♦ ♦

I'm so fucking hard right now.

And she's so oblivious.

The way she's wrapping her mouth around the spoon and licking it with her tongue is making me bounce my leg up and down aggressively.

"Want some?" she reached across the table, holding the spoon out for me to take a bite.

I shook my head no, and she just shrugged, putting it back in her mouth.

Fuck.

I force my eyes away from her.

"Nico?" her warm voice spoke. I moved my eyes back to hers, and she was looking at me with a little bit of concern. "Is everything okay?"

I nodded, "Yes. Don't worry about me. Are you ready to talk about what happened?"

She let out a sigh, tossing the spoon back into the cup holding her ice cream. She leaned back in her chair, and stared down at her stomach while putting a hand over top of it, "I'm so bloated right now."

"Shut up," my response was instant.

I find it dumb when she insults herself and speaks about herself negatively. Like when he called herself ugly that one time; that shit confused me more than math did in high school.

"Rio and I got into an argument," she told me. "Hey...if I tell you something, do you promise you will never tell anybody?"

"I promise."

She looked around, making sure that nobody else was listening. After about 10 seconds of her looking around, I nudged her arm, "You don't need to look that hard, Elle. We're the only people in here."

"Oh. Right."

She went to lean across the table to tell me, but I wanted her to be closer to me than that. I grabbed her chair and pulled her in it, making her sit directly beside me. Her eyes widened a little, "Wow. I could do that too, you know."

"I don't doubt it," I said while looking at her small arms.

She turned her body to be facing me, and I grabbed one of her legs, putting it over top of my knee. My hand rubbed up and down on her leg in a comforting motion, to make her more comfortable to tell me whatever she was going to say.

"My younger brother Rio used to be a heroin addict. He's clean now! But he's been staying away from all drugs since he got out of rehab," she told me, which actually caught me by surprise. You'd never think that he used to do that shit.

She continued, "But lately, he has been drinking and smoking weed. I know those aren't bad, but I'm still so worried that those will make him relapse."

"So, I don't know if I should tell my parents or not," she sighed.

I squeezed her thigh gently as she spoke. Her skin is so soft.

I'm so fucking hard.

I cleared my throat, trying to focus on what she just told me.

"Do you think it's likely that he would relapse?" I asked her.

She thought for a second. I stared into her eyes as she thought, and I wanted to run my hands through her hair badly. It kept like torture keeping them to my fucking self.

"He was really good at hiding it, and that's what worries me," she spoke quietly. "I don't want him to secretly be hiding it from me."

I sympathized with her. She's scared of losing him, and I know exactly how it feels to lose a sibling.

"What would your parents do?"

"Probably remove his door, not let him hang out with friends unless it was at our house, stuff like that," she shrugged. "And I don't want that to happen, I just want to make sure that he's okay."

Shit.

I don't wanna give her bad advice, but I don't know what the fuck I would do. I've never dealt with addiction before. But if it were Amara, and she was still here, I think I'd do whatever it took to keep her from relapsing.

"Maybe tell your other brother first," I suggest. "Then you two could talk about it together."

She nodded. I squeezed her leg slightly, "Come back to my house for a bit."

I was telling her that she was, more than asking her.

Her eyes and hair look like chocolate.

I'd never really paid attention to chocolate before, but I think it's my favorite thing now.

I wanna press my lips against her-

"Okay," she smiled. "But I have work in the morning, so I do need to get at least 8 hours of sleep or else I'll be tired in the morning and make it everybody's problem. Especially yours."

"Got it," I ran my hand up and down her leg one last time before releasing it and standing up.

I kept my eyes on her - watching her carefully. She's so fuckin' clumsy I don't even know how she isn't dead.

And sure enough, she was about to trip over the table leg. I pushed the table to the side with my leg quickly and wrapped my arm around her waist, keeping her up so that she didn't fall. She tilted her head back up and looked at me through her brown eyes.

I wonder what her excuse is gonna be this time.

"What a dumb place to put a table."

I fought back a smile. She always has an excuse for it.

'Your foot is too fat.'

'Why would they make this curb so high?'

'What a dumb place to put a table.'

"Yea, I hate when ice cream shops have tables in between chairs," I squeezed her cheek gently as I spoke, and I was expecting an eye-roll in response, but she smiled.

I held onto her hand as we walked out. I looked down at her, watching the side of her face.

Beautiful.

"Sometimes I get instructive thoughts and want to just run out into the middle of the road," she spoke up, making my grip on her hand tighten.

Insane. Beautiful, but insane.

"Do you get those, too?" she turned to look at me.

"Are you asking me if I'd ever thought about running into the middle of a busy road?" my eyebrows lowered. "Cause the answer is no."

"I also get the urge to jump off bridges into the water because I don't think I'd die," she shrugged as if that were a casual thought.

I shook my head, "How the fuck are you still alive?"

"Because I just think about it. I don't act on it," she spoke in a 'duh' tone.

There are some things I think about that I wish I'd act on.

We got to my car, and I held the passengers' side door open for her. I only did it, because knowing her, she'd find a way to hurt herself while doing it.

"Thank you," she smiled at me. "Such a sweetheart."

My heart skipped a beat in my chest.

Why the fuck is my heart skipping a beat at Elle calling me a sweetheart.

I shut the door while shaking my head, making my way around the car to the drivers' side.

I let her control the radio while we drove. She started to play some music and said that she's a barb, and I just nodded as if I know what the fuck that means.

Probably some astrology shit.

We entered my house once we got there, and I heard her stomach growl slightly.

"Hungry?" I asked her.

"Only a little. Do you have any fruit?"

I nodded and guided her towards the kitchen. I put my phone and keys onto the counter and grabbed some strawberries out of the fridge for her.

"Thirsty?" I asked her. "There are water bottles in the fridge."

I heard her open it and grab one, and she made a noise of excitement before telling me she was glad it wasn't Dasani.

I started slicing the strawberries and had sugar beside me to put on top of them. My phone rang behind me, and I glanced at it, then turned back around.

"Who is it, you pimp?" she asked while leaning against the counter.

"It's just a spam call," I shrugged.

I was going to ignore it and go back to cutting the strawberries, but watching Elle grab the phone and answer it made me ignore the fruit and watch her.

"Hello?" Elle spoke in a voice that was slightly higher than her actual one.

"Ma'am, you have committed tax fraud, but I am here to help you, okay?" the scam caller spoke.

Elle dramatically smacked her forehead and spoke in a fake stressed voice, "Oh nooo. Fuck, I can't go back to jail, I just got out. I swear I didn't mean to kill that man, I tripped and fell."

"It's okay, ma'am, I am here to help. Can you give me your SSN?"

"Yea...but first, can I ask something of you?" she asked, and I watched her with a small smile.

"Uh, sure," they replied.

She suddenly got really close to the phone and spoke in a deadly serious voice, "Can you tell me the color of your eyes? I wanna think about you while I give it to you."

I crossed my arms while I watched a mischievous grin from on her face. She was smiling widely, having so much fun.

The person calling responded like he was scared of her, "....T-they are blue, ma'am."

"Sea blue? Crystal blue? Navy blue?" she slammed her fist against the counter. "Goddamn it, I need to know now."

The person on the other end went silent.

'Your call has been disconnected.'

She started laughing after, and the sound of her laughing made me join in with her. Her laugh is fucking contagious.

I kissed the top of her head. Her hair smells good.

She fiddled with the water bottle cap in her hands until it slipped out and landed on the floor behind her. She turned around and bent over to pick it up, and I sucked in a breath when her ass touched the front of me for a second.

She gasped when she felt that, shooting back up and turning around. Her mouth, which was in an 'O' shape, slowly turned into a smile. An evil smile, as if she had just realized something.

"Did you like that?" she teased, although her cheeks were slightly pinky as she did so.

No.

Yes.

A lot.

Jesus Christ, these jeans are uncomfortable.

"Foods ready for you," I replied, and I turned around to grab the bowl of fruit.

I handed it to her, and she was still grinning from ear to ear. She knows how she just made me feel, and she looks like she's goddamn proud of it.

"Get that smirk off of your face," I ruffled her hair a little. "Or I'll get it off for you."

"Yea? How you gonna do that, Mr. 5'10 on a good day?" she teased.

I grabbed her face and bent down, pressing my lips against hers. Her lips moved with mine, and she tasted like fucking cookie-dough ice cream.

I kissed her for probably longer than I should've, but that didn't stop me from pressing my lips against her neck softly after.

When I pulled away and saw her pink cheeks now red, I smirked to myself.

She put the strawberries into her mouth, and I put the bag of sugar away.

While she ate, she glanced at the clock and sighed, "I should have my brother come pick me up soon. My parents don't work nights tonight, and they'd kill me if I spent the night at your house."

"Why?"

"Because you're a boy," she annunciated every syllable, looking at me like it was obvious.

"So fucking what?"

She shook her head, "Something tells me my parents are different than your parents."

Hopefully. Haven't spoken to them in years, and don't ever plan to.

Elle's sweet. Understanding. I know that she would understand why I don't speak to them anymore, but even just thinking about them disgusts me.

"Nico? Are you okay?" she gave me a worried look. "You look pale."

I psychically feel ill just thinking about them.

"I'm fine," I nodded.

I took the now-empty bowl from her and put it in the sink to wash later. She pulled out her phone to text her brother, although I wasn't sure which one she was talking about.

"You don't want me to drive you home?" I asked.

She shook her head, "I want my brother to pick me up, because I think it's time to tell him who I've been hanging out with."

I'm a grown man getting fuckin' butterflies over her telling her brother about me.

"And what are you gonna say?"

She took a dramatic deep breath while looking me up and down. Her eyes on me made me pathetically flex my muscles a little bit.

"Nico Cross: Self-defense teacher, doctor, tattoo artist. 5'10, but maybe 5'9. Nice hair, very soft. Oh, and also, he likes it when girls bend over," she smirked.

I shook my head, "I like it when you do, dumbass."

"Bend over, Nico. I did it for you, it's only fair that you do it for me," she laughed.

"Hell fucking no."

"Come on! Don't act all shy!" she continued to laugh, and I held onto her hand while I looked at her with a smile.

I'm not fuckin' shy. But she does make me a little nervous.

A car honked outside, but I kept holding her hand. In fact, I held it tighter.

"Bring me a coffee in the morning?" she smiled sweetly.

I nodded, already planning on doing that.

"Then I'll see you tomorrow," she said while stepping back.

I kept holding her hand for as long as I could before she was too far, making it fall back to my side. I watched as she left, and as she opened the door, she gave me a smile over her shoulder.

I smiled back, and she shut the door.

But even after the door had been shut for five minutes,

I was still smiling.

---------

A buzzing noise pulled me out of my sleep.

I pushed myself up, rubbing my eyes with my index finger and thumb.

"Fuck," I muttered to myself. I'm so fucking pathetic.

Having a wet dream about Elle goddamn Russo.

I need to have a cold shower and take care of this. Now.

Or invite her over, and hope she feels the same way that I do.

I moved my hand to turn my alarm off, but my eyebrows knitted together as I looked around my room, seeing that it was still dark. I whipped my head around, looking at the clock and seeing that it was 4 am.

My eyes squinted as I looked back at my phone. I raised it to my ear the second that I saw Elle was calling me, immediately worried that she was hurt. I picked up, "Elle? Is everything okay?"

She hiccuped while she cried, "I'm sorry for waking you up, but I didn't know who else to call. C-can you come get me?"

I shot out of bed, making my blankets fall onto the floor.

"Where are you?" I asked while using my shoulder to press the phone to my ear, using both of my hands to pick up the clothes I had tossed onto my chair before falling asleep.

"I...." she sniffled. My heart ached in my chest hearing her cry.

I waited patiently for me to tell her, not wanting to pressure her when I had no idea what happened.

She finished her sentence, "I don't know."