Chapter 9
I walked up behind Lij who was sitting reading the newspaper on the couch. "Peach." I whispered in his ear. He looked up at me. "Huh?" He asked. "Peachin', tattlin', snitchin', squeelin', the worst thing one man can do to another." I said. "What have you been watching?" Lij asked. "Oh nothing, sos yea don't gots ta get yer knickers in a twist." I said in a fake unproper English accent. "Have you been watching a certain movie where there's a character names Dodger?" He asked. "Nah." I said still with the accent. I put my hand up close to my nose. "Sos as not to smell us!" I said in a mocking voice. "Eve!" He said rolling his eyes. "Jack Dawkins, but my nearest and dearest call me Dodger, the Artful Dodger." I said sitting on his lap. "So Dodger, have you been watching Oliver Twist?" He asked. "If I say yes will you say something in the accent?" I asked. He smiled. "Ah! And deprive me of my right to mentriculate to that institute of higher studyin' and learnin'? But one day why you go reaching for your pocketbook and find it missing, you'll know that the artful dodger ain't far away." He said. I laughed. "Oh! I love that! It's so cute." I said kissing his cheek. He kissed me on the lips. We were laying on the couch kissing when the door opened. "Oh DEAR!" I heard someone say. I jumped up. "Mom! Dad! What are you doing here? Don't you knock?" I asked shocked. "Well, we didn't expect to see you spralled out on the couch kissing someone." My dad said. Then my oldest brother walked in. He was 25. "Dad! You should have knocked! No matter what! I'm not the only person living here! They have privacy rights too." I said. "Where are they?" He asked. "Out with some friends." I said. "Who are you?" My brother asked Elijah. "Josh, this is Elijah. He used to live next door. I've been friends with him for 18 years now." I said. "Not that little runt that went to do acting?" He asked. "Um…yeah, he's a really famous actor now." I said. "But sense you live under a rock you wouldn't know that." I mumbled under my breath. Elijah sat up. "Why are you all here?" I asked. "There's a family reunion this weekend, at the camp grounds. We figured you knew." My mom said. "Someone would have to tell me first." I said. The door opened and Dom, Billy, and Hannah walked in. Hannah was laughing, but stopped when she noticed everyone. "Who are all these clowns? Are you running a crack house?" My dad asked. "NO! This is my house-mate Billy Boyd, this is my good friend and guest Dominic Monaghan, and this is my friend Hannah Wood." I said. "What? You live with a man?" She asked. "Yeah, Billy, we do lots of nasty…" I was cut off by Elijah covering my mouth. "Where did you meet all these people?" She asked. "Elijah's been my friend for 18 years, Hannah is his sister. Billy and Dom were in Lord of the Rings with Elijah. I met them when I went to New Zealand to see Elijah." I said. "You went to New Zealand?" My dad asked. "Yes! Now we've all got plans to attend to. When's the reunion?" I asked. "Saturday." My brother said. "Fine, I'll be there, bye!" I said pushing them out the door. "I'm so sorry, all of you! Specially you." I said. sitting next to Lij. "I remember them, they haven't changed a bit." He said. I laughed. "They're still clueless." I said. "So what happened with them?" Billy asked. "Oh you know, Elijah and I were sitting on the couch talking when they just walked in." I said. "Oh! Showing Eve your best fish impression again?" Hannah asked. "I do not kiss like a fish!" Elijah argued. "You do occasionally kiss like a fish." I joked. He pretended to hit me in the arm. I jumped on him wrestling him to the ground. "Gotcha!" I said. "If you say so." He said. He suddenly rolled me over so he was on top of me. "Geeze! If you weren't so skrawney I'd probably have trouble breathing at the moment." I said. "In that case I'd give you mouth to mouth." He said. "Oh would you?" I asked. Everyone quietly got up and walked into the kitchen where they could still see us. Lij brought his lips down to mine and kissed me. "I love you." I said. "I love you too. I always will." He said. "I'm gonna marry you someday Elijah Wood." I said. "And when that day comes I'll be the happiest man in the world." He said. I smiled. "Can we stay like this forever? It's perfect." I said. "If you want it, I'll make it happen." He said. "You do so much for me, I fee like I don't do anything for you." I said. "You give me a reason to live." He said. "I love you." I said kissing him. I heard a heartfelt 'awww.' "Hannah, guys! We almost forgot you were there." I said. "Almost? Bloody hell! No one existed but you two for all you two knew." Dom said. I smiled, and pushed Elijah off me. "Who's up for a movie?" I asked. They all agreed to look at my movie collection. "Let's see, Radio Flyer, Day-O, North, Huck Finn, The Ice Storm, Forever Young, Deep Impact, The Faculty, and The Good Son. All these seem fermiliar. Are these all you have?" He asked. "No, I have Oliver Twist and The War too, plus a bunch of other ones." I said. "These are all Elijah movies!" Hannah said. I smiled. "So they are." I said. "You told me you hated all of these." Elijah said. "Well, I couldn't have told you I loved them. That'd be to easy." I sad. There was a knock at the door. "Wonder who that could be. All you guys stay here." I said. I walked to the door. I opened it, and spotted my next-door neighbor, a little 13-year old. I smiled. "Hi Jennifer, what brings you over here?" I asked. I saw her trying to look past me. She must have caught a glimpse of Elijah, but good god, it might have been a reflection from her room, which is one large Elijah shrine. "Um…I saw one of the boys from the other block…um…jump your fence and break one of your flower pots. Yeah, that's it, they jumped the fence and broke a flower pot in the back." She said. "They did? Thanks." I said. "Well, I'll show you which one." She said. "No need. I'll find it." I said. "Oh, bye then." She said. "Bye." I said. I shut the door. "You've been spotted." I told Elijah. He smiled. "Would you like me to go into the middle of the street and dance and sing?" He asked. "Well, the comedy of that would be tremendous, but the killer fans wouldn't be so good." I said. He smiled. "All well. We picked out French Kiss." He said holding it up. "Ah! Good movie!" I said. We all sat, and started the movie. Someone knocked on the door half way through the movie. I went to get it. "Hello." I said. I saw Jennifer and her mom. "Hello Forever. I'm sorry this is such short notice, but I was wondering if you would watch Jennifer for me for an hour." Jennifer's mom asked. "I'd love to, but I've got company from out of town, and I really can't watch her." I said. "I wont get in your way." Jennifer begged. "Jennifer, is all this to see him?" I asked. Her mom looked confused and Jennifer nodded. "Come in, don't move, and I'll go get him. An autograph, a few questions, and maybe a photo is all. He's on vacation, and I really want to spend time with him so don't tell anyone, promise?" I asked. She nodded. "I promise." She said. I walked into the other room. "Who was it?" Lij asked. "Will you do me a favor?" I asked. "Sure." He said. "Come talk to Jennifer." I said. "Um…a fan?" He asked. "Yeah, this is your singing and dancing in the street moment." I said. He stood up, and walked to me. "I dono." He said hesitantly. "How bout now?" I asked my hand running over the top of his pants where his belt was. "I'll do it!" He said. I grabbed his hand. I heard Jennifer's mom giving her rules. "Jen, this is Elijah. Lij this is Jennifer." I said. "Hi, nice to meet you." He said. "You too." She said shaking. I smiled. "So, do you want an autograph?" He asked. "Yes please." She said. He signed it, took some pictures, and answered some questions. "Nice to meet you." He said closing the door. I jumped at him pinning him to the door. "You are the BEST! You just made one girl's entire life!" I said. He smiled. "Well, it's just something nice to do." He said. I smiled. "Lij, I love you." I said. "I love you too." He said. The phone rang. Hannah ran past us to get it. "Eve! Phone call." She said. I gave Lij a fish face, and ran to the phone with him not far behind me. "Hello." I said laughing. "Hello, Miss, we've received word that you have Elijah Wood at your house. Do you have any comment on that?" Some guy asked. "No! Of course not!" I said. "No Elijah Wood is not staying with you or no comment. Cause we have photos of him there." The guy said. "No comment! Who are you?" I asked with anger. "Bob Johnson from the Des Moines Register. We're running your story on the front page." He said. "How dare you! That's horribal!" I said hanging up. "Who was it?" Elijah asked. "Some stupid reporter. They found out where I live." I said. "It's OK. It's nothing out of the normal. It happens to everyone." He said. I nodded. "Yeah, I know." I said.
The Next Day
I went to the front door to get the paper. I opened it and saw a crowed of reporters and fans. I grabbed the paper and shut the door quickly. "Shit." I said. I opened the paper and saw my house on the front page. I saw a bunch of older pictures of Lij and me and some pictures taken just yesterday. I showed Elijah the cover, but it really didn't faze him much. I was getting my cereal when I started humming a song I'd made up when Lij was dating Franka (That was a short relationship). I softly sang "Franka es estupido y feo y Elijah es el mio." Elijah looked at me confused. "Oh! It's a song I made up a while ago. It's nothing." I said. "I heard Franka and Elijah." He said. "It's really nothing." I said. "Please, sing it for me." He said. "Fine, it goes Franka es estupido y feo y Elijah es el mio." I said. "What does it mean?" He asked. "Franko is stupid and ugly and Elijah is mine. I made is up when you were dating her." I said. "Franka really was nice." He said. "She was evil, don't give me that! She freaked out and attacked me!" I said. "She only hit you a couple times." He said. "I had to go to the hospital and get stitches!" I said. "Ok, so Franka was a little off…" He said. I smiled. "Maybe your fishy kisses made her go nuts." I joked. He laughed. "You sure kiss me a lot even though I kiss like a fish." He said. "It's because I love you so much." I said. "OH! You're too kind to me." He said. "You kiss great! I have no complantes." I said. "Thank you. You relies its Saturday, don't you?" He asked. "I can't go to my family reunion in this crowed. Darn! And I really wanted to go!" I said. He laughed. "Just more you and me time." He said. "Where's everyone else?" I asked. "They snuck out and went to see all that Cedar Rapids has to offer." He said. "You sent them away didn't you?" I asked. "Yeah, I did." He said. "What for?" I asked. "So I could be with you." He said putting his arm around my waist. "Lij, what did I do? I haven't done anything good enough to deserve you." I said. "We both deserve each other." He said. He grabbed my hand, and pulled me towards my bedroom. "Lij, why are we going in here? LIJ!" I said. He covered my eyes. "No peaking." He said as he opened the door. "What's going on?" I asked. He uncovered my eyes and I saw a blanker with food and flowers on it. Then I noticed there had to be like 100 red roses on my bed. My eyes teared up. "Elijah, it's so beautiful." I said running my hands over the roses. He stood and just watched. "You did all of this for me?" I asked. He nodded. "Thank you." I said kissing him. "You're welcome." He said. "But why?" I asked. "No reason, go on. Sit, eat!" He said. I smiled and sat down. We ate, talked, and laughed for an hour. I was lying with my back against him while he had his arms around me. "I can't believe you did this just for the fun of it, this is great." I said. "Eve, I lied. There is a reason for this." He said. I closed my eyes. "Eve, I have to leave tonight. My manager thinks it's best if I left here because of the people that know I'm here. I'm in a new movie and I have to go to Canada to shoot it. I lied about Billy and Dom too. They're in Canada already, they left early this morning." He said. "Without saying good-bye?" I asked. "I'm sorry." He said. I wanted to cry, and my eyes started tearing up. "Lij, you can't leave." I said. I felt like a little child, I sure was acting like one. I started to cry. "I'll be in good hands, guess who's going to be in the movie with me." He said. "Who?" I asked. "Mandy Moore, I know she's your favorite singer and actress." He said. "Yeah, she is, who else is in it?" I asked. "Well, not many well-known people, well, and Franka." He said. "Oh." I said then I started to cry again. "Please! Don't cry. It's nothing." He said. "Let me come with you. It'll be like Lord of the Rings." I said. "Well, the thing is they don't want you up there. Franka's people said she won't do the movie unless you're not allowed up there." He explained. I got really angry. "Fine! Go be with Franka! I don't care!" I yelled as I got up, and ran to the guest room and slammed the door. I couldn't believe he didn't care that he was going to be around her, that she was going to follow him, and ask him out again. He walked up to the door. "Please, don't make me leave like this." He said. I just sat silently on the floor with my knees bent, and brought up to my chin. "Please Eve, I love you, nothing's going to happen between Franka and me. Hannah's up there, she'll watch out for me for you. And I know Billy would kill me if I did anything to hurt you. Did you know he didn't talk to me for a week when you left?" He asked kind of chuckling. I didn't say anything. "Please, just tell me you love me." He said. I couldn't bring myself to say anything. "I love you, and I know you love me. I've got to go now." He said. I heard him walk and pick up his bag. I ran out of my room, and to where he was. "I love you!" I said. "I know you do. I'll call you." He said. "Don't leave!" I said. "I have to, but I love you. Nothing's going to happen. You have my email, my cell, and Billy's email and cell. I'll get you an autograph from Mandy." He said. I gave him a kiss. "Bye." He said. "Bye." I said. He walked out the door, and my heart was crushed. I knew Franka would never let him say no. But then I got an idea
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Chapter 10