Dance With the Devil

Everything seemed to go from black to color in seconds. My eyes nearly shot open by an annoying noise that wouldn’t stop. I was facing my far wall when light first began seeping into my world again, and the noise was coming from the other side of me, where my nightstand was. I groaned slightly lifting my body only enough so that I could turn over to my other side. I released my arms once I was where I wanted to be, and collapsed down onto my bed, producing a bouncing feeling from my bed. With my eyes still half closed, I reached out to my nightstand and grabbed my phone, which by this point I could tell was what the sound was. It wasn’t ringing, I wasn’t getting a call, but my phone needed my attention for something; something that was too early to have my attention.

With a swipe of my fingers through my eyes to get the rest of the sleep out of them, I tried to focus my vision on the screen of my phone. It said that I had one new voicemail. I groaned slightly again, too lazy to even check who called me. I simply dialed my voicemail and put my phone to my ear waiting for sound.

As my mind began to fully wake up while I waited for the voice, I realized that I probably should have checked who called first. For all I knew, it could have been Nick trying to finish saying whatever I cut him off from last night. Or it could have been Axel, trying to get a hold of me and I just wasn’t awake yet. I didn’t even have to consider Aubrey an option. Not since yesterday.

As I listened to the electronic voice in my ear tell me all the unnecessary things I didn’t need to know about my voicemail, I glanced at the clock, wonder what time it even was. It was near 9am; way too early for me.

Finally the message began to play. “Hey Karlee.” It was Eli, I could already tell by his voice. He always said my name differently than everyone else, but I could never pick out what made it so different. “I know you're probably still sleeping. I probably should be sleeping too, but you know how well me and sleep get along. But uh, I kind of need to talk to you. And it’s pretty important. So call me back when you get this. Or just come over. Uh, yeah come over actually. I’m probably not going to sleep at all tonight, so I'm sure I’ll be awake whenever you get up, or get this, or whatever. So uh, yeah. I guess I’ll see you later. Bye.” The message made a clicking noise, as if it was him hanging up, and then the line went silent. I sighed and threw down my phone onto my bed. Whenever Eli said something was important, it was important. He didn’t throw that word around like most people do. I glanced at my clock again, almost like I was trying to turn back time, but I couldn’t really place why.

I rubbed my eyes one more time, fully waking myself up now, or at least most of the way there. I swung my feet over the side of my bed and slipped on my moccasins. I put a hoodie on and threw my hair up into a messy ponytail. I swiped my phone off my bed and headed downstairs.

I tried to quietly get myself together, just in case my mother was still sleeping. But upon stumbling into the kitchen I should have known better than to think my mother to be a late sleeper. She sat at the dining room table, a crossword puzzle and mug in each hand. The entire downstairs smelled like coffee, and I could tell that this wasn’t her first cup of the morning. As I crept into the kitchen, the floor tiles squeaked under me, and I saw her turn her head only slightly before she refocused on her puzzle again.

“Another early morning, huh?” I leaned against the frame of the walkway to the kitchen.

“Yeah, Eli this time though.”

“Drive safely.” Her voice was monotone, and it felt emotionless.

“Mom?” She turned her head halfway to look at me, her eyes matching her voice.

“Yes?”

“You don’t need him, you know. You don’t need anyone who doesn’t need you. I just want you to know that.” She gave me a small smile, but I could tell it was sincere. I turned and grabbed my keys, and headed out the door.

It wasn’t as cold today, maybe a few degrees warmer, and it wasn’t snowing either. For the first time in a few days, the sun was shining brightly again, melting some of the snow. But that didn’t really mean anything here in Denver. The weather changed almost constantly. For all I knew, by the time I leave Eli’s, the sun could be hiding behind snow again.

I realized this would be the first time in a few days that Eli and I had really talked. Sure, we talked in lunch at school for a little bit, but that wasn’t enough to really talk about things that mattered. Honestly, I couldn’t image what he needed to talk to me about.

When I got to his house, I pulled up on the curb in front of his house. I got out and stumbled up the stairs to his door, knocking a bit hard, just in case he did end up falling asleep. But he didn’t, because only a few moments after I knocked, he appeared in front of me. Perhaps he did sleep; he was in long flannel pajama pants and an old band shirt, and his hair was a tattered mess, falling into his eyes. He had to push it out of the way twice just as he opened the door.

“Hey, you got my message.” He smiled at me. I loved when Eli smiled, it was always so genuine. He was the kind of person that didn’t fake anything. If he felt something, everyone knew it. He never tried hiding behind some fake emotion. I smiled back at him.

“Hey, you woke me up.” He rolled his eyes playfully. They looked green today.

“Sorry your highness, but normally when the sun is up, you should be too.” He opened the door wider and stepped aside so I could walk in. I spoke as I walked through.

“Yeah, and when the sun is sleeping, you should be too.” He closed the door behind me and I walked over to his couch. His TV was the pause screen of some Xbox game.

“Fair enough,” he kidded. He shut the door behind me and came and joined me on the couch. He always sat at the far right side of his couch, practically aligned with the TV. But he didn’t resume his game; he threw the controller that was in his spot down onto the ground and faced toward me.

“So, what causes have come up that I must be summoned on such short notice?” He smiled slightly, but it quickly vanished. My face quickly mirrored his. “Is something wrong?” I asked, with much more seriousness in my voice this time. He creased his eyebrows slightly, like he was really thinking of the answer.

“Sort of.” By the way Eli was acting, I knew it wasn’t a life threatening serious. If it was something really bad, he would have told me already.

“What?” He took a deep breath, like what he was about to say was going to be really hard. I tried to brace myself for what was ahead.

“I was at Kelso’s last night and I saw Nick there.” Kelso’s was a local café that attracted just about everyone who walked by it inside. It was one of those cozy cafés were someone could just order a coffee and read a book. It was huge, and also had a small bar in the back. However since it was right in the middle of Denver and very close to the school, it had the tendency to attract more teenagers than adults recently. “At first I wasn’t going to talk to him. I didn’t really want to talk to him, since I know what he did to you. The kid was sitting at the bar all by himself, and practically looked like he was about two tears away from killing himself.” It didn’t really surprise me. A lot of the people who work at Kelso’s are recent graduates from school, so they often slip minors alcohol, and that was the first thing Nick went to when he was upset. Alcohol.

Eli’s face wasn’t phased at all by what he was telling me; he looked like we were having a completely normal conversation, which I suppose we were since I didn’t really see the danger or importance in it yet. “That doesn’t really surprise me. Nick always drinks.” Eli tossed out a humorless chuckle.

“Yeah, I know. Everyone in town knows. But that’s not the point. My plan was to go get a cup of coffee, and then come back home. That didn’t really happen. Once I got the coffee, I had to walk past the bar to get to the door. And trust me, I tried to eye ways out without walking past him, but there were none, so I was left with no choice. I tried to speed by him quickly, but I caught his eye. So he called out to me, and I couldn’t really ignore him at that point, so I walked over to him and he told me to sit down next to him; that he had something to tell me.” It was at this point, I could feel the importance and danger building up in my stomach. Eli and Nick never spoke, even when we were dating. And the only times they did were when they had to. For Nick to willingly want to talk to Eli, something must be going on.

“I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to talk to him. All I wanted to do was get out of there, partly because it was him, and partly because he reeked of beer. But the way he was talking to me, I,” he paused for a moment, like he was trying to think of the right words. “I could see his pain on his face. Like I could feel his sadness, and I just couldn’t walk away. And I'm glad I didn’t. Because I got some valuable information.” I was leaning into Eli somewhat, trying to hear his thoughts, as if it would give me answers.

“From what? About what?”

“Let me tell you what he told me.” Eli shook his head slightly to move his hair out of his eyes, and as he did so, his eyes seemed to connect right with mine; a swirl of hazel and brown. “He told me that he had been at Kelso’s earlier yesterday too, probably drinking, but he didn’t say. But he did say that he saw Axel there. And he overheard him talking to one of his friends.” Eli paused for a minute, observably looking like he was scanning his living room, but I could tell that he was trying to sort thing out in his head. His eyes then connected to mine again. “Aubrey told me about you and Axel, that you're sort of a couple or whatever. And that’s why I needed to talk to you today.” He took a deep breath. “Axel was talking about you.”

My first reaction was no reaction. I didn’t know what to do or think. I didn’t know if he meant in a good way or a bad way, but with the way his voice sounded, I could have guessed it wasn’t leaning on the good side. I couldn’t look him in the eye. I played with my fingers. “Good talking, or bad talking?” I sounded as small as a mouse.

“Kind of both.” I looked back up at him, an endless list beginning to form in my head. “Just listen. Nick told me that he was sitting in the booth behind them, but they didn’t notice. He said it was Axel and two other guys he didn’t know.” They were probably friends from before he moved to Denver if Nick didn’t know them. Everyone around here knew everyone else. “He said at first that they were just doing a lot of laughing and he wasn’t really listening. But once he heard your name, he started to listen in. He heard Axel say that he tricked Nick into cheating on you, Karlee.” I shook my head at him slightly. I couldn’t believe that. I wouldn’t believe that.

“No, that has to be wrong. I saw Nick kissing that girl with my own two eyes. And Axel was in the kitchen when I found them. It’s impossible, there’s no way that’s true.” Eli’s face twisted into a sympathetic one; his eyes drooped and his lips formed a small downward curve.

“Nick heard him say it though.” I could feel myself getting worked up, but I did not want to yell at Eli. I couldn’t lose the only friend I have left. It wasn’t his fault either.

“Nick’s lying. Nick always lies, you know that.” Eli’s face then morphed into a sterner look as he leaned in towards me.

“Axel always lies. You know that.” I shook my head at him again, faster this time, trying to shake the thoughts out of my head. I did though. I knew it. I knew Axel had lied about things before, things in the past. But I wanted to believe that he wouldn’t lie to me or about me or about something that hurt me.

“He wouldn’t lie to me. What good would it do even if he did trick Nick? What could he possibly get out of it?”

“Uh, I don’t know, you? Oh wait, he already did. He wanted to get Nick out of the way so he could make a move on you. Don’t you even remember what you used to say about him before you and Nick broke up? All those names you used to call him? What happened to that? What, so now that he likes you, none of that matters?” I didn’t want to get angry with Eli, but he was already somewhat yelling, and I couldn’t hold my pride back any longer.

“Yeah, I do remember. But you know what, maybe I judged him before I really got to know him.” I began to get up off the couch to walk away, probably into the kitchen, but then I paused everything. I completely stopped my train of thought and hopped onto a new one and turned back to Eli, who was looking away at the TV with a hand on his forehead.. “Wait,” he looked back at me. “I talked to Nick last night. Why didn’t he just tell me all this then?” Eli removed his hand and sighed. I could already tell that his voice was going to be calmer now. Everything about Eli was so predictable.

“Last night when I saw him, it was after you two talked. He told me that when you first called, he completely forgot everything about it. But then towards the end he tried to bring it up, but you hung up on him.” I felt a twinge of guilt for hanging up on him inside me. “That was the main reason he needed to talk to me. Because he knew that you would at least listen to me.”

I took a moment to myself. I tried to process everything in my head, to look at everything from every stand point. I suppose it was possible, but unlikely. It was just so much easier to think of certain people as either good or bad. It got difficult when there was an in-between. And I wanted to be so sure that Axel belonged in the good category. With a sigh I moved myself back next to Eli. He looked at me, his hazel eyes mixing with blues and greens.

“I just don’t want to believe that he would do something like that to me.” I spoke nearly above a whisper.

“Sometimes what you believe isn’t reality.” I looked down at my fingers and began playing with them again. “Kar, Axel’s been nice to you for what? All of a whole week? Come on. We’ve been best friends for years. I wouldn’t lie to you, and you know that I only want what’s best for you.” Eli often reminded me of an older brother. Someone who was there when I need them, someone who would protect me, and try to look out for me. But like all older brothers, he got annoying too. I glanced back up, but not directly at him.

“What’s best for me is my own decision. I’m sorry Eli, but I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you, or Nick, or anyone. You’re wrong.” I got up from where I was sitting next to him with one last glance and started walking towards the door.

“So what, are you going to stop talking to me now like you did with Aubrey?” I was standing at the door with my hand on the knob, ready to turn it at any second. My back was to him, but I stopped. I didn’t really want to do this. Every part of me was screaming to go back and hug him and apologize for everything hurtful I said. Everything in my body was telling me to not walk out that door, but out of all that, my pride had the loudest voice. One that I had trouble ignoring.

I twisted the doorknob letting in the cold air, and quickly shut it behind me.