Today was dedicated to cleaning and prepping the house for our stay. I still could barely wrap my head around being here for a whole month with Elijah. The air has been tense ever since he got here.

Maybe it's my fault? I'm not sure. He hasn't made many snarky comments since getting here but at the same time, we haven't been around each other much. After the lake, we headed in and started unpacking and making our beds.

Thankfully, Elijah was in charge of cleaning up the bathrooms but that still meant my duty was vacuuming both floors.

As I was vacuuming the floor of the living room, I saw out the corner of my eyes something stuck out from under the sofa.

Bending down, I grabbed the arm of whatever it was and yanked it free.

Out came a Lego Bionicle, the ones we used to play with when we were young. We were so little in this living room, play fighting, and acting out whole scenes.

"Is that my Tahnok?" Elijah snapped me out of my daydream from above the stairs.

I looked up at him. "This is definitely mine." I smiled.

"Oh, hell no." He said running down the steps. "This is my Tahnok, the one and only that fought against the release of the Bohrok swarm, a villainous group of insectoid machines." He said, reaching for the toy.

I gripped it tightly, turning it away from him out of reach. "Oh my god. You're such a nerd."

He straightened up his back. "Fine. Whatever. I don't care. Just give it back." Reaching for it again.

"No." I said pushing his arm away.

"Tobias, I'm not joking around. That's mine. Give. It. Back." He said, reaching around me.

"There's no fucking way now that I know it means so much to you." I laughed, jumping on the couch. Elijah huffed, poking at my sides, urging me to crumple down out of pain.

I didn't lessen up though. I kept twisting and turning my body so he couldn't grab it even if he tried.

And he was trying.

"Come on. Give it!" He called out.

"Make me." I laughed, falling back on the couch. This wasn't a good strategy though because now he had no choice but to straddle me yet again.

Fuck, why do we keep ending up in this position?

His hands wrapped around the toy which I wasn't too happy about. I held on tighter and tried twisting around to pry it from his hands.

Now I was faced down on the couch while he gripped around me with his thighs, his chest hitting my back. He had me surrounded. I needed to move.

Wiggling underneath, I tried to crawl my way out from underneath him.

"You're so fucking annoying." He said squeezing his legs around me, pinching my sides even tighter to stop me from squirming out too far.

I managed to get my top half on the floor while I tried to crawl away. My shirt got twisted and bunched up but I didn't care. I was almost free. I twisted back around so I could look up at him. Using my back, I tried to push myself away.

"Where do you think you're going?" Elijah laughed, using his fingers to poke my sides. I hated when he did that. He knows how sensitive I am to being tickled.

"No, no, no!" I cried out. I must've put myself in the worst position possible. He had all of the power now.

"What in the hell is going on here? I heard someone screaming." Jude said running in from outside. He must've been sorting the boat house.

"He-uh." Elijah was out of breath. Damn, so was I. "He stole my Tahnok." Elijah pointed down at me.

I looked at Jude, breathing in deeply, and shrugged. "It's mine."

"What am I going to do with you boys?" He said smiling and scratching the back of his head.

☀️☀️☀️

Jude put me on cooking duty tonight which I didn't mind at all since I've been wanting to try out this recipe for a while now.

He has been urging me to get in the kitchen lately which has been lots of fun. We had stopped by a grocery store earlier today to pick up some items before Elijah got to the lake house so I was all stocked and ready to go.

"It smells amazing in here." Jude walked in sniffing the air, coming over to pat me on the back. I smiled at him before taking a small spoon and dunking it in the consomé.

"Here. Let me know if it needs more salt." I said, positioning the spoon in front of his mouth. Jude tasted the sauce and immediately shivered.

"Nuh-uh. It's perfect. Don't even touch it." He said shaking his head. I laughed.

"Eli, try some." He said motioning to the pot before beginning to set the table.

My back stiffened. I didn't know he was in here too. 

"I'm going to need a new spoon." He said behind me.

"I've already dunked the same spoon in here a million times. If you're worried about double dipping, you're shit out of luck." I said dunking the spoon back in.

He rolled his eyes and opened his mouth. I slipped the spoon between his lips, trying to be careful not to spill any.

I watched as his lips curled around the spoon. They looked so soft. His Adam's apple bobbed in his neck and I watched as his tongue poked itself out at the side, licking up some spilled sauce.

I felt dizzy and for some reason deeply jealous of that sauce.

"Mm. Good." He nodded his head, breaking me out of my spell.

"Thanks." I swallowed.

Turning back to what I was doing, I began assembling the tacos. "Tonight, we're having birria tacos, if you haven't guessed yet," I called out.

"Been excited for this one for a while."

"Isn't Gwen's family from Puerto Vallarta? She'd love this dish. Why isn't she here?" Elijah asked, setting out some napkins.

The kitchen went silent. Honestly, I didn't know the answer to that. I looked over at Jude.

He was scratching the back of his head like he always does when he's nervous.

"She uh, couldn't make it." He smiled it off.

"Oh! Well, we can always save her some for when she gets here later." Elijah shrugged, continuing.

"No, she's uh- not coming." He shifted a napkin on the tabletop. "Elijah, I asked her not to come." Jude breathed.

My mouth dropped open. Is he serious? This must have something to do with the argument I saw them having a few weeks ago. I focused back in on the tacos. I didn't realize the argument had been so bad.

"W-what? Dad, is everything okay between the two of you? She's like...the best thing that's happened to you in a long time." Elijah breathed. "Why would you do that?"

"Elijah!" Jude yelled out, cutting him off. He dragged his hand down his face like this was hurting him too. "I just...don't want to speak about it right now. Okay? Can you give me that?"

"S-sure." Elijah stammered. He was probably taken back from Jude raising his voice. He never does that. This must be serious.

I completed the tacos and was able to dish out three for each of us filled with meat, and cheese and topped with cilantro and lime. Putting a little dish at the corner of each of our plates filled with consomé for dipping.

The guys were sat at the table ready to be served and I walked over carefully setting the plates down in front of each of our place mats.

"This looks wonderful, thanks, Tobias. You've outdid yourself." Jude smiled.

I smiled at him back before stealing a glance at Elijah. He had his phone taken out and appeared to be taking a quick photo of the food.

I couldn't help but smile. He clearly liked what he saw enough to snap a picture for his memory.

We dug into the food happily, listening to Leon Bridges in the background and having light chats about the restaurant, school, and my running group.

"So, you meet a lot of people there?" Elijah asked, licking some sauce off of his fingers.

I licked my lips. "I mean...yeah, I guess so. Some of us go for coffee after it's done. It's nice." I shrugged.

He looked me over. "Good for you." He nodded.

I hated how much that filled me up with pride. His reaction was small but it was nice to know that he knew I had a life outside of...well, his.

Right at that moment, my phone beside buzzed on the tabletop between Elijah and I.

I looked down at my phone to see a text from Gabe. That guy I met a few months ago at the bar. We had swapped phone numbers that night after he chatted to me about incoming horror movies he thought I'd like. It was fun talking to him and in a few weeks we have a plan to see a new movie in theaters together with a few more of his friends.

Gabe: Yo! This movie is WILD!

Gabe: Why didn't you tell me they both died at the end? Cruel!!!

"Who's Gabe?" Elijah asked.

I looked up at him and then to Jude who had the same confused expression on his face.

Gabe: Now it's payback. I've got a movie recc for you.

I flipped over my phone.

"What? I can't have friends other than you two?" I huffed.

Jude laughed beside me. "Well, I'm for one glad. Maybe this kid has more energy than I do to keep up with you. It's a lot keeping you entertained. I think that water fight blew out my back." He said shaking his head and standing up from the table to collect our empty plates.

"Oh, come on, old man. You were running sprints around me." I laughed. "You've got a lot of life left in you."

"Who. Is. Gabe?" Elijah bit out. I looked back at him, confused.

"Why do you care?" I shifted in my seat suddenly uncomfortable.

He clenched his jaw. "I don't...I just...I've never heard of that name before and I know all the guys in our town."

"Well, clearly you don't. Anyways, he's older. He's a couple years older than us and he goes to college out of town." I shrugged, leaning back in my seat.

"You guys want some ice cream while we play some cards?" Jude called out to us while his head was in the freezer.

"Sure." we both replied at the same time.

"Actually, where is Katelyn? Why didn't she come to our little getaway?" I snipped at him.

He sat back in his chair. He looked so good in his buttoned-up shirt. I hated the way he opened up the buttons so there were only a few at the bottom fastened up leaving his chest exposed. I hated even more the way it made me feel.

He breathed deep through his nose, clearly annoyed. "We broke up." He bit out. I tried to contain my facial expressions but it was hard when some part of me was happy to hear that.

"Okay, here you boys go. Who's dealing?" Jude said, handing each of us small bowls with a few scoops of chocolate ice cream in them. Both Elijah's and I's favorite flavour.

"You" We both replied at the same time.

"You boys always used to do that even when you were little. It's so crazy seeing it now. It's like you're twins." Jude said shaking his head and laughing to himself.

That made me feel a little nauseous. Did twins usually want to dry hump each other until they both came?

I shook my head to try and shake out those thoughts. This was not the time to think of those types of thoughts. Especially when he looked like that right across from me.

As though he knew, he leaned forward, forearms on the table, crossing his hands and allowing his silver chain to dangle in front of him. He made looking good so effortless and I couldn't stand it.

I wanted to punch a wall. These feelings about him were getting too confusing and it's only getting worse.

Do I hate him? Do I want him? Both? UGH!

"Tobias." Jude called out. "Where'd you just go?" He asked.

I opened my mouth and shook my head, confused. "I-I don't know."

"It's your turn," Elijah smirked at me. I squinted my eyes. Did he know what I was thinking?

No, that's impossible.

I laid down an eight of spades. I guess we're playing crazy eights.

"Already laying down your eights? Rookie move." Elijah laughed, shaking his head.

"I have a system." I bit.

"Yeah, well. Your system is going to make you lose."

"Why don't you pay attention to your own cards and stop worrying about my life." I spat.

The realization of what I just said hit me. My eyes widened. "Cards. Stop worrying about my cards. I meant." I tried clearing my throat. This was so uncomfortable.

I was embarrassed enough without his deep brown eyes sneering at me.

"You know...I ran into your Dad today." He added before placing a card down.

"What?" My eyes went wide. "W-where did you see him? Did you talk to him?" There's no fucking way.

I looked over at Jude who was looking just as scared as I was.

Elijah looked between the two of us. "What is it? He was just acting like a total creeper, hanging around outside of the bar. I told him to F off." Elijah smiled.

"Elijah," I smacked his hand, forcing him to lay his cards down. "This is serious. I want you to keep away from him, you hear me? He's unhinged and dangerous and...please, promise me you won't speak to him again."

"Tobias is right, Eli." Jude spoke up. "He's not a good man."

"You both keep saying that but what do you mean by that? He's a stern man, so what?" He shrugged.

"So what?" I couldn't believe my ears. How could he be so insensitive? "You know what...I'm tired. I'm going to bed." I said picking up my untouched bowl of ice cream.

"Oh come on, we just started! You're not even done with your ice cream." Jude called out.

"I'll finish it in my room. Good night." I said heading upstairs.

 ☀️

Authors Note: 

Is our Eli getting a little territorial? Hmm.. interesting.