Summary: Song title is Don’t Let Go by En Vogue.
In a study room, he was writing a new play that was surely going to earn him a Tony Award.
The room was super gothic, with black walls, black furniture, and a black rug on a grey carpet. It was decorated with fake skulls, band posters, vintage film posters. He was surrounded by large bookcases filled to the brim with books from multiple genres. The room was dimly lit with tall, black candles, and it gave the room a warm, earthy coloring. Soft instrumental music played in the background while the fireplace was roaring.
Eli was sitting in a big, leather seat that was black in color. The wooden desk in front of him was well polished and mahogany colored. The laptop in front of him was the latest Macbook with a black case. An empty coffee mug was next to it. It was his dream study room.
He was excitedly typing the summary of the storyline when he felt soft pats on his leg. Eli looked down and made a face of surprise when he saw two little black girls in front of him. They couldn’t have been older than toddlers, although one must have been older than the other due to her taller height.
Where had they come from? They were dressed in matching pink pajamas with bunnies and flowers printed them. They were also wearing a pair of bunny-shaped slippers each, and purple hair bonnets.
“We hungy, Daddy,” the younger one told him, rubbing her tummy. The older one nodded in agreement.
Daddy?
“Huh?” Eli asked them, very confused. They must have been confused.
The younger one gave him a glare that was eerily familiar. She then slapped his leg a little rougher than before.
“We hungy, Daddy,” she repeated in a frustrated voice.
“Hey! Don’t hit me, that’s not nice!” He scolded. The little girl could only pout in response while the older of the two just rubbed her belly while looking at him sadly. What the hell was going on? Who were these little girls and where were their parents?
“Eliiiiiii, take a break from the play and come make us some breakfast! I’m starving!” He heard Marisol’s voice whine from the hallway. Okay this was getting weird. As he heard footsteps approaching the room, he was wary of what he was about to see. Was it going to be Marisol in black lingerie and heels again?
The door opened, and Marisol walked in a nightgown, a silk bonnet, and fuzzy slippers.......
.....and a huge pregnant belly.
If he was in a cartoon, he was sure that this was the part where his eyes bugged out over dramatically in shock. His jaw would also probably hit the floor.
“I want some waffles, eggs, and bacon, Emo Bear. Make us some, pleeeeaasssee? Make that some waffles with strawberries, chocolate syrup, and whip cream on top,” She requested while holding her pregnant stomach.
“I wan cholate pancays,” the younger little girl added in a bossy tone. Looking at Marisol and then looking at the girls made Eli realize that they looked like Marisol, albeit with some clear differences. The older one had almost her exact skin tone, hair and eye color while the younger one had her facial features and eye shape but her skin was a light beige, her hair was a light brown, and her eyes were green like his. Wait. Eli took a closer look at the younger girl and realized that she had the exact same shade of green eyes as he did, and the same curly, brown hair as his own when it wasn’t dyed. Weird.
“Well, don’t keep us waiting. I’m hungry, the girls are hungry, and so is our little baby in here,” Marisol ordered and at the last part, gestured to her stomach.
“Our baby?” He asked incredulously. She narrowed her eyes in frustration.
“Yes, doofus, our baby. I eat for two, remember?” She reminded him while putting one hand on her hip.
“You’re pregnant with my baby?” He asked her as he couldn’t comprehend the thought of it. Him, impregnating Marisol Lewis? Then there’s no way the toddler girls in the room with them weren’t his kids either. This was crazy and unbelievable.
“Has the late night coffee muddled your brain? Who else would be Yvette’s daddy? Now make us some breakfast now please,” Marisol demanded with an amused look.
“Breagfis!” The younger little girl repeated while stomping her foot and giving him a look.
He was truly dumbfounded, but he found himself rising out of the chair.....
———
WHACK!
Eli fell off of his bed and hit the floor.
He let out a groan of pain as he lifted himself up. While rubbing his sore head, he looked around his room. It was daytime he could hear the birds chirping loudly outside. The alarm clock on top of his nightstand read 9 am. Well that dream was certainly insane compared to the wet dreams he was used to having at this point. Him and Marisol as parents? That was a thought that never even crossed his head at this point.
Marisol was snoring loudly as she slept in his bed with his bedsheets wrapped around her body. After they made out on his couch last night for what seemed to be an hour, he took her upstairs to continue the session in his bedroom and things got.....intense. They did a little more than kissing and some clothes came off though thankfully no undergarments. Afterwards they watched another movie while cuddling until they fell asleep. She kept trying to hog his own blanket all night and wouldn’t kicking him to his irritation. At one point he had to hold her in his arms tightly to get her to stop. Clare was never like this when they fell asleep together. She never snored and she slept like an infant.
As he watched her sleep, he couldn’t help but be amused at the sight of this super girly cheerleader wrapped around in a blanket with skulls painted on them. It was just so unusual. The way she looked around his room in disgust when she first saw it would have probably offended him if he didn’t find it funny. Now she knew how he felt when he saw her room for the first time.
They were so different from each other, and he only used it as another argument as to why they couldn’t be in an actual relationship. Clare was different from him but they shared a common interest in writing and literature. They were both so passionate about their interests too. Him and Marisol had nothing in common; They were complete opposites. As a couple they would be a disaster.
‘She enjoys movies and theatre as much as you do, doesn’t she?’ An annoying voice asked in his mind. ‘She’s passionate about those things as much as you are.’
‘But we are two different social circles! A cheerleader with an emo kid? How would that even look?’ He argued.
‘You apparently want to find out because you keep letting her in, Eli,’ the voice argued.
‘Because she has this hold over me I can’t control! He argued loudly to himself, and he had the sudden urge to throw something. His feelings for the girl in his bed were causing him turmoil again. He shouldn’t have kissed her night at Little Miss Steaks and he shouldn’t have made out with her last night. Letting her stay over his house was a mistake, too. He just wanted to throw a party to show how much he supported her, and it nearly ended in him having sex with her.
How long could he let this continue when the play was literally premiering this week? He wrote a play to get the love of his life back, and here he was shaking up with Marisol and dreaming about their life with kids? What the hell was wrong with him these days?
Eli thought of the million reasons why Marisol was not a good fit for him compared to Clare. What was frustrating is that his mind kept countering all those reasons with reasons why she was a good fit for him. It was driving him crazy.
Then Marisol did something in her sleep that made everything even worse at the moment.
“Elijah....,” Marisol moaned in her sleep. It was soft, and so light he almost didn’t hear it.
That was all it took for it to cause a reaction in his boxers.
She moaned his full name again, which was a clear indication of what kind of dream she was having right now, and Eli was rushing to his bathroom to take a very cold shower.
—————-
Last night was so unexpectedly magical that she had a hard time wrapping her mind around it.
Marisol ate the cereal she fixed for herself in Eli’s kitchen. It was Cinnamon Toast Crunch, her favorite cereal. A part of her wanted to believe Eli had set this up for her too. Eli was sitting across from her and he was just spinning his spoon in his bowl of Frosted Flakes for some reason. The atmosphere was uncomfortably quiet. She never liked quiet, especially now after recent events.
“Last night was really great, Eli. I don’t know how to thank you,” she said, initiating the conversation.
“Don’t worry about it,” he replied in a distant tone while not meeting her eyes. Marisol frowned at that. Something was up with him and she didn’t like it.
“So are we going to discuss what went on between us after the party was over?” She asked with a hopeful smile. They have kissed, made out on his couch, and groped each other, and even shed some clothing. Surely, there was no way they were just friends at this point, right? What they had currently going on was something she always fantasized about in her teen romance novels.
“I’m not ready to,” Eli admitted.
“Why not? You like me, don’t you? That’s why we kissed. You let me take your shirt off,” she pointed out, nervously. Considering how beefy her last boyfriend was, she should have been incredibly disappointed with how skinny Eli was but she wasn’t. She kinda liked his body type because it wasn’t intimidating compared to Owen’s.
But that wasn’t the problem right now.
“You kissed me first at the restaurant, and you slow danced with me. And then you threw a whole party for me. This whole semester, we’ve been getting close because of the play, and I know there’s something growing between us,” she added, with her voice increasing in pitch by the end. She felt her heart slowly drop in fear. Eli was not playing her, was he? No way. He wasn’t Owen. There was no fucking way.
“There’s a lot going on with the play right now, Marisol. I really can’t focus on anything I want until after it’s over, okay?” He explained to her. “I have a hard time getting my emotions together, lately.”
“You’ve been taking your meds, Eli?” She questioned in worry.
“Yeah,” he answered, and something told her he was lying. She could tell he was….off.
“I could leave if you want,” she offered. If she was making him feel bad, she didn’t want to continue doing it even if she desperately needed to know if he had feelings for her.
To her surprise, he shook his head.
“No, don’t. For some reason, I don’t want you to go,” he denied quickly. She sighed in relief. She didn’t feel like parting from him either.
“Then what are we going to do?” She asked him.
It took them a moment to figure that out.
“Come on….come on….please....yes….yes….YES!” Marisol cried out in pleasure.
Her car ended up in first place. She had won the race against Eli.
“This game is rigged,” Eli grumbled as his car ended in second place. He was salty as shit right now. At first he was in the lead at the beginning of the race and then with one bad turn, Marisol was suddenly able to take advantage and steal first place. It was especially annoying since he was sure he picked the right car and abilities.
They were at an arcade at the mall, and after playing several games they decided to race against each using the car machines. For some reason, Marisol won the majority of these games and it wasn’t fair! There was no indication before today that Marisol even knew what an arcade machine was.
“It’s not rigged, Emo Boy. You’re just a sore loser,” Marisol taunted, which made him growl in response. Of course she would say that when she was the one on top.
“I demand another round,” Eli challenged.
“Nope, let’s move to a different game that I can beat your ass at,” Marisol rejected with a smirk as she got up out of her seat. She grabbed her handbag and slung it over her shoulder. Her eyes scanned the area for a new game. “Over there! Let’s shoot hoops!” She exclaimed excitedly as she pointed to the machines in the corner of the arcade.
“Basketball? Not my thing,” Eli replied dryly. When he was a kid, he once tried playing basketball with some older neighborhood kids at the court. The event somehow ended in him losing two of his front teeth and a bleeding nose. That was the end of his interest in sports.
“Oh what are you scared of? Losing again?” Marisol taunted, which made him glare at her. “What if there was something more at stake here?” She offered suggestively.
“Like what?” He questioned, curious.
“Whoever loses has to buy the winner an ice cream afterwards,” she explained with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
For whatever silly reason, he could go for an ice cream right now.
“Whatever, let’s do it,” he accepted.
“Best out of three?” Marisol asked. He nodded.
He suddenly found himself dragged off by an excited Marisol. When they ended up at the basketball hoops, they took their positions in front of the machines and put their quarters in them.
They had 45 seconds.
As soon as the basketballs started rolling towards them, they grabbed the balls and started shooting. Nothing else was on his mind than destroying Marisol and wiping that smug grin of her face.
Before he knew it, the game was over as quick as it started. Marisol won twenty-two to his eighteen. Pathetic. This would not do. Marisol continued smiling smugly as he put another quarter in. For round two, he even got into a competitive stance for the spirit of the game. He was not going to fuck around this time.
To his surprise, he won the second round with a score of thirty-eight. Marisol let out a noise of protest and this time he gave her a smug look.
“Who’s the loser now, Princess?” He mocked her. She scowled at him in response.
“We’ll see with this final round,” she warned, as she pulled one final quarter out of her purse.
“Okay. By the way I like a nice scoop of Rocky Road,” he replied with an evil grin. When the balls started rolling towards him, he felt himself get caught up in a frenzy. His vision turned blood red. He didn’t even feel his hands as he was shooting hoops. He could feel himself sweat though, and it was like he was in an actual basketball game in the fourth quarter.
The alarm on the games sounded off loudly as they both stopped. Eli took a deep breath as he looked at the scores.
“What the fuck?” He loudly exclaimed in anger while Marisol squealed in joy and started bouncing up and down.
Marisol’s score was forty-four.
His score was…fifteen.
Fucking fifteen.
“Hah! Loser!” Marisol teased him, laughing at his misery. He bristled and he could feel steam coming out of his nose.
“Looks like I’m getting a strawberry ice cream with sprinkles and cherries on top,” Marisol stated with an evil smirk on her face.
He could only growl in response.
“She hasn’t spoken to me all day!” Katie complained to Drew on the phone.
“Maybe she’s busy?” Her crush suggested. She could hear him chew on something in the background.
“With what? Homework?” She asked in irritation. She wasn’t at Drew, but at Marisol for ignoring her calls. She wanted to know what happened after she left. She hoped Marisol didn’t sleep with Eli at his house. Just the thought made her nauseous.
“I dunno, maybe she’ll tell you tonight,” he answered, and she knew he was shrugging at the moment.
“I knew I should have made her come back with me and not stay over that creep’s house,” she lamented.
It sounded awful but Katie never trusted boys around Marisol, especially after Marisol dated Owen and he treated her like shit. Eli Goldsworthy, a guy who crashed his car for his last girlfriend so she wouldn’t leave him, wasn’t exactly an upgrade even if he was way smarter than Owen. She was waiting for Eli to hurt Marisol because she knew it was coming. She didn’t trust him at all.
And because of what recently happened with Marisol, she was also feeling overprotective of her best friend. What Marisol had recently gone through her sexual assault made Katie feel terrible for not being there at that moment for Marisol. Marisol had actually invited her to the restaurant that night for the dance party but Katie told her she didn’t feel like it and was just going to do homework. When she heard on the news that a girl nearly got gangraped at Little Miss Steaks and when she found out on Monday that it was Marisol, she wanted to crawl into a hole and die. All of those times Marisol was there for her, and she couldn’t sacrifice one measly night for her? She knew martial arts, she could have stopped those bikers from dragging her friend into that alleyway.
In her heart, Katie knew she should be grateful towards Eli for saving Marisol but she couldn’t. She hated that it wasn’t her. It should have been her. Marisol was her best friend and she was unable to protect her in her darkest moment.
She hated herself.
“I think you should relax, Katie,” Drew told her gently. His voice was really soothing. The more she talked with Drew, she realized how much a sweet guy he was compared to the rumors she heard about him. He was determined and caring. Marisol would have been better off crushing on him instead of Eli.
And he was an amazing kisser.
“I want to but I’m worried about Mare these days,” Katie confessed as her cheeks grew hot at the memory of Drew passionately kissing her. She didn’t think she ever liked a guy as much as she did Drew Torres. It was only a matter of time before they started dating and she was already in ecstasy at the thought.
“Well I think you should let Mare handle things her own way. It seems like she’s in good hands,” Drew advised.
“Fine,” she replied, biting her lip in hesitation. She’ll let it go. For now.
“Now can we do something fun? Like play a round of twenty questions over the phone?” He offered.
“Sure!” She replied enthusiastically, hoping he could feel how hard she was smiling over the other end.
“Okay. Favorite color?”
“Blue….”
They were sitting in the backseat of her car, eating ice cream together, as the sun set.
“You know, you are a real troublesome girl Marisol Lewis,” Eli dryly commented as he finished the last of his cup of ice cream. Since he was forced to buy Marisol some ice cream because he lost the bet, he figured that he might as well buy some for himself. Fuck it.
“Why?” She asked him while fluttering her eyelashes innocently. Her own cup of strawberry ice cream was finished.
“You know why. You’re too bubbly, energetic, and girly for my liking,” he told her with an amused look. ‘And a fucking tease,’ he thought to himself. Marisol spent the whole licking at her ice cream and spoon in a way that was making him think of something….else. He had to control himself. What was worse that a few guys that had walked past them had given Marisol suggestive looks that definitely meant they were having the same perverted thoughts as he was. He had to send them nasty looks before they even dared to make passes at her.
“Then why do you keep hanging around me, Emo Boy? I think you like my attitude,” Marisol told him teasingly as she ate the last of her treat. Some of it accidentally dropped onto her chest, which a part of it was showing due to some of the buttons on her shirt being unbuttoned. Eli fought hard to control whatever feelings were bubbling underneath him.
“It’s an acquired taste,” he replied with a shrug. He hoped it came off as casual.
“Eh? Well I like you a lot, Eli. You’re just so interesting and figuring you out is like completing the hardest puzzle. You’re intelligent, passionate, funny, caring, kind, and unbelievably attractive,” she complimented as she dumped her cup in a trash bag. “And after what you did for me, I think I might be falling in love with you Eli,” she confessed, “You’re the most incredible guy I ever met and I don’t want nobody as much as I do you. You make me think about things I never thought before and make me try new things. You’re my light, Eli Goldsworthy,” Marisol finished passionately.
“Woah,” he could only say in shock. He was truly floored even though he already knew how much her feelings ran deep for him. But what about his feelings for her? Eli took in Marisol’s appearance. He was definitely attracted to her. There was no point in denying that. She was possibly the most gorgeous girl he ever met with the most beautiful smile. It was intoxicating. With her smooth dark skin, dark eyes, and full lips, he couldn’t help but desire her even when he shouldn’t.
But it wasn’t just her beauty that kept drawing him to her, was it? No, she had a super fun and entertaining personality. She had her moments of being stuck up, shallow, and self-centered but she was also caring, introspective, and compassionate. She was more than the ditzy cheerleader she liked to present herself as. She was like a difficult puzzle too to figure out.
‘But she’s not Clare Edwards,’ one of his inner voices nagged in the back of his mind.
“Woah?” Marisol asked with a nervous look in her eyes. He could tell that she wanted to kiss him but was scared of getting rejected.
‘She’s the exact opposite of everything that made you fall in love with Clare,’ the inner voice pointed out.
‘She is,’ Eli agreed.
At the moment it didn’t matter.
He wanted Marisol, not Clare.
Eli leaned over and kissed Marisol passionately on the lips, savoring the sweet taste of ice cream on her lips. She responded in no time and opened her mouth immediately to give him access. Their kiss deepened as he melded his tongue with hers. The warmth of her mouth was making his body heat up. After a few minutes, he pulled apart from her and pushed her down on the backseat. She looked at him in surprise before he crawled on top of her and slammed his lips down on hers again. She then let out a seductive moan.
He reached down and started unbuttoning her shirt……..
“I can’t believe I paid to see that. That movie was some ass, bruh,” Dave complained as him and K.C. walked out of the mall and into the parking lot.
The short story was that Dave decided that they should have a boy’s night out since K.C. was recently single and he needed some cheering up. Not that it wasn’t his fault that he was single in the first place.
As bad as it was, K.C. really didn’t care that he was cheating on Jenna until she found out. He was so caught up in his torrid affair with Jess that the fact that he had a girlfriend and baby at home did not cross his mind the times they were having sex, nor did he really think of the consequences of such a terrible act.
But now, here he was, single and about to be childless. He had failed Tyson and soon his own child would be in the hands of another family. In the end, he was really no better than his father.
K.C. did not remember a time when he was more miserable.
The movie was awful. It was some stupid slasher flick that he and Dave only saw because the trailers teased a lot of really hot girls going naked. Except that there weren't many that did and the one girl that did had a really bad boob job. Not really much of a pick up from his terrible mood. The kill scenes in that movie weren’t even that interesting either. What a waste of time and fake IDs.
“Well, you convinced me to see it,” K.C. replied wearily. He just wanted to go home now and brood more about his currently shitty life.
“You wanna get some food at The Dot after this?” Dave offered him. He was about to say no when his stomach growled loudly. Well, maybe a nice burger could help his mood right now.
“Sure,” he replied.
They were walking past some cars to find Dave’s, when he spotted a very familiar one that looked like Marisol’s. The license plate actually was hers. Curious, K.C. walked up to the car to get a closer look….
….And the sight that greeted him was one he would painfully never forget.