of his luxury vehicle. “Yep.”
Why are you being so rude?I don’t even know who it is, but he’s older, I think, maybe… it’s his dad? My pulse decides to hammer harder against my ribcage.
The man clears his throat. “You’re headed to the vigil, right?”
I blink down at my phone, my limbs stiffening.Vigil?
Eli gives a sexy, disrespectful half-laugh, half-scoff. “Sure.” It doesn’t sound like he’s telling the truth.
“Dominic will really appreciate it, you know. His family too.”
Eli says nothing to this. I peek at him from my side of the car, and I see his full lips are pressed tight together.
“Well, call me if you need me, okay?”
“Yep.”
