Hardison bolted. Parker was desperately yanking herself out her harness. "Hardison!" Parker called after him. "Hardison!" she repeated, finally freeing herself and running past Eliot after him.
Savannah had her pained eyes locked on Eliot. He felt like he was on fire, his eyes burned in particular. He couldn't tell if he was angry or hurt. He picked angry. It was easier, but it wasn't coming out right. In fact, all that came out was a barely audible, disconnected, "Dinner's ready." And he went to the kitchen.
Hardison and Parker were nowhere to be seen. They must've been off...who knows what; they didn't fight often. Still, Eliot flew to the oven and jerked the steaming casserole out, and began plating for no logical reason. Stomping footsteps told that Savannah was after him. "Eliot!" The sound of his name on her lips stung. "Eliot," she panted, catching up to him.
"What?" Eliot snapped dismissively.
"We need to talk about this," her tone was coated in shame.
"About what?" He slammed a plate down, then threw away the shattered pieces.
"Eliot!" She smacked her hand down on the counter.
He threw the spatula down. "What?! Why would this even concern me? It's not like we ever talked about...us being more than friends or anything. If you're going to talk to anybody about whatever guilt you're having, it should be Hardison who's actually in a relationship Parker."
"Really, you're going to play the passive-aggressive guy? That's not like you." Savannah crossed her arms. And with that dose of mocking, Eliot headed toward the front door, snatching his keys of the side table. "Where are you going?" she demanded. He answered her question with the slam of the front door.
Several hours later, he pushed through the front door at three in the morning. Everything was quiet. He went to the kitchen to clean up then disaster he'd left, but found the kitchen was spotless. He snuck up to Savannah's room. She was asleep. It looked like she'd had a rough few hours as well. She hadn't even taken her gloves or shoes off before she went to sleep, a habit she'd adopted to replace hair-burning and peroxide-spraying. He laid next to her, hoping not to disturb her, and feeling inexplicably guilty for leaving. When he woke up, her fingers were curled around his forearm. There must've been a nightmare, and the booze kept him from noticing when she woke up. Unfortunately, they didn't dissolve the guilt that Eliot still couldn't pinpoint. Savannah was the one who kissed Parker…
The morning was especially awkward. Parker and Hardison were nowhere to be seen again. Savannah left shortly after she woke up. Eliot stood aimlessly in the kitchen have no reason to cook, and for the first time in a long time, he didn't feel like it. He tried working out, then he went to his apartment to watch hockey, and was just actually staring at the screen while trying to not think of what he saw in Parker's jungle gym the night before. Around nine that evening he went back, half hoping that Savannah would be there so they could talk. He got distracted when he found Hardison at his desk accompanied by several empty beer bottles.
"Sorry," Hardison grumbled. "I'll pay you back."
"Don't worry about it," Eliot grunted. He decided it was a good idea and pulled a six pack out of the fridge. "I'm sorry, man."
"Thanks. You know, I never thought I'd be mad to walk in on two girls kissing, you know?" Hardison was trying to laugh; it was that pained laugh when you can't quite cope with something.
"Yeah. So, I mean, what happened when Parker caught up with you last night?"
"I was so mad I went up to the roof, and you know I hate the roof." Eliot nodded. No matter how much time Hardison spent with Parker, he could still never willfully enjoy rooftops. "She tried to talk to me, but I just couldn't deal, you know? Finally, she said she was going to her place for a while, and to let her know when I was ready to talk."
"So you guys haven't split?"
"No. I mean, I'm upset, sure, but I still love her, you know. And I'm kind of actively in denial. But I think Parker deserves a chance to explain herself at the very least. I'm just not ready."
"Yeah. I think you're dealing with it pretty well though. And that's important."
"I'm sorry, too, man."
"For what?"
"You and Savannah."
"Oh," Eliot waved him off. "It's not like we were actually together."
"Well, I mean, it's like when Parker and I were in that period where we weren't actually together, but I was into her and she admitted she had feelings for pretzels…me. And I mean, even though we weren't official, it was understood that we had a thing and nobody got in the way of that. That's how I see you guys."
"Yeah, I did too."