Chapter 5: The Truth Comes Out

“Dakota, why isn’t dinner ready yet?”

“You tell me. You’re the one who’s supposed to be cooking.”

I don’t remember him telling me anything about cooking. “No, I’m not. You said we were inviting Eli and whoever Cayden’s girl is.”

“Your guest, you cook. Besides, I cooked yesterday.”

“You told me to invite him!”

“Still your guest.”

“You know I can’t cook.” I didn’t want to scare him off by setting the place on fire.”

“Too bad.”

“Can’t we just order out?”

“Fine, we’ll order Chinese.”

I love Chinese food. “Yay!”

“So where is this Elijah character? Is he here?”

“He’s in the living room.”

Dakota trotted to the living room, me close behind him. Eli was sitting awkwardly on the couch, his posture perfect. "Relax Eli,” I laughed. “It’s not like you’re meeting my parents.”

“Right,” he said, rubbing his neck nervously, “just the guy who could beat me up.”

“Dakota’s not going to hurt you. And why would he want to beat you up?”

"I don’t know. Lots of brothers want to beat me up.”

“It’s probably because you broke their sister’s hearts.”

“Right, well, some of them don’t even have hearts.”

“Are you two dating?” Dakota asked suspiciously.

“No, he has a girlfriend.”

“Oh, that’s a shame.”

“Why?”

“Because I’d really like to pick on him.”

“You can still do that!” I didn’t want to rob him of the big brotherly role he wanted to play.

“Yeah, but it won’t be the same.”

“Is Cayden home yet? He can go order the Chinese.”

“He’s upstairs.”

I went up to Cayden’s room and could hear Dakota’s faint voice. “Now let’s have a man to man talk…”

Hm, I wonder what that was going to be about. I was tempted to just stay behind the staircase and listen to their conversation, but the rumbling of my belly reminded me that I wanted Asian food.

I knocked on Cayden’s door, not wanting to barge in because he might have his lady friend in there. “Come in!” he shouted.

I walked in and no one could prepare me for what I saw. The room was a disastrous mess. It looked like the city ran out of room for trash and dumped it all in here. I swore I saw cockroaches by his closet. It smelled like trash, beer, and sex. I plugged my nose as I made my way to him, stepping over various pieces of clothing. I think I saw a couple thongs and condoms lying around. Gross. “Ever consider cleaning?” I asked, repulsed and desperately wanting to bolt out the door and never come back.

“Nah, that’s what maids are for.”

“You don’t have a maid.”

“And that’s why it’s not clean.”

“Anyways, we’re having Chinese and you’re ordering.”

“Why do I have to order? Why can’t you?”

“I can’t understand the guy’s accent! And I feel rude when I laugh everytime he opens his mouth.”

“I’ll be down in five minutes. I just need to get dressed.”

I didn’t notice it before, but Cayden was just in his boxers. His abs were perfectly sculpted and tanned. No wonder he couldn’t stick with just one girl; it wouldn’t be fair to all the others.

“Having fun staring?” he smirked.

“Ew, no!” I denied quickly.

“It’s okay. I know you want me as much as I want you,” he said, coming dangerously close to me. Whoa, change of attitude much?

His breath reeked of alcohol and his eyes were clouded with lust. It was evident that he was going to get some from his girl tonight. I pushed him away. I heard his chuckles as I ran out the door. I now knew why Dakota wanted me to stay away from him.

When I got back downstairs, the boys were watching football. I plopped down between the two, attempting to figure out the rules to the game. I never understood football, and I probably never will. I’ve had dozens of people try to teach me, but they never succeeded. All I need to know was that if you were dating one, you got to wear their jerseys. I stared at the screen, wondering how people can actually watch it. It was just men in tights throwing a ball around. There was no need to dedicate an entire weekend to it.

“How can you guys watch this?” I blurted.

They both shushed me and turned back to the screen. Cayden came downstairs and told us that we had to pick up the food in ten minutes. “Wait, you didn’t even ask us what we wanted,” I told him. He better have gotten my order right!

“I know what you want,” he said.

“What?”

“Me.

“Get over yourself, Cayden. Not every girl wants you.”

“All the straight ones do.”

“Not this one.”

“Oh c’mon Ash, I know you’ve had a crush on me since you were thirteen.”

“Correction, I had a crush on you when I was thirteen. It’s long gone now.” Did I just admit to having a crush on him? Ugh, hunger was really taking its toll on me.

“Don’t be like that, Ashy.”

“Go get the food, Cayden.”

“Sure, but only if you come with me.”

“Nope, I think I’ll stay right here. Besides, I have company and it’d be rude to leave.”

He glanced over at Eli. “Oh! It all makes sense now. You have a little boyfriend!”

“No, I don’t!”

“Who’s the guy on the couch then?”

“Dakota?”

“No, the other one.”

“Elijah?”

“Yeah, him.”

Why is everyone insisting that we are or we should date? It was getting frustrating. “We’re not dating.”

“Sure you aren’t.”

“We aren’t.”

“So if I ask him, he’ll say no.”

“Exactly.”

“Hey you,” Cayden barked. “Elijah, is it?” Eli nodded, probably wondering who the crazy psycho was. “Are you dating Ashlyn?”

“We’re engaged.”

I choked and Dakota’s eyes snapped to meet mine. “I thought you said you didn’t have a boyfriend!” Cayden accused.

“I don’t…”

“Yeah, she has a fiancé,” Eli replied smoothly.

“You two better start explaining,” Dakota said, narrowing his eyes.

“You’ve got to be kidding. You seriously don’t think that we’re engaged, do you?”

“Cayden’s proposed to a girl before.”

I looked over at him and he grinned sheepishly. “Guilty.” I made a mental note to ask him about it later.

“You and Cayden sound like parents.”

“Well, we are going to have to be your parental figures over the summer…” Dakota trailed.

“And here I thought I was getting a parent-free summer.”

“I’m your big brother.”

“Exactly! Can’t you be more lenient with the rules?”

“With you getting married? No.”

“I’m not getting married. I’m only seventeen. I’m still in high school! Eli’s just crazy.”

“For you, my love.”

He was having too much fun with this. How long was he going to keep this whole charade up? Not long I hope. It was getting tiring. “We met a couple days ago!”

“Love at first sight.”

“Love at first sight doesn’t exist. It’s nothing but a bunch of crap.”

“Oh, but it does. I’m sure your brother and his friend agree with me.”

I glared at them, cautioning them to say the right answer and side with me. “I believe,” Dakota smirked. “Mom and Dad, remember?”

“I don’t want to talk about them.”

“Yeah, where are they?” Eli piped.

“My mom and her husband are on a cruise,” I told him.

“Why do you call him her husband? Shouldn’t you call him ‘dad’?”

“He’s not my dad,” I said bitterly. “He just married my mom.”

“Divorced?”

“No,” I laughed darkly. “They wouldn’t ever get a divorce. They were too in love to do that.”

Eli looked confused. He should’ve caught on by now; they all did. We all waited a moment, hoping that he’d get the hint, but he didn’t. He stood there, clueless, waiting for some sort of explanation. “Then what?”

It was evident that Dakota and Cayden weren’t going to tell him. “Eli, my dad’s dead,” I whispered, my voice cracking.

Somehow, saying those words made it more permanent, real. I never needed to say it to my friends—they already knew. Seeing my dead lying in the casket, I just thought he was sleeping. Denial. But saying it to a person I had only met, I came crashing down into reality.

What made me trust Eli? I don’t know. But I knew, somehow, that I could trust him.

“Ashlyn, I’m so sorry…”

I was so used to hearing people’s sympathetic responses. They didn’t care; they didn’t know how it felt to lose a parent. I knew they were just saying those words to fill the eerie silences. Yet this time, it brought tears to my eyes. I hadn’t thought about it in a long time. I wouldn’t, I couldn’t. I still refused to believe he was gone.

“It’s not your fault.” I looked at the silenced TV screen, avoiding his face full of pity. I hated pity.

“I’m going to go get the food,” Cayden announced, breaking the silence. “Dakota, you want to come with?”

“Yeah,” he quickly answered, following Cayden out the door.

How nice. They left me alone to talk about it with Eli, I’m sure. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to talk about it. I wasn’t ready to be that vulnerable and share a big part of my life with him.

I must’ve been lost in my thoughts for a while because Eli said, “We don’t have to talk about it.”

“Thanks, Eli.”

“But if you ever need to talk, I’m here, okay?”

I nodded. Wanting to get off the topic, I asked, “Do you understand football. Like at all?”

He seemed taken back by my arbitrariness, but laughed. “Yeah, I do. It’d be a bad thing if I didn’t because I was my team’s quarterback.”

“Will you, you know, explain it to me?”

“You don’t know how football is played?”

I shook my head. “You’re going to have to dumb it down for me. Lots of people have explained it to me and I still don’t get it.”

“Sure. I am the master at teaching football.”

“If I do recall, you said the same thing about sandcastles.”

“Yeah, well….I was just trying to impress you.”

“Oh? Why would you want to impress me?”

“I don’t know…I like impressing people.”

“Uh-huh. Would it impress your girlfriend if you weren’t flirting with other girls?”

“Probably.”

“Tell me, Eli, why are you in this relationship?”

“I—I don’t know. All of my friends are in relationships and it eases my boredom.”

“But is it really fair to her? Is it fair to just string her along until someone better comes along, until Rachel comes along? Go after her or let her go. You really only have two choices.”

“It’s not like Kaitlyn thinks we’re in a committed relationship.”

“But still, you want Rachel.”

“You’re right.”

“You can’t just…wait. I’m right?”

“Yeah, you’re right. Girls love being told that they’re right, don’t they?”

I honestly wasn’t expecting him to just give in like that. “So what’s your choice?”

“I’ll break up with Kaitlyn.” Weird, she had the same name as Dakota’s girlfriend.

“And you’ll go after Rachel?”

“I don’t know. She lives in California now. She’s dating some big shot CEO’s son. I think she’s happy now.”

“But you don’t know for sure,” I piqued hopefully. “Call her. If you love her, don’t let her slip away. Why didn’t you go after her before?”

“After I left, she told me to leave her alone.”

I smacked him upside the head. “She wants you to go after her, dummy!”

“How do you know?”

I sighed. This boy was so dense. “Every girl wants that, Eli. Some won’t admit it to your face, but every girl wants that. Every girl wants that guy who’s not going to give up on her, even if she asks and yells and throws a gigantic tantrum.”

“Even you?”

“Even me, so go after her, Eli.”

“No…I can’t do that. I know she’s happy. I can feel it. And she posts it on Facebook all the time.”

He stalks her? “She’s trying to make you jealous?”

“No, she’s happy. She’s truly happy without me.”

“But—“

“No ‘buts’,” he said firmly. “I’m not going to go after her.”

Why is he so stubborn? I just wanted to punch him for it. “Fine, don’t. But you’ll regret it later in life.”

“Whatever.”

I could tell the conversation was getting sour, so I changed the topic again. “So football…”

“Right!” Ah, there we go, back to his old Eli self—at least the one that I knew anyway. He explained the rules to me, well attempted to. By the time the boys came back with Chinese, I still didn’t get it. And that’s when I deemed myself hopeless.