Later on in his life, when Eli thought back to his college years, he would probably wonder what the hell he was thinking when he decided to become involved with Vigilante, because drug busts and cartels being after him was not a part of his initial life plan. Granted, it wasn't like any of it had been a conscious decision. It was more of an unfortunate series of incredibly shitty decisions. Eli blamed Matthew.

Somehow, he’d managed to drag Eli along into his shenanigans. And sure, maybe Matthew hadn’t meant to put him in danger—that was the one thing Eli was fairly certain of. But still, it was actually mostly his fault that Eli was now very much in danger of getting murdered.  

You did unmask him, some traitorous part of his mind supplied. Eli wished he could swat it away for good. Mostly because it was irritatingly correct.

To be fair, Eli was an idiot. He’d been very much focused on getting back at Vigilante for kissing him and Eli tended to forget about consequences when he was seeking vengeance. 

And look where that got you, Eli was very much starting to hate a certain part of himself.

In the end, Eli figured that he would definitely look back on that first night he decided to help Matthew out as the night it all started. However reluctantly that might have been. And sure, at first he’d only helped Vigilante because he was under the mistaken belief that the news of his mysterious disappearance would be reported on the next day if he didn’t. Eventually though, Eli would admit to himself—and only himself—that he’d helped Vigilante because he couldn’t help but think of the man behind the mask when he saw him bleeding and with no one else to turn to.

As much of a jerk as Eli could be much of the time, even he didn’t have it in him to turn Matthew away. Not when he had no one else to help him. Now, it was clearly too late for  Eli to even try to have a normal life. The fact that he had his not so reliable stalker back only made this more obvious.

He still did his best to ignore the surprisingly not too creepy knowledge that someone was watching him. Eli wondered what it said about him that he could actually differentiate between Matthew and his newest—and potentially murderous—stalker. It probably wasn't a good thing.

With all the oddness in his life, it was nice to know that some things stayed the same. Even if it was just studying or having lunch with his friends. Work and school provided some sort of reprieve. It was a slice of normalcy in his suddenly hectic life, and Eli learned not to take those moments for granted. Even if they could be painfully boring. After all, he could never be sure when a crazy masked man would decide to break into his apartment.

That being said, he was all too glad when Tucker and Collin told him about a party and decided that Eli needed a break. Eli wasn't about to argue with them because they were right. He most definitely needed a break. 

For once, Eli was actually looking forward to the weekend. So much so that he didn't dwell on how sad it was that he rarely had anything to get excited about. He definitely needed a social life.

Collin seemed to agree.

"You need a social life," he said bluntly as they ate at a cheap diner close to their school.

Eli rolled his eyes as he chewed the bite of greasy goodness that was his cheeseburger, and swallowed before taking a sip of his soda.

"You've said that. Repeatedly. For the last two years," he reminded his friend.

"Well it's true," Collin said with a shrug. "You work too much. And you're always stressing over school. You're gonna be bald by the time you're thirty and I'm not gonna lie, I'll laugh—a lot." Collin grinned and then took a bite of his breakfast burrito. 

"For your information, not a single person in my family is bald," Eli said. He was perfectly sure of this too. He'd checked. "Plus, working at a coffee shop is stressful." Mostly because Eli thought people were idiots—at least when it came to their preference in drinks.

"I'm sure it is," Collin said sarcastically. It was his usual response, since Eli always told him about the terrible people he had to tend to. He’d made it very clear he thought the redhead was being too dramatic. "So, you're going to the party tomorrow, right?" he asked.

Eli thought about it for a moment. For the first time since he'd been told about it, Eli had his doubts about showing up. He knew it would be fun—knew he needed it—but he was wary about having to actually talk to people. In his honest opinion, he was more than rusty when it came to making friends. Really, it wasn't his fault, especially when he always ended up meeting weirdos.

Matthew being a prime example.

“What is the party for anyway?” Eli only bothered asking because he was familiar with the guy throwing the party and he wasn’t really the type to bother. “I thought Dave hated parties.”

“His roommate got kicked out, so he’s celebrating.” Collin said before taking a bite of his burrito.

“Wait, really? Why? And why’s he celebrating that?” 

Collin shrugged. “He never really liked his roommate. Guess he was enough of a dick that him leaving warrants a whole fucking celebration. Really makes me realize Tucker isn’t that bad.” 

Under different circumstances, Eli might have laughed in Collin’s face, if only because he knew how glad he was to have Tucker as a roommate. At that particular moment though, he was too busy realizing that the roommate who’d gotten kicked out was the same on Eli had sent Vigilante to. 

“So why’d Al get kicked out?” Eli asked, despite having a very good idea as to why.

“What, you didn’t hear? He was selling drugs and not even just regular ol’ weed. Not surprised they kicked him out. Far as I know, he had some trouble last year. Guess this was just the last straw.”

“Oh, that sucks,” Eli managed, even as his mind was trying to process the fact that he’d gotten some guy kicked out of school. And sure, it wasn’t all on him. Vigilante had been the one to go after him and—apparently—snitched to the school. Still, Eli couldn’t help but feel some guilt about it. Even if Al was a dick.

“So, are you going or not?” Collin asked again.  

"Yeah, er, I guess I will," Eli finally said, snapping out of his thoughts. He figured he might as well try to find out a bit more about what happened with Al from his former roommate.

Plus there would be free food and that was always a bonus.

Eli didn't expect to see Matthew at the coffee shop that day, which didn't bother him all that much. After the last time they spoke, Matthew kept a more irregular schedule as far as his visits to the shop went. Even when he was around, they didn't talk much, and Eli was aware that it was mostly his doing.

Truthfully, Eli was still upset with Matthew. Maybe not as much as the last time he'd shown up at Eli's apartment, but enough that he didn't really feel like chatting with him. Definitely enough that he nearly groaned when he actually showed up while Eli was taking out the trash. One minute there was just a couple of hipsters working on their 'bestsellers' and a group of friends getting a snack and then—when Eli returned—there was Matthew, sitting at his usual spot.

To his credit, he was dutifully ignoring Eli’s existence. That was probably for the best.

"Here, take this to Matthew," Michael said, handing Eli a cup of coffee. 

"What? Why me?" Eli complained.

"Because you're not doing anything," Michael said without missing a beat. "Also it's your job."

"I really don't like you," Eli said, snatching the cup out of Michael's hand.

"You're breaking my heart," Michael deadpanned. Eli scowled as he turned to walk away.

As he often did, Matthew was reading the news on his phone when Eli reached his table. He looked up as the redhead set down the cup of coffee and smiled. He still looked absolutely exhausted, but the fact that he could work up a smile for Eli was enough to make the redhead unconsciously soften his glare.

"What?" Eli asked in what was more of a grumbling sound than the indifferent tone he was hoping for when Matthew just stared at him with his stupid smile. Matthew arched an eyebrow, looking amused, but shook his head.

"It's nothing," said Matthew. Eli frowned when the man turned back to his phone. Vaguely annoyed, Eli turned and went back to work. Matthew didn't stay for long after that, just enough to finish his drink and wave goodbye.

Eli wasn’t surprised. Lately, his visits were short. Sometimes they weren’t even long enough for him to finish his coffee. Eli had the odd feeling that Matthew was just there to check up on him. Which was a whole new level of insulting—at least in Eli's opinion. After all, it wasn't like he couldn't take care of himself.

He could. Of course he could.

Eli wisely chose to ignore the voice in his head that was laughing hysterically at him.

The evening was chilly by the time Eli started to make his way home after work. Enough that he was reminded that it was nearly winter. He zipped up his hoodie and began his usual walk to the bus station, wary of any stalkers. Well, any stalkers that weren’t Matthew.

Eli didn't even pause to think about what his life had become that he had to actually worry about being stalked. Thankfully, he made it all the way to Pam's Burgers, which was about two blocks away from where he worked without feeling like he was being followed by anyone. He walked inside and ordered a bacon cheeseburger—his all time favorite meal and what he considered humanity's redeeming factor—before taking a seat to wait for his food to be done.

It was a rare treat to get something not from a dollar menu, but he told himself he deserved it after all the things that he'd put up with in the past few months. Plus he didn't feel like trying to make a meal out of leftovers and instant noodles again. The last time he'd done that, it hadn't turned out too well.

He didn't wait too long for his food, probably because he was one of five customers. Soon, Eli was out the door and hurrying to catch the bus. Just a couple of stops later, he was climbing out and starting the short walk to his apartment. The streets were so quiet that Eli nearly had a heart attack when his phone rang.

Switching the bag of fast food to his other hand, Eli reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Only to realize that it wasn't actually his phone that was ringing. With a frown, and after a minute of frustration during which he struggled to hold his dinner while reaching into his backpack—and wondering why he’d stuck it at the bottom of the damn bag—Eli answered the other phone he kept with him. The one Matthew had given him.

Even though he knew it could be no one but Matthew on the other end, it was still strange to hear him through the phone. Usually, he was irritatingly close. At least, that was what Eli wanted to tell himself. He still couldn’t help but think of how warm Matthew felt when he was walking at Eli’s side.

"Sorry for calling instead of dropping by at your place," Matthew said in place of a greeting. "I figured it might be best if I didn't show up there for a while."

"Why's that?" Eli asked, fearing the answer. After all, Matthew had asked Eli to let him stick close to him in case he was in trouble. The pause that followed did nothing to reassure Eli.

"There might be someone looking to hurt you," Matthew said after a while, sounding like he really didn't like what he was saying any more than Eli did. The redhead didn't know if it was because he was afraid of what Eli would do or if he felt genuinely guilty. "I'm still not sure about what's going on, but for now, just be careful. I'll see what I can find out, but I think it’d be best to keep my distance. I don’t want them showing up at your place."

"Woah, wait, what the hell? What am I supposed to do now?" Eli told himself he wasn't panicking—he wasn't.

"Just stay home, at least when you're not at work or school. You'll be fine if you're careful," Matthew said. Eli wasn't sure who he was trying to reassure, but either way, he was failing spectacularly. It was obvious enough from his tone that Matthew was very close to freaking out, so really, he was probably expecting too much from Eli. "You'll be fine, I promise. I’ll make sure of it."

Eli scowled and glared at nothing in particular, wishing Matthew was around so he could kick him. But he knew better. Eli knew that, despite how angry he was at the moment, when faced with a frustratingly sincere and apologetic Matthew, he wouldn’t have the heart to do more than glare.

"I'm sorry about all this," he heard Matthew say, sounding reluctant yet sincere. Eli still kind of wanted to kill him. He settled for hanging up on him and shoving the phone back in his pocket. By that point, he was tired of listening to Matthew say he was sorry.

He more or less stomped his way to the next block and up the stairs to his apartment. By the time he arrived his fries were cold and his appetite was gone. Eli supposed that was what happened when you found out that someone wanted to kill you or—in the best case scenario—beat the crap out of you. And of course that would be when his brave vigilante would decide to keep his distance. Of course.

Eli was starting to feel like the world conspired against him to make him miserable. It was the best way he could explain how he’d ended up with someone like Vigilante following him around. 

With a tired sigh, Eli flopped down onto his couch, staring at his still bagged meal resting on his coffee table. Idly, he reached into the pocket where he’d stored the phone Matthew had given him. He felt the cool surface of it and knew that was the only thing currently connecting him to Matthew. 

Eli just wished he wouldn’t have the need to use it.