2. Eli
2
ELI
P rofessor Blume didn’t take long.
The second he called me out to see him in his office, I knew exactly what he’d say.
And he had, at first, telling me that my grades were falling.
Blah, blah, blah. I kept them average or above, all that was required to meet my scholarship criteria.
Then he expressed his opinions about my lack of enthusiasm.
Whatever, dude. Beowulf was too damn boring to excite me . It hardly mattered whether I liked the class. Brit Lit was the last elective I could do to graduate in the spring.
Last, he made sure to tell me that I wouldn’t pass if I turned in one more late paper or assignment.
Better late than never, if you ask me.
I was late now, as a matter of fact, hours after I’d left campus. My dorm room stank like too much cologne after Finn, my best friend and teammate, sprayed damn near a whole bottle on himself to mask the stink of weed. Everyone smoked on campus, and I wasn’t sure why he worried whether someone smelled it on him now. It wasn’t like we were actively playing. Football season was done. Basketball was in. No one, especially a coach, was going to get on his ass for hitting a blunt now.
“Just don’t smoke before going out,” I told him as we left our dorm room to head to a party.
“I’m nervous,” he argued.
I rolled my eyes, finding it funny how insecure he could be. We were almost out of here, ready to go out as college graduates and conquer the world. And he still needed a little weed to chill?
“What the hell is there to be nervous about?” I asked. “We’ve gone to Preston’s place before.” It wasn’t Preston West’s place, but his family home. With his parents out of town and after the basketball team’s big win tonight, that mansion near campus would be lit. Still, this wasn’t our first rodeo. Finn and I had perfected the art of passing our classes, playing football, and partying.
I’d miss it come the summer.
“Because that one girl from my econ class will be there,” Finn said. “I don’t want her to smell weed on me and think I’m some deadbeat loser.”
I laughed, draping my arm around his shoulders. “Dude, you’re worrying about nothing. And if she’s so judgmental that she wouldn’t pay attention to you because you hit a joint, then screw that. You don’t need a judgy woman in your life.”
He smiled, shaking his head. “No, man. I want to screw her. She’s not like all the younger classmen here. She’s older. More experienced. More…”
I shoved him away playfully. “You haven’t graduated yet,” I reminded him. “Live a little while you can.”
Because before we knew it, we’d have our diplomas and the party would be over. We’d just be adults. Without going into the pros, we’d have to leave our athletic days behind us too.
Damn, getting old was depressing.
“Yeah, exactly. We haven’t graduated yet. What did Blume want to talk to you about? Your grades again?”
I shrugged, not wanting to let him bring my mood down. Finn knew how much I could struggle with grades. It wasn’t because I was stupid. I just didn’t get it as easily as everyone else—probably because of the partying and my interest in sports instead.
“It’s fucking Brit Lit. It’s an elective. So long as I get a C, it’s fine.”
“You hope,” Finn said, raising his brows. The facial gesture made his glasses slide down his nose, and he pushed them up.
“No hope about it.” As far as I could tell, everything was going as expected. I’d gotten a full ride scholarship from Marsten High for my success as quarterback. I passed all three years of my program. And come May, when I had my diploma in my hands, I’d be able to find a job as a physical therapist technician, done with my studies in sports medicine.
“I’m just saying you’re not in the clear yet,” he warned. “I heard about that one guy who had to pay back his whole damn tuition, dorm fees, everything. He had to pay it all back because he lost his scholarship for bad behavior.”
I scowled, hating how someone like a college dean could ruin someone’s life like that. I’d heard about it, too, that having a full-ride scholarship was a privilege that could be revoked, but that wasn’t happening to me.
“Good thing that I know how to behave,” I said, not caring how cocky I sounded.
Finn rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right.”
“Everyone loves me.” I flung my arms up as I backpedaled, walking the rest of the way toward the West mansion.
“We love you, Eli!” A couple of girls hollered from across the wide lawn.
“Yeah, I fucking love you, man,” a friend from the team shouted from another sidewalk.
Laughing and shaking my head at Finn, I held my hands up. “See?”
He chuckled. “Whatever you say, man.”
A half hour later, though, after Finn and I got into the house and made our way through the party, I found the number-one person who would never admit to loving me. Not even liking me.
The man of the “house” and the star of the winning basketball team practically preened. I’d never cared for Preston West, and the feelings were mutual. Finn thought it was because we were both sports stars and popular because of it, just on different teams. I figured it was just because the guy was a douche.
“Look who’s here, everybody,” Preston teased to the people drinking and mingling around him. “The one and only loser .”
I rolled my eyes, used to everyone calling the members of the football team losers. We had unfortunately lost our championship at the end of the season in November. But hell, our best running back had a concussion from a tackle and the refs were clearly biased against us.
“Whatever you say,” I replied, keeping things as civil as possible. After all, this was his party and we were his guests. Preston’s family was one of the big names around town and the college, so of course, I’d toe the line and not be rude to him outright. I’d never kiss his ass or be a pushover like my parents probably wanted me to be since they viewed the Wests through filters of awe, envy, and fear.
“Eh, it’s all right,” Preston joked before sipping his drink. I grabbed one since we were near the kegs.
“What’s all right?” I asked.
“Being second-best. A loser.” He shrugged, grinning. “You’re nothing special and everyone knows it, Young.”
I held back a retort, knowing he was only saying this shit to make himself look better. So he could feel like he was bigger and better.
“Hey.” Finn tipped his head to the side, capturing my attention before I could reply to the host of the party, the asshole who thought way too much of himself. “I see Britney.”
I knew he was interrupting, too afraid of my talking back to Preston. It was that nervousness again. Britney was walking into another room, and I shrugged. “Yeah. I saw.” Ignoring Preston, I left the massive kitchen with Finn, counting on being there for him.
After all, once he was preoccupied with Britney, I’d be free to hang out and chill. Maybe I’d find someone to take back to my place and have a good time with, too.
Finn approached Britney, but before I could get closer to offer him backup and make it look more like a group thing than him approaching her solo, someone bumped into me.
“Oh! Fuck. Sorry!” the girl said, trying not to spill all of her drink on us.
One of the basketball players had run through, passing a ball with another player. They’d knocked into her, and I stopped her from falling. “That’s traveling!” I shouted.
People laughed around me, and so did the thin girl who’d collided with me.
“Funny, Eli,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
I smiled, pleased that she’d find me humorous since she always seemed to have a stick up her ass. “Gotta be careful out there, Davina.” I took her cup and chugged it. “Might lose your drink.”
“Hey!” She scowled at me.
I grinned. “You snooze, you lose.”
She shook her head, looking annoyed, but I swore she was fighting a smile.
“Speaking of, you should tell your little friend that.”
She arched one brow. “What friend?”
“Haley.”
She crossed her arms. “Are you bothering her again?”
“Not at all,” I lied.
“Bullshit,” she quipped.
“I just happened to see her after class, and she said she has no interest in the winter dance. It’s only a month away…”
Davina smirked. “It wouldn’t matter if it was one day away or one month away. She wouldn’t have a date.”
I huffed. “You got that right.” The bespectacled brunette had made it crystal clear that she had no interest in that dance. But that was the norm with her. In grade school, then high school and into college, Haley made sure the whole world knew that she didn’t want to join in. I could never tell whether she thought she was better than everyone else or just too damn meek and shy to put herself out there.
It was a moot point, anyway.
“No, I’m not saying she wouldn’t have a date because she couldn’t find one,” Davina said, always coming to Haley’s defense. “Just that she wouldn’t want to get one and go at all.”
“Sure, sure.” I patted her shoulder. “Whatever you want to tell yourself.”
Looking past her, I scanned the crowd of this party, letting the heavy bass of the music vibrate up through my legs from the contact of my feet on the floor. Drinks and food. Music and celebrations.
This was what I’d miss. This liveliness. This nonstop festive feeling.
All too soon, I knew it would be gone. I’d have to move on to something else—a career, for one thing. Giving up the fun in college was simply a truth of life that I’d have to accept.
I walked through the throngs of my peers, also knowing that Haley wouldn’t have a date to that dance because it was another simple truth of life.
But for the first time in a long while, I felt the fleeting curiosity whether that aloofness was something she wanted and tried hard to maintain or that solitude was a curse she’d had to accept as unchangeable.
What do I care? I scoffed at the direction of my thoughts.
Haley Feldstone didn’t belong in my head.
Only this moment mattered, living it up and enjoying life to the fullest before real life after college would be waiting for me.
I sipped my beer and set out to enjoy this party.
All night long.