So Far Away.

He was dripping from the rain and looked exhausted. I didn't know what to say. Hi? What? Where? Why? I found myself standing there speechless, mouth gaping open like a mentally handicapped fish out of water.

"What's with the dog? What's going on?" I was awake, but not enough for this.

"Adam told me you were looking at her at the mall."

"Eli....she was three hundred dollars!"

All he did was shrug. He pulled down his hood and stared at me, like he was waiting for something. For what? What was I supposed to do? Should I still be mad at him?

"Here," he handed me her leash. I opened the door to let her out of the cold rain so she can warm up. When I turned back around, he was heading for the car.

"Wait!" I called uncontrollably. He turned and raised his eye brows. "So you just stop by and give me a puppy and just leave? Thanks for the puppy, but what are you doing here?"

He looked at his feet, walking closer to me and stopped about a foot away.

"I wanted to tell you how sorry I was in person. I'm sorry." He looked so sincere. His mouth was twisted down into a frown, not his usual warming smile. His eyes looked tired and dead.

"And now you're just going to leave?" I snapped. I must be on my period or something, I thought to myself.

"What else am I supposed to do?" He asked raising his voice.

"I don't know maybe stay? Ask me how i've been? Or would you rather me be going through hell," I spat, emphasizing hell. He rolled his eyes and started back to the car, stopped, then turned around, pointing at me.

"You have NO right to be angry with me! I told you that wasn't me! It was some psycho I made out with for two seconds that didn't even mean anything to me because I was drunk! We weren't even together!"

"I know!" I yelled back, my eyes flooding. "I know that. It's just, I told you everything, Eli!" My voice started to break from holding back sobs. I finally broke down, for the first time in a long time, I broke. "I told you EVERYTHING and you weren't even going to try. You just gave up and started to try and forget me." I fell on the porch on my legs and cried with my hands on my face. I could feel his hand on my shoulder, I pushed it away. "No."

"Alex, please." His voice was calm now, soothing even. I sniffed and wiped my tears, embarassed for my tantrum.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry you already knew it wasn't going to happen except for me."

"How could you think I could forget you?" He whispered, bending down to my level. I wiped another tear away, fighting back more that were threatening to escape. "I'll admit, I fucked up. I did try, but there's something about you. I haven't stopped thinking about you. And the reason why that girl sent you the text was because I accidentaly called her Alex."

At that last part I wiped my cheek and looked at him. The corners of my lips fighting to smile. He smiled and nodded his head.

"Really?"

"Really,." he stood up and held out his hand, a leather bracelate exposed from his jacket. I took it and stood up, inches away from him.

"I'm still mad at you," I whispered.

"I don't care." He smiled. I heard the window winding down from Sara's car.

"Are you done yet?" Adam yelled. Eli rolled his eyes and turned, giving a thumbs up. Sara and Adam got out of the car.

"Sleep over?" Sara asked.

"You just want to play with Meike," I accused. She smiled and nodded. I opened the door and invited them in.

Meike was sitting at the matt at the front door, wagging her tail as we all came in.

"Oh here," Sara brought out a tennis ball from her purse and threw it, the puppy flying after it. "She loves that thing."

"We need to go to the store and get some food for her," I thought out loud. "If you guys want you can just stay here, there's left over pizza in the fridge. I'll be back."

"I'll go with you," Eli smiled. I nodded, my face burning. I grabbed my keys and we left the house and headed to my car.

I turned on my mix CD and it started playing Motion City Soundtrack 'Let's get fucked up and die'.

"Nice song," Eli joked, as I sung along with the words.

"He's speaking figuratively, of course." He smiled and shook his head, looking out the window. Not even five minutes later we arrived at the store.

We headed straight to the pet stuff and picked up collars, toys,food, bowls, and a little dog bed. Our arms were completly full.

"Maybe we should've grabbed a cart," Eli joked, almost dropping the dog food.

"It's a little late for that," I said as we headed to the check out. After Eli insisted on paying for everything, we headed for my car trying our best to hurry out of the rain and headed home.

"Someones home," Eli muttered.

"Shit, my mom." I groaned. Please don't embarass me, I thought to myself.

"Care to explain?" My mom asked as soon as we opened the door. I smiled wildly.

"Can we keep her?" I asked. She flashed a smile and nodded.

"And this must be The Eli?" She suggested. I nodded. "So nice to meet you, finally!" she ran up and gave him a hug. Stop it, I said to myself.

"Nice to meet you too, Miss. Tubbs."

"I didn't even know you were coming."

"Last minute thing," I spoke. Adam and Sara were on the couch, Saras hair was frizzy from being in the rain. "They're staying the night, is that ok?"

"Sure, that's great! Don't be too loud, or whatever you kids do I don't really care. I'm going to bed. See you all in the morning." She waved and headed up the steps.

"She seems cool," Eli said after she shut her bedroom door. I nodded.

"When she wants to be."

We went and joined Adam and Sara. Eli sat next to Adam and I sat in the lazy boy and popped out the foot rest. The lights started to flicker.

"News said it's only going to get worse," Sara said, worried. She wasn't a big fan of storms.

"I'll grab some candles just in case." I stood up and went into our linen closet where we kept our emergency candles and flash lights. I also grabbed the radio just in case and some glow sticks and a lighter.

"Waiting for the apocolypse?" Adam joked.

"We get bad storms here," I started. "Plus, our power goes out a lot easier than anyone elses. I don't know why," I started to light all the candles.

"So, what do you girls wanna do?" Adam asked.

"Let's get in our underwear and have a pillow fight! That's what Alex and I do."

"Really?" Eli said smirking.

"No." Sara simply stated and we laughed.

"We're usually in my room looking at magazines, watching tv and listening to music," I said. The boys looked down, disappointment filling their faces. Sara and I laughed some more.

I stood after lighting the candles and got some of Meike's stuff out. Mainly her toys and food bowls and rested her bed in the corner of the living room. I dumped some of her puppy food in the bowl and filled the other with some water. She ran up wagging her tail and started eating like she was starving. I pet her head and went back to my spot on the recliner.

"Seriously, what do you guys want to do?" I asked.

"I say we just do what we usually do when we stay over and they can do what they do," Sara suggested.

"Got any video games?" Adam chirped. I frowned.

"Yeah, hold on," I groaned, getting up yet again. I grabbed the game console, along with fingernail polish, hair stuff, pajamas, blankets and magazines, all in two trips of course. The boys started playing instantly, yelling at the screen and accusing each other of cheating while Sara and I went in my room to change into pajamas. She borrowed my grey soffe shorts and a tan tank top while I wore my spongebob shorts and yellow tank top, throwing my hair up in a messy bun.

"So," Sara started while I was pulling my hair back.

"So...what?"

"Are you happy now?" She urged.

"About what? Having a puppy? Um, yeah."

"No, well yeah that too, but with Eli? Were you shocked?"

"Well, yeah I was shocked." I sat down on my bed.

"It was Adams idea."

"Figures," I mumbled.

"He just wants to see his friend happy, and me happy. You not being happy doesn't make me happy."

"Awe," I teased.

"The way he looks at you," she said. I smiled.

"What? You've seen us together for ten minutes!"

"I know but I have that feeling, you know? And i'm always right about my feelings!"

"Sure," I said, standing up and opening the door. We headed downstairs where the boys were still screaming at the tv.

"They can't hear you," Sara said, kissing Adam on the cheek.

"In my world, they do," Adam said, not breaking his concentration. I rolled my eyes and opened my newest magazine. I flipped through the articles, reading whatever I found interesting. I found a sample perfume and rubbed it on my wrist. Not bad, I thought.

"How to be irrisistable" one article read. Of course, I read it.

I set the magazine down and watched the tv screen. Every now and then I would look at Eli. His hair was still wet from the rain. I checked my watch; midnight. I had a feeling they were going to be playing all night.

"Why don't you just go around the corner and throw the grenade?" I asked. Eli looked over at me, his eye brows raised.

"Why don't you throw the grenade," he smirked, handing me the controller. I smiled and took it from him. I did a couple of jumps, shot and killed random people and leaned down in the corner,waiting for Adam to be just a little closer. I threw the grenade and it hit him right in the head then exploded seconds later. I handed Eli the controller, smiling.

"That's how it's done," I said, leaning over to pick Meike up and laying her on my stomach. Her eyes started to get heavy and she fell asleep.

Around two in the morning my eyes got heavy and I could barely keep them open. The boys were still going crazy with their game and Sara was already asleep. I sat up and shook my head to try and wake up, and took Meike outside to use the bathroom. The storm started to calm but it picked up again, scaring Meike a little. When she was done I set her in her bed and she fell asleep instantly.

"She's had a hard day," Eli said smiling. They were done with their game and Adam had laid next to Sara.

"I bet." The lights started to flicker again, and thankfully the candles were still lit.

"So, um. I don't mean to be rude, and i'm not tired yet, but where am I sleeping?" He asked.

"Oh, um. We have an air matress I think. If not we could-air mattress," I stopped myself from saying 'sleep in my room', and went to find the mattress. With success I had found it and brought it to the living room.

"Could you move the coffee table please?" I asked. After he moved it I set it down where the table once was, and took out the manual air pump and started to fill it with air. Once it was full, I grabbed some sheets and put it on the bed and put some pillows down along with the blanket.

"Where are you going to sleep?"

"Oh, I can just go up to my room. Or the floor," I said.

"You can sleep here. I'm fully clothed, don't worry," He joked. My face started to burn.

"Well I hope so." I mentally smacked myself in the face. What? I thought. Why would you say that!?

"Ok...?" he laughed and laid on the bed. I sat on the edge, awkwardly, and grabbed a magazine. After a few minutes, the lights went out. Sara instantly jumped up, head butting Adam.

"OW!" He screamed.

"The lights," She panicked. "Where? What?"

"Sara, it's fine, we have the candles." I soothed her. She nodded and fell back to sleep, leaving poor Adam holding his nose, confused.

"What the hell?" He whispered.

"She hates storms."

"Ugh," He winced from pain. He checked his hand for blood and obviously relieved there was none, he laid back down but more cautiously.

I giggled and shook my head and felt something poke my back. I turned around and found that it was Eli's foot.

"Hi." he smiled.

"Yeah?"

"Come lay down." I slowly closed my magazine and laid, slowly, down next to Eli. I could smell mint gum on him, and the laundry detergent. Simply delicious.

I laid, stiff as a board, next to Eli on my back, staring at the cieling and watching the flame of the candle flicker. Meike was making slight snoring sounds and yelping in her sleep. I closed my eyes, pretending to sleep. I felt Eli turn over.

"You don't really sleep like that, do you?" He asked. I opened my eyes. He was laying on his side, his head perched up resting on his hand.

"I do as a matter of fact," I answered, closing my eyes again.

"Are you a vampire or something?"

"Maybe," I smiled. I opened my eyes again. "Be careful." He laid back down, turning his back to me. i turned my back to his and somehow fell asleep.