A/N: Trigger warning for the early signs of orthodexia Katie shows in this chapter.
Imogen's mouth dropped when the bottle landed between him and Marisol. She couldn't believe it.
She was feeling multiple emotions, but the biggest was jealousy.
"Alright, come on Emo Boy, let's go," Marisol said cheerfully as she stood up. Imogen closed her mouth and watched as the other girl held out her hand for Eli to grab.
Eli looked at her hand as if it was on fire at first. She hoped that he would reject her and that he would refuse to go in the closet with her. Then they could leave the party together.
Instead, Eli reluctantly took it as he got up. Imogen felt her stomach tighten as Marisol led him into a closet while everyone else in the circle whispered conspirately among themselves. Eli and Marisol were such an odd matchup, and everyone was excited to see how them being in a closet together would go. Everyone except her.
She regretted inviting Eli to the party in the first place.
He should have stayed his ass home.
Eli stared down Marisol as she closed the closet door on them and sat down across from him. He could barely see her face in the darkness.
"So we can talk," Marisol offered him with a smile on her face.
"About what? I sincerely doubt there's anything I can talk about with you," he replied gruffly. Marisol seemed to be the literal opposite of him and he had no interest in talking about lip gloss, glitter, pink, and Disney princesses. Just the thought made him ill.
"So you think we should just sit in silence and do nothing for the next seven minutes?" She questioned in disbelief. "What are you, scared of me or something?"
"You? Never," he denied with a snort. As if he would ever be scared of a girly girl princess. Now her best friend Katie, on the other hand, was a different story. He heard she knew Karate and was a green belt.
"Then I guess you shouldn't be afraid of kissing me then," she reasoned.
"I rather not," he dismissed. Somehow he was able to see her pout. "Why would you want to kiss me anyway? You seem to be scared of me every time I walk down the halls." Or whenever their eyes met in class. She seemed to think he was a vampire or something.
"Because you dress in nothing but red and black and draw skulls in your notebook, that's weird," she admitted.
"And I think it's weird that you can't go a day without lip gloss," he shot back. "It seems that we're the last people that should be trapped in a closet together."
"Then we should make the most of it, give people something to talk about," Marisol said as she scooted closer to him. Their faces were almost touching, and he could hear her soft breathing.
Something shifted in him.
"You really want to kiss just so people can talk about us?" He asked as he suddenly started feeling lightheaded. He blamed it on the smell of her hair, which had a sweet, cotton candy scent. He didn't like most sweets except chocolate. But the scent of her hair was penetrating his nostrils and making him feel….things.
He needed to get out of this closet.
"Well I also think you're interesting, even though you're weird," she admitted again.
"Gee thanks," Eli replied sarcastically even though he was starting to sweat. She moved even closer to him and grabbed his hand. The feel of her soft hands against his slightly rougher ones caused his skin to heat up. He didn't know what was going on. He must be coming down with a fever.
"One kiss shouldn't hurt, right?" She asked. He could feel her hot breath on his lips. He could smell it too. It smelled like fresh mint.
"If you don't think so," he answered.
"We don't have to actually tell anyone, it could be just between us," she assured him.
"Okay," he agreed, then there was a pregnant pause. "Well what are you waiting for? We don't have all night."
"Right…..," she replied. "You go first."
"Why?"
"The guy always goes first."
He rolled his eyes. "Fine," he said as he leaned in and gently pressed his lips against hers. She quickly returned it and they awkwardly had their lips against each other for a few seconds. Then they pulled back from each other.
In the grand scheme of things, a tiny kiss like this should mean nothing to him but in those several seconds it did.
Her lips were soft, smooth, and tasted of strawberries due to her lip gloss. Those three things kept replaying in his mind on loop.
"I imagined my first kiss to be more epic," Marisol confessed.
"This was your first kiss?" He asked in surprise.
"Yeah," she confirmed.
"It's mine too," he confessed back, and now he suddenly felt insecure. Was he a bad kisser?
"It was nice though. Good job," she congratulated him while squeezing his hand. That hand squeeze caused his stomach to tighten.
"Thanks, you too," he congratulated as the timer outside finally went off. They both quietly stood up. Marisol opened the door where everyone was looking at them to see if there were any noticeable signs of a hookup. They went back to the circle without a second word to each other. The game continued.
Later, him and Imogen biked home together. He noticed that she was weirdly quiet the rest of the party. He chalked it up to her not fitting in. He didn't really either. He wished Mo was there, but he said over the phone that his parents would never allow him to go to a party with no adult chaperones.
When they got to her house, she finally decided to speak up.
"What did you and Marisol do in that closet?" She demanded while getting off her bike.
"Nothing," he lied quickly.
"Oh, that's good. I was worried that she might eat you alive," she replied.
"Nope, we just sat in silence," he said. "Goodnight Imogen."
"Goodnight Eli," she replied as she chained up her bike. He watched as she entered her house safely, and she gave him a final wave before she walked in.
As Eli rode home, all he could think about was Marisol and how soft her lips were against his.
On Monday, Marisol arrived at school feeling like she was floating. It has been like that since the party.
"What did you and Eli do in that closet?" Katie asked her suspiciously as she walked up to her.
"Nothing, we just sat in silence," she denied as she looked in the mirror to make sure her hair was in place. Her mother had put a silk press in her hair over the weekend and now it was pin straight. She then used hair spray to make her hair look extra shiny, and put in a pink butterfly clip in her hair.
"Well that's not what I'm hearing," Katie replied while holding her history textbook tightly to her chest.
"What are people saying?" She asked as she turned to face her friend, who was staring her down critically. While she normally would be excited at the idea of people talking about her, she didn't want people to talk about this.
"There's a rumor going around the school that you and Eli hooked up in the closet and did things," Katie answered with a hard look. "That you guys made out and touched each other's…..private areas."
"What? Ew," Marisol replied in disgust. "Me kissing him and touching him? No way. I would never."
"Good, because I don't want to think that you would be willing to do that kind of thing with a guy. There's no benefit to being the school slut," Katie said. Just then, Eli walked past them.
Their eyes met briefly for one second, and Marisol felt her skin heat up. However she quickly turned away and focused on getting her books for the day. Only the first half of the rumors flying around were true, and she still had no intention of everyone finding out about her and Eli kissing.
Even if it did feel nice and it was all she could think about.
"I heard you and Marisol got nasty in her closet at the party," Mo said to his friend as the teacher briefly left the classroom to go to the restroom. That was all it took for the room to erupt in chaos. Kids were talking loudly to each other and trading jokes.
"We definitely did not," Eli denied strongly as he dodged a paper plane tossed his way.
"Come on, you can tell me all of the freaky details," Mo insisted while leaning in conspirately. He really wished he was allowed to go to the party on Friday now. The idea of his emo friend being locked in the closet with the school princess and possibly hooking up with her was an amusing mental image.
"I promise you that we did nothing but sit in silence for seven whole minutes, Mo. Do you really think so low of me that I would hook up with that?" Eli asked as he gestured towards Marisol, who was writing something in her pink notebook with a pink glitter pen.
Mo thought she was cute, but a girl like her would never go out with a guy like him so there was no use crushing on her.
"You right," he replied with a nod. "The rumors sound crazy anyway."
"I should have stayed home, but Bullfrog and Cece were out drinking again and I had nothing else to do," Eli grumbled. "I also didn't want Imogen to be there alone with those popular kids."
"And now you got yourself involved with the popular kids," Mo teased.
"I did not," Eli denied again firmly, looking disgusted at the idea.
"Whatever you sayyyyy," Mo replied in a singsong voice just as the teacher walked back in.
His friend rolled his eyes at him in response as the teacher went on with the lesson.
Katie looked at the food in front of her in the lunch line. Today's options other than the usual pizza, burgers, sandwiches, and wraps were chicken tenders.
She picked up a single turkey sandwich for herself and a water and went back to her table with Marisol. She had to go back to eating healthy after the food she ate at Marisol's party. She had only one slice of pizza and two barbecue wings but that was probably still too many calories. She really needed to watch her weight if she was to be on the junior varsity soccer team.
Katie quietly ate her food, taking one small bite at a time. She didn't want to be seen as a pig for just gobbling down her food. She watched as Marisol ate her lunch of chicken tenders and fries. There was a cup of cheese sauce Marisol would dip the fries in every so often.
"How can you eat that kind of stuff when you're a cheerleader?" She questioned.
"Because I work the fat off every day," Marisol answered with a shrug before taking a big bite of one of her chicken tenders.
"But you should eat healthy every day so you wouldn't have to do that," Katie reminded her. She has had this conversation with Marisol plenty of times in the past few months. Yet, despite taking part in a "sport" that pressured girls into having perfect bodies, her friend continued to eat ice cream, cheese fries, burgers, and fried seafood like it was nothing.
"I do eat healthy, but I also treat myself every now and then Katie-kins," Marisol replied, "You should learn to do the same."
"It's easy to trick yourself into thinking that but then you lose control," Katie said in concern.
"I think you're putting too much thought into this. Food is food, and restricting yourself to only eating sandwiches and granola bars every day probably isn't good," Marisol argued.
"If you say so, but I'm just concerned, Mare," she said.
"What you think I'm getting fat or something?" Marisol asked her with narrowed eyes. When she didn't answer, her friend's eyes widened. "Oh my God, you do."
"I'm just concerned about the amount of calories you have been consuming lately," Katie replied defensively.
"Maybe you should mind your own business!" Marisol exclaimed angrily, getting up from her seat with her tray of food.
"Where are you going?" Katie demanded.
"Anywhere but here!" Marisol replied as she stormed off.
Katie watched her friend leave, and while she felt guilty that she apparently hurt Marisol's feelings, she didn't move to apologize.
After all, she knew she was ultimately right.
Later that day, Imogen entered the gymnasium for Pep Squad tryouts with Mo by her side.
"I'm definitely just here for support," Mo said to her.
"Aw come on, boys can join the Pep Squad too. It's gender inclusive!" Imogen tried to convince him as she looked at the other people trying out. There were mostly girls of all shapes and sizes, and only a few boys.
"Yeah sure, the mental image of me waving around pom poms isn't weird at all," he replied sarcastically. Imogen ignored him as she approached Marisol and the coach, Mrs. Mendelson. The other girl for some reason had a grouchy look on her face.
Imogen put on a fake smile as she looked at Marisol. She was dressed like she was at the club fair, except she replaced her hair ballies for gold and blue ribbons. She was wearing her usual lip gloss, except there was glittery blue eyeshadow to go along with it. She was pretty, Imogen supposed. Pretty enough to get Eli's attention at the party.
She had heard several rumors about what Marisol and Eli did in that closet, and she didn't like any of them.
"Hi, I'm here to try out for the Pep Squad!" She declared. Marisol then gave her a smile that felt fake in return.
"Sure, stand over there with the rest of the tryouts," she directed, pointing at where a group of people were standing.
"Cool!" Imogen replied enthusiastically as she went over to the group. After a few more people entered the gym, Marisol began to call everyone up to audition one by one. There were some girls that were obviously going to make the team and then there were the ones that weren't. One girl accidentally fell on her ass attempting to do a headstand while the other fell flat on her face.
Marisol had a hard look on her face no matter how well the person performed. Imogen figured that she was trying to come off as intimidating. Maybe to the other girls she did, but to her, she didn't. Marisol was just another shallow popular that looked down at anyone not like her.
Yet she possibly hooked up with Eli of all people.
"Imogen Moreno?" The coach read her name out loud from a sheet of paper, and Imogen practically skipped to the space in front of Marisol's table. Regardless of how she felt about Marisol at the moment, she was so excited to do this and nothing was going to kill her excitement.
"Okay Imogen, let's see what you got," Marisol said as she folded her hands expectantly.
Imogen smiled as she effortlessly did a few toe touches, cartwheels, and a flip. "Go Degrassi!" She exclaimed as she did a wide jump before splitting effortlessly on the floor. She had practiced all night, and doing cartwheels and splits were easy for her to do since she did them often at home to burn off energy.
Marisol was looking at her in surprise as if she didn't expect for her to do so good. She looked up at the coach before looking back at her, blinking. "Thanks...," she said with a slow nod. "Next is Georgia Banks."
Imogen smiled again as she went back to Mo, who was sitting on the bleachers. "Wow you really killed it," he complimented her.
"You think she would allow me on the team?" She questioned in concern. It was a little obvious that Marisol didn't like her. She wouldn't be surprised if she was rejected from the team based on that alone.
"She would be stupid not to," Mo assured her. "So...do you think I would make a great mascot?"
That night, Eli tossed and turned in his sleep as he dreamed of something very disturbing.
He was trapped in the closet with Marisol again, and there seemed to be no limit to how long they could stay in there. He didn't know how he got there, but he needed to leave immediately.
Unfortunately, his body did not want to.
"My parents are sleeping upstairs, and they have no idea you're here," Marisol said with a mischievous grin. For some reason, there was a single, tiny candle burning on the floor between them, and he could see the warm glow of her face. He noticed all of her fine features, like her dark eyes, long eyelashes, round cheeks, and full lips.
She was very pretty, no doubt about that.
"Good," he heard himself say as she grabbed both of his hands. Her hands were soft while his were clammy. He was nervous and he hated how much he was showing it.
"Relax, Eli. We've done this before," she said as she traced one of her fingers over his hand. It was a comforting gesture and he felt a little less tense.
"Okay," he replied as she leaned forward. Closing his eyes, he leaned forward as well.
When their lips met again, he felt his heart soar.
Eli woke up, disgruntled, and looked at his alarm clock. It was the middle of the night. He groggily got out of his bed, went downstairs, and fixed himself a glass of milk with ice.
He did not go back to sleep.