Eli took a step back, his eyes flat and dark. "Me?"

Mia released a breath when he let go of her. "Yes. You, Eli."

He frowned, but then abruptly looked away from her, walked up to the couch. He slowly took a seat and ran a hand through his hair. "What is it that you want, Mia? Just tell me and leave me."

Mia didn't hesitate to do the next thing she did; She walked up to him, straddled his lap and slowly pressed her palms to his chest. He eased back against the couch, didn't protest. Mia exhaled and then felt his nipple piercings beneath his shirt and his heart beating a steady, strong rhythm against her hand. "I want to help you, Elijah Greyson."

He watched her sit with a leg on either side of his lap, perhaps too tired to care, but Mia knew this was the only way to approach him right now. If she sat down next to him and made it seem all shrinky, he'd shut down. This was the only way to communicate with him when he was like this; through intimate contact.

His hands came to her thighs, slowly trailed up under her dress, to her waist, where he softly smoothed his fingers over her skin. "People come to me for one thing, Mia; Sex. I'm used to it. Then you show up with your big fucking mouth, try'na teach me shit about life, wanting to help me like I'm some endangered species..."

"Eli..."

"I fucked you to teach you a lesson, Mia. That's the kind of person I am," He breathed, squeezing her ass. "And I'd do it again right now if I wanted to. Do you want me to, princess?"

"Eli, stop," She begged him, grasping his shirt. "Don't do that again. Don't change back," She whispered when he turned his head away from her, avoiding her eyes. "You don't have to. I'm not here because I want to fuck you, I'm here because I genuinely want to help you."

"You really want to help me? Then do as I said and get on all four."

"Eli." She grabbed his chin and forced him to meet her eyes. They were piercing cold, distant. Unattached. He was doing his routine again, the 'fuck-off' spiel. "I'm not falling for your act again. Look me in the eyes," She whispered and leaned closer. "Tell me what you see. Do I look like I want to screw with you? Use you?"

She gave him her most sober, sincere look she possessed, and for a long minute, Eli watched her and she watched him. She could see the hard façade within his eyes, holding his shit together. She could see his resolve tearing. She could see him.

Mia slowly cupped his face and then ran her thumb along the raw stubbles on his jawline. "Please let me help you, Eli. You, Caleb, Elana... you need help. I'm not doing this as charity, you know that, I do it because I care. About you," She added when she saw the deep crease form between his brows. "I think you're misunderstood, Eli."

Something within his eyes flickered and the dead eyes morphed into bright shock. She swore she even saw them expand for a moment before he blinked, composed himself. A new crease formed between his brows though, a concentrated one this time. He studied her for another long moment before his eyes then dropped to her lips. Mia then suddenly felt his hand slowly reach up to cradle her head, tryingly, as if what he was doing was untested waters for him. New.

Mia didn't dare move. Something was happening inside him and it was bringing him closer. He was leaning into her, his eyes still focused on her lips. He paused just before they touched.

Then with the lightest, most delicate touch she had ever felt... he kissed her. It lasted two short seconds, but perhaps that was all he could handle.

He slowly drew back again, released her head and then created some distance between them. Mia had been kissed many times before, but never like this. It left her completely breathless and sore in her heart.

He had kissed her, not for the hell of it, not for the prospects of sex, not for anything. But yet it meant everything.

"I didn't trash your school, you know." Eli suddenly said, making Mia snap out of her daze. He didn't meet her eyes, instead kept them lowered on her thighs were his fingers again were languidly stroking them, perhaps without him even realizing it. "It was Caleb. I tried to stop him."

She gulped down a mouthful of dryness. "W-why did he do it?"

There was a long pause wherein Eli sighed and then closed his eyes. "Because he got desperate. I told you, people do crazy things when they get desperate. Caleb hit a low point."

Mia begun to connect the dots, simply from looking around their sparsely furnished apartment that was located in the baddest neighborhood around. "Was he... was he getting low on cash?"

Eli looked up, his eyes suddenly hard. "If that was the case, then why the fuck am I scrubbing graffiti off the walls?"

"I-I don't know," She replied, swallowing heavily again. "I just thought..."

"You thought he was a thug who thought a pristine school was the best target for stealing? There's a supermarket just around the corner, that would've been easier and would've had much less security. Get your head out of your ass."

"Then why did he do it?" Mia frowned, surprised he still kept caressing her thighs even though he seemed agitated.

"Because he got rejected, alright?" He snapped, gnashing his teeth. "You want the full scoop? Caleb is smart. He's good with computers. Fuck that, he's brilliant. He could put the whole of NSA and the Pentagon to shame, he's that good. He applied to your goddamn school for a scholarship and got rejected, and you want to know why?"

A response was redundant at this point since the question had been rhetorical. But Mia still gave a vague nod and let him continue.

"Take a good long look at me, baby. If I came knocking on your school's doors, asking for a paid spot, would ya' give it to me?"

Shocked, Mia dropped her jaw. "They turned him down because... because of the way he looked?"

Eli scoffed. "No, Caleb looks like a fucking choir boy with his blond angel hair and baby-blue eyes. I'm talking about me, princess. Would you let me in to your school, and more importantly, do you think the school board would?"

"I..." Her voice died on her tongue, when they both knew the horrible answer; The board would not let him in because he was the urban dictionary of the word thug, and the Alexandrettia was a pristine school. If the benefactors of the scholarships saw that they were spending their money on types like him, they would withdraw their funds immediately – without hesitation. Schools forced you into conformity so that you were socially acceptable, but Mia knew Eli would never be able to adjust like that. He was what he was, but one look at him and you would brand him as a criminal forever, even if he didn't have a rap sheet.

- Mia knew she had.

"You know... I've seen those ads on TV your school made," Eli continued, perhaps reading her eyes and seeing the conclusion she and made. "They spew shit like 'only for the brightest of minds' and 'the most talented people in the world'. That's bullshit," He snorted, cocking his head. "They say they want talent? Fuck that, they just want money."

"Eli..."

"And you know what, let's say I didn't have a single spec of ink on my body," He continued, glaring at her. "Say I was as pretty and nude as your shaved pussy; do you think they'd let someone into their hallowed halls when they have a criminal record of stealing and beating the jackshit out of people?"

Mia paused. She remembered him offhandedly mentioning he had been in prison. Were these the reasons why? "What are you saying, Eli?"

"I'm saying, Caleb applied to the Alexandrettia with his pretty baby face, but after one look into his files, the board turned him down because he started a fight with three gang members, one that led to a goddamn shooting wherein he nearly got his head popped off," Eli flatly told. "If they had cared enough to look into the incident, they'd find he fucking did it because those three shitfaces were trying to molest a goddamn teenager who had been walking home from school late. She escaped, but the fight left Caleb bleeding on the goddamn pavement, only to be found by the police with a gun in his hand, a gun those three fuckheads had planted on him. When a cop walks into a dark alley, sees blood everywhere and a guy holding a gun that's registered in the name of a gang member, you get your picture taken and your ass seated behind metal bars. I bailed him out and took him home to his sister who couldn't even fucking scream from the sight that met her because she's a deaf-mute!" Eli cursed and stopped talking, maybe because he realized his mouth and temper had gotten away with him. He ran a hand over his face before leaning his head back against the couch, exhausted.

Mia tried to absorb everything he had just told her. Jesus Christ. She could hardly fathom any of it. Caleb had been screwed over so repeatedly, it was no wonder getting rejected from the Alexandrettia pulled the last straw. But even in all the madness, she failed to see where Eli fit in.

Slowly cupping his face, she trailed her hand down his neck to the inked lotus flower there. Lotus flowers were a symbol of strength, of surviving and managing to rise above, even in tough conditions. That was certainly a description that fit this case. "Elijah..."

"Don't, okay?" He said, sighing. "Just fucking don't. I don't even know why I'm telling you all this—"

"Eli, wait," Mia broke in when he was shutting down again. "Just hold on one second. Why were you the one who got arrested for vandalizing the school if Caleb was the one who did it?"

Eli glared up at her for a long moment, before blowing out a breath. "Fuck, because I ran after him when I realized what he wanted to do. He rigged the alarms, but they somehow went off anyway. When the cops showed up, I knew I had to get him outta there, he has a sister, ya' know? I took down the cops, told him to bail and he did. I expected him to run back to Elana, but I haven't fucking seen him since."

"You've been watching Elana all this time for him?"

"Yeah. I can't get a hold on the dick, nobody's seen him. I'm scared shitless someone got to him."

For the first time ever, Mia saw vulnerability inside his eyes. He really was scared for his friend. Probably his only real one. Eli had clearly found a sense of comradeship with Caleb, with both of them being... geniuses. If what Eli said was true and Caleb really was a computer whiz, then they probably understood each other. In a world of morons, these two had somehow found each other and spoke the same language; intelligence.

However, intelligence could only get you so far if nobody wanted to acknowledge you for it.

"You said that Caleb applied to the Alexandrettia..." She murmured, watching the slowing rise and fall of his chest as he calmed down. "Why didn't you?"

Eli didn't look up, just kept his head rested on the back of the couch, eyes closed. "That's non of your business."

He could tell her everything about Caleb, but as soon as she asked about himself, he closed off. While Caleb's motives had been that he clearly wanted a spot at her school, a chance to prove himself to others, Eli didn't. He deliberately chose not to have anything to do with science and that world, he stayed in the dark instead, and that made Mia wonder...

He had implied that he had been tested and examined before... the way he had said it made it sound like... well, like he had been scared, almost terrified to be tested again. Whatever he had been through, it made Mia think of horrible scenarios where he had been hooked up to electrical machines against his will, in some lab where human rights were a river in Russia.

She shuddered. Please, dear God, she hoped that wasn't the actual case. She couldn't bare to think about it, so clearing her head, she focused on Eli. "I still want to help you."

He now opened his eyes and lifted his head just enough to look at her. "And how the fuck do you think a rich chick from Pasadena can help a lowlife like me?"

"You're not a lowlife," Mia firmly responded, placing her hands over his hard pectorals. "And I might be able to help track Caleb down. Believe it or not, I have connections. Elana should have her brother here with her and you need your friend back." She said and ran her hands up to his tense shoulders and squeezed. "You're exhausted, Eli. You work all day long at school, then come back here and take care of a five-year-old – a deaf-mute one at that. You can't keep it up, not unless you want to break down."

"I don't break down," He retorted, sliding his hands over her thighs once more.

"Of course you don't. Just like you don't fuck for sport and you're dumb as hell."

Eli pursed his lips, but then glared at her. "What do you propose, then? Caleb doesn't have a Visa if you're thinking you're gonna track him by bank movements."

Mia chewed her lip for a moment. "And you haven't heard a single word from him all this time? At all?"

"Not directly. He did make contact, though."

"What, when?" Mia urged.

"At the Alexandrettia. The server glitch."

Her breath froze. "He caused that?"

"No; He fixed it."

• • •

Plot twist?