Elly & Kent - The Complete Story: Includes Books 1-3 (9 page)

I closed my eyes, sticky making me think of Kent with his hand around his...
Quit it, Elly! Focus!

I cleared my throat and followed him to the counter.

"Two doubles with bacon and cheese, a large order of cheese fries and two Mountain Dews, please."

Kent reached for his wallet but I was already ready with a twenty in hand. I slapped it on the counter and smiled victoriously at him. He grinned and nudged me gently with his elbow. "Thanks."

"Birthday treat, you know that."

"Yeah, yeah."
 

I took the change and slid it into his pocket. He looked a little flustered and I smiled to myself. He was going to say yes. We would soon be Elly and Kent, GF and BF.

He grabbed the tray as I grabbed the drinks and we found our usual spot in the farthest corner away from the little shop. I put straws in both of our drinks while he set out the food and napkins.

"So, what are you going to wish for this year?" I asked him after I took a sip of my Dew.

"I'm going to wish for world peace, of course." He winked and then picked up a fry.

I did the same and we tapped them together, "To world peace then."

"To world peace." We both ate a cheesy fry and panted with mouths open as we tried to let some steam escape as the burning hot potatoes touched our tongues.

We laughed when we finally got them down and started in on our burgers.
 

"So, I have something that I need to tell you. Or ask you. Or both." I chewed slowly, watching him as he ate.

He wasn't lying, he was hungry. He barely took a breath between large bites. He watched me expectantly while he devoured his food.

"Um... well. You and I have been friends for a long time and--" I watched as the crinkly paper underneath our food started to move. I blinked and looked up at the sky and then winced when two large raindrops landed on my face. "Oh god. It's going to rain. Like bad. We have to get our stuff to your car. Like--" It was too late. The sky opened up and started to hit us with everything it had.

By the time we'd gathered our things and gotten into the car we looked like two pathetically wet street dogs. I was angry, sad, bitter. Why had it chosen right now to rain when I was about to pour my heart out?

I looked over at Kent and he was smiling.

"Why do you look so happy?"

"Look." He pointed and I struggled to see what he saw. And when my eyes finally landed on Meghan trying to calm Frank down after he stepped into a huge muddy puddle, I laughed too. He was shaking out a very brown leg.

"Happy Birthday from the Heavens."

Chapter Nine

KENT

I was still watching Frank sink into a large puddle on instant replay in a loop in my mind as we stepped up to my front door, my sneakers squishing with water. Just before I put my hand on the door knob I felt Elly's hand around mine, pulling it towards her.

I squeezed her hand and nodded towards the door. "Come on."

"Wait..." she said softly. Something was wrong. My smile slipped, matching her serious expression.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong, I just..." She was staring at our hands, some of her hair falling into her face. I reached out and put it back into place and at that moment she looked up at me. Her large hazel eyes filled with fear? Anxiety? Uncertainty? She was freaking me out.

"What?"

"Kent, I like you a lot and--"

The front door opened and Jen stepped out. I blinked and stuttered, to my annoyance, as I let Elly's hand go. "J-J-Jen! Hey. Wh-What are you doing here?"

"I wasn't about to miss your birthday. I hope it's okay that I came over?"

I was ecstatic and relieved. I hugged her to me, her hands went to my back, they felt so good and sent goosebumps over me. I pulled back and looked between Elly and Jen. Both seemed so uncertain of the other.
 

"It's absolutely okay. Elly and I were just going to play video games until her curfew was up."

I nodded to Elly, silently hoping she would understand that I wanted Jen to join us. I wasn't weary of her anymore. She had opened up to me a few days ago about her past. About all the douchebag jocks she'd gone out with that she didn't have a taste for anymore. She'd told me she wanted to try a good guy. I figured she was talking about me but I wasn't completely sure. She kissed me and then I ran as fast as I could away from there. I wasn't sure what was going to come next.

Elly smiled at me and I felt the tension in my shoulders ease considerably. She understood. Thank God. She was such a good friend. I was afraid she wouldn't play the wingman part so well because she was a girl but she was doing a great job.
 

"Shall we, ladies?"

I reached for the door handle again and this time we entered, me at the rear. My eyes had to adjust to the darkness but once they did I saw a well-lit cake in the middle of my kitchen table.

Jen's hand touched my back and, despite the cold fabric against my skin, I felt my cheeks sizzle. "Happy Birthday, Kent. Your mom told me about your tradition but I noted that it didn't involve any cake."

That was because Elly wasn't a huge cake fan so we usually skipped it, but I wasn't about to tell Jen that. I hugged her tightly before pulling away and looking at the glowing cake. It was magnificent. "Thanks, Jen. I've kind of missed cake."

Elly walked away from the table and into the kitchen. If the set of her shoulders was any indication she was pissed.

Shit.

"One minute, Jen." I jogged into the kitchen just in time to save my mom's dishes from Elly's anger. "Woah, hey there. What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing." She wasn't looking at me and I knew that meant that she was definitely mad about something. Avoidance was her go to. I grabbed her hands and tried to stop her but she forcefully pulled her hands from mine.

"Don't!"

I frowned as I stared at her fiery eyes. What was her problem?

"Don't try to figure out what's wrong with you? I'm just trying to have a nice birthday, Elly. I'd like you to be a part of it but not like this."

She looked at me, determination and hurt in her eyes, staring at me, punching me in the gut.

"I'm sorry that I've ruined all your birthdays because I can't bake a cake and never had extra money laying around to buy one. And I'm sorry that our evening was going to suck. But I'm glad that it's not anymore because Jen is here to save it."

Oh. So she was jealous of Jen. Because I was giving attention to Jen? Probably I'd spoken too soon about the wingman thing.

Shit.

"Elly, come on. I didn't mean it like that. And what was I going to do? Tell her to go away?"

Her eyes were on mine, searching and finally she looked away and shook her head. "No, you wouldn't do that. I'm sorry. I'll try to be in a better mood. Go ahead and start on the cake, I'll be right back."

I watched her leave the kitchen without acknowledgement from me and rolled my eyes. She always had a bit of a flair for the dramatic. Jen and I were becoming friends and Elly needed to get used to that because I didn't see it going away anytime soon. At least I hoped it wouldn't.
 

I took the plates into the dining room just as Jen was grabbing her purse. Her eyes met mine and my gut clenched tightly.
 

"Where are you going?"

"I didn't mean to ruin your birthday thing. I'm sorry."

I set the plates down quickly and wrapped an arm around her and quickly took my arm away once I realized I was still sopping wet. "No, you didn't. Don't worry about Elly. She'll be fine."

Jen looked over her shoulder towards the bathroom, "Are you sure?"

I shook her gently until she looked back at me. "I'm sure."

She smiled and set her purse back down, "Alright, if you're sure."

"I definitely am."

"Then blow out the candles and make a wish, they're almost all the way melted."

I bent over and blew out the candles in one easy breath and then stood back up and smiled at her. Make a wish. I wished for Jen to want something more. I wanted something more. I wanted to kiss her and touch her. Even if it was in secret. I knew she was the kind of girl who would be worth that.

"Make your wish?" She asked, eyebrow raised with grinning lips.

I nodded once. "Yeah."
 

"So are you going to ask me or are you going to make me ask you?"
 

I pushed my glasses up my nose after I'd stared at our shoes for a moment. Was she talking about what I think she was talking about? What if she was talking about helping her with Trig homework or taking her to a football game or something? I was eighteen now. Do or die.

"Will you go on a date with me tomorrow night?"

I'd never seen her smile so big as she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly. She squealed lightly, "Yes!" And then she pulled back and stared up into my eyes. Hers were so blue, I wanted to swim in them. And I forgot about everything.

"Kent, I have to go. I'm not feeling so well and I'm all wet." Elly's voice cut through our moment and out of instinct, as if I were doing something terribly wrong or taboo, I pushed Jen away from me and rubbed the back of my neck with my hand. My cheeks were on fire, I knew it.
 

"Um. Okay. Let me give you a ride home?"

"No, that's okay you are busy and stuff. I'll just walk."

"No. You're not feeling well, and it's raining, I'll take you home. It's my birthday and what I say goes."

She at least had the decency to look humbled. "Alright."

I looked at Jen and then Elly and then back at Jen. What was I going to do with Jen?

"Do you want to come along or wait here?"

"I'll just wait here." She smiled and my heart skipped a few beats. I couldn't wait to get back and see what was going to happen between us. I grabbed my keys and then headed for the front door, opening it so Elly could go through first.
 

"Alright. I'll be right back."

Once we were in my car I turned to Elly, we were both shivering from the cold. "Are you going to throw up?" I reached out and turned the heat all the way up.

There was a pause as she rubbed her each fingernail on her left hand. "No."

"Is this because of Jen?"

Another pause as she did the same to her right hand. "No."

I didn't believe her but I didn't have time to argue with her right now. Jen was waiting on me. I pulled away from the curb and headed for her house. "So I think Jen and I are an item. Or maybe we're just going on one date tomorrow. I'm not sure but either way I wanted you to hear it from me first."

"Oh. That's great."
 

She didn't make it sound like it was great, her voice was flat and severely lacking enthusiasm. Soon we were parked in front of her house. I grabbed onto her arm when she tried to leave and didn't start talking until she was looking at me.

"What's wrong, Elly?"

She tried to yank her arm away but I held tight. Something was eating at her and I wanted to know what it was. I had to know.

"Nothing."

The deadly girl answer. It was something. Something big. But I had no idea what it could be other than Jen.

"I'm sorry she busted in on our party."

"Are you? I don't think you are. It doesn't matter. I have to go and you have to get back to her. Your girlfriend or whatever."

There was bitterness but I didn't understand why. "Are you mad because you don't like her?"

She stared at me, her eyes welling with tears. Shit. Not my intention. What the hell was going on?
 

"Elly, don't cry."
 

My mistake was in letting go of her arm because as soon as I did she ran away. I moved to get out of my car but when her mom came to stand in the doorway and waved at me I simply waved back. I could talk to her about it tomorrow. We wouldn't get anywhere tonight anyway. And I had a guest at home.

Chapter Ten

KENT

It had been three weeks since I'd asked Jen to be my girlfriend. I wasn't even quite sure why she even acted as she did towards me. She was gorgeous, I was the kid getting paper balls thrown at his head in class. And something had happened after she'd started hanging around me. The paper balls stopped coming, the snide comments only happened when she wasn't near me. Aside from that, she was funny, and smart, and lots of fun to be around.

"So daddy said we could take the Jag out this weekend. Where do you want to go?" Jen always smelled so good and today was no exception as she held onto my arm as we walked down the hallway together, people actually moving out of the way for us to get through. The scary part was that I was starting to get used to it.

I blinked as I processed the words she'd said. I guess I was in my own la-la land. "Uh, I'm not sure. Where do you want to go?"

"Well...," she waved as a group of her fellow cheerleaders passed us and then resumed, "I was thinking we could sneak some of daddy's finest whiskey and find a little place to enjoy some. Alone." She emphasized the last word and I realized she meant that she didn't want Elly coming along. She never did.

I frowned. Why didn't Jen like Elly that much? I just couldn't grasp that. For that matter I hadn't hung out with Elly alone in a while now. "Well..." As if she knew I was on the verge of declining she upped the ante.

"Fine. I wanted it to be a surprise but you know just how to get things out of me. I got us two tickets to ComicCon this weekend." She looked up at me with a huge, beaming grin.

All I could do was blink. "You what?" Again my brain was chugging along like an overweight train up a hill. "You got us two tickets to ComicCon. As in the large gathering of nerds who tend to dress up as their favorite heroes and nerd out all weekend?"

She nodded emphatically, still beaming. "Yes! Aren't you excited?!"

I stopped there in the hall with her. I always felt self-conscious around her. She was so pretty and I was well... not. Before I could control myself I leaned forward and kissed her.