As a prize for the winners of my one shot contest for JTH (the first of two contests), I let them choose a dialogue chapter for me to expand into a full length chapter. This is romanticeunacorn's selection.

For some reason Julie's friends had decided they hated her and decided to sit in the very last row of the tram and had decided that only she could sit in between Casey and Eli. God forbid the two guys sit next to each other or that they notice that she would then have to deal with Casey flirting with the random girl who happened to sit in their row on one side and Eli flirting with some other girl on the other. She had tried to convince one of them to save her but to no avail. She was stuck. Hopefully they would just leave her alone.

No such luck. The ride had been going on for about three minutes when Julie felt something rest on her shoulder. She was horrified to see that it was Eli's hand, which in turn was attached to Eli's arm (which was resting on the back of her seat), and was then attached to Eli.

"What are you doing?" she hissed. Casey was still focused on his new flirting buddy and she wanted to keep it that way. As soon as he noticed what was going on he'd never let her hear the end of it.

"Resting my arm." Eli replied, tightening his arm around her just to spite her.

"On the back of my seat."

"I'm not bothering you." As if to prove how insignificant her nagging was to him, he turned away and pretended to seem interested in the display of the set of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. She poked his shoulder and he made a big show of turning back to look at her, making her roll her eyes.

"You're touching me and that's bothering me."

"So I'm getting you all hot and bothered?" he asked, leaning in a little too close for comfort. His leaning combined with his arm made them close enough for her to hear his heart beating, meaning he could hear hers. Hopefully he knew that hers was beating that fast because she was pissed, not nervous.

"Shut up. You know that's not what I meant." She tried to move away but his grip was too tight. When did Eli get so strong? Was he wearing new cologne?

"I know nothing when you're around. Your beauty is too distracting." She rolled her eyes and he laughed in response. He thought this was funny!

"I will punch you in the balls. I hope you know that," Julie said. She did mean it but she also wasn't sure if she was going to be able to go through with it. He was so close and he smelled so good and she wasn't sure if she could concentrate enough to actually hurt him. She would probably just end up looking like an idiot.

"I do. Stopping now." And he did. For about fifteen seconds Julie had all the personal space she wanted. And then that moment ended.

"What are you doing now?" she asked. This was more of a rhetorical question as she could see (and feel) what he was doing. The little shit had wrapped his arm around her again.

"I'm resting my arm still." He was still looking around at the scenes before them like nothing had happened but she could see his trademark smirk permanently embedding itself on his face.

"And your hand?"

"I'm resting that too." Now he was looking at her, still smirking, daring her to do something about it. She always said he was too cocky for his own good.

"On my shoulder?" He rolled his eyes and sighed as if to say "God, Julie, get that stick out of your ass" but moved his arm off her shoulders and to his side.

"Sorry. Here, arm is on my side and not touching you," he said.
"Your elbow is touching my elbow." Julie knew she was being ridiculous but she wanted to see how he would react. He had gotten to annoy her so now she got to annoy him a little bit. She enjoyed it a little too much for her own good.

"Then sit in Casey's lap and touch his elbow instead of mine." Eli always prided himself but right then they both knew he just sounded like an upset little boy.

"That made no sense," she said.

"And I don't care."

"Just move your elbow!" Now they were both sounding ridiculous but for some reason neither of them cared. Arguing like this was just plain fun.

"Just enjoy the Studio Tour. You hate roller coasters and anything similar so this is the only thing you'll like all day," he said.

"Not true." It was so true.

"What else will you like?"

"The churros." She had decided that a churro could change the world, a theory Eli had heard many times before. He had learned many times that giving Julie a churro when she's tired and grumpy can keep her from murdering people. It had saved his life more times than he could count.

"Of course."

"And don't forget the cotton candy," she said. They had both completely forgot that they were supposed to be enjoying the tour. It was the first time they had had time to talk, just them, all day and they were soaking it in.

"I'm a horrible forgetful person."

The ride was almost over and their tram was heading towards the last part of the ride: The King Kong 4-D experience. As soon as she saw the sign Julie's stomach twisted into a knot and she instinctively moved closer to Eli.

"Do you think this King Kong thing will be like a rollercoaster?" He could tell she was nervous but didn't say anything, she would never admit it to anyone, especially him.

"I doubt it. There's too many little kids not to warn us." Julie nodded but Eli could tell she didn't really believe him

"Okay, I'm trusting you." Again, he could tell that she didn't believe him at all.

"That's a first," he said lightly, bumping her arm with his. She did not reply for a moment but, as he was giving up on helping her, she moved closer to him. Not a lot closer, just a tiny bit.

"Did you just move closer to me?"

"No." He knew she was lying and she knew he knew and that was only further confirmed by the blush that was making itself present on his face.

"Don't lie to me."

"I'm not!" She turned away from him as if to send out a "I'm paying attention to the ride now" and he let her. They were entering the tunnel and Eli wasn't going to let her ruin it for him. But he couldn't not say anything when she moved closer once again. By now she was so close to him he couldn't have moved his arm without pushing her away.

"You just moved closer again," he said. Her face was as red as a tomato.

"It's a 4-D experience dude, I don't want to get sprayed or touched by something." He almost started teasing her again but then he remembered how nervous she got around roller coasters. There were a few times where you didn't make fun of your friends, and this was one of them. So instead he again wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close to him. Even if his doing that just pissed her off that would at least distract her from the ride.

"Excuses, excuses," he said. Not that he would ever admit it, but Eli wasn't exactly complaining. She felt kind of nice there, leaning into him. And it wasn't like Julie would ever admit it, but she kind of liked how it felt leaning into him.

"Don't hit me in the face with that," Julie said, referring to the Universal Studios brochure that Eli was still holding in his left hand. Before it had just been there but now with the shaking of the tram it was getting closer and closer to her face.

"My brochure thing?" She rolled her eyes.

"No the other thing in your hand. Yes your brochure thing."

"That's what happens when a guy has a brochure in his hand and has his arm around you." But Eli gave in and switched the brochure to his other hand. He didn't need her trying to hurt him in the middle of the ride. With his arm around her and her punching him it would look like he was assaulting her or something.

"I didn't ask you to!" Her voice had gotten all high and squeaky like it always did when she got upset. It was kind of cute.

"You were practically in my lap, what choice did I have?"

"Whatever." Julie immediately tried to shift away but he held her tight against him. If they were going to have this moment she wasn't going to chicken out now.

They sat in silence for the rest of the ride. The rest of their group seemed to enjoy it well enough, they were laughing and screaming and all that stuff, but Eli and Julie might as well have been at the movies. They watched the screens around them with passiveness and did everything they could not to look at each other. If they did look at each other, that might validate what was going on and they couldn't have that.

As soon as their tram left the tunnel Julie immediately slid back over to her part of the bench and pushed Eli's arm away from her. She couldn't have any of her friends seeing them and assuming things.

"Okay get your arm off me," she said.

"What now that we're out of the dark you don't want to touch me?" Eli tried to not seem like he was hurt by her rejection. Could it even be called rejection? Either way he tried to seem as passive as he had been a few moments before.

"I never wanted to touch you. And you're making it seem dirtier than it is." Her face was turning red again and he couldn't help but continue to tease her. It was what he did.

"Whatever. You all know you love me."

"Shut up."

He poked her (still red) cheek. "Aw and you're blushing! It's adorable."

"I'm never speaking to you ever again."

He slid closer to her as a response and made sure their elbows were smashed together before saying:

"As long as our elbows are touching we don't have to speak."

It was totally worth the smack on the head.