Bad Enough for You (Currently Editing)

She Cracked Her Neck Before the BJ

I didn’t allow Eli to actually buy me cupcakes. Around the time we had arrived at the Cupcake Shoppe, I had to fight the urge to push him out into the street so that he wouldn’t have to fork over what little money I assumed he had at the moment. It was lucky that Bradley was working, for when we had gone inside, he hadn’t even bothered to ring up the cupcakes and instead just shoved a box in my hands, filled with the most beautiful magnificent cupcakes I had ever seen.

Most people would drink milk while they were eating the miniature cakes, but when it came to Eli and I, we were what people would most likely call alcoholics. Sprawled across my living room floor with the box of cupcakes open between us on the coffee table with empty crumby wrappers tossed on the floor and the table, we passed a bottle of Jack back and forth. It wasn’t the best taste in the world, not with the trail of warmth that the whiskey left as it slid down my throat and the overwhelming sweetness of the double chocolate raspberry cupcake, but I couldn’t care less.

“I’m so sick of wearing this damn thing.” Eli muttered from beside me, slowly sitting up so that he could slip the eyepatch from his eye. Blinking a few times as it adjusted to the lighting of the room, he tossed it up onto the couch before folding himself back down on the floor, head rolling to look at me. I only flinched a little, which I owed thanks to the alcohol for because without it numbing my system and slowing down my reaction time, I would’ve run for the hills.

His eye was still red and puffy, but looked okay for the most part. Until you got closer and really looked at the colored part of his eye. There was a strange white bubble that rested just upon his iris, leaving it distorted and white. It wasn’t so disgusting that I was instantly repelled, but I knew that now I was going to have to avoid looking at him in that eye until it healed.

“It’s been like two days since you got it.” I told him as I pushed the bottle to him.

“It’s a bitch,” He shrugged, wrapping his fingers around the neck of the bottle and looking at the blank wall to his right. Georgia’s name was the only one that was up there, the rest having been left untouched. Crinkles appeared around the corner of his eyes as he looked at the wall.

As I stared at the wall as well, I said, “Does this make us friends, Eli?”

Eli whipped his head around so fast that I was surprised that he didn’t decapitate himself. Looking at me with his eyes widened, well one eye opened wide and the other struggling to follow it’s brother’s movements, he looked shocked. “On what planet could we ever be friends, Adrienne?”

“Well, you don’t normally tend to drink with your enemies.” I pointed out. “And c’mon, we had fun today. Admit it, Eli. You like spending time with me.”

“Adrienne,” Eli repeated, my name falling across his lips with a sigh that I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of. “There’s a lot of assuming going on right now. Yes, I did have a good time today and as much as it kills me to say it, I guess I sort of owe you a thanks. You made today a lot less painful.”

“N’aw, you’re welcome.” I grinned, reaching out my hand to pat his bicep.

“But that doesn’t mean we’re friends.” He shook his head.

“Why not?” I pouted.

Eli sat up again, this time leaning his back against the couch. Sitting cross-legged with the Jack Daniel’s bottle resting against his thigh, he looked at me from across the small space. I sat up, confused by the expression that was on his face — a mixture of sadness and something else I couldn’t explain. I sat up as well, resting my own back against the chair behind me, eyebrows narrowing as Eli continued to stare at me from across the room.