14 - You Couldn't Afford Me

I was acting unnecessarily bitter on Friday, and I was rather bad at hiding it. My nose scrunched every time I gawked at Eli, mad at my feelings for him. Feelings that he didn't reciprocate.

It was not his fault, of course, just like it was not Mike's fault that he never liked me back either. However, with Mike, I had known. This time, I had fooled myself into believing I stood a chance.

Even if Eli noticed my hesitations, he acted as if nothing had changed.

I stayed silent during lunchtime, which was something that only Taylor noticed.

"Hey Betty, do you want to come over to our house tomorrow? We are going to do some baking!" Taylor was smiling at me from across the table.

"We are?" Owen asked.

Taylor smacked him on the arm.

"Hey! Can we come too?" Kyle asked, beaming at the twins.

"No! Girls day!" Taylor snapped at him.

"I resent that," Owen scoffed, folding his arms.

"Shut up, brother, you don't count!"

---

I knocked on the twin's front door.

I half expected Owen to be covered in flour when he opened the door, but instead, a delicious smell wafted out onto the porch.

"Oh my god, Taylor can actually bake?"

"I resent the fact that you doubted me!" she shouted from the kitchen. I pushed my way past Owen to find Taylor putting the second batch of cookies into the oven.

"I figured we could decorate them!"

Overwhelmed with emotion for the wonderful friend that Taylor had already become, I pulled her into a hug. She took it with grace and squeezed me tight.

A chair scraped against the floor behind us, and Owen had pulled up, so I released Taylor.

"Now, don't let me go ruining the moment, but I would like to be a part of this juicy gossip going on in Betty's life."

"What gossip?" I choked out.

Taylor coughed. I stared at her, trying to decipher the look on her face. What were people saying about me now? Taylor, trying to act sly, pulled her hair up into a ponytail and turned away, suddenly acting distracted by her phone. I turned back toward Owen, who was still looking at me expectantly as if I had any idea what he was talking about.

"Come on, we all know something is going on between you and Eli. You two have been hot and cold since we met you."

I gulped. "I can promise you nothing is going on."

"But you want something to be 'going on,' don't you?" Owen was openly smirking as he leaned his elbow on his knee.

Was there any point in hiding anything? I could never seem to keep my emotions in check long enough to keep even an ounce of a secret.

"Well, I can tell you, I have never seen Eli act the same way towards any girl that he acts toward you." Taylor chimed in, looking up from her phone.

I tried not to scoff at her comment. "It's because, unlike every other girl, he has no interest in me." I could not keep the bitterness out of my voice.

'Be nice,' I tried to remind myself.

I did not expect the laughing fit my comment sent the twins into. "If you really think that Betty, then you truly are hopeless."

I tried to hide my annoyance at Owen's snide comments, "Can we just drop it please?"

He put his arms up in surrender, and instead of arguing with me like I had expected him to, he picked up his phone and turned on some loud music.

The rest of the afternoon was much more pleasant without Owen's prying comments. We decorated cookies and danced around the kitchen.

The rest of the weekend went by slowly. I ended up posting a few outfits that I hoped to sell in the next few weeks, but other than that, I mostly lounged around my house on Sunday.

---

My squeal made almost the entire table jump. "I made my first sale!"

"Congrats, girl!" Taylor shrieked, joining me in my mini celebration.

"I'm sorry, am I missing something. What's for sale?" Kyle asked, confusion evident on his face.

"Haven't you seen my Instagram?" I asked him. He had liked all of my sales posts, advertising the reopening of my little shop. Because I wanted to make my own store one day, I did not like to use selling apps, so instead, I advertised on social media and shipped/delivered my clothing pieces to people in the cheapest way possible. I felt it gave me the best chance of getting business and everything I posted I managed from a shopper's Instagram page.

Kyle's eyes lit up. "Well, if you're selling some of those photos of you in a bikini, I'll be happy to be your next customer!"

I laughed as I had learned to expect those kinds of comments from Kyle by this point. His eyes sparkled at my laugh; however, the moment was ruined by Eli, throwing a piece of his sandwich at Kyle.

"Hey! I can flirt with her if I want to," Kyle protested, throwing his arms up in a defence mode. Eli glared at him from across the table, and I couldn't help but think I missed something. Since when did Eli decide that Kyle was not allowed to flirt with me.

I wanted to say something in defence of Kyle, but Eli interrupted me. "So, who did you sell it to?"

"Well, actually, Nicole from Bio."

Eli scowled, "Tell her no."

"A sale is a sale, Eli." He looked like he was going to continue to protest, but I messaged Nicole back to come over to our table next lunch and that I would bring the dress she wanted then.

By the end of the day, I had made three more sales. Another one of the girls, Jessa, was also going to meet me at lunch. I guess from now on, if my sales keep up, I would have to move my trade-offs to another part of the school. I don't think the guys would really like a string of people interrupting us for new clothes every five minutes.

I felt giddy, even thinking of that possibility. At this point, any sales I made went directly back into the business. More sales meant more exposure, and it also meant more practice. I was already so much better at upscaling old clothes than I had been last year when I started this whole venture.

---

"So any more sales?" Eli asked me at lunch. Every day he sat a little further away from me. To most people, it may be unnoticeable, but I sure took notice of it. However, he was as friendly as ever to me.

"Actually, yes! Jessa and then some woman that lives a few roads over from me. So I am going to head over there after she is home from University at 5" I was ecstatic that someone else not from the school had already purchased one of my items.

"I'm coming with you."

I stared at Eli blankly. He sure made that seem like a statement and not a question. Why in the world would he want to come with me? I did not have much time to answer because Nicole had sauntered over to the table.

"Hey, girly! Do you have the dress?"

I grinned at her despite my stomach turning anxiously at my first interaction with her since the party. I pulled the dress out of my bag, wrapped in my see-through packaging.

She readily took the dress from me and turned the packaging over in her hand. "Thanks, Betty!" She handed me the money we had settled on and wandered off.

Taylor laughed humorlessly. "Still no apology."

Taylor was still quite upset about what had happened the other week at Georgia's party.

I shrugged. I couldn't control that, but as I had told Eli, a sale is a sale.

Everyone started on their lunches, but I sat patiently, waiting for Jessa. I did not want my hands to get all crumby from my sandwich and then make a sale. Sure, I was making sales in my high school cafeteria, but I wanted to be as professional as possible.

As soon as I looked down at my phone to check the time that I had told Jessa to meet me, Eli let out a loud oof.

Jessa had landed herself on Eli's lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. She smirked at me when she saw me staring with wide eyes. "You doing a two for one sale, because I will gladly take the boy too."

Eli smirked, seemingly enjoying the attention and Kyle and Jones chuckled from across the table. "What do you say, Eli? are you for sale?"

"You couldn't afford me, Jess."

"Have you seen the car I drive, baby?" she mocked. "I think I could get you in my backseat."

My stomach turned when I saw Eli's eyes glance down at Jessa's breasts that were uncomfortably close to his face. Why had he not pushed her off his lap?

"Here is your shirt Jessa!" I said, shoving it between her and Eli, in front of her chest. She looked down at the packaging and smiled.

"Cute package, Betty." She slowly got off of Eli, "You too, Eli."

Owen choked from across the table at her dirty comment. Jessa smirked and threw a small baggy at me, full of bills and wandered off, being sure to look back at Eli and sway her backside a little too much.

Okay, so that is definitely enough of selling my clothes at the lunch table.

"God, she is such a tease," Kyle said sincerely, still watching her from across the room.

Eli laughed, "I don't know, from my experience, she is pretty straight to the point."

The boys laughed and continued their comments about Jessa and how good she had been in bed. It was at that time I found my phone a lot more interesting than I had all week.

By the time the bell rang to signal the last class, I was ready to leave the table and wash out my ears. Taylor followed me out of the cafeteria, the boys trailing behind us. "They can be such pigs."

I shrugged, not disagreeing with her, however, if I wanted to be friends with this group, I guess I was glad that they felt comfortable enough around me now to act like themselves.

"Hey! I'll come to your house at four, okay!" Eli called out to me as we rounded the corner.

Once again, a statement and not a question, making it hard for me to say no - at least not without explaining why I wasn't sure if I wanted to hang out with him right now. It was easy just to be friends with the rest of the guys and effortless with Taylor. With Eli and my massive crush and jealous tendencies, it was a lot harder.

I blame romance novels.

---

1816

"Is it the left side of my heart, that wants you in my arms?

Because you're heavy on my lungs, they barely work" - Brigetta

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