Chapter 6: Viscosity
Mo frowned at her sketchpad. Her eyes were too tired from hours of trying to draw another floor plan. She spent a week mostly living in the drafting room and surviving on coffee and granola bars. This baffled Eli who refused to believe that granola was food.
She missed him.
She even missed his senseless convictions.
Eli seemed to always be running. Mo couldn’t help notice that he couldn’t seem to stay in one place for too long. She felt like she hadn’t spent any time with him since the semester started because he was always sneaking off somewhere. She couldn’t even ask what was going on with him because he didn’t stay long enough to give her the chance.
She asked Tadashi if he noticed their friend’s odd behavior but he seemed just as clueless as she was. He could be busy with classes. Maybe he joined more clubs this year. Maybe he had a new girlfriend.
She couldn’t really picture Eli dating. She knew he dated people in high school. It had been a surprise. She saw in action how hopeless he was at flirting.
Everything went dark. Two hands came from behind her and covered her eyes.
“Guess who?” A male voice whispered in her ear.
She relaxed when she recognized the voice. “Blaze.”
“Are you sure?”
She tried to pull at his hands. “Stop playing around.”
“And Blaze is the right answer!” He uncovered her eyes and took the seat beside her. “Congrats. You’ve won a million dollars.”
She scoffed, “Great. I wonder how I’m going to spend all my new money.”
“Buy a sports car or a Bengal tiger.” He shrugged easily. “Or you can forego the money and go on a date with me instead.”
She paused and gave him a questioning look. “For real? You’re not just flirting again?”
“First of all, I still want to continue flirting with you because it gets you all flushed and pretty.” He smiled. “Second, I would like to take you out and we can see where this goes.”
She gripped her mechanical pencil tightly, unsure of how to answer. Blaze Hart was too handsome and too charming. He was the kind of boy that was never without a girl for too long. He was the kind of boy that her mama told her to stay away from.
Noticing her indecision, Blaze added, “One date, Mo. That’s all I’m asking for. If it goes badly, you can pretend we never met and I’ll never bother you again.”
“Never?”
He ran his hand through his dark blond hair. “I might try to persuade you on a second date. Having learned from my mistakes the first time round, I would make sure the second date goes perfectly. Then you wouldn’t want to avoid me for the rest of our lives.”
She smiled, unable to help herself. Blaze Hart could sell ice to a polar bear if he wanted.
“Fine,” she told him. “You get one chance.”
“Two chances,” he replied. “I get to try again with the perfect second date, remember?”
She laughed and agreed.
He grinned. He had a great smile, warm with perfect teeth. When Blaze Hart smiled, no girl stood a chance. She was in trouble.
“You won’t regret it. I promise,” he said.
She had to leave to get dinner at the dining hall. She found Tadashi and Eli helping themselves to the taco bar. It made her miss her hometown where they served avocados with everything. Avocados were a difficult commodity to find in the East Coast.
She would have to make do.
As she tried to assemble her tacos, Eli greeted her, “Hi.”
“Hi.” She settled on soft shell tacos. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”
He paused. “I know. I’ve been busy with things. It’s been hard to juggle everything together.”
“You need to learn time management,” she advised him. “Have an itinerary. It’ll help you from being overwhelmed and to keep on track. That’s what I do.”
She kept planners, both physical and on an app. She loved sticky notes reminders and marked calendars. Organizing things was one of her favorite things in the world.
“I can’t really predict one of the things I’m juggling. I kind of just have to drop everything and take care of it.”
”Is it necessary in your life or is it giving you unneeded stress? Have you considered giving it up?”
His eyes widened and shook his head. “I can’t do that. It’s the one thing I’m sure of. It’s my purpose.”
“If it’s that important, why not give up another thing?”
“The other things are important too.”
The way he was looking at her made her heart beat faster. It felt so similar to that one morning during their jog. He was about to say something before he had to run off.
“Sounds difficult,” she remarked.
“You’re right I need to learn to manage things better,” he said. “I miss spending time with you. Let’s fix that. Are you doing anything this weekend?”
She tucked her hair behind her ears and replied, apologetically, “I’m going on a date.”
He stilled. “With who?”
“Blaze Hart.”
He looked stricken. His brown eyes were wide. His shoulders dropped as he swallowed. He turned away.
“That makes sense,” he said. “Of course, it’s him.”
She could see that he was really upset. She tried to touch his arm to comfort him but he moved away from her.
“Eli…”
“I should go,” he insisted. “I just remembered I have to do something.”
She didn’t want him to leave. He was always running off. She pointed out, “You haven’t even eaten.”
He looked down at his tacos. He overstuffed them. The vegetables on top spilled out of the hard shells. He handed the plate of tacos to a confused Tadashi.
“I’m not hungry anyway,” he said. “I’ll see you guys later.”
He walked away without looking back.
Tadashi asked, “What’s wrong with him?”
“I don’t know,” Mo answered. “I really don’t know.”