"Okay," Eli announced loudly as he returned to the living room from the kitchen. His hands were filled with junk food, pop, and potato chips. "I think we have all the food two teenage boys could possibly eat in one night." Eli emptied his handful of food onto the table. Adam immediately reached out and grabbed the chips, opened the bag, and shoved a handful into his mouth. "Dig in," Eli said sarcastically. Adam just smiled at him with his cheeks filled.
Eli fell back onto the couch lifting Adam upon impact. Adam narrowed his eyes at him while Eli howled with laughter. Adam looked like an angry chipmunk. "Dude, could you fit anymore food in there?" Eli asked Adam while stifling laughter.
Adam swallowed hard. "This coming from Mr. Big-Mouth-That-Almost-Got-Him-Stabbed," Adam shot back at Eli. Eli grimaced and Adam instantly felt remorse. "Hey, sorry if I hit a nerve," Adam apologized. But to his surprise, Eli was smirking.
"Says the kid who I defended from the kid who tried to stab me," Eli hit Adam's arm playfully.
"Touché," Adam replied. He and Eli laughed. They hadn't had guys' night in a while so it was great to just be in a girlfriend-free, open environment with each other. "But hey, it only brought us together, right?"
"Aw, how sweet, Adam's getting all sentimental," Eli pretended to wipe tears from his cheeks. "It just brings tears to my eyes."
"Yeah, kinda like Clare," Adam broadly smiled at his witty response. "Oh snap, gotcha there." Eli was just shaking his head. Adam expected him to be smiling but he wasn't; he was frowning. Adam knew Eli well enough to know that there was something wrong. "Is there something wrong between you and Clare?"
Eli leaned back and shrugged. "I don't really know. It's like, sometimes I get the feeling she doesn't want to be around me. I don't know I probably sound crazy right now," Eli didn't even look at Adam. He hung his head and was just shaking it.
"Well, that's life for you; you think you have it all, and then your life just crumbles," Adam looked at Eli. He looked pretty pathetic, but Adam knew that Eli and Clare had gone through a lot.
Eli lifted his head and faced Adam. "Look who's so wise now." More sarcasm. It was Eli's weapon of choice. Whenever there was a tough situation, he'd just use sarcasm to get out of it. Generally that strategy worked, but it hadn't been recently.
"No, I'm serious," Adam said seriously. "It's like Superman; whenever he thinks he's got the bad guy, Lex Luther pulls out the big guns and is like 'you lose'."
"Yeah but Superman never loses, Adam," Eli rested his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands together. "I do."
Eli was never this concerned, ever. Adam had never seen Eli question his relationship with Clare after telling her about Julia.
"You don't lose, Eli. You just…don't win." Adam had run out of good advice, not that he had any to begin with. Eli shook his head slightly.
"You don't understand," Eli sighed before continuing. "With Superman, Lex Luther is the bad guy. For me, I am my own bad guy."
"How do you mean?" Adam asked. It was a really good question too. Because neither of them fully understood what Eli meant.
Eli furrowed his eyebrows. "Well, say Superman and Lois Lane are together, right? And Superman loves her to death, literally to death. They are having a great time and all. Superman goes off the fight Lex Luther and wins in the end, but Lois Lane isn't very happy. And then, for some strange reason that he doesn't know, Lois Lane distances herself from him. And she says it's because of him. Now Superman has no idea what's going on. That's me right now, Adam. I'm Superman."
"Yeah, I think I picked up on that, thank you very much," Adam did his best to lighten the mood. Somehow he and Eli always ended up having deep discussions about life during guys' night. Looks like this one would be no different. Eli was just staring off into space so Adam continued on. "Maybe, Lois Lane was misunderstood?" Adam asked hopefully.
"No, I know what Clare said," Eli firmly stated. "I just don't know what I did wrong."
"Superman never makes mistakes," Adam took another shot at lightening the mood.
"That just shows how much better Superman's life is than mine! I can't take it anymore, Adam. I love Clare but I don't know how this story end," Eli raised his voice slightly frustrated; not with Adam, with himself.
Adam put his hand on Eli's shoulder. "I know I haven't had it the easiest – hell, my life is pretty screwed up too – but I know that even superheroes have weaknesses. Eli, if you love Clare just like Superman loves Lois Lane, then go save her just like Superman. Eli, go be Clare's hero because that's what you do when you love someone; you save them and they save you."
Eli looked over at Adam and smiled. It wasn't a big smile, it was a cautious smile; one that said 'thank you for being here to help me.' Eli nodded before clapping his hands together loudly bringing the teenage boys out of their thoughtful discussion and back to guys'' night.
"Well, I do believe we have some horror films to watch," Eli got up and grabbed a few DVDs from near the television.
"And some video game scores to beat," Adam added before taking another large handful of chips and stuffing them in his mouth as Eli laughed at him once again.
Eli flopped back onto the couch as the movie began and he and Adam stared intensely on the screen to catch every gory detail.
It was nice to have a guys' night.