|Pizza & burgers| Eli and Riley

[smexyeli]

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Even though that was where he spent most of his time Eli didn’t particularly like being inside, even though it was not warm outside it still felt good to be out in the sun for once, so when he got off the train that took him to the city, he took a little more time then he needed walking to the burger place. Which wasn’t a bad thing, since it had only taken him about three minutes to get ready. Like the typical boy, all he had to do was throw on some clothes and go. Although he did put a little gel into his hair to make it stand up. It didn’t take long to get it the way he wanted it.

After pulling on a flannel shirt and some jeans it wasn’t very far to the subway station, and after getting on to s train full of people, some awkward accidental brushes against people on the train, and a slow walk to the burger place he made it there. He wasn’t exactly sure why Riley had wanted to hang out with him today. There was nothing special about today, he’d just been sitting around doing homework, when she texted him and asked him to meet her there. So he said why not and went to meet her. He sat down at a booth, and pulled out his phone while he was waiting for her to show up.

[Riley Wilkes]

There was absolutely nothing special about today. It wasn't Riley's birthday and it wasn't Christmas. Riley felt that there should be no reason to ask a friend to hang out with her. She had just gotten back from the capital and she had really missed her friends. The Rat Pack, which was her, Aubrey, Leo, Mark and Sam and her many other friends, that of which she had plenty. However, truth be told she had the hugest crush on Eli. She had no idea if he'd caught her compliments to be more extraordinary than most compliments given by a friend.

The boy always looked fantastic. He had such a way with clothes and nothing ever crossed Riley's mind only that he must have great fashion sense. Which is something her brother, Leo had always told her that is essential in a guy. No one wanted to walk around with someone ratchet, "Take Mark for instance, and sometimes maybe Aubrey." he would say. Riley didn't really care about fashion sense, she only really cared about personality. Was he chill? She didn't like over-whelming guys who were always up in her grill. She liked a little freedom; trust which was the base of a relationship. Not that she was looking to settle down at the moment. Her brother may have perhaps done that and she supports him no matter what but Riley wanted to check out the world before choosing someone.

Riley had driven to the burger place with her own car considering that Leo was using the almighty truka trunk Mercedes-Benz and he was probably not going to bring that back for a while. She parked her car and gave her make up a quick check, making sure there weren't any smudges of mascara around her face because that seemed to be the the problem in most cases. People mistook war paint for beauty marks and wouldn't stop staring at (unless they were polite people who brought it to her attention).

"Hey Eli, sorry I'm late... I was fighting with my bro again for the Mercedes but he won and took it. That jerk." Riley grimaced but her tone was lively and friendly. She took a seat on the opposite side of the booth facing him and asked, "I missed you! DC was fun but I just couldn't go on a day without my friends." Well, for the moment Riley felt it was safe to call Eli his friend. Anything more would just be a little too over-whelming which as stated before as something Riley couldn't stand. "What have you been up to?" she asked him.


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[smexyeli]

Eli shrugged, and listened to her talk about her brother, “I didn’t know you had a brother,” He said with a shrug. Well this was good, he was getting to know this girl who he considered his friend. He was pretty sure it was a safe bet to consider her that anyway. When the waiter came over to take their drink orders he decided on a sweet tea, and maybe a little bit of that waiter, he looked pretty young, and he wasn’t bad looking.

“Hello my name is Ryan and I’ll be your server today, can I get you some drinks to start you off?” He sounded bored with his job, but he was definitely good looking. Eli didn’t really care that people knew about him being gay, honestly he liked people to know about it, it wasn’t a big deal to him, and he wasn’t scared that people would poke fun at him. He generally wasn’t the one to start hitting on people to tell the truth that was something he was trying to get out of. He really wanted to be more confident talking to people he found attractive.

“Can I get a sweet tea?” He asked, looking down at the menu, waiting for Riley to order her drink, before looking back up. He didn’t really know why he’d decided to go to a burger place being a vegetarian and all but, he didn’t look back at her as the waiter walked away instead he watched him, only turning his head back towards the conversation when Ryan was gone. He couldn’t remember the last question Riley had asked him. What have you been doing lately? Was that it? No that wasn’t it it was something else. Wait was it what have you been doing ?

“Nothing sitting around doing homework, that kind of stuff, pretty much doing nothing.” He shrugged. Hoping that had been the question she had asked.

[Riley Wilkes]

Who didn't know Riley had a brother? They were two of the richest students in the school and Leonardo had a tendency to call people out. Sometimes he even brought lawsuits out, too. She laughed, "Well, I guess I just haven't talked about him that much lately. But yes, he's actually my twin brother. We don't look alike... I don't think." Riley laughed again, a little nervous this time.

She then turned her attention to the waiter and said a quick hello after he had introduced himself. "I'll have a coke, please." she said before looking to him as he walked away. Of course Riley looked away as soon as it was polite to and her eyes were on Eli. However, Eli's eyes... Weren't on her.

They were on the waiter.

Riley took it as a chance to look at his eyes. The way they looked at the waiter's back, of course. Maybe he was- No, how could he be? Riley rolled her eyes to herself. Maybe he was just friends with the waiter, who knew?

She then smiled closed as Eli began talking about his time while she was away. "Oh, fun!" Riley rose both eyebrows before putting her elbow on top of the table and putting her hand to her head before asking him, "Have you thought about what school you'll be going to?" Eli was a senior so Riley was sure that he was planning on that. She was too. She would be going to a university in the west coast with Mark.

[smexyeli]

“Hm that’s weird, I guess I don’t pay attention enough,” he said with a small chuckle before he moved on to her next question. “I don’t really know where I want to go, or what I want to do after high school yet, I mean I’m that weird person that’s actually good at Social studies so I’ll probably find a major that has to do with that, but I definitely know I want to go back to Cali, not that I don’t love New York, It just doesn’t feel like home to me. “ Eli shrugged; answering her question was hard because that was one of the things he hadn’t figured out yet. “What about you where are you planning on going? Do you know yet?” He was almost certain that whatever she had in mind was better than his plan.

When the waiter—Eli remembered that his name was Ryan—and set their drinks on the table in front of them Eli smiled at him, but remembered the rule that said ladies first, and let Riley order first, which gave him a second to think of what he was going to say, so it didn’t come out sounding super stupid, and a second to stare at the waitor. He wasn’t going to be into it, but Eli figured a little flirting wouldn’t hurt anything, maybe it’d give him en ego boost to know that he attracted gay guys. He took a sip of his tea and shifted his eyes back to Riley letting her talk first, to not be rude.

(Wee yay for me assuming. Not really sorry)

Then when Ryan turned to him Eli had a grin on his face. “Can I have a veggie burger?” He asked, watching the waiter write something on his notepad.

“With Fries or onion rings?”

“Can I just have you instead?” It sounded a little odd coming out of his mouth, and considering he was probably the worst flirt on the planet he his face behind his menu, “I’m just kidding uh, fries I guess,” he said with a small laugh. He took a sip of his tea, and then handed the menu back avoiding looking at him, because he figured that the awkward moment he had just created could be forgotten.

[Riley Wilkes]

"Ooh, social studies. Like history and all that great stuff... Yep, that's the bomb." Riley stated enthusiastically as if pushing Eli to soar and go for his aspirations. She then thought for a second, "I'm most likely going back to California too. I mean, I'm from there... I might go to UCLA with Mark, you must know him, right?" Who didn't know that guy? He did whatever it took for everyone to know him. "I'm probably going to study therapy... I don't really know yet." she laughed, feeling a little unintelligent for that fact.

When the waiter came back, Riley dismissed anything she was going to say and focused her attention on him - and Eli. She couldn't really believe it. It was probably because she saw a picture of him and her together - but then again, didn't anyone who had a crush feel the same?

"Oh! Sorry..." Riley chuckled before looking to her menu and looking for her order. "I'll have a double cheeseburger with fries and some mozzarella sticks on the side, please." she said, taking her menu and handing it back to him. She continued looking up at Ryan while Eli was ordering his meal. When the waiter began writing down the order, she looked back down to Eli.

Hold on just a minute. Riley, do you NOT see this? Don't be dumb, he likes the waiter. It's so obvious why are you even here?

A quick gasp escaped Riley's mouth. Did he just... Flirt with Ryan? Yes he did. "Woah there..." she chuckled, half ironically and half amused. She wanted to start crying and her eyes did get a little watery. She couldn't keep second guessing him anymore. "...Awkward." Riley's voice sounded a little high pitched as if she was holding down a cry.

[smexyeli]

Poor Riley Eli is so oblivious

“Just a little bit, I’m a bad flirt anyway, but I bet I freaked him out,” Eli shrugged ad continued to sip on his drink; he hadn’t noticed the fact that her tone changed, because he wasn’t paying enough attention to her to notice the little things. Like the fact that she seemed surprised when he was flirting with the waiter, “I mean, If I was straight and guys hit on me I‘d be pretty proud that I was hot enough to attract guys and girls, but that’s just me. “ He shrugged, trying to think back to what they’d been talking about. College was a boring subject for him, and he didn’t really have anything more to say on the subject so instead of talking he looked down at the table and stirred the ice around in his drink, not sure what else to say.

Did I just make things awkward by flirting with that waiter? He wasn’t exactly sure how that would have happened, because it wasn’t like they were on a date or anything, and most everyone here knew he was into guys. He pushed the thought away, though and figured that it was just that she didn’t have anything to say at the current moment.

[Riley Wilkes]

Shoot, Riley was beginning to choke up. She could feel a knot in her throat just form and she hated that feeling because she would have a hard time talking. After taking a sip from her coke, she took a deep breath and then hiccuped. "Excuse me." Riley needed fresh air, maybe she could say she needed a smoke or something. Although she didn't smoke.

It wasn't like she was angry. She had no reason to be but it was just that all her illusions had about him had been shattered in a matter of minutes. It did make her sad that he wasn't even paying attention to her but she knew why. Riley just needed to be alone for a while. The next thing that she muttered might have been a little rude but she didn't really care, "Yeah, you are... Can you excuse me for minute?" she didn't wait for him to reply. Riley got up and walked to the door, going outside and feeling the fresh October breeze.

She coughed before the tears began to run down her eyes. Riley wiped her eyes and made no sound. She just took a seat on the bench outside of the restaurant. She remembered when she dated Sam and how different it was to hang out with a guy who actually paid attention to what you said even if it was boring. She was thirteen and it turned out that they were better off as friends. He was still one of her best friends but she didn't think she could continue being friends with Eli.

He was such a terrible flirt which made Riley cry even more. Was she even crying because of sadness or laughter? She didn't even know.

[smexyeli]

For a second Eli wasn’t sure how he was supposed to react to the fact that she left, and he sat there in awe watching her walk away, he wasn’t exactly sure what to do now. So instead of being a jerk and waiting for her to come back, or just leaving all together, he pulled his wallet out, and left money on the table for the drinks, he left more than they would have cost, but he had decided that making exact change would take too long. It definitely was not because of the hot waiter. Or that was what he told himself at least.

He spotted her outside on a bench, and was somewhat glad that she hadn’t ditched him, but then he noticed she was crying. “Why are you crying girly?” He asked, taking a seat next to her. At first it hadn’t made sense to him, but after a second of sitting there, not saying anything he thought about what he had said, and before he opened his mouth again, and said something else stupid he tried to add up all the clues in his head. It made sense that she might have had a crush on him, after her reaction, he was betting that that was the reason for it, although he could never be sure. This was all just a big misunderstanding. He was pretty sure most people knew he wasn’t into girls, he’d never had this problem before, so he didn’t know what to say.

“Err… Do you need a hug or would that be awkward?” He asked. In general he wasn’t good at comforting people, because he was too quiet, and sometimes oblivious to the feelings of people, he didn’t know exactly what to say or how to say anything to make them feel better, except to tell stupid jokes and be a shoulder to cry on, and he wasn’t sure that she needed the latter part. “It’s not that bad, I mean every girl wants a gay best friend right?” he asked, not sure of that was even true or not.

[Riley Wilkes]

Riley had not noticed that Eli had come to join her. She only realized he was there when she head his voice. Her purse was sitting on her lap and her hands were to her face. The make up on her eyes was totally undone, she looked a mess. Which embarrassed her slightly when she looked up at Eli. Her cheeks flushed a crimson red.

She then cracked a smile, there was absolutely nothing she could do. She also didn't think she could actually not be friends with Eli. It wasn't his fault that he liked guys and she liked him. It wasn't.

"Come 'ere and give me a squeeze!" Riley exclaimed before bringing Eli in for a tight hug. She could use a friend, any type of friend no matter gay or straight. "I really liked you, well I mean.. I still like you but I seriously didn't know you liked guys or that you had good taste in them because damn, Ryan is hot."