"Are you going to mope around all day?"

"My Prince is dead."

"I know, I'm heartbroken, too, but we have to focus on our exams," Mia said, shooting a look at Anna who was mourning over a paper clip photo of Prince; She actually looked like she had been crying. "Come on, pull yourself together."

"That's a lot coming from you, Miss Absent," Anna noted, giving her a look back. She sat up and looked down at the Fermat's problem on the blackboard (yes, they were in the auditorium again) with a small purse to her lips. "I don't think you've ever missed a day of school in your life, and suddenly we can't come over to your place anymore. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you'd found yourself a dick. Oh wait, I do know better, I'm a psychology major."

Gagging on her breath, Mia stared wide-eyed at Anna and then blushed because in that very moment, Eli walked past them, carrying his usual garbage bag, cleaning up old trash. She just managed to catch the little twitch his lips made before he was gone again, cleaning in the rows behind them. "Jesus, Anna. Could you maybe keep your voice down?"

"Why? It's just me and Zoe, your best friends," She reminded her, giving Mia a pointed look. "In case you've forgotten that. Why all the secrecy?"

Mia's eyes darted to Eli who appeared again in the corner of her eye. He picked up an empty water bottle, and in that moment, their eyes met. It was just for a split second, then they both looked away as if just looking at each other would reveal their little secret. "Can't a girl have some privacy?"

"I think you're misunderstanding the whole 'bff' thing," Anna commented, twirling her pen between her fingers. "Girls don't keep secrets from each other, but if you're not ready to tell us who the fresh dick is yet, then just give us the dirty deets. Is the sex good?"

Spluttering, Mia blushed into a pink shade again and tried to hide her face when she didn't want Eli seeing her. She knew he could hear every word of their conversation. "Could we please not talk about this here?"

"Fine, then we'll come over tonight for a girls night, won't we, Zoe?" Anna told and looked at Zoe who had been quiet up until now.

"Huh?" She said, looking up from her laptop, completely blank as to what they were talking about. "Sorry, what?"

"Hello, could you pay a little attention?" Anna complained. "I just discovered that Mia here has found herself some dick and she won't tell us where it's coming from."

"Oh," Zoe said, her eyebrows flying to the sky. "Really? Why haven't you said anything?"

"Because!" Mia protested, "It's non of your business! What if I don't want to talk about it?"

"So the sex is bad, then?"

"What?! No, that's not—"

"So it's good, then? Is he a gentleman or are you getting you some Tarzan sex?"

Good Lord, Mia blushed crimson. "Please, can we just drop it? I'm begging you." She spotted Eli, and she was certain that he deliberately lingered within ear range just to hear their conversation. He was pursing his lips, perhaps to stop himself from smirking. Mia just wanted the ground to swallow her whole.

"No, I'm not letting this rest until I get at least something," Anna demanded with a little grin and crossed her legs. "Just tell us, was it awesome? I noticed your skin is glowing brighter these days. Could it be from recieving some extra powerful, repetitive and perfectly doled out, wet orgas—"

"Alright, okay! It's mindblowing!" Mia confessed, hiding her face in her hands. Her cheeks were burning up. "Happy now?"

– Eli certainly looked to be.

"Very," Anna grinned.

"So now you won't have to come over tonight and question me," Mia assured her, giving her a stern glare. "I don't have time, I have to study up on art history."

"Sure you do."

Mia opened her mouth to speak, but in that moment Zoe let out a furious sound and begun typing violently away on her keyboard. It made them both look at her and made them notice she was glaring murderously at her screen, at what appeared to be a black chatbox. "Uh, Zoe? You okay?"

"This dude that goes by the name Ceynius keeps hacking me and leaves me messages like this one," She growled and pointed to her screen, "Smurf, you better pull your bug back or I'm going to send you one of my own."

Ceynius. That sounded like something Caleb would call himself, Mia thought, and that was based purely on the brief impression she got of him that night they talked. Besides, he had also referred to Zoe as her 'Smurf-friend' so who else could it be? "Maybe you should do as he says, Zo. It sounds like he's serious."

"Mia, I didn't tell you this then, but this is..." Her eyes flickered to Anna who was listening curiously. "This is about the project we were working on. I bugged his laptop to keep him close, but he's doing one hell of a job of fighting it. This could be him, M. I think I'm chatting with him."

"Who is 'him'?" Anna wanted to know. "Are you two keeping secrets from me?" She then asked, giving them both an accusing stare. "That is so not fair! Why the hell can't I be in on it?"

"It's just this little thing me and Zoe are doing," Mia quickly said, but she knew that wouldn't satisfy her. "We can't say anything about it right now, you're just going to have to trust us on it."

"Seriously?" Anna said in disbelief, discontent clearly evident on her face. She crossed her arms and pursed her lips. "You guys are keeping me on the outside, can you seriously not see how unfair that is? Don't you trust me with whatever it is?"

Zoe and Mia exchanged a look. Anna was known as kind of a blabbermouth... "Anna––"

"No, you know what, you can keep your secret," She snapped and abruptly stood up, gathering her things. "When you start being my friends again, then you can come apologize. I can't believe you guys."

She left, passing straight by Eli who glanced over his shoulder and shot Mia a look. She sighed and looked away from him, not being able to deal with his intense stare at the moment. She turned back to Zoe instead who had returned to typing on her laptop after sending a pout after Anna. She zoned back in on her fight with Caleb, her face instantly growing serious again.

"You should remove whatever bug you put on him," Mia advised her, remembering what Caleb threatened to do if she didn't. "He could be dangerous, I mean if he can hack into your computer, he clearly has the power to maybe, uh, I don't know, fry it?"

Zoe scoffed. "He's smart, I'll give him that. Remember that IP adress I traced? He changed it somehow, because when I translated it into an address, it led to a graveyard; A place that doesn't have wifi, can you believe it?"

"The dead don't really need it," Mia muttered, but worried her lip. "So... you lost track of him?"

"For now, but if he ever makes another attempt at breaking into the school's system, he's mine." Zoe confidently said with a little smirk as she replied to him. Mia read what she wrote and had to chew the inside of her cheeks not to laugh; 'Bring on your bug, little cyberman. I'll Smurf the Smurf out of it.'

– Mia could just picture the look on Caleb's face as he read that.

"We should finish up," Mia then sighed, closing her study book on modern art. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Eli still picking up trash.

"Yeah, okay. Let's go." Zoe agreed and closed her laptop after one last evil glare at it.

Caleb was probably giving her one hell of a cyber fight.

~~~

"What would you guys like for dinner?" Mia asked as she came into the living room where Eli and Elana were making a fortress out of her couch cushions.

Eli signed something to Elana, and Elana then replied with something that she matched with a wide grin and a mute giggle.

"She wants pizza," Eli translated. "We allow her to have pizza once a week if she wants to."

"Pizza it is, then."

Elana signed something again and then wrinkled her nose. Eli rose a brow and then signed something back.

"What's she saying?" Mia wanted to know.

"She says I smell."

Mia couldn't help but let out a short laugh. "Well you did pick up trash all day long."

"Did I? No shit," He sarcastically noted with one of his dry glances. "Captain obvious-as-fuck is back."

Mia rolled her eyes. Why did he always have to be like that? "Whatever."

A long silence stretched while Mia dug out her pizza menu from under one of her many paper stacks and then begun browsing it. She didn't eat pizza that often, she preferred home-cooked food, but it was nice not having to cook sometimes. "So which pizza would you like?"

"Calzone. Mindblowing?"

Mia froze. His voice didn't even change tone as he said it. Fuck, she had been hoping he wouldn't bring it up. "I had to say something, didn't I? That's not equivalent with me meaning it."

"And yet mindblowing was the first word that popped into your head when they asked."

This time his voice did change, and Mia was forced to cross her legs in the bar stool she was sitting in. When he used that voice, it went right to her panties, and she suspected he knew. Hence the reason he used it.

But to her surprise, he then dropped the subject completely and instead stood up. "I'm gonna take a shower. Watch Elana for me, will you?"

Mia quickly nodded. "Of course. Let me know if you need anything."

"Like a hand?"

Mia squeezed her eyes shut.

Just don't picture it, don't picture it, don't—

Eli walked to his- and Elana's room which had its own adjoining bathroom. He closed the door, and after a moment or two, Mia heard the shower start. She tried not to imagine him naked in there, the water running down his smooth, inked body, so instead she busied herself with calling for the pizzas.

About 15 minutes later, Eli came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his hips. Mia screamed profanities in her head and swallowed when that sight met her; His chest was still damp and spotted with water droplets, making the image of Kali on his stomach look even more sexy with her tongue lolling out, a droplet tickling down. It was every bit as sexy as she had imagined it in her head, and so much more.

"You have a razor?"

Mia snapped out of her mind-fucking. A razor? What was that again? Oh right, that thing you used to shave.

"Uh, Yeah, I think I got an unopened one. Hold one," She stood up and was about to walk into her own room when there was a knock on the door. "Oh, that's the pizzas, can you get it? I'll just get my wallet."

Eli went to the door and Mia ran for her room to get her wallet which she had left in her bag. Quickly fishing it out, she ran back inside the living room, searching through her wallet for a bill. "How much is it?"

"Mia, you got a visitor."

The sound of Eli's voice so hard made her stop up and look at who was standing in the door.

Fuck.

– It was Anna.

• • •

Oh, snap.