Chapter 39: Ridding of the “Trace Factor”
(Elli's POV)
I don’t know about you all but I’ve always found basketball pretty boring. I can’t play it just because, well, I stink at it and all other sports. Watching isn’t that bad I guess, but when you don’t understand the rules or anything it can be really boring. So guess what I’m doing right now? Watching basketball”how did you know?
I’m spending my third evening, in a row, with Trace and Justin; at least Elisha is here this time to keep me company. We’re lounging on a picnic table next to Justin’s home court while the two of them play some one-on-one. Justin tired to get me to play too but I refused. I’m a klutz when I’m just simply walking or sometimes when I’m standing”can you imagine me trying to be all coordinated and stuff with dibbling and moving at the same time? That would not be a pretty sight.
I wince when Trace, purposefully, jabs his elbow into Justin’s side to get past him and to the basket. Justin curses rather loudly and grabs his side in pain. Instinctively, I start to get up to go check to make sure he’s alright but Elisha’s hand holding my wrist puts a stop to that.
“He’s fine.” She rolls her eyes at the two guys on the court. “They’re obviously pissed at each other about something and using this ‘friendly’ game of basketball to get out their aggressions.”
I nod and turn my attention back to the court just in time to see Justin make a basket from the far end of the court closest to us. I smile feeling the sudden urge to cheer, but mange to suppress it. After taunting Trace he winks flirtatiously at me over his shoulder. As I’m sure you guessed I’m now blushing like mad and my stomach feels all fuzzy. Elisha nudges my side and I can tell she’s smiling without even looking at her. I nudge her back so she won’t make fun of me and keep my eyes glued on Justin’s form. Sweat has never looked so attractive and he is soaked in it”his shirt clinging to his dampened skin and beads of sweat running of his forehead and traveling down his face and neck to be absorbed into his wife beater tank. I bet he smells bad though. I hate the smell of sweat. To be honest, I hate to sweat in general. I guess that’s why I was never really into sports; they generally require some form of sweating.
“So is Curly officially your boyfriend yet?” I shrug my shoulders, still watching the guys roughly pushing each other all over the court. If theses two don’t stop this one of them is going to get hurt. I know that Justin has been annoyed lately with Trace’s constant presence around us, but he doesn’t need to hurt him. Why are guys incapable of sitting down a having a rational conversation about their feelings? Instead they chose to beat each other up. “Has he asked you?”
“No, but we haven’t really been alone long enough for him to.” I answer, again wincing when they get a bit too rough. Or maybe he just isn’t going to ask me. I don’t know what he’s thinking”I’m no mind reader.
“Trace, right?” She laughs. I turn to her with a raised brow. I’m not really seeing the humor in this. “Sorry. I just think it’s kind of cute how protective he is of you. He treats you like you’re his baby sister and no boy should ever touch you. He wouldn’t have bothered you guys so much but when he found out ya’ll were kissing”uh”more intimately he just flipped his lid.”
“Oh.” That’s all I can think of to say.
“He told me he doesn’t want Justin to, and I quote, corrupt you.” Elisha bursts into laughter and I can’t but help and laugh along with her. Corrupt me? Where does he come up with stuff? I would think that if anyone were to ‘corrupt’ me Trace would want it to me someone he knows and trusts”AKA Justin. I mean Justin is his best friend, he must trust him. “Hey! Cut it out guys!”
My eyes flick from Elisha to the court and widen when I see Justin and Trace now wrestling on the concrete ground, yelling words I can’t make out from here. I gasp when Trace swings and connects with Justin’s jaw. They stop for a moment and just stare at each other almost in shock before Justin returns Trace’s punch. Elisha grabs my hands and pulls me to the two, yelling for me to help her. What does she want me to do? I’m not about to get in between that and get punched in the face!
“Guys! Stop it! Trace!” Elisha screams, grabbing at the back of Trace’s shirt. I think my legs have stopped working. I’ve never seen a real fight like this before and it’s a lot scarier in person than on TV or in the movies. Probably because I now the people involved and I can see some blood.
Seeing that Elisha’s screaming and clawing at Trace’s back is not working I quickly run over to the hose and turn the spout”righty tighty, lefty loosey right? Once the water starts to flow I jog back over to the scene of the fight and press my tub over the end of the nozzle and set it on the guys. I close my eyes and just keep my finger still over the end and the hose pointed in the right direction.
“Stop it, stop!” Elisha keeps yelling so I keep spraying. “Elli, I’m taking to you!” I open my eyes to see that everyone has parted to their separate corners and are just staring at me.
As I go to turn the hose off Elisha walks Trace inside”I’m sure to clean him up and scold him for his childish behavior. I guess that would leave me to do the same for Justin.
When I turn back around he’s sitting on the ground with his head in his hands and knees bent. I can tell his elbows are scuffed up and bleeding as well as his knees and the right side of his calf. I hate blood even more than I hate sweat. It makes me nauseous. I crouch at his side, swallowing repeatedly to keep myself from getting sick.
“Thanks for the shower.” He jokes lamely and I don’t laugh. He sighs heavily and pushes upright to lift his shirt from his head.
“Are you okay?” I ask shakily, taking his shirt and using it to wipe some of the blood from his legs and arms. This probably isn’t very sanitary but it’s the best I can do at the moment and I need something to do to distract me from his bare chest and the way the mixture of water and sweat slides down his body. I need a distraction.
“I’m fine,” He sighs.
Feeling braver than normal, I reach out to turn his chin towards me. I can already see a bruise forming from where Trace hit him. I skim my fingers over the swollen flesh. “What was that all about?”
~*~*~*~*~
(Elisha’s POV)
“What the f**k is wrong with you?” I scream, pushing him down into a kitchen chair. God, I could just kill him right now. How could anyone be such and f**king idiot? He’s out there beating the shit of his best friend over….over….I’m not even sure what it was over. I don’t know anymore if he’s upset over the fact that Elli is growing up due to Justin’s sexual advances or the that he isn’t the one making the advances.
I chuck an ice pack at his chest and lay the open first aid kit on the table. I grab a few cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol to clean the cuts on his knees and elbows. “What the hell were you thinking out there? I mean really, what the f**k was going through your head when you threw that punch? Why are you so pissed at Justin?”
“I’m not pissed. We were just fooling around.” He blatantly lies.
“That’s why you punched your best friend and probably nearly broke his jaw.” I answer sarcastically. “You’re jealous of him aren’t you?”
“What?”
I stop my actions of cleaning his left knee and look up at him coldly. “You’re jealous that he got Elli and you didn’t.”
“That’s ridiculous.” He brushes off quickly.
“Then what is it Trace? What are you jealous of? What are you so pissed off about?” I ask sounding somewhat frantic as my anger shifts to hurt and tears threaten to spill. How is it that he’s able to be so far past what we had when all I can do is think about the past? What does Elli have that I don’t?
He shakes his head repeatedly seeming to be having a difficult time coming up with an answer to my questions. “I don’t know. It’s like having my best friend go after my baby sister.”
“It seems to me that there’s more behind this. You know like you having more than platonic feelings for Elli.”
“That is not true!” He exclaims, suddenly grasping my hands. “There is no way I could have feelings for her because I’m still stuck on you!”
~*~*~*~
(Justin’s POV)
Well, I feel like and complete ass for what just happened out here. I’m not quite sure how or really even why that fight got started. I was frustrated with Trace because he won’t give me and Elli two minutes by ourselves and I guess I was just taking out my anger on him. Why he’s mad enough to punch me”that I don’t know. I know it wasn’t him just reacting because he threw the first punch. I’m hoping Elisha is in there right now figuring all this out because I don’t know if I’ll be able to.
I also feel bad for scaring Elli like I did. She looked like she was about to cry, standing there with that hose spewing water every which way. She was so sweet, helping to clean up my wounds and asking if I was okay and just listening to me rattle on about my problems with Trace.
“Hey,” I look up at Elli as she returns from the kitchen were she went to get me some ice for my jaw. I notice her hands are empty and I’m left wondering just what she’s been doing all this time.
“Where’s the ice?”
“Oh,” She hisses, smacking herself lightly in the forehead. “I forgot it.”
“That’s what you went in there for.” I laugh, standing and dusting off my butt. She smiles cutely and steps closer to me. My hands stretch towards her and mold around her waist.
“I was listening in on Trace and Elisha.” She admits quietly. “I think they’re going to get back together.”
“Really?”
She nods feverishly. “I heard Trace admit that he still has feeling for Elisha.”
“What did she say?” I can’t believe this. This is wonderful! If Trace admitted his feelings than Elisha sure as hell should since she’s already admitted them to both myself and Elli. I think the only reason she hadn’t already told Trace how she feels is because she thought that he didn’t feel the same way. Oh, please, God let this work out for them.
“I don’t know. I left because I didn’t want to get caught.”
I turn towards the entrance to the kitchen in thought. I wonder if I should take my chances and go see just what their up in there. I mean it’s not like they haven’t spied on my or interrupted Elli and I at the most inconvenient of moments. In a way they really deserve it. They need to experience what they’ve put me through so many times in order to truly learn their lesson. Of course I would feel really bad if the reason they didn’t get back together was because of my interruption. Maybe if I just take a quick peek…
“You’re not going in there.” Elli reprimands before another thought can enter my mind. How did she do that? It’s like she was reading my thoughts as I thought them. Kind of creepy huh?
“I guess we should take advantage of this time alone.” I suggest most seductively, dipping my head down to hers and skimming my lips over hers. I pull back and casually lean over and pick up the basketball. I toss it to her but instead of catching it she simply takes one giant step to the right to avoid any contact. We both watch the ball roll off the court and into the grass. “What was that?”
“You just got punched in the face and you want to play basketball?” She asks incredulously. I smile at her shocked expression but I must admit that it does hurt a bit to smile.
“My jaw is fine.” I assure her, rubbing it tenderly and wincing when I put a bit too much pressure on it. I smile sheepishly when I realize she caught me. “Why don’t you kiss it and make it better?”
She rolls her eyes towards the darkening sky and plants her hands firmly on her hips. I take the few steps towards her until I’m standing so close our chests are only about two inches from touching. I bend my knees, crouching to her level and turn my chin in direction of her lips. When she doesn’t move I point towards the sore spot anxiously.
“Are you scared to kiss me Elli?” I ask, my voice sounding huskier than I intended. She looks towards the ground shyly. She really is scared to kiss me! After all the kisses we’ve shared and make out sessions she’s scared to kiss me. My jaw is all I’m asking for. It’s like kissing your mother on the cheek. Well I wouldn’t really want her to kiss me like I kiss my mother but”oh you know what I mean.
I turn my head back to face her fully and slip my fingers under her chin, raising her head so that she’s looking up at me and not at our shoes. “Do you like it when I kiss you?”
“Justin,” She whines, her face burning with embarrassment as she tries to step back from me. I curl the fingers of one of my hands around her waist while the other moves to cup her cheek. I lean in towards her as if I’m going to kiss her but stop just short of her lips. The eyes she had closed as I first started to approach flutter open just barely. I caress her cheek softly and her eyes close again as she waits for our lips to connect. I wait for her to take the initiative to close the short distance between us, but she doesn’t make any move to do so.
My hands drop from their positions over her body and I take a few steps back before walking around her to get the basketball from the yard. It’s time for Elli to start giving a little here. No more kissing unless Elli is the one to initiate it. She’ll give in eventually….how could she not?
TBC.....
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