"Alex," Eric said smiling.
"Eric," I replied trying to sound seductive. What the hell was that, Alex? "Is my brother here?"
"He's not actually."
I was somewhat confused. "Where did he go?"
"They went to play some pranks on you cheer leaders. It's actually part of Dauntless tradition. The football team usually does it the day after teams are announced, like when you all get your uniforms. But Aidan decided to do it tonight instead. I'm surprised you're still in one piece," he said still smiling.
"Well, I guess I'll have to hide out in the library."
"Why don't you just go back to your room and lock the door?" I let out a sigh and rolled my eyes. "Don't answer that," he responded. He probably could tell already that my room was occupied. "Come on in," he said moving on the side so I could walk through.
"Wait, aren't you playing pranks too?"
He cocked his head and threw me that smirk. "If I was, would I really still be here in my room? Or better yet, would I be letting you hide out in here?"
I looked down both ends of the hallway then attempted to look past him in the room.
"In or out, Kent," Eric barked.
I reluctantly walked in and sat down on Aidan's bed. "What were you doing before I came?"
I had to ask cause as I looked around the room was completely neat, the TV wasn't even on and neither was there any music. The Xbox controllers were all put away and the bags of chips and food were all closed. It was like he was just sitting down in the middle of the room doing nothing. Nothing was even on the desk, so I knew he wasn't doing work. I looked up at him as he was smiling at me.
"What?"
"I could tell you were trying to observe the room and formulate a theory on what I was doing."
"I told you already, I don't like theories," I smiled back.
"Yeah, but it is fun to watch you try to formulate one in that cute head of yours," he said sitting down on his bed opposite me. Did he just call me cute? I couldn't help but look at him as he sat down. He seemed so relaxed, like in the library.
We seemed to have started a staring contest. Every once and a while a smile would play on his face, as if he was trying to get me to laugh. I would shift in the bed, so my back was completely against the wall. After a couple minutes he did the same. I would pull my legs to my chest and so would he. He started to move his shoulders back and forth and nod his head a little as if he was dancing to some song, only there was no music. I started to bite my lips to stop myself from laughing. It was kind of hot, because his shirtless muscles just flexed. But at the same time it was so funny. I rolled my eyes and looked away towards the window.
"Ha! You blinked!"
I started to laugh and fell off of Aidan's bed. He ended up climbing off his bed to sit down on the floor next to me.
"I'm actually surprised I lasted that long," I said jokingly. "I usually always blinked first when I played that game with Aidan."
"I can see you've improved," he teased nudging me.
"Seriously, what were you doing before I got here?"
"I was actually doing the same thing I'm doing right now, except without you of course."
"You were talking to yourself?" He ended up pinching me on the side. "Hey," I said laughing a little. "I'm sort of ticklish right there."
"Really," he asked with an evil smile moving closer to me.
"No," I answered attempting to make a mad face at him. It only made him pinch my nose instead. "Hey, stop that," I said playfully hitting him.
I had to admit that this was nice. This was the second time, Eric and I didn't argue. We just talked. Perhaps Edward was right. Eric was a cool guy.
"Why didn't you go with the guys?"
"I usually do, but I didn't feel like it. So I decided to stay in here, obviously, and think about some stuff."
Part of me wanted to ask what it was, but then I thought about the library. If he wanted me to know then he would tell me and tonight probably wouldn't be that day that he promised he would.
However, I felt rather mischievous. I wanted, wait correction, neededto know what he was thinking about. I didn't know how I was going to get it out of him, but somehow my body came up with a tactic and ended up leaning against him.
It wasn't long until I felt his arm wrap around my waist and pull me closer to him. Why in the world did he not have a shirt on? I was hoping to distract him into answering my questions, but slowly I was beginning to think that if he continued to sit here shirtless, I was going to end up being the one who was distracted. My head rested on his bare chest and I couldn't help it. I reached my right hand around to run it across his abs. He flinched a little and I looked up.
"I'm kind of ticklish there too," he whispered with a smile.
I rested my head on his shoulder this time and felt his head rest on mine.
"What were you thinking about," I asked him as he started to run his fingers alongside my waist. Like really? I had to resist if this was him trying to get me to change the subject.
"A deal I made with my mom," he answered into my hair. He was really going to be vague about this wasn't he? I took my right hand and softly skimmed the middle of his chest and stopped at his shoulder.
"A deal that keeps you from playing pranks on cheer leaders," I teased trying to keep the moment light. I knew if I pushed too hard, this conversation wouldn't go where I wanted it to.
He started to chuckle. "Something like that."
We sat silent for a while, until I felt his hand on my bare skin. He had slowly moved my shirt a couple inches up during our silence. I tried as hard as I could to control my breathing. I never had so much physical contact with a boy. Then, it dawned on me that he knew exactly what he was doing. He had done this before, making girls just melt into him. No dummy, I thought to myself. You're the one who decided to do this.
"Alex." Eric's other hand came around, brushed my cheek, rested under my chin, and lifted my head up to look into his eyes. "I got into a lot of trouble last year. I did a lot of stupid stuff. My mom felt I was being too emotional, irrational, and immature with how I handled..." he paused and closed his eyes.
I took my hand off his shoulder and ran it on his neck, across his face, and stopped at his lips. Almost immediately he opened his eyes.
"You don't need to tell me everything, remember," I said moving my fingers away.
Why did I just say that? I wanted to know everything. Never mind, one thing at a time, I finally concluded. I tried that move I usually play on Aidan when we were younger. The same move that got me his cinnamon roll the morning in the cafeteria. I tilted my head and made my eyes big and pleading. He ran his hand across my cheek again.
"I made a deal with my mom that if I behaved this year, she would pull some of her diplomatic strings to get me certain things," he whispered. I wanted to know what those certain things were, but my mind was more focused on another topic in his statement.
"Diplomatic strings?"
"Yea, she's..." he paused and looked away for a bit still keeping his hand on my cheek on the other on my waist. "Let's just say she's really important," he finished looking back at me.
It wasn't a whole lot, but it was something.
"Thanks Eric."
"For what?"
"Saving me from Clayson, twice," I said as his hand dropped from my cheek and clenched into a fist on his knee. I could see the muscles in his arm start to tense. "I know I thanked you the first time, but thanks for the time at breakfast."
"I thought you said you were fine," he said smiling down at me.
"I know. I just didn't want to admit I was wrong."
"Aidan's right." I gave him a confused look. "He said you're pretty one-track minded. Once you're set on something, you don't really waver." I started to laugh lightly. "I'm glad you're okay," he whispered.
"Thanks for this too," I whispered back. This time he gave me a confused look. "For slowly telling me about yourself."
"I guess I should thank you too," he said placing his lips on my forehead. "For slowly letting me in," he finished. He pulled back and almost right away, I felt nervous. I knew what was about to happen. "Alex," he whispered tenderly.
"Eric," I whispered back.
He cupped his hand on my cheek and pulled my face closer to his.