HIT OR MISS {OPEN}

[ISABELLA MARIANA DIAS]

She couldn’t help that certain mannerisms had been engraved into her at a young age. You didn’t go through years of training to let them slip because by the time you were finished with all of that etiquette education it became second nature, and just as instinct, it wasn’t something that you could shake so easily. Maybe if Isabella was starved for several days she might have taken to food like a savage, but until that scenario took place, it was unlikely to happen. As it stood she didn’t mind that Eli could be a slob about things. When it came to culture, even when she didn’t necessarily agree with it or understand it, Isabella did her best to respect it. Eli was from the South and from her understanding when you were enjoying food you didn’t need to act prim and proper about it because that was a show of appreciation if you did wolf it down, even making sounds of enjoyment as you did so. Whatever method he ate with, she was never repulsed by it. ”Apologies.” She grinned knowing full well he was teasing.

It was in Eli’s nature to tease people. Never in a malicious way, not that she had seen nor that she would ever except from him. People had their limits of course and she was sure that eventually someone would push him to his. Isabella knew the sensitive spots of Eli’s. If people talked about his family in a negative way, especially his sisters, that sweetness in him would drop- or if you talked badly about someone else that he cared about, such as herself, Eli didn’t flash that cute smile of his at you and act as though things were all good between you and him. But at least, in general, Eli was a fiercely kind individual and those were hard to come by. She counted herself lucky to be called his friend.

Getting comfortable together she had never once saw it as more than two friends cuddling. He wasn’t the only one that she did it with on that platonic level but people did have a way of talking and considering that neither were really discrete about each others comings or goings it did breed rumors. High school was like that and add onto it that it was a private school where most of the students lived for the majority of the year, where everyone’s business managed to find a way out into the public knowledge, or at least a twisted version of what was really going on- nothing was sacred to these people. That was a damn shame in her opinion. Her feelings for Eli were strictly innocent. She loved him, sure enough, but as a friend and the things that they did together didn’t need to be sullied with other people’s perversions.

Watching the movie, quietly for the most part, she didn’t like talking through them much either so as not to miss anything. There were a few occasions where she would jump or turn her face into his chest hiding her face. It was an extremely girly action but that was just Isabella and it wouldn’t come as a surprise to him. She didn’t even mind if her laughed at her for it. As the movie was wrapping up and the idea of an evil spirit taking over someone’s body when they astral-projected, her eyes narrowed. ”Do you believe in this kind of stuff?” It hadn’t been a conversation that was brought up before but given what they had just seen it seem as good a time as any.

[ELIJAH COLIN MASTERS]

This wasn’t the first time the two had watched horror movies together, and Eli was used to her occasional jumping. He thought it was pretty cute and would smile to himself whenever she hid her face in his chest, gently patting her head in mock comfort with an occasional “There, there.” He did it all in jest; besides, Isabella’s horror movie habits kept him from getting too scared as well. He still jumped at some parts, as well, even going so far as to pretend to hide behind Isabella. Eli loved just being able to joke with girls without it meaning anything. He secretly wished all of his friendships with girls could be like that, but that was too optimistic of an idea for even Eli. Most girls just took everything so seriously. It seemed that if he teased them even once, they either wanted a restraining order or to jump his bones. Neither of which Eli was interested in, especially the second – he had never seen anything good come from casual sex. He’d heard plenty of bragging in the locker room, but he’d always ignored it. It felt as though he was degrading whatever girl they had slept with if he listened. It was another part of his raising that had stuck with him – sex was to be kept between two people who were married.

“Do you believe in this kind of stuff?” He mulled over the thought for a moment, finding the right wording to express his opinion. He went with the simplest answer – it wasn’t exactly a topic of which he was rather fond. “Demons, yes. Astral projection, no.” Eli had been raised in a very Christian household, but not one that was suffocating. He had been lucky enough to grow up in a church that recognized the importance of a relationship with his God, rather than just trying to keep a bunch of rules. The church they had found when his family had moved to their current location was much the same way, only more blunt than the last. He had found a small church just outside of Hadley that he tried to attend regularly on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. Between the two churches, he had heard about a fair share of topics. Some were more lighthearted, such as dating. Others weren’t things usually discussed with high school students, such as Hell and everything that came with it. He had never personally experienced an encounter with a demon, but he had heard the stories of people who had.

He shook his head to clear the thoughts from his mind, not wanting to think on it too long. “Scary shit, Iz,” he said, quietly. Eli didn’t cuss very often, but he felt that this was an appropriate time, because it was true. Sitting up suddenly, a smile on his face, he asked, “So, what about you?” He really just wanted to push his own thoughts out of his mind. He swung his legs off the side of the bed, standing up with the intention of getting more pizza. He had the excuse of doing more physical activity than he normally did ready in his mind, even though she probably wouldn’t say anything about it. She understood, or at least was accustomed to, the large quantity of food he ate no matter what. If he wasn’t eating, something was very wrong with him. “Want some?” he asked, shaking the box a bit, the pizza sliding around inside. Anything to lighten the mood – thankfully, they’d watched the movie with the lights on.

[ISABELLA MARIANA DIAS]

Isabella was Catholic so of course she believed in all sorts of things that others might have shunned as superstitious and unbelievable. The fact of the matter, as it pertained to her though, was that Isabella had grown up in that sort of situation where these subjects were either discussed or concerned too taboo to even mention, and if you came across it one was to cross themselves in that habitual way that diehard Catholics were prone to. This was just one of those things that made Isabella different than the rest of her peers. Brazil might not have been like Chili or anything as far as the state of their economy and people so deprived that they resorted to clinging to religion as a crutch to keep on keeping on. In some parts it was bad like any country but where Isabella was from, and especially her family money going back quite a few generations, the hardships didn’t influence any sort of extremist beliefs like seeing Jesus on a burnt piece of toast and traveling to pray over it.

”I believe in it, yes. But we aren’t allowed to practice it because the soul contains everything that we are and that the only ones meant for it is God.” It had to do with Jesus Christ being the Anointed of God and traveling through spiritual dimensions channeling human sensory to experience the truth directly from God in whatever form that astral project of Jesus came to you in. However, she didn’t think that Elijah really wanted to know all the detail of what she believed in. It would have seemed like too much of a lecture and if not to him then how she would feel she was coming across if she had gotten into it. Was it scary though? Of course. Anything that left something unexplained beyond a shadow of a doubt could be frightening. It was the unknown the excited fear the most in her opinion.

She could see where Elijah was going with his offer for more pizza and she didn’t blame him in the least. It hadn’t been meant but her curiosity had led them into an uncomfortable situation. Isabella had no one to blame but herself and though her thirst had been quenched it left a bit of a bad aftertaste in her mouth having her regretting bringing up the subject in the first place. At least they could say that they knew where the other stood on things, even with the obscure information about one another that was unlikely to ever pop up on one of those silly questionnaires to gage how well you knew one another. Isabella wasn’t even sure if they made those anymore but could remember filling them out with her best friend from grade school in the girly magazines that they’d had at their disposal. She was too old for that sort of thing now though, wasn’t she? Nostalgic of her youth or something like that she supposed.

A hand came up gently declining the offer. ”No thank you.” Her gaze swept over to the other bed in the room noticing that his roommate hadn’t come back yet. It was understandable though. On a Friday night he could have gone home if he lived around town, which she didn’t know if that was the case or not and had never sought the answer either. For herself, though her parents did have a house in Hadley, they lived in Brazil still and Isabella didn’t like being in the empty house all alone often so opted to stay in the dorm room most of the time. Wasn’t that all part of the private school experience anyway? ”Do you mind if I stay with you tonight?”

[ELIJAH COLIN MASTERS]

Elijah nodded, taking in her opinion. The entire subject wasn’t one of his favorites to discuss. He understood the necessity of it to his faith, but it was one of those things that left him constantly looking over his shoulder, fearful of those things that go bump in the night. He knew he had no need to fear him, but that was a hard thing to do, all things considered. Demons were no joking matter – they had their own kind of power, certainly. The idea of something you can’t see, something supernatural, was one of the most terrifying things to him. It was more than enough to make him thankful that he was rarely ever completely alone when those things were on his mind. He enjoyed solitude, but not when every little noise practically made him jump out of his skin.

He didn’t respond, instead just wolfing down another slice of pizza. Eli had this way of inhaling food, yet still tasting it. It never took him long to finish a meal, and it seemed that it took him even less time to work up an appetite again. Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter seemed to be the main times of the year in which he achieved any semblance of being completely stuffed. It was just part of his nature. His sisters and mother were the type to eat like birds – “pecking” at it, eating little nibbles at a time. Meanwhile, he and his dad had a tradition of going out to eat somewhere every couple of weeks, just the two of them, where they could eat all they want without comments about being slobs from the women of the family. Eli’s dad had made sure his son could fend for himself, despite the multiple pictures his mom had stored away of Eli after receiving a makeover from his sisters, wearing more make-up than he would ever like to admit to.

“Do you mind if I stay with you tonight?” He glanced over at his roommate’s empty bed, shrugging inwardly. Eli figured he’d probably gone home for the weekend – his roommate wasn’t the type to stay out late and come shambling in at two in the morning. A glance at his watch told him that it was already past eleven, definitely beyond when either of the two sophomore boys stayed out. “Yeah, if you want. I don’t think he’s coming back anytime tonight,” he replied, with a thumb-jab in the direction of the other twin-bed in the room.

He flopped back onto his own bed beside Isabella, the springs squeaking slightly as they absorbed the shock of his weight. He stretched out, clasping his hands behind his head and stretching his toes so that he could grab the footboard with his toes. Being this tall had its advantages and disadvantages. Eli was what some would call an “active sleeper.” He had banged his heel on the wood of the footboard more than once because he had been thrashing around in his sleep. It wasn’t entirely uncommon for him to wake up with a new, tiny bruise somewhere because he had hit something in his sleep. He had always been this way – he didn’t always go completely under the blanket of sleep, his body becoming paralyzed. It wasn’t to the extent that he sleepwalked, thankfully, just enough that when he was little he would usually wake up with his feet on his pillow, and his head by the footboard.

“Do you need anything? Like, I dunno, a t-shirt?” he asked, figuring that her current clothing wasn’t the most comfortable for sleeping. While he had showered and changed, she was still in her fashionable outfit that she had put on for whatever her plans for the night had previously been. He didn’t understand women’s fashion, preferring comfort over anything else. He supposed he’d think differently if he were actually girl, but – it was just strange. Women were much too complicated for him to think about, despite growing up surrounded by so many.

[ISABELLA MARIANA DIAS]

Maybe she should have been more concerned with the rumors that might have come from someone potentially seeing her come out of Elijah’s room in the morning wearing the same thing as the day before, or even something of his, but Isabella really couldn’t bring herself to be too upset over it. Popularity had been something that had pretty much fell into her lap. It had to do with the way that she looked and the money that she had that put her in that category but that didn’t mean that she was careless about her reputation. It wasn’t out of motivation to stay popular but more so out of her own dignity. Things were always going to be said about you but if you didn’t give them much to talk about then you had that saving grace still. At least she knew with Elijah he wouldn’t be adding fuel to the fire, winking at his buddies or making suggestive comments so that their imaginations could run wild.

That was one of the many things that she liked about him and why she felt so comfortable. Maybe it was just because he was still so young at heart and that purity of his hadn’t been corrupted by the negative influences of teenage boys. Isabella believed that it had plenty to do with the way that he was raised. A Southern gentleman didn’t degrade women like that regardless of what took place in private. Like her, she imagined that when Elijah got to that point in his life he would use discretion. Private affairs should stay just that, private. If his roommate had been there she would have been less inclined to ask, out of respect for him. Not everyone was comfortable with people staying over and that was completely understandable.

She was mostly still when she slept. The rare occasions that she did move it was barely a stir. Isabella was well aware of how Elijah slept but with someone else in the bed with him, perhaps it was having that subconscious courtesy, he wasn’t as restless of a sleeper. He still moved around but nothing like the wild motions of when he was by himself. It was like once he felt her next to him he was able to calm the activity of his actions. Her clothing were not comfortable for her to sleep in. It was hardly the most uncomfortable thing that Isabella owned but with the option of a shirt, she happily accepted. ”Yes, please.” While he went off to get that she moved to the edge of the bed and took off her boots putting them at the foot of the bed so no one would trip over them for any reason. She had showered after her classes with intent to go out later but had gotten sidetracked by Elijah and their time on the court hadn’t worked her up into any sweat so she figured she was fine. Once he’d given her the shirt she ducked into the bathroom to get changed folding her jeans and top and laid them on his desk chair when she came out. It was long enough to make it partly down her thighs and baggy on her tiny frame. Crawling back into the bed, this time under the covers, she smiled over at Elijah snuggling up.