The Last Time the Rain Fell

When Eli and I finally stood in front of our class, we walked in side by side and sat next to each other in the back of the class after placing our completed report on the teacher’s desk. The class passed by in a blur until it was my turn to talk about our project.

“Well,” I began, “Our short story is in two parts because it’s in the point of view of two different people. It’s basically about these two best friends that go out to get their fortune told one night and when the boy starts to flirt with the woman telling the fortunes, she curses him and tells him that he needs to know what it’s like to be on the other side that type of encounter.”

“So, when they wake up, they’ve switched places and they need to try to figure out how to live the life of the best friend.” Eli began, picking up where I left off, “It came out to be pretty comical.”

The teacher nodded her head and moved on to the next group. I leaned back in my chair and took my long, multi-colored hair out of the high messy ponytail I placed it in earlier due to the heat in the classroom. The loud bell rang above our heads and I smiled happily now that I was done with my classes even though everyone else still had at least an hour left.

“Where are you going?” Eli asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders.

“I’ll probably end up going to the library or something. It depends,” I began, “Why do you ask?”

“I’ll walk you to the library then, I wouldn’t want you to get lost on your way down that long scary hallway.”

I chuckled and gathered my books, walking out of the classroom with Eli by my side.

“Why do you always go to the library?” he asked me, causing me to simply shrug my shoulders.

“I like that it’s quiet because there is no way I’d be able to get any homework done at all once I get home. Plus, I like reading.”

“I wouldn’t have expected that from you.” he said, stopping in front of the entrance to the library.

“I’m sure there’s a lot of things about me that you wouldn’t expect.” I replied, turning to look at him at the same time that a loud bell rang overhead signaling that Eli was now late to whatever class he was supposed to be in at the moment, “You should get going, you’re going to be late for class and then it’ll be entirely my fault for corrupting you and making you a bad child.”

“I’m not sure who exactly has been lying to you, but I’m pretty sure I’m the one that’s been corrupting you in this relationship.” Eli joked, making me chuckle slightly.

“I highly doubt that, but really Eli, you should be getting to class before you get detention.” I said after playfully nudging his shoulder.

“I really rather stay here with you.” Eli said.

“And what do you want to do if you stay with me?” I asked with an eyebrow raised.

His hand linked with mine and he moved closer to me until I was against the wall and his lips were pressed gently on mine. I kissed him back slowly, my lips not nearly as passionate at his. When Eli pulled away, I sighed.

“We really need to stop doing that.” I said as I ran a hand through my multi-colored hair.

Eli chuckled and placed his hand next my head, his palm resting on the wall that I was leaning against. He leaned closer to me and placed another kiss on my lips that were slowly losing the lip gloss on them because of Eli’s desire to kiss me.

“You’re not going to stop, are you?” I asked only for Eli to lean forward and kiss me again with more passion than before.

“What if Clare catches us?” I asked.

“What if Jake catches us?” he replied.

“Don’t do that, you know I feel bad about doing this. I mean, granted, the sex was good but I can’t keep doing this to Jake and you can’t keep doing this to Clare. I think we should just move past this and pretend that nothing has changed between the two of us.”

“Olive,” he began as his ironic olive colored eyes stared into my light blue orbs, “If you give me some time I promise you I will leave her. Then it’ll just be Olivia and Elijah, Liv and Eli, Olive and Blueberry. It’ll just be the two of us.”

“You can’t leave Clare, Eli,” I began even though my heart was telling me not to say that, “She’s perfect for you and she’s done so much for you. I can’t get in the way of that.”

Eli sighed and ran a hand through his hair before abruptly leaning forward and giving me a forceful kiss that curled my toes and left me breathless.

“Olive, you’re perfect for me. I’ve never met anybody like you before, well, except for Adam maybe,” he said, making me chuckle since he wasn’t the first person to notice that Adam and I were almost exactly alike, “You’re different than any other girl out there, you’re weird and I like it. I want more of it, I want more of you.”

“Let’s say hypothetically you do break if off with Clare and I do break up with Jake, have you even thought about how bad it’ll look on us that we’re going out the day after we dump our significant other?”

“I couldn’t care less what it’ll look like, Olivia.” he said with a frustrated sigh.

“Alright,” I began, making him perk up, “What are you going to do in a few days when the thrill you’re experiencing of us having sex and being sneaky wears off?”

Eli said nothing, and through the tears in my eyes, I pushed past him and walked out the doors to begin the long walk home, completely ignoring the fact that I needed to go to the library to research information for a report I needed to complete for my History class.

My feet hit the cold black pavement as I walked to the house and before I knew it, I was walking up the stairs and into my bedroom. I threw my bag on the floor beside my bed and plopped down onto the pretty sheets as I ran a hand through my hair. I sent Adam a quick text just to let him know that I was home so that he wouldn’t worry and I pulled my laptop up and set in on my stomach as I quickly turned it on and logged into Tumblr. I scrolled through everything that was recent and was happy that something as simple as the internet was able to occupy my mind.

“Olivia,” I heard a voice begin, making me look up to see Adam standing in my doorway with his trademark beanie on his head.

“Hey, best friend,” I greeted happily, “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“I just got home. Eli’s dad dropped me off.” he explained, biting his lip nervously.

“Oh, what happened to Drew?” I asked as I turned my computer off before putting it back in its bag and sitting up with my back leaning against the headboard and assortment of pillows.

“Why didn’t you tell me that you had sex with Eli?” he asked me, cutting to the chase.

“I thought you knew, you seemed like you knew exactly what happened between Eli and I when we were all sitting together at lunch.” I said, nervously biting my lip just as Adam had been doing a moment earlier.

Adam sighed and took his hat off, placing it on my dresser before running a hand through his short brown hair before looking at me with his big blue eyes that were just a shade different than mine. He moved over to my bed and sat next to me with his back resting against the headboard just like mine was, his arms pulling me closer to him so that my head was resting on his chest with his hands smoothening my hair.

“Why did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“What do you mean do what,” he began to ask with a small amount of anger in his voice, “Why did you have sex with Eli, my best friend? I knew you guys liked each other but I really just thought that you guys would just make out a little then you’d break up with Jake and run away with Eli.”

“It was an accident, we were drunk and I didn’t think it would go that far.” I said, pulling away from his warm hold on my body and leaning against the bed like he was.

“This is all my fault,” he began as he placed his hands over his face, “I knew what would happen and I just walked away and left you two alone.”

“Adam, please don’t get like that. It really was all an accident.”

“How could having what sounded like very rough and passionate sex with someone be an accident? Did you guys just take of your clothes and trip over and over again?”

I chuckled and played with the tips of my hair, picking away the split ends.

“Don’t feel bad, I know how you feel about him.” Adam said, rubbing my back and pulling me closer to him.

“I don’t feel bad.” I mumbled, clearly lying.

“That’s bullshit,” he began, making me roll my eyes, “and I can tell it’s bullshit because whenever you want to ignore something bad that is going on around you and you can’t control it or you can’t change the past, you start playing with the ends of your hair.”

I let my hair go and placed my hands in my lap, Adam chuckling at my actions from where he sat beside me.

“I don’t know why I did it,” I began, “I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time and I wasn’t exactly thinking straight. I was drunk, and I know you probably don’t want to hear me say it but I was horny and Eli is really fucking cute.”

Adam chuckled and I held back even though almost every fiber in my being was telling me I should push him off the bed.

“I guess the question you have to ask yourself is if it was just a onetime thing or if you see a future for the two of you.” Adam said to me, making me shrug my shoulders.

“I like Jake a lot. He’s sweet, he’s funny, and he’s absolutely gorgeous but ever since I met him even though Clare was all over him I really thought that there was something about Eli that was drawing my attention. I know I promised that I would never fall in love again after what happened last time but I think I might be in love with Eli.”

“Do you think you’re in love with him because of his personality or do you think you’re in love with him because of what he had for you inside his skinny jeans last night?” Adam asked, trailing off a bit at the end and making me chuckle slightly as I shook my head.

“I don’t know how to answer that,” I said, making Adam groan, “He’s just so different. He’s Eli and there’s nobody else like him. He’s the type of person that when I’m talking to him everything else goes away for a few minutes and he’s the first person I’ve ever met that hasn’t treated me differently after finding out about everything that happened to me back home.”

Adam mumbled something below his breath and I felt my thin eyebrows furrow together in confusion as I turned my head to look over at him with my head tilted slightly to the side and my multi-colored hair falling over my body.

“What did you say?” I asked him, honestly curious as to what he said after I finished my short rant about how I felt about Eli.

“I said that he feels the same way about you. The first day he met you he thought you were hot and to be honest the first thing he ever asked me about you was if I thought he had a chance at having sex with you.” Adam said, making me chuckle even though I felt as though a knife was being stabbed through my heart as the words left his mouth.

“Well, he certainly got what he wanted, didn’t he?” I said curtly with a few tears coming up to my eyes that I promptly wiped away.

“Awe, Liv,” Adam began as he pulled me into his arms to calm me down, something I knew he probably wouldn’t do for anyone else, “Please don’t cry. You know that you’re the only person that I can’t stand to see crying, especially with those beautiful big eyes you’ve got there.”

“He must think I’m such a slut,” I said through the tears, “I like him so much and now he’s probably somewhere cuddling under the blanket with Clare.”

“Liv,” Adam began, pulling me away from his body and holding me at arm’s length to look me in the eyes, “You have no idea how much he cares about you, even if it hasn’t escalated to love yet. Every boy’s first thought when they see a beautiful girl is what it would be like to have sex with her but you have to remember what he thought of you after that. He thinks you’re weird and funny, I know he wants to be with you but he thinks you don’t want to be with him.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to be with him, I just don’t want to hurt him.”

“Olivia, I think we both know it’s a little too late for that.” Adam said, biting his lip nervously.

“I need to break up with Jake, don’t I?” I said, knowing I would not like the answer that Adam would give me.

“Unfortunately, you do. I know you’re not trying to, but you are kind of leading both of these guys on and you know they both really like you more than they should.”

I sighed and placed my head in my hands, unsure of what I should do.