He Only Says He Loves Me When He's Drinking

Soon enough, the boys arrived at Daniel’s restaurant. Okay, it’s technically not Daniel’s, but it was his dads, which ultimately lead to it being his family. Since it was his family’s restaurant, which leaves Daniel has the heir of the best pizza joint in town. Daniel Cunningham – the future ruler of the cheesiest of all cheese bread and crusts. (It really was the best pizza place. That was unbeatable.)

As Jacob and Eli walked into the room, they were immediately greeted by the comforting and familiar smell of pizza grease and faux Italian seasoning. Sure, some may find this nauseating, but it made the boy’s mouths water and their stomach’s growl angrily. It was part of their basic diet, and no one questioned it. They held it above all other food joints, having grown up with it, and they treated it as a meeting place for years now.

“Jacob!” A high-pitched squeal erupted, causing Eli to wince painfully. Jacob’s “cool, all-American-boy” exterior melted away and was replaced with a sickening lovesick gaze as Kennedy skittered towards them in her overprized, and dangerously high, heels.

Once again, Eli was completely disregarded as Jacob and Kennedy enveloped themselves into a sloppy hug. Seconds later, they were connected by the mouth in an impromptu make out session, causing strangers to stare. You’d think they hadn’t seen each other in months, despite the fact they were together last night.

They were always together “last night.” It was sickening the amount of nights they spent together and the amount of details that Jacob displayed to Elijah. What didn’t he get? Eli was gay for a reason and he didn’t care to hear all about the human anatomy from someone who liked their genitals being sucked up by a meat envelope. Disgusting, if you asked him.

Eli didn’t understand what the appeal was with Kennedy. He wouldn’t even if he was straight. .She was fake, plastic, and worse, loud. His eyes trailed over her pedicured toes shoved into her plastic-pink pumps, her scrawny but tanned legs, her pink mini skirt (which was coincidentally riding generously high on her “hot ass.”) After that, all there was left was her top (that left little to imagination) and her hip-length, bleached blond hair.

As the couple broke out of their lip-lock, Eli glared at the lip-gloss that the leech had smeared all over his best friend’s lips. God, girls were disgusting. He stayed in this scowling trance until he felt a firm handclasp down on his shoulder.

“All that glaring is going to give you a hernia, kid, settle down.” Daniel chuckled, his scruffy chin jiggling along with his jaw. He quickly turned and ushered Eli away from the couple and instead towards the table where his friends sat. Drinks were already there along with Jordan, who sat expectantly waiting. Her sharp features differed against the stereotypical pizza palace atmosphere.

If Eli had to be with any girl, it’d be a girl like Jordan. You were entertained just looking at her, the way you would by a very obscure sculpture. She had straight, shoulder-length, dark red hair that always rested in a self-assured way. Her eyebrows were thin, dark, and arched in a constant smug position and her lips were already ready to smirk. She had jewelry everywhere. On her neck there was a black chocker, in her eyebrow there were silver rings, her wrists were decorated with black bands, and on her hands there were an assortment of rings.

“Did you catch any flies? Your mouth was sure open wide enough.” Jordan teased, one eyebrow cocked just lightly higher than the other, causing her silver eyebrow ring to glimmer in the caught light.

“I have no idea why they think intense PDA is ‘so cute.’” Eli cooed in an attempted impersonation of Kennedy which turned out to be much more squeaky and annoying. “If they aren’t tangled together in each other’s limbs and sucking face, then they’re acting all googly-eyed, which just looks creepy. They’re sucking the light of each other! I’m not sure about you but that makes me incredibly uncomfortable and I’m not going to sit here and-“

“Calm down, bitter Betty, just because you’re alone and unhappy doesn’t mean everyone else has to be.” Daniel interrupted his rant, shaking his head with a knowing smile. His hat fit just a tad too loosely, causing it to sag down onto his brown eyebrows.

Jordan crinkled her pale nose at Daniel. “Ew, please tell me you did not just say and I quote, “bitter Betty.’ God, Daniel you sound like my grandmother.” Jordan made a face, her voice condescending. If they didn’t know her better, they’d think she was actually insulting them.

“I didn’t even make that up! It’s a real thing and-“ Daniel began before Jordan stooped him. Eli sat back, knowing where this was going. It was a freak show with them, one that Jacob usually acted as the median for. Well, Jacob’s not here and it’s not Eli’s job to stop them. Instead, he crossed his arms and watched them, entertained.

“And that makes him seem terribly pathetic. That’s going to make him even unhappier! Is that what you’re trying to do?” Jordan challenged, her face ready to debate this matter until the death. That’s a signature thing for her, a face that Eli usually gives up to, but Daniel only backed down partially. Eli had to give him props for this. Jordan got scary when she looked like that. They knew from experience.

“I didn’t say it to make him unhappy. I said it to prove that he was already unhappy.” Daniel countered, his face breaking into a sloppy grin. He was practically gleaming with confidence. Eli pitied him. Jordan had just opened her mouth, ready to fight back with whatever ingenious insult she had before Eli finally spoke up for himself.

“You two fight like an old married couple. You’re both wrong. If I wanted to be with someone, I’d pick the sexiest man in the city’s limits, but the thing is that I don’t want one. I’d never want to look like them.” He nodded towards Kennedy and Jacob, who were now walking hand-in-hand towards the table, giggling with their heads close about some private joke they had shared. Eli felt his deep scowl returning.

Jordan and Daniel glanced at each other, exchanging a knowing look. “Bitter.” They said in unison, agreeing for one in their entire lives. Eli shot them a glare, and one of his plentiful and famous eyerolls.

“What did we miss?” Jacob questioned innocently. His lips were spread in a sloppy grin (which Eli could still see traces of lip gloss on), and his eyes were wild as if he had just taken the wildest adventure of his life. Disgusting.

For a moment, nobody said anything until Daniel came to the rescue, in his Daniel-sort-of-way. “The president got reelected.” Daniel stated, nonchalantly, with the smallest twitch of a smile in the corner of his lips.

“Yeah, and there were some aliens. They invaded for a little, it’s kind of minor, though.” Jordan shrugged, with a smirk, as Daniel nodded.

“Yeah, really minor. They took over Russia and Greece and half the population was abducted, but whose counting? Daniel teased, glancing at each of them.

“Guys! You’re forgetting when Belgium ran out of chocolate! That was the most devastating of it all!” Eli jumped in, nodding frantically as if just remembering., his brown hair flopping around slightly.

“Not the chocolate!” Jacob played into their teasing. They all broke out laughing at once, which felt great to Eli, considering he had spent the last fifteen minutes complaining about the inevitable. It all felt like old times for a moment, before they realized Kennedy wasn’t laughing.

Her arms were folded tightly over her breasts, and her eyebrows were raised in her famous, “That wasn’t funny, stop being an idiot, someone pay attention to me,” face. The laughing died out awkwardly, as Kennedy leaned forward, her cleavage dangling cautiously out of her shirt, and rested her hand daintily on Jacob’s upper thigh. As if summoned, Eli’s sarcastic scowl returned.

“We should get going. We don’t want to miss the movie.” Kennedy pouted, her thick lips puckered slightly, all pink and proud. The others exchanged a look of wonder as Jacob gathered his things. This was a Saturday and every Saturday night no matter rain or shine they came here. Whether of not they were hungry, or just doing homework, or purposely finding a reason to procrastinate homework, they came here. Why was Jacob leaving?

“I thought you were staying for lunch.” Eli reminded him, his voice was just daring Jacob to leave, his face unreadable under his thick-rimmed glasses and floppy hair.

“Didn’t I tell you guys? Oh, I guess not.” Jacob giggled awkwardly. “We were, but Ken doesn’t really like the pizza here, and she really wanted to see this super cool movie. You know the one about the-“ Jacob flashed him most manipulating smile, but Eli interrupted him. He wasn’t falling for this this easily.

“What do you mean she doesn’t like the pizza here. Here is Cunningham’s, as in Daniel Cunningham, as in our best friend’s restaurant.” Eli gestured to his friends, annoyed with the fact that they weren’t saying anything. The duo wiggled in their seats awkwardly for a moment, and for once, Jordan and Daniel had nothing to say. “Are you two really just going to sit there?” Eli made a face of annoyance and urged them forward.

“Dude, it’s not that big of a deal.” Daniel mumbled, but his eyes were a different story. His usually happy, doe-like brown eyes were now looking down shining with hurt. It wasn’t like none of them haven’t missed their Saturday dates, but none of them have skipped it for a minor issue. Only important things caused them to skip it; like sicknesses, weddings, television marathons, funerals, birthdays, family dinners, and contests like lets-see-who-can-eat-the-most-cheetos-in-12-hours. (True story. Jacob won and Eli lost, which was the predicted result.)

“See? Daniel doesn’t even think it’s that big of a deal.” Jacob countered, but it was weak. It was very weak, actually. They all knew better than to believe that. It was all just friendly formalities, the real problem hidden just underneath the surface.

“You were my ride.” Elijah tried once again, with a whole new argument this time. His face seemed to be a mixture of emotions. Abandonment and annoyance read most prominently. He wasn’t going to back down this easy, that’s for sure.

“I’m sure Daniel or Jordan could give you a ride, right guys?” Jacob argued back, not really asking the question. His face was plastered into a fake smile, acting as if he couldn’t be bothered for this. He was acting like everything was okay. It wasn’t okay, especially not to Eli. His mask only faltered slightly when Jordan and Daniel kept avoiding eye contact. Even Kennedy was staying out of this one.

“We had plans later.” Eli attempted one last time, with a frown. He hated himself for how whiney his voice was sounding. He knew he was begging, but that didn’t stop him from hoping that Jacob would change his mind. He inwardly groaned at himself. This was pathetic.

“I can just come after.” Jacob offered, weakly. He shrugged as if to just forget it. Eli knew he was breaking down Jacob’s walls so he opened his mouth to continue before the she-devil stopped him.

“Calm down, Elijah. You’re acting like you’re the one dating him.” Kennedy said sweetly, with a small melodic laugh. It appeared as if she was joking, but Eli knew better. They were always fighting for Jacob’s attention, but he usually lost. He just didn’t have the proper personality. Or tits. They established eye contact, his were lost and hers were poisonous and challenging.

Eli shook his head with a shrug. This was getting embarrassing. “Whatever, dude, have fun.” Eli mumbles, watching them leave. His eyes trailed after them as they made their way to the car. Jacob seemed solemn for a moment, before bursting out laughing at some comment that Kennedy made. He wondered if it was him that they were laughing at. He glanced down, feeling the sharp sting of rejection, and when he looked back up, they were gone.