Ok, I kinda got the idea while reading Only The One by: Floorplanhobo. Hmm…what to say for this an. Idk….Oh well.. Oh, um, today there is this like little fair/fest thing by my house that happens a few times a year for different occasions, and no one is on the computer but me! Mwahhhh hahah! Ok, I'll stop talking now. The song for this chapter may or may not have much to do with the story. It's just my new "song" that I was listening to a lot. Please look it up on their MySpace, it's not on any other music sites, believe me! I've tried to look! It's called "My Sweet Charade" by: Stephen Kellogg and The Sixers. Ha, my dad is crazy, he just said he was gonna "use some reverse psychology on your mom to get her to make me some food." Lol. Oh, I should explain—Clare is a freshman in college, and Eli is a sophomore. Clare's college is about an hour or two from Eli's, and Clare is visiting her parents later on when her and Eli are video-chatting. Oh, and Eli is double-majoring in Journalism and Photography. Ok, so look up the song, listen to it, and umm…please review! Hope you enjoy!
When you slid into the room
Everything else just disappeared
Taj Mahal sang "My Corrina"
So loud and so sincere
You were so, so sincere
Believe me when I tell you
That what went down was a one time deal
Over and over the things that we said, well
My sweet charade, yeah. Charade, yeah
I don't know what your situation is
I don't know if you have a guy
But I'm making up for younger days
And if I don't talk, I just get shy
You were wearing baby blue, a charm school graduate
And I was anything but charming, but you still got into it
There was nothing I could do
Believe me when I tell you
That what went down was a one time deal
Over and over the things that we said, well
My sweet charade, yeah. Charade, yeah
My desiring eyes, my pathetic resolve
The way I work through my lies, the way that my world revolves
Your black bra, I could see the lace
I could see the invitation written on your face, yeah
Believe me when I tell you
That what went down was a one time deal
Over and over the things that we did, well
My sweet charade, yeah. Charade, yeah. Charade, yeah
Maybe it's love, well, how would I know?
Every time I get close to it, I let it go
You could be different, you could be kind
But I'll never know because I would leave you behind
Behind, behind…
"Fuck." He complained. His roommate must have changed the password to their computer again. They'd changed it multiple times since the start of the school year, but Eli was usually notified of this alteration. Keith's father had gotten him the computer for the dorm, for both him and Eli to use. They had been roommates last year, and had become quite good friends.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit." He hung his head in frustration. He sighed, took a deep, slow breath, and dug into the back of his head. Maybe he didn't even change it. Maybe I'm just worried that I'm going to fail. No, he'd tried every combination, ten times over. No luck. He restarted the computer to see if that was the problem. He entered the password that he'd been trying for about an hour now. Again, no luck. He let his head drop onto his arm that was resting on the table in front of him. "Fuck… My… Life." He groaned. He had to have the cyanotypes by Thursday. It was Tuesday, and he had two weeks to do it, but he had a lot of work to get done, so he neglected it. And there was no way he'd be able to take a little trip over to Staples or Kinko's to get it done, because Keith was at a party, and his car was getting some work done on it. And it wasn't likely that the library on campus had the right type of printer for this work. Not to mention that he still had to get his sketches done for his Drawing I class. He cursed himself for the minute that he chose his classes late. Photo III was the only class open for that semester that he intended on taking. He didn't necessarily have to take Photo II before Photo III, but he'd just have to take Photo II next year. Damn, was Photo III a pain…
He lifted his head up, and headed over to the little kitchenette to grab some coffee. He usually didn't drink coffee, but it would be the only way his work would get done. He put the coffee on and then went back to sit in front of the computer. He tried to text Keith again to get the password, but he ended up falling asleep while waiting for his reply.
He blinked a few times before opening his eyes and taking in his surroundings. He'd fallen asleep at the computer. Keith was home; asleep, of course. Eli picked up his Geography textbook and dropped it onto the table.
Keith tried to squeeze his eyes shut, but then he eventually opened them. "Ugh, it reeks in here. What did you do, leave the coffee on again?"
"Yeah, I was trying to stay awake so I could get something done. You could have turned it off, you know?"
"Hey, I was drunk and tired. Don't expect anything from a drunk person. At least don't expect anything that requires proper functioning." He laughed, a clear sign that he was still a little drunk from his previous night of shenanigans.
"As I was saying, I was trying to do my work. But someone just had to change the password. Why didn't you tell me? I was sitting here freaking out about it."
Keith came over to the computer and stood next to where Eli was sitting in front of it. "Here." He typed it slowly, so Eli could remember it, and then clicked 'enter'.
"Thank-you." Eli said. "Now I can finally get this work done."
"I thought we didn't have the right thing for it?" Keith asked.
"We don't. But maybe if I email Professor Haig with a good excuse, he'll give me a little more time."
"Yeah, good luck. He's a hard-ass. Haig doesn't give anybody a break."
Eli ignored him, and went to work at emailing his teacher.
Professor Haig,
What exactly were we supposed to do for the cyanotypes and what type of ink did we need?
Eli Goldsworthy, Photo III.
He couldn't wait for his reply, because he had class.
He had to borrow one of his friend's bikes to go to his class, but at least he got there on time. As soon as he got to the right department of the campus, he parked the bike outside of the correct building, almost forgetting to lock it up. He felt pretty confident that he would pass his Geography quiz on North and South America, since he'd played enough online kids games to study. He'd done it with a few past quizzes, and the combination of multiple studying techniques seemed to work. There was everything from poems to hand claps to just simply writing the information over a few times. He'd tried it all.
But as soon as he stepped into the room, all of the answers flew from his brain. Damn. He took a seat towards the back; if he was going to remembering any answers, he'd need peace and quiet.
The tests were already waiting on the desks. He took out his pen and then flipped the paper over. What the fuck? He knew that his teacher was a sloppy writer, but he did not know that she was horrible at drawing. She usually projected diagrams, and rarely ever attempted to use a marker on the whiteboard, unless to start a lecture. He decided to label the obvious first: USA, Canada, Greenland, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. Only 24 more to go… He had to squint to tell the difference between El Salvador and Belize, but he eventually got it. French Guiana, Suriname, and Guyana were also tough, since he forgot they were even there in the first place. Why do Columbia and Venezuela look so much alike? How does anyone tell them apart? He went on through the list: Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, The Bahamas, The Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Haiti, Cuba, Bolivia… He had only two left, but he couldn't remember if Jamaica or Puerto Rico was under Cuba… Hmm… Wait, Jamaica is near The Bahamas. Yay! I'm done! He looked at the 30 answers on his paper, feeling accomplished. He was still a little unsure of a few of his answers, but he was sure he'd gotten at least a 90.
He made sure his name was on his "prize-winning" paper, and then he got up to set it on the teacher's desk, before heading outside. He unlocked the bike, and rode back home.
When he got back to his dorm, he took off his pants and changed into a different shirt, since he had no class tomorrow, and he figured why not relax? Then, he checked his email. None from Haig. Just a few from Facebook, his daily horoscope, and a blog update that he subscribed to, but lately disregarded. Haig had a class from 11:30 to 2:45, so it was reasonable, and Eli wouldn't expect an email for several hours, unless his class was taking a test, and he had no future lessons to plan out, then he would probably check his emails.
He got the email at around 3:30 pm. Haig ended up getting plenty of emails about the assignment, and only 2 students who emailed, asking if they had gotten it right, actually had. He extended the homework for everyone by 1 week.
"Fuck YES!"
Keith had been outside of the door, coming back from his Ancient Civilization class. The door was slightly opened, so he could hear Eli.
"Is Clare here already?" He chuckled, braving it by walking in. Eli had been waiting for Clare to come visit for a few weeks now. They had agreed to visit each other every weekend, but when the work and pressure of classes started accumulating, they just couldn't make it out as often.
"No… But, apparently, Haig isn't such an ass. He extended the project because of all the dumbasses in our class."
"I hope you know you just called yourself a dumbass, right?"
"Yeah, I know. But, I am kind of a dumbass. I should have done the work sooner."
"Yeah, you are." He snickered. "How long did you get?"
"A week."
"At least it's better than tomorrow."
"Yeah." He said. "I know."
"No fun-time with your girlfriend this weekend. Her little college boy has some work to do."
Clare had called him that since last year, and she still did, even though she was in college now, too.
Thinking of that, he decided to see if Clare was online. He grabbed his headphones from his bedside table, just incase she was on chat.
"Man, are you gonna strip again?" Keith asked.
"Hey, hey, hey." Eli argued. "I was not stripping. I was making things interesting." He laughed.
"Yeah. Stripping, making things interesting, they're all the same thing." He said. "Feel free to have a replay of last time you guys had a video-chat, just don't get anything on my bed like last time… Oh, and tell Clare I said hi."
"Will do… And I did NOT get anything on your bed… I wasn't trying to, at least…"
Eli turned on his laptop, opened up internet explorer, logged on to his facebook, and then scrolled down to see who was online. Clare was online, but instead of sending her a message or IM-ing her, he set his status to: Would really love a video chat ;)
About a minute later, he got 2 notifications: One that said Clare had liked his status, and the other that said she had commented on it.
Maybe you'll get one ;) ;)
He commented back as fast as he could. Ooh, double wink. Someone's getting lucky. ;) ;) ;)
Wow. Triple wink! =]
Just go on chat, Clare-bear
Okay, my little college boy :P
He brought up the chat window and waited for the screen to go from blank to giving off picture and sound.
"Hey." He said.
"H—Aww, you look cute in yellow."
"Ugh, this was the only clean shirt I had left." He lifted it over his head and threw it behind him.
"Ooh, better. Hmm… You know what?"
"What?" He asked.
"I really don't like your shorts."
"But they're my boxers."
"Exactly." She winked at him.
He chuckled. "I think I'm exposed enough… By the way, I hate your shirt." His smile got as big as a kid in the candy shop, but after Clare proudly took off her shirt, only to reveal that she was wearing a tank-top underneath, it drooped to resemble a kid's face when they were told that they couldn't have a cookie before dinner. "That's hardly fair."
"Of course it is." She smiled. "You never said shirts. You only said shirt."
"No, I said shirts. You just didn't hear the 's'."
"Liar." She whispered.
"Why are you whispering? Is your mom home?" He grabbed his shirt from on the bed behind him, getting ready to put it on.
"No. She's not home."
"Oh, good." He tossed the shirt in a different direction.
"But, my dad's home, though."
"Shit." He almost dove to the floor to get his shirt.
"Ha. Don't worry about it. I need to leave soon, anyway. I've got class in the morning. …I'll call you later."
"Love you."
"I love you, too, college boy."
Ok….You know the drill! Review! Oh, ps, I did imagine Eli looking adorable in a yellow shirt after watching the episode before the finale. Ha. =]