“Oh god,” Eli groaned as he read through the texts. What was wrong with him?

Noah cast a worried gaze in his direction. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” Eli scrolled down through the messages.

Eli: Actually even better than that

Eli: wbu? All good?

Cameron:…

Cameron: Are you on something?

Eli: Ma car

Cameron: You’re on a car? You mean inside right?

Eli:

Cameron: Eli you have five seconds to answer me

Eli: Or what?

Cameron: Don’t

Eli: ;)

Cameron: I’m going to call Noah

Eli: Go on go on, tell him I luv him

Eli: wait come back

Cameron: where are you?

Eli: No

Cameron: On the way home?

Eli: On da wai hum

Cameron: Stop that

Eli: Make me

Eli had to look away. He couldn’t fight back another groan. Why had he been talking like that? They were only two minutes away from the school, and Eli knew he had to finish reading this before they arrived. There was a big gap in the texts, and the activity log for Cameron had a phone call that lasted five minutes. Eli had no idea what was said in that five minutes.

Cameron: You’re ridiculous

Eli: Dontcha know it

Eli: Oh

Eli: oh no

Eli: you twat

Cameron: What now? Why am I a twat?

Eli could picture Cameron’s amused, humouring expression as he wrote out these messages.

Eli: I kno you were being a hero

Eli: And a good person

Eli: but you broke my door

Cameron: You’re welcome for saving your arm

Eli: My arm is replaceable, my door is not

Cameron: It’s the other way around

Eli: It costs money to fix a door though

Eli: FUCK

Cameron: If you’re that upset I’ll fix it for you

Eli: The hospital bills, that’ll be expensive right?

Cameron: They’re not going to break the bank. And you didn’t break anything so you won’t need to pay for a cast

Eli: What if Noah gets mad

Cameron: Why would that make Noah mad?

There weren’t any more texts. Eli had either decided he was over-sharing, or much more likely, he’d fallen asleep at that stage. He put his phone away, and couldn’t stop cringing. Why had he been talking like that? It was already awkward with what Cameron had walked in on, and now he had to go and make it even weirder. And what had that been about his door? It was broken?

Eli was once again subjected to stares. After wrestling his bag away from Noah, not literally, he made his way down the school halls with his bag strung over his good arm. His plans to avoid Cameron immediately went up in smoke. He turned the corner to find the taller boy leaning against his locker, staring down at his phone. Eli slowly walked up to him. The corner of Cameron’s lips were curving upwards. Eli glanced at the phone and saw his name at the top.

Eli groaned and physically covered the screen with his hand. “Don’t read them.”

Cameron chuckled, “I take it this is how you drunk text?”

“I wasn’t drunk,” Eli grumbled, pushing him out of the way.

“Right, right,” Cameron leaned to the side, facing him as he spoke, “You were just high.”

“I hadn’t eaten, and the painkillers went straight to my head” Eli refused to look at him, but his cheeks heated up regardless.

Cameron just hummed.

Eli manoeuvred all his books into his bags as best he could, until Cameron stepped in and just tossed them in for him.

“Don’t rumple them up.”

“I believe the words you’re looking for are ‘thank you’” Cameron kept his bag in his arm, “How sore are you?”

The way Cameron phrased it made Eli hesitate. The question didn’t lend itself to an ‘I’m fine’ answer. “The painkillers are doing their job,” Eli shrugged, dismissing it as best he could.

Cameron titled his head, meeting Eli’s eyes. He didn’t say anything.

“What?” It was hard for Eli not to just look away when he was being stared at.

Cameron’s lips tugged down, and a slightly irritated expression made its way onto his face. “You’re not allowed to lie to me,” he gently nudged the corner of his jaw, just beneath his swollen cheek, “Not about this.”

“I didn’t lie to you about… that” Eli’s brow creased. Discomfort crept along his skin and made him glance around to make sure that was nobody within earshot.

“I mean just now,” Cameron muttered.

“just now?” Eli repeated blankly.

“’the painkillers are doing their job’” Cameron caught Eli’s chin and turned his face upwards towards him.

“Hey,” Eli scowled, grabbing the wrist that a hold of his face. Cameron wasn’t forceful enough to hurt him, but the grip wasn’t one Eli could just push off.

“You haven’t had any,” Cameron met his eyes, but this time Eli realised it wasn’t just to make eye contact. Cameron was actually studying Eli’s eyes.

Eli finally pulled out of Cameron’s grip. “I hate taking tablets, and I can’t behave like I did last night in school.”

“So take a few days off.”

“No, I need good attendance.”

“Why?”

The school bell rang, saving Eli from answering Cameron’s question. Eli was grateful for it. He was getting the feeling that Cameron wasn’t going to believe him if he lied, or that he was going to let what he saw earlier go without another thought.

“Are you busy after school?” Cameron walked him to class.

Eli didn’t really have a choice, since he was holding his bag hostage. Eli didn’t want to answer ‘no’. “Why?”

“That’s a no,” Cameron nodded to himself, “tell Noah to go on ahead, you’re going to spend the evening with me.”

Eli started to object, but a quick look from Cameron silenced him. Eli was guessing he wanted to talk about what happened the other night, and didn’t want to do it in school. “Fine.”

As they arrived at class, Cameron handed him his bag. “Take it easy.”

*

Sinclair looked him over head to toe before class started. “Wow.”

“I know.”

“I got Noah’s text, but wow.” Sinclair shook her head. Her eyes were slightly widened, and the genuine surprise there made Eli feel even more self-conscious than he had before. “How long do you need the sling?”

“A week or two,” Eli cut the time he’d been told in half, “Listen I wanted to talk to your mom about work-“

“If you’re not up for it’s fine” Sinclair shrugged, “Or you can just work behind the counter, less heavy lifting.”

Eli latched onto those words. “I can?”

“Sure, I’ll let my mom know.”

“That would be great, thanks” Eli let out a relieved breath, but his anxiety didn’t disappear entirely. Four months wasn’t enough to earn what he needed if he was only working weekends. If wanted to pay back Jenny, he’d need to do something else, but given the rules his dad had lay down that ‘something else’ was evading him. He needed more time to think of a solution.