"Alright, let me guess," I said, rubbing my chin thoughtfully as I studied Tillie, who was grinning eagerly and rocking back and forth in her seat. Quickly glancing at Elias who stood behind her with our cups of tea in his hands, he smiled and silently mouthed 'five'. 

"Guess, guess!" Tillie urged, sitting up straighter in her chair in a bid to look taller.

"Well, you're pretty tall and very, very smart. I think you're... eight years old," I said, Tillie laughing loudly as she shook her head, turning to Elias to tug his sleeve as he set our mugs down.

"Nooo! I'm not eight!" Tillie giggled, Elias chuckling. "Eli, Alex thinks I'm eight!"

"Aw, I was wrong? I was so sure you were at least eight! Let me guess again," I said, Tillie and Elias smiling at me with similarly lopsided grins. I paused for a moment, playing up my thought process, and then clicked my fingers. "I think I was pretty close... so you have to be seven!"

"No! I'm five! Five!" Tillie said, holding up her hand and shaking her fingers. 

"Well, more like five-and-a-half, right Tillie?" Elias said, his sister nodding frantically.

"Oh, yeah. Now that you tell me, you're definitely five-and-a-half," I agreed, Elias's eyes pinching into endearing half crescents as he smiled.

As Tillie gripped my arm and begged me to try some of her mum's cookies, her shyness long gone, there was the light clunk of footsteps coming from down the hall, followed by a mellow voice.

"Eli? You're home?" the soft female voice spoke, its owner soon appeared in the dining room wearing a white T-shirt and faded light wash overalls, rolled up at the ankles. The woman had the same warm complexion as Elias and Tillie, shortly buzzed hair adorned with a pale blue scarf and seashell earrings dangling from her ears. Her eyes were warm and expressive, and showed surprise when she saw me sitting there. "Oh! We have a guest?"

"Yeah," Elias said, opening his mouth to speak, but Tillie beat him to it.

"Mummy! This is Alex, Eli's friend. He thought I was eight years old and said that I'm a princess!"

I choked on the morsel of cookie that had been resting in my mouth as Tillie spoke, Elias covering up his amused laugh with a sip of his tea. I kicked him under the table, the boy just looking at me with mirth. 

"Mm. Yeah, mum, this is Xander, a friend from school. He gave me a lift home," Elias said, the woman letting out an 'ah' in understanding, smiling as she entered the room. "Xander, this is my mum, obviously."

"Oh! It's very nice to meet you," I said, getting up from my chair, the woman laughing as she shook my hand. 

"Good manners," she said, smiling as she pat my back. "It's lovely to meet you too, Xander. Obviously, I'm Eli and Tillie's mum. You can call me Annika, Nika, whatever you want - just not Mrs Fourie, it makes me feel old. Oh, and Tillie called you Alex a moment ago, right? Did you have a name you prefer?"

"Uh... Well, most people call me Xander," I said, shrugging a little. "But I think I actually prefer Alex. I'm fine with either, though."

"Alex sounds more like a prince though! He has to be called Alex, because Alex is a prince!" Tillie chimed in, making me laugh as Elias covered his face, though his smile could still be seen.

"Alex it is then. I guess the princess has decided on behalf of all of us," Annika said, patting my shoulder again. "Well, I'll leave you boys to it. Help yourself to the cookies, there are plenty more where they came from. Tillie, come help me make dinner and let the big boys play amongst themselves." Tillie pouted, latching onto my sleeve, which made my heart melt a little.

"Tillie, help mum with dinner," Elias coaxed, patting the girl's curls tenderly before dropping his voice to a whisper. "You know it tastes better when you help cook, right?"

Tillie puffed her cheeks out, looking between me and her mum, before nodding and giving me a quick hug and rushing to her mum who just smiled at the interaction. Before the left the dining room for the kitchen, Annika paused, turning back.

"Actually, Alex, are you staying for dinner?" Annika asked, Tillie popping her head around her mum and beginning to bounce up and down on the balls of her feet again.

"H-huh?" I stammered, mouth dropping open slightly, turning to Elias who paused mid-sip of his tea, staring at me over the rim of his mug. "I... don't want to impose. I mean, I was only just stopping by for a short while..."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," Annika said, waving her hand in the air.

"You should stay for dinner," Elias said, putting his mug down and staring at me intently. "I mean, you drove out all this way, it's the least we can do."

Three pairs of eyes with the same light brown eyes stared at me and I was helpless - considering Elias's second-lead gaze was already a force to be reckoned with on its own, having that amplified by the archetype of a loving mother and the epitome of adorable younger sister, any refusal was a lost cause.

I was also a natural push-over, according to Amber, so that probably had something to do with it as well.

"If it's really okay..." I conceded, Annika laughing. 

"It's more than okay, Alex. You boys entertain yourselves, dinner should be ready around six. Let's go, Tillie."

Annika and Tillie disappeared, but I could hear Tillie chirping about how she was going to make the chips 'extra yummy for Alex', and I slumped over the table with laugh.

"Your sister is really adorable, it makes you powerless, huh," I said, Elias laughing and patting my shoulder consolingly. 

"Mm, I totally understand. I was already twelve when my parents had Tillie, so she's always been tiny and adorable from my perspective," Elias said, leaning forward on the table and resting his cheek on the palm of his hand. "She's really fond of you already. I, um, didn't realise you were so good with kids."

"I don't think I'm particularly good with them. To be honest, I think Tillie just got dazzled by my princely good looks," I said with a wink, before pausing, cheeks flaming. "Oh, shit. I just called him- I mean, myself, good-looking. Wow, I must sound like such a dick, I am so sorry you had to hear that, oh God. Who even says that, I'm just..."

Elias was silent as I rambled, before bursting out laughing, his whole face lighting up. His hand covered his mouth as his shoulders shook, and I felt my cheeks and ears growing even more red, kicking Elias under the table once more.

"Dude, stop laughing at me," I whined, dropping my head onto the table and covering my head with my arms, Elias only laughing louder. Voice muffled against the table, I groaned in embarrassment, "I'm ready for the floor to swallow me up any time". 

Elias seemed to be struggling to breathe for a good minute before he calmed down enough to shake my shoulders, asking me to look up. When I did, I found that he was looking at me with a smile, a little breathless and with red cheeks after laughing so hard.

"Sorry for laughing," Elias said, making me roll my eyes and huff, taking a bite of another delicious cookie. "And, well, it's not like you were lying anyway," Elias added, voice a little quieter. The second lead then picked his mug back up, taking a sip and obscuring his face as I blinked. 

Wait. Wasn't that... kind of smooth? I mean, that was sort of main-lead level smoothness. If I were the protagonist, I would totally be swooning at this point, right? Elias, are you finally waking up to your true potential as a main lead?!

Damn it, Aubrey! Why are you not here when your man is having a literary awakening as Mr Steal-Yo-Girl, ugh.

This was a good opportunity to gauge Elias's affection levels for the protagonist, though, considering the fact that she wasn't here right now. 

"Hey, Elias," I said, the soccer captain raising a brow, looking at me curiously. "You're pretty popular, right?" Elias just rolled his eyes, shrugging. "I mean, at the game earlier, there were lots of girls in the crowd who are into you, you know."

"I don't really care about that kind of thing," Elias said quickly, grimacing a little as he dropped his gaze to the table. His fingers fiddled with the rim of his mug, running around it in circles. After a moment, he drew his gaze up to look at me. "But why are you asking...?"

"Oh, no reason," I said, feigning casualness while keeping an eye on Elias out of the corner of my eye. "Just wondering if you, I don't know, like anyone?"

Elias choked on nothing, covering his face in what I was beginning to see as an endearing habit.

"Why are you... Does it... Does it seem like I like... someone?" Elias asked, eyes shifting suspiciously as I tried to force my lips from quirking upwards at his pure response.

Ah-ha! So you do like someone! Obviously it has to be Aubrey - you've fallen in love with her once in the digital pages of 'Say No to Bad Boys', it would be so much easier to fall for her now that the original Xander is out of the way!

"Oh, no, I was just asking out of curiosity," I said casually. "I mean, there are heaps of nice girls at school, I wouldn't be surprised if you liked someone. Especially Aubrey - she's really nice, and very pretty, don't you think?"

Elias jerked in his seat, looking up at me with a startled look.

Yep, right on the money - could his reaction be any more obvious? Well, honesty is the best policy, they say.

"Aubrey?" Elias asked, voice pinched.

"Yeah," I said, laughing a little. "What do you think of her?" Elias swallowed thickly, rubbing the back of his neck and taking a large swig of his hot tea, wincing at the motion. 

"Aubrey's really nice, she's a good friend, I think," Elias said, and I fought the urge to roll my eyes at his lacklustre answer. Elias looked down at his cup for a moment, taking a deep breath before speaking again. "Do you... like her?"

What are you... Wait a second... Hah?!

Does Elias think that I like Aubrey? Shit, shit, shit! This was not what I wanted! If he thinks this, we're just following along with the 'Say No To Bad Boys' plotline, and that is the last thing I want to follow! Oh, God, I don't want Elias to think that I'm competition. I'm the president of the Elibrey fanclub, for fuck's sake! There's no way I want to stick Xander's enchanted staff of lust in any of Aubrey's caves of rapture!

"Nooo, no no no, nope, big nope with a capital N," I said, waving my hands frantically. "I mean, I'm fond of her as a human being, like, in a friendly way. I don't see her like... that. Not to say that she isn't attractive, I mean, I can see why people would like her like that, because she's really pretty, but I don't see her like that, you know?" 

I'm really not going after your girl, dude, so no need to look so fucking sad!

"Oh... alright," was all Elias said, his words denoting the end of this particular train of conversation. Before I could sweat over the situation, Elias got up from his chair with a smile, not seeming bothered at all any more. In fact, he looked rather happy, and I felt the unease lessen slightly in my chest. 

"We've got a little while until dinner, want to play some games while we wait?" Elias asked, and I let out a breath of relief, matching his smile with my own.

"Yeah, I'm down."

Phew, crisis averted, I think. 

***

"Dinner was so good, Annika," I said, glancing down at my near-spotless plate. Elias's mum smiled happily, and I turned to Tillie, whose chest was puffed out as she waited for her own praise. Half-covering my mouth, I loudly whispered across the table to the young girl. "Ah, but Tillie, your chips were the best. Don't tell anyone I said that."

Tillie nodded, making a 'shhh' motion with her tiny fingers over her proud smile. Annika laughed a little, glancing at her husband, who had arrived just before dinner was served from work. The man looked a lot like Elias, but was slightly shorter and had a healthy shadow of greying hair atop his head. He was quieter than his wife and daughter, resembling Elias in temperament, both of them exuding the same calm and warm demeanour. 

When Annika stood and began gathering plates, I hastily got up, offering to do the dishes since I didn't help prepare dinner, but the woman just looked aghast at the idea of me, her 'guest of honour', doing any of the housework. After a moment of back-and-forth, Elias just latched his arm around mine and pulled me into the lounge room, where Tillie was calling for me to come play with her.

The couches in the lounge room were covered with numerous throws and pillows, none of them matching but somehow not looking out of place. Still, there was barely any sitting space, since almost all soft surfaces were covered in a mountain of cushions.

"Oh, sorry," Elias said, grabbing some of the pillows and throwing them across the room to make space. "Tillie and I were trying to make a pillow fort last night, but it was kind of a fail."

"Really?" I asked, perking up. "Oh my God, I haven't made a pillow fort in ages. I used to make them all the time with my si... my... myself."

My words quickly died in my throat, remembering that Xander doesn't have a sister, while simultaneously being slapped in the face with the fact that my sister wasn't even in this world to begin with. 

It wasn't the first time that I had thought about Amber - I was almost constantly wondering about where she was, what she was doing, if she even knew I was gone. Sometimes I wondered if this world was even real, if this was all a dream, if the time that passed here was merely a blip in the expanse of reality in my original world. 

When those thoughts began to pervade my consciousness, and the feeling of being lost became too much, I had to remind myself that no matter what, I had to keep moving forward. Even if this world wasn't real, even if the time passing here was insignificant in the real world, everything I was seeing, hearing, feeling was real to me. 

Aubrey and Elias helped, of course. When I was with them, I never felt out of place, or that things were just a figment of my imagination. Talking with them, laughing with them, the way I felt with them - nothing felt more real than in those moments with them. 

Elias's hand on my shoulder suddenly broke me out of my reverie, his brows crinkled with worry. 

"Oh, no, it's nothing. I was just thinking about the best way to make this fort work," I said, Tillie running up to me and clinging to my legs, peering up at me with large, doe-like eyes. 

"You know how to make a blanket castle, Alex?" Tillie asked, her eyes almost sparkling. "Show us how to make a blanket castle!"

"Well, if the princess asks for it, I guess I have to deliver," I said, Tillie squealing in happiness, beginning to run around the room to gather all the pillows and blankets that had been discarded to the side. 

Getting Elias to grab some of the dining chairs, I began to drag the blankets this way and that, securing them with pegs and knots while getting Tillie to begin laying down some pillows and blankets to make the ground softer. Tillie was a ball of energy, fluffing up all the pillows as she kept asking, "Alex, Alex, what now? What now?" with child-like wonder.

Somewhere along the way, Elias had moved to one of the couches, sitting there with his legs folded on front of him, chin resting on his knees as he watched. It was only when I had gotten Tillie to put the finishing touches onto the pillow fort that I looked over at Elias to see him watching us with a fond smile that tugged at one's heartstrings.

He really loves his little sister, huh. I mean, I get it - she is ridiculously adorable.

Tillie quickly ran over to her brother, taking his hand and pulling him towards the fort, before crawling in herself.

"Will the princess please invite us into her castle?" Elias asked, the two of us sharing a quiet laugh as Tillie cleared her throat as she kneeled on the soft cushions, placing her hands on her lips regally.

"Yes, Princess Tillie will let you enter," the young girl said haughtily, shuffling across to make space for the two of us. Elias nudged my back softly, letting me crawl in first, before getting in himself. 

In the end, the pillow fort wasn't large, and having two grown boys inside it meant that there was very little space, especially once Tillie folded down the make-shift bath-towel door. As to not squish the young girl, Elias and I squeezed ourselves to one side, thighs pressed tightly together and Elias's back almost half leaning on my chest.

"The castle is a little small for the three of us," I chuckled quietly, Elias's lips twitching upward as he shifted himself around the cramped space. As he did so, the soccer captain slipped a little, hand gripping onto my thigh as to not slide down completely. The boy sucked in a breath and quickly retracted his hand, which only made him drop further against my back, a heavy and warm weight.

"Sorry," Elias murmured quietly, turning to look at me while I looked down to try and help steady him. He was a lot closer than the two of us thought, but I guess that was to be expected since we were basically trying to tetris ourselves into Tillie's pillow castle. Our eyes met, Elias's lips parting slightly in surprise, before he quickly looked away again, muttering another quiet "Sorry".

"Mn, it's fine. We can't offend the princess in her own castle by complaining that it's too small," I whispered, Elias letting out a breathy laugh as he managed to pull himself up, shuffling away as much as he could within the limits of our confines.

"Alex, I brought some of my favourite books into my castle," Tillie said, pushing away a pillow to reveal a small stack of picture books she had placed in the corner. "Can we read some together? Eli always reads with me."

"Of course. What do you want to read?" I said, Tillie looking at her brother who tapped on one of the books in the pile.

"We're part way through this one. Do you want to keep reading it, Tillie?" Elias said, the girl nodding her head happily. "Okay. Xan... Alex, do you mind reading some?"

Elias saying my name made me smile, my chest growing warm again, and when I smiled and nodded Tillie was quick to crawl into my lap and shove the book into my face, pointing at the part she and Elias had gotten up to. 

I cleared my throat and started reading, Tillie focusing on the story in silence, helping me turn the pages. Elias watched on, piping in at times to help act out the dialogue.

After a few chapters, I began to feel Tillie's head slowly nodding up and down as her large eyes closed, until she was completely still and sleeping in my lap. Her mouth was slightly parted as she dozed, Elias chuckling quietly as I gave him a panicked look, unsure about what to do.

It was as Elias was taking the book from my hands that the 'door' to the fort opened, revealing Annika, who looked at her sleeping daughter knowingly.

"I thought it was about time for her to doze off. This is usually the time when she starts getting sleepy," Annika said, gingerly taking her daughter from my arms. "Thanks for entertaining her for so long, Alex. She can be a handful sometimes."

"No, it was really fun for me, actually," I said, crawling out of the pillow fort and giving it a fond once-over. "I got to relive my childhood, so I should be thanking her, really."

"Well I'm glad. Feel free to come around any time. Tillie seems to be really fond of you," Annika said, before glancing at her son with a smile. "And I hate to be 'that' mother, but it is getting late. I know you two are almost adults now and what not, but Alex, you need to drive home, right? It's not safe to drive late at night."

"Yeah, I should probably get going," I said, checking the time on my phone. It was already nine, so if I left now it would be close to ten before I got home. "Thanks for the dinner and for letting me stay so long."

"It's our pleasure, like I said, you're welcome back any time. Eli, you can see Alex out, yeah? I've got to get this little princess to bed," Annika said, giving me a friendly nod as she rocked her daughter in her arms, kissing her on the head as they walked down the hall to Tillie's bedroom. 

After gathering my things, Elias and I walked outside to my car. 

"Well, see you on Monday," I said, Elias nodding, hands stuffed in his pockets.

"Drive safely," he replied softly and I smiled, bumping his shoulder with mine before getting in my car. Elias hung around by the doorway of his house, making me chuckle to myself at the way he was seeing me off so seriously.

As I began to pull off the curb, my car suddenly made a loud popping noise, the engine sputtering and the lights flickering ominously. 

"What the fuck?" I muttered as my car groaned in defeat, rolling a stone's throw away from where I was previously parked before flopping into a lifeless slump. "Oh, you have got to be fucking with me. Are you serious? Do you have to die now, car?"

Knock, knock, knock.

Turning to the noise, I found Elias by the passenger side window, peering in with concern.

"Something wrong with your car?" Elias asked as I got out, the second-lead following me as I popped open the hood, which only made the two of us cough and groan as a plume of smoke poured out. "Something is definitely wrong with your car."

"Ugh, this is the worst," I complained, slamming the bonnet down as I stared up at the night sky.

Author, this world you created is really out to get me, huh. 

"Maybe call roadside assistance?" Elias suggested, already searching the number up on his phone before handing it to me. Thanking him silently, I held my phone to my ear, fingers tapping impatiently on my thigh. 

"Thank you for calling roadside assistance. All phone operators are currently busy, please hold for the next available operator," the overly chirpy female voice informed me, elevator music beginning to play, occasionally punctuated by ads for car insurance. After a few minutes, I sighed and put the phone on speaker, Elias and I moving to sit on the low fencing around his house. 

"Jeez, is every car in this city breaking down right now?" I scoffed incredulously as ten minutes passed without a break in the elevator music. Turning to Elias, I nudged my head towards his house. "You don't have to wait out here with me, you know. I'll sort this out, it's alright."

"I'm not going to just leave you out here by yourself," Elias said, looking at me like I was being completely ridiculous, frowning. 

That made me laugh despite the situation. "I'm not a helpless girl walking around the streets at night at risk of getting attacked, you know," I said, Elias rolling his eyes. That role in 'Say No to Bad Boys' was given to the one and only protagonist, Aubrey Hanlon. Xander was the one doing the attacking with the sinful sceptre in his pants. 

"Doesn't mean I'm just going to let you sit out here alone," Elias said firmly, the two of us staring at the phone sitting between us, still playing the grating elevator music. "Hey, if they don't answer, you can always..."

Plip. Plop.

A drop of water landed on the upturned phone screen, and another on the top of my head, cold and wet. 

Elias frowned, looking up to the night sky that had, in what seemed like the span of a breath, turned from clear to cloudy. 

Oh no. Ohhhh no. Not now, are you kidding me?!

As I turned my head to the sky alongside the soccer captain, the two droplets turned into a thousand, buckets of rainwater suddenly beginning to pour from the sky as lightning mockingly crackled in the distance. 

"Oh, shit!" I yelped, glaring at the sky. "It was sunny all day, why is it suddenly storming now?!"

Fuck you, author's world! I don't need this pathetic fallacy shit right now!

"Alex, quick, we need to get inside," Elias said, blinking away the rain as the two of us quickly became soaked to the bone with the sudden downpour, the boy grabbing my wrist and pulling me towards the sanctuary of his house. 

When we stepped back indoors, the two of us dripping onto the wooden floorboards, I looked down at the phone clutched in my hands and cursed. In my haste to run from the downpour, I had accidentally ended the call I had been waiting on for so long.

"Shit, after waiting that long on hold I have to start all over again?!" I groaned, slinking down into a tired, defeated squat, grimacing at the way my shoes squelched with rainwater. 

"Hey, Alex..."

"Hm?" I asked, glumly looking up at Elias, who was scratching the back of his neck, looking at the wall off to the side as he nibbled on his plush lower lip.

"As it's late... and since you can't drive home with your car like that... why don't you just stay the night?" Elias dropped, my mouth following suit.

Huuuh?!

A/N: Hu hu hu, nothing more satisfying than chucking in a hefty dose of some of my favourite tropes/cliches ~(˘▾˘~) I didn't expect this chapter to get so long though, it's double my normal length - oh well, it is what it is!

And as always, here's another end-of-chapter meme - this was made by the lovely and hilarious honeybeebq!

Memes are always appreciated, so if you guys get inspired feel free to send them through to my email listed on my profile! See you next chapter! x