{ In which a slap occurs }

[Eli Green]

Eli sat quietly alone at the table. He'd decided to take Sophie out to dinner tonight and currently she was in the bathroom for what seemed like the millionth time. What was it with girls and going to the bathroom every two seconds? He didn't really mind, though. The food had arrived within seconds of her getting up and he thought shed be happy when she returned. He always was. Coming back and finding food, that is.

When she returned, Eli smiled broadly and welcomed her back. "All good in the hood?" He cooed jokingly, trying to sound sweet and funny at the same time. When she began eating, he did too and they started talking again. She really looked stunning tonight.

But something had quickly ruined the mood. He wasn't sure what it was about, but Eli quickly assumed she'd gotten some sort of bad text after she practically whipped her phone down. "What's the matter?" He asked softly, sounding very worried as she stood. "Sophie.. Sophie, where are you going? What's wrong?" But she didn't answer. She seemed so furious, practically fuming with anger. What on earth was going on?

(I did this during lunch.. I'll add an outfit for Eli when I get home and perhaps add on. Or not. Whatever. )

[Eli Green]

Eli jumped when the phone was slammed down before him. He leaned in just enough to see the screen, just barely reading the words before backing up again. "Soph I.." he didn't finish his sentence. There was no use in trying to apologize for anything. Girls were sticklers about this. Even if it wasn't true, which it.. well.. it HALF wasn't true.. she'd still have been mad. This wasn't the first time. And with the way the text had been worded, he knew she would have an even harder time understanding. Last time he'd been accused of kissing a girl. Which he had, quite honestly. And she'd learned to deal with it because.. well he didn't know why. He hoped it was because she liked him as much as he liked her. But that didn't matter now. What mattered now was that someone had dug up the dirty truth of him being alone with someone else the other night. He dropped his head.

"I do care, Sophie," he said, head springing back up. But she was already leaving. "Sophie!" he stood and tried to yell sort of quietly.. if that made any sense at all. Which I guess it didn't because a yell was a yell and there were people looking at him. He sat back down, smacking his palm against his forehead. "Fuck, good one, Lijah," he mocked in what would be his brother's words when he found out. Angry tears were burning his face as he balled like a baby into his hands. The waitress had come by already to check on him.. but he'd been so busy crying and hitting himself in the head that she'd walked away without saying anything.

Its not my fault.. he tried to tell himself. Even though it clearly was. But half of his brain was completely convinced that it wasn't. Ever since he'd been a child, relationships scared the shit out of him. Any sort of love left him uncomfortable, scared, even feeling a little bit threatened. He didn't get it from his parents and well, fuck, the only man besides his father that was supposed to care for him had violated him in ways he didn't want to understand but did. Horrible, horrible thoughts were racing through his head when he practically fell out of his chair due to the buzzing in his pocket. "Jesus Christ," he hissed, his heart now racing as he crammed his hand into his pocket for the phone.

It was Sophie.

"Sophie.. Sophie please come.." but she was talking more than he was and clearly had no intent on listening to him. So he stopped talking, started listening. Even though he was still so very distracted and on top of that, couldn't see because of all the tears in his eyes.

[Eli Green]

Eli listened, covering his mouth so he wouldn't release violent sobs into the phone. That would be so embarrassing. Not that he could've been any more embarrassed though. He didn't dare apologize until she stopped talking. "Sophie. I don't know how many more times I can apologize. I don't know what else I can say to make you understand that I'm just.. I'm so sorry. I love.." But she hung up.

"Fuck," he said through his teeth, slamming his phone down onto the table and dropping his face into his hands. He sat motionless for a moment, the tears gone and only anger remaining. Quite suddenly, his head sprang back up and he reached for his wallet. He left a twenty and a ten on the table; that would certainly be enough for the dinner they'd ordered. After shoving the wallet back into his pocket and grabbing his phone, Eli stood and exited the restaurant.

(now for Nate.. so hold tight a second :3 )

[Nate Green]

The night was quiet. Beautiful, and the stars were visible. But quiet. Which made Nate kind of uncomfortable. He'd been walking down the street for about a half hour.. just walking. No one with him, no one around, and he wasn't going anywhere. He just liked to take walks.

Before he'd left his dorm, he'd put on a black hoodie. It wasn't all too cold out, but he had the hood up anyway. Eli had come by his dorm just before he'd left wearing almost exactly the same sweatshirt and told him to "go change, you're not me". But Nate clearly hadn't, and here he was walking looking quite a bit like a boy that his mother had dressed to look just like his identical twin. He laughed at the thought that they actually used to do that when they were little. He remembered switching classes one day to see if the teacher would realize. She hadn't, and only laughed when she found out at the end of the day. He smiled at the memory. But now.. now it was just weird to dress like Eli, seeing as their styles were so different. If it weren't for the fact that Nate was in skinny jeans and his hair was down, you probably couldn't have told the difference between the two.

After a while, he'd come to a pretty dark spot on the sidewalk. There were no streetlights on this part of the road.. which was weird. But he shrugged and kept going. There was another person not too far away, and her hair was a very bright red. She looked awfully nice for walking around the streets in the middle of the night. Was she wearing a dress? He couldn't really see, he was pretty far away from her. But it was also really dark. So. He kept on walking, head down and hands shoved into his pockets.

[Nate Green]

{ www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=73744751 }

Nate tilted his head to the side a bit when he noticed that the nicely dressed girl was now walking towards him. Maybe she was lost? Needed directions? He still couldn't quite make out her face. She was backlit but lights that he wasn't sure existed.. again, there were no streetlights. This puzzled him. But alas, he could not see her face. As she got closer, he squinted his eyes to see if he could recognize her. And just when he thought she might've been close enough to make it out, a hand was reaching out and slapping him clear across the face, knocking him to the side and down to his knees. Luckily, he only stumbled a bit and caught himself with his hand before ending up with his head on the pavement.

"FUCKING CHRIST, LADY!" he yelled, looking up just as she was apologizing and pulling his hood back. Oh great. He knew her. Wasn't this.. yea. It definitely was Sophie. Eli's girlfriend. "Oh.. sorry brah, didn't mean to swear at you.. but jesus! What the hell was that for?" He tried to regather himself and eventually managed to stand back up. He was rubbing his cheek pretty hard; it hurt like no other. It was buzzing!

[Nate Green]

Nate laughed quietly when Sophie said it was meant for Eli. He nodded, thinking to himself that he'd probably done something to her and he probably deserved this slap in the face. "Hey," he said, bending down a bit to look in her eyes as she looked away from him. "Hey c'mon. Its alright, you didn't mean to. I mean.. well fuck, you meant to. Just, not me." Carefully, he ran the back of two fingers down her cheek to wipe away the tears. "What'd he do? If there's anyone you can bitch to about my brother its me. No one likes to laugh at the stupid stuff he's done more than I do," he said, smiling as he tried to get her to do the same.

Was it wrong to comfort what was now probably his brother's ex? Was it wrong to assume that it was Eli's fault before hearing his side of the story? That probably would've been the brotherly thing to do.. but when do twin brothers ever just sit and talk about their problems? Nate was lucky he'd even been introduced to Sophie. "Cold?" he asked after a minute, unzipping his hoodie and placing it around her shoulders. If nothing else had been wrong so far, this might've been it: making advances. But he didn't care. She was pretty. And looked cold. And since he was warm (and also quite pretty), he figured the least he could do was hand over his jacket. Besides, he was at least wearing long pants. She was just in a dress.

[Nate Green]

"Mmm," Nate grunted in response to her speaking about the text. This wasn't the first time he'd heard something like that. And this wasn't the first girl he'd heard it from. Eli had always had problems with relationships. He didn't really know why.. he always got the hottest, nicest girls. He just couldn't keep them. And it was usually his fault. 'Cept for that one time with Molly Anderson.. she was just a straight up bitch.

"Don't take it personally, y'know," he said after a minute, pulling his arms close to his side for warmth. "Its probably not at all about you. He's not good with relations." Nate really wasn't sure just how much she knew about Eli, but if she asked, he was ready to tell her his whole story. Eli probably would've been mad, but he figured it was best if she knew. After all, he wasn't gonna totally stomp down his brother. If he got the chance to defend him even in the slightest, he would. But he kind of hoped she didn't ask. It was uncomfortable to talk about, even for Nate.

"Yknow.. we could go back to my dorm, if you want," he said a bit later, realizing the time. But when he pulled his head up, he realized he had absolutely no idea where they were. They'd been walking for a while and he'd had his head down, only knowing where he was going because he was watching her feet. "Actually.. maybe not. Cuz.. I have no idea where we are," he said, putting his hand atop his head and running it back through his bangs. For a second, he probably looked just like Eli what with his hair pushed back. He looked at her and smirked, not sure what else to say. He wanted to comfort her, because Eli probably made her feel pretty bad. But he didn't know what else to say.

"Do you know where we are? I could.. walk you home?" Perfect.