Chapter Six
NeverMind © 2004
Elijah hadn’t thought he slept much that night, but when he rolled over in the morning and saw that his clock was convinced it was almost 10:30 in the morning, he knew he must’ve slept a little. He got out of bed and into the shower. How am I supposed to spend an entire day with Jocelyn? He thought to himself. I don’t understand how I feel about her. My god, I thought about breaking up with Kyla yesterday – this is bad. And now Dom wants to date her. Ugh. This was not the way this was supposed to work. She was never supposed to affect me this much.
He dried off and pulled on a pair of jeans before shaving and massaging some gel into his hair. He wandered to the kitchen to find Jocelyn in the middle of the lawn doing yoga in nothing but yoga pants and a sports bra. He sighed. Pure unadulterated lust, that’s what I’m feeling. You need to get over yourself, Wood. You’re not supposed to lust after your best friend – it’s just wrong. He grabbed an apple out of the fridge and went outside.
She was standing very still with her arms over her head and one foot off the ground, perched on the opposite thigh. She had heard him come out and had opened one eye a slit to see him. He was shirtless and she liked it.
“You forgot to put a shirt on,” was all she said without opening her eyes.
“Like you’ve never seen a guy not wearing a shirt before,” he answered.
She grinned and eased out of her pose. “Touché.”
“What do you want to do today?” he asked.
“Doesn’t matter to me,” she said, easing into the next pose, “Just so long as I’m with you.”
He liked the way that sounded. “Hey, is Dom still here?” he asked, realizing he had no idea where his friend might be.
“No, he left earlier this morning. Looked like he was on a mission.”
“Are you having fun so far?” he asked.
“Hell yes. You guys are an absolute riot.”
“Thanks, I think.”
“I really like Kyla,” she said.
“Do you?”
“Yeah, she’s sweet. Was everything okay last night? You both seemed kinda – I don’t know, not happy.”
“Oh no, we were fine.”
She stopped in the midst of a pose and looked at him. “Lij?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you need a phone to talk into?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Well, it just seems like you have an easier time talking to me when there’s a phone between us.”
“Oh.”
“Is everything okay? I mean, I thought you were glad to have me here.”
“I am.”
“Then what’s wrong? You can hardly make eye contact with me, for pity’s sake.”
Elijah sighed. “I don’t know. I guess I just never had the luxury of seeing you grow up.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you’re fucking gorgeous, Joce. I just – I’m not used to it.”
What did he just call me? She thought to herself. “Well, it’s still just me. I haven’t changed since we talked on the phone the other day.”
“I know. I guess you just got stuck at 16 in my head.”
“Would it help if I put my glasses on and wore baggy clothes?” she asked.
He smiled. “No, it’s okay. I’ve gotta get used to you like this at some point.”
“I know what’ll make you feel better,” she said.
“What’s that?”
“A big old greasy hamburger and a chocolate milkshake.”
“That would make me feel better – except I haven’t found a place here to rival Simon’s.”
“Well then, let’s go find one,” she suggested.
“Let me put a shirt on first,” he said.
“No. I kinda like you shirtless,” she grinned.
“See, it’s comments like that that don’t help your cause,” he said with a laugh.
It didn’t take long for Elijah to forget about Kyla and Dom. He and Jocelyn drove around looking for every greasy spoon in the area and finally settled on a place called Big Al’s Diner. It reminded them the most of Simon’s in Cedar Rapids.
Over burgers and shakes, their conversation finally relaxed and Elijah could tell her everything again. It was good to finally feel like himself again, even as he became more and more attracted to her. She had this easy way about her that brought out the best in him. And it was strange, but he started noticing that no one paid attention to him when he was with her – she walked in the room and everyone’s head turned. She didn’t seem to notice, or if she did, she didn’t care. Guys would quite literally stare at her like their eyes were going to fall out of their heads and even women seemed unable to tear their gaze away. On their way out of the diner, one guy actually fell out of his booth staring at her.
Elijah started laughing on their way back to the car.
“What?” Jocelyn asked.
“You can’t tell me you didn’t see that,” he said.
“See what?” she asked.
“That guy who fell out of his seat because he was staring at you.”
“What?”
“You’re completely oblivious, I can’t believe it!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Joce, in case you hadn’t noticed, you really kind of own a room when you’re in it. Everyone in that place couldn’t take their eyes off you.”
“Whatever – you’re full of shit.”
“Deny it all you want to, I saw it with my own eyes.”
“They were probably staring at you – you’re the famous one.”
“No, I usually know when people are staring at me, unlike you.”
“I still say you’re full of it.”
“Oh, and speaking of staring, what was up with you and Orlando yesterday?”
“Me and Orlando?”
“Yeah, after he kissed your hand – you just stood there staring at him for a few minutes.”
“Oh that. That was nothing.”
“Now who’s the liar?”
“What? I can’t mentally copulate with the man?”
“Mentally copulate?” Elijah laughed.
“Come on! The man is walking sex! I had to take my chance when I had it!”
“You do remember meeting Kate last night, right?”
“Yes, and I think she’s an absolute doll. But come on, what girl could not appreciate a beautiful man like that?”
“I take it you liked Troy then?”
“Mmm,” she drooled, “Naked Brad Pitt…”
“That’s just disturbing.”
She laughed. “Here, does this make you feel better – Mmm, naked Elijah Wood,” she drooled.
“No, that does not make it better. I just feel dirty now. We’re practically siblings, remember?”
She hopped onto his back. “Only practically,” she said in his ear as he carried her the rest of the way to the car.
They spent the rest of the day touring the city, talking and laughing and singing to songs on the radio. She made him stop at a number of guitar shops so she could ogle over the merchandise. There was one guitar in particular that she really seemed to like, so Elijah made up his mind to buy it for her, sneaking his credit card to the shop owner when she’d gone to check out the bass guitars at the other side of the store. When she came back, she looked disappointed that the guitar had gone missing off the wall, until the shop owner took it from behind the counter and handed it to her.
“It’s for you,” he told her.
She turned around to see Elijah standing by the window looking through some musical scores. He looked up at her and grinned.
“You…” she started.
He put his finger to his lips. “Shh, it’s a secret,” he told her.
She scrunched up her face in mock disgust and went over to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck to hug him. “Thank you,” she told him.
“Don’t thank me yet,” he said, resting his head on her shoulder, “I’m just getting started.”
They stood like that for a little while before she pulled away. He was reluctant to let her go. It felt really good just to hold her like that. He watched the shop owner carefully put the guitar into a case and hand it over to Jocelyn. “You need strings?” he asked her.
“Yeah, actually, I do,” she answered, reaching for her wallet.
“Just add it to my credit card,” Elijah called out.
“Lij…”
“Your boyfriend seems insistent on paying,” the shop owner said.
Jocelyn didn’t protest. “Yeah, he just really wants to get some later,” she joked as he bagged the strings for her.
“Lucky bastard,” the shop owner muttered as Jocelyn and Elijah made their way out of his store.
“Where to next?” Elijah asked her.
“I don’t know. I want to play this thing now,” she said.
“Busking in the park it is,” he said.
He drove around to the biggest park in the city and the two of them found a quiet park bench. Jocelyn spent some time tuning the strings before starting to play. “God, that sounds good,” she said softly. “Thank you so much.”
“You deserve it,” Elijah told her.
She lay down on the bench with her head resting on this lap and played a few of his favorite songs for him. She kept laughing when her voice would crack because of the position she was in.
“I’ve heard all those before,” he eventually said. “Play me something new.”
She sat up. “Okay. I just wrote this one a couple weeks ago, after I’d decided to come here.” She cleared her throat dramatically. “To all the boys I’ve loved before,” she said in mock seriousness, making Elijah laugh.
She started playing a quick, eerie Spanish tune. The song itself was about being scared and excited about starting something new. She wondered what she would learn about herself – was she strong enough to love here, was she good enough to make it, could all her dreams really come true?
She smiled at him when she’d finished. “What did you think?” She always asked him that after playing him something new.
“I think you’re amazing,” he told her honestly. “And I think you will make it.”
“Yeah, but you’re biased.”
“So what? It’s still what I think.”
“Well thank you.”
“Well you’re welcome.”
They spent a little more time in the park before deciding to go find something to eat. Jocelyn insisted it was a sushi kind of night so Elijah took her to one of the better sushi places in town. Afterwards, they headed home to relax in Elijah’s hot tub.
Elijah passed her a glass of wine as she eased her shapely body into the water. “This is the life,” she sighed.
“See what you’ve been missing all these years?” he asked.
“Don’t remind me,” she said, resting her heels on his thighs. “Let me pretend I’ve been doing this for years.”
He reached down and started massaging her feet. Her head lolled back on the lip of the tub, exposing her slender throat. A soft moan escaped her lips. “I take it back – now all is right with my world.”
He was starting to lose himself and he knew it, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop. He focused on her feet, willing himself not to imagine what it would be like to caress the rest of her body – but it was no use. He moved across the tub so that he was sitting next to her. She let her hand fall onto the back of his neck as she turned her head to the side to look at him. God, he could kiss her right now – he would kiss her right now. He reached out a hand to touch her face and caught himself. Don’t fuck this up, was all he could think.
“You’ve got something in your hair,” he managed instead, pretending to pull something out of her dark tresses.
“Leave it,” she said, “There’s no one here to impress.” She took a sip of her wine.
She doesn’t know, he thought. She has absolutely no idea how crazy she makes me. Oh god, I almost made a mess of things there. And then he knew what he had to do.
“Dom wants to ask you out,” he said, and felt completely cut to the core.
“Really?” she asked, perking up a little.
“Yeah. He asked me yesterday about it.”
“What did you say?”
“I said I thought it would be good.”
“Really? I mean, that’s so cool.”
“I take it you’d go out with him, then?”
“Well yeah. I mean, he’s great. He’s funny and, yeah, that would be very cool.”
“Cool.” He sat back and closed his eyes. This was really not getting any better for him.