NOTE: Anyone remember Gossip Girl? We got our gossip on in this week's awesome audiobook recording by kaelking12! 

https://youtu.be/ZiMNywVLrqw

CHAPTER 15 

Elias

The Daily Gawker — Mission Bay's Number One Source for Scandals

October 9th, 3:12 PM

Long live the Kings? - Blind Item

Looks like everybody's fave football team just might have to forfeit their homecoming glory this year.

After QB, "T", allegedly assaulted the super cute captain of the swim team, it looks like a certain senior valedictorian "it girl" turned "hit girl", "N" is in the market for a new boyfriend.

Now, three weeks and a totally scandalous lawsuit later, our formerly favorite Bulldog hall-of-famer has officially been expelled thanks to a certain mega-famous lawyer and his two super hot sons. It looks like Kings reign supreme in their father's court.

Now Gawkers, you know we're not ones to name drop, but these two Kings should definitely be on your R.A.D.A.R.

Side note for the uninitiated:

R- RICH

A - ATTRACTIVE

D - DATABLE

A - AVAILABLE

R - ROYALTY

Before you get too excited, let's clear the air.

We lied. A little bit.

According to our sources, the older brother is taken, but "E", the freshman in the family, has massive f-boy potential.

Don't believe us?

Just ask "N".

She had first dibs on easy-"E" at one of Mission Bay's ragers a couple weekends ago and word is, he rocked her world.

Literally.

If you know where to look, apparently there's video evidence floating around Instagram of "N" screaming her lungs out behind bedroom doors.

Lucky for us, "N" and "E" haven't been seen together since.

Curious about this little known Casanova?

We are too.

And homecoming's right around the corner.

So ladies, if you play your cards right, one of you could get lucky enough to end up "under cover" and finally find out if the rumors about "E" are true.

DM us. We have his socials.

But be warned, you'll have to take a number.

He's amassed a crazy amount of followers since the scandal broke lose and just might rise into the ranks of Mission Bay's social media famous if he keeps up that sexy streak.

You heard it here first.

Until next week,

-The Daily G

Comments (352):

LAgirl342:

I've been e-stalking the King brothers way before you guys broke them. I'd absolutely hit that if Elias was actually traceable at school. I have legit not seen him in the halls in weeks. Deets?

Gossipfiend47:

He's around if you know where to look. Once you've seen him you can't unsee him. But he deffo has been MIA lately. DM me if you want me to send you the info on his usual haunts. Maybe he'll show.

AllieCat1212:

Is he really worth the stalkage? Pics please!

Gossipfiend47 Replied to AllieCat1212:

You're welcome :)

AllieCat1212 Replied to Gossipfiend47:

Never hit a follow button so fast in my life. He's super hot. TY :P

Fuego13:

Anyone know who his friends are? Info plz. I need my backstage pass.

PartyGirlLyf:

lol @Fuego13. Survey says.... Josh Morales (Instagram Link).

QueenBee2261:

Am I the only skeptic here? What if Nikki made everything up. I get that he's hot or whatever but like who has virgin skills like that?!

KailaLoraine:

I actually know some of Nikki's friends. It's all they're talking about. Rumors are 100% true.

Selena33:

Rumors or not, do they seriously expect us to believe he's a virgin? Look @ that face + body. #lieslieslies

JosiePosie:

@Selena33 Right?! I might have broken the like button on IG.

RitaS:

Ladies, are we sure he's single? What if he's one of those who hides the GF offline?

SammyJ1356:

@RitaS Ikr. He looks like the type to cheat.

ZaraWrites:

@SammyJ1356 100%. Good looks obvi run in the family. Did u guys see his dad on the news? Silver fox material.

YouCantSitWithUs7:

Who didn't see him? Daddy king is a total DILF. Him and his sons could basically have whoever they want. Me included :P.

Untoldtruths77:

@YouCantSitWithUs7 #goals.

Cheerleader82:

Trevor totes messed with the wrong family. If they're the kind of guys who have the connections to get our school in the press, the R.A.D.A.R tag is accurate.

HannahG:

Who's down for placing bets on who Elias's next hook up will be? Post your Instagram suggestions below. Worthy girls only.

(334) More Comments. Click to expand.

***

I stop reading when the posts start making me sick.

It's been like this non-stop for weeks now. The gossip. The rumors. The bullshit.

I'm in somebody's blogpost, Instagram message, or Facebook update multiple times a day, if not multiple times an hour.

My name's suddenly in other people's mouths and on the tips of their fingers.

A Mission Bay buzzword on an internet feed that spotlights my mistakes for everyone to see.

And the funny thing is, nobody stops to realize what that does to a person. Nobody stops to think about what "popularity" looks like behind the followers and the insta-fame.

People don't care about anything else except for what they think they see.

So with a little bit of help—I made myself invisible—just took myself out of the equation like I was never there. As of today, I've been officially MIA from school for two weeks---and life is pretty good outside of the gossip circus.

But even my room isn't totally out of their reach.

A notification pops up in the corner of my Mac just to tell me that I have a landslide of new followers on Instagram and I just about throw it across the room. New people just means more eyes. More psycho messages. More of everything I thought I wanted---but don't.

Not anymore.

Maybe at the start of the summer, I would've been stoked about the attention, the girls, and the popularity. But that was before I started messing around with the wrong people and causing fault lines in my friendships.

Being ignorant makes you think you want a lot of things—at least until you actually get them.

Now, all I want is to spend the rest of the afternoon in my boxers doing the one activity that actually takes my mind off things.

I stand up out of the crater I've made in my desk chair and catch sight of the time of my bottle cap clock on the wall.

4:30.

Perfect. Tanner won't be home from physical therapy for another hour. Dad won't be back 'till late. And mom doesn't get off work until 5:00. Nobody home. Nobody to wonder what I'm doing.

Win-win situation.

I strut over to my bed, grab my phone, and silently thank our over attentive school counselor, Mrs. Haverty, for recommending this life-saving leave of absence from school. I walked into her office the same week Tanner got outta surgery and all I wanted to do was vent.

I didn't need her to analyze me, I didn't need her to come up with solutions, I just wanted to talk to someone who genuinely wouldn't judge me and Haverty was that person. 

She's got this massive book in her office about the dangers of labeling people that's filled with so many Post-It notes the pages look neon. I don't know why that made me trust her. Or talk to her--because normally I wouldn't, but I was desperate and she was there.

So I spilled pretty much everything that happened.

And she listened.

And listened.

And nodded her head full of brown bouncy curls like she understood, and then wrote me off for two weeks. My dad liked the idea of me not being at school while he was using his connections to destroy Trevor's life.

My mom just wanted me to be okay. And Tanner was "relieved" that I'd get a break from all the gossip at school. Haverty also recommended Tanner take some time away since he was the victim or whatever, but he's too big of a man on campus to stay at home.

But I'm happy here--mostly because at times like these when nobody's around, I think about her.

I swipe open my phone and scroll through my photos until I find the one of Lacey my mom took at the hospital. The one I've been staring at long enough to memorize everything I like about her face. Long enough to wonder if I could ever make her smile or laugh the way she did in that chapel when she thought nobody was watching.

I shouldn't feel like I know her--or anything about her---'cause technically I don't. I've only gotten to know her through other people's conversations or walking in on situations that I wasn't supposed to be a part of. 

Maybe that makes me a stalker or a creep. But I've spent two weeks looking at this picture wondering about everything that she is. Trying to put together a puzzle of a person who doesn't exist on any kind of social media no matter how hard I've tried to find her.

I open up Facebook for the 700th time and type "Lacey" into the search engine. Again. There's over 1,500 Laceys in San Diego and at this point, I'm pretty sure I've seen all of their profiles. But that doesn't stop me from hoping that maybe today I'll find hers.

A couple new profiles pop up at the top of my search. Three blondes, a red head, and a Lacey whose profile picture is of an album cover by some guy named Dave Matthews.

No luck.

Maybe tomorrow.

A text from Josh interrupts my stalking and kicks my school-related stress back into high gear.

JM: I know you're under Haverty house arrest or whatever but tonight's the big night! Let me know if you're still coming and I'll pick u up before the game.

I don't know what he's talking about and I don't know if I really want to. As much as I like hanging around Josh, ever since him and Trish got together, I've been finding reasons to ditch them. Not him as much as her, but the whole relationship is changing Josh more than he knows.

For the few days I actually did show up at school, Josh wouldn't go anywhere without Trish. We're a trio I never wanted, but right now, he's so whipped that he hasn't even noticed. Trish does. But oddly enough, she's been "nice" lately—acting like she never threatened me in the first place.

I don't buy it though.

Trish's "nice" has a flip side date and whenever she decides to turn the tables, all hell's gonna break loose. It's just a matter of time.

I sink further into my sheets, go back to Lacey's photo, and stare at it until Trish, Josh, and everything else disappears. I focus on her eyes, her button nose, and her soft pink lips, and wonder if they'd feel the same way I'm imagining.

My heart picks up as I close my eyes and picture her next to me. Her auburn hair scattered across my pillow, her breaths slowly brushing against my skin, her mouth inches away.

Heat spreads across my chest until my whole body's on fire—aching for someone I've barely even spoken to.

I've been in this space before, lost in the idea of a girl, but this feels different. I'm not rushing to do the things I normally would when I'm thinking about someone else.

I just wanna stay suspended in the idea of being in her atmosphere. I wanna hang on to the edge of the illusion of what kissing her would feel like. What holding her would be like.

I wonder if her lips and hands could take me back to the place I fell into when I first heard her laugh—

—somewhere a couple miles short of the stars.

"Are you—making out with your pillow right now?"

I shoot up in bed only to find my brother standing in the door way with a nightmare of a smile slathered across his face. He leans against the door frame and shakes his head back and forth like he's some forty-year-old dad who just caught his son figuring out his manhood for the first time.

For the record, I wasn't doing what he thought I was doing. Not yet anyway. I was—holding my pillow. Intimately. Which—I realize I have no way to explain.

"It doesn't matter what I was doing. Why are you in my room?"

"Why aren't you dressed? Game starts in thirty minutes, Eli. I texted you like six times that I was coming home early to pick you up."

He takes a couple steps closer and whatever the hell cologne he's wearing snakes it's way into my nostrils and burns off a couple layers of skin. I throw a hand over my mouth and nose before Tanner's attempt at smelling good sets my lungs on fire.

"I don't do football games. Especially right now. You know that. I don't know why you'd wanna be around that crowd anyway."

Tanner shoves his hands into his pockets and deadpans me from across the room.

"I'm making an exception tonight. It's Homecoming, you're too new at MBH to miss out on this experience, and you're starting to look like Tom Hanks in Castaway. So stop spanking the monkey, get up, shower, and get dressed. Caleigh's waiting for us."

Heat burns up the sides of my face till I'm pretty sure Tanner can tell that I look like a stove top.

"Okay, A) I'm still not going. Have fun though. And B) I wasn't beating the snake or whatever the hell you just said. I just—never mind. You wouldn't get it," I say.

Tan saunters over to the bed, sits down, and violates every rule I have about him being in my room in less than thirty seconds. I back away from him, partially because I'm pissed off and partially because I don't want him to notice the by product of being male and thinking about a girl alone in my bed—even if I wasn't being sleazy about it.

He reaches over and pats me on the head like I'm one of those ridiculous little toy dogs him and Caleigh have been talking about getting in college.

"Look, I know you're embarrassed that I walked in on you or whatever but you don't have to be shy about it, man. I've been there too. After my first time, sex was pretty much all I thought about too. Trust me, Mom was so pissed about the sheets—"

"Please stop."

"Hey, I'm just keeping it honest, Eli. Right now, the urge to release all of that built up tension is probably driving you crazy, but don't worry. It'll ease up in time."

"Tanner that's not—"

"Hold on, let me finish--"

How is he not finished?

"—What I was trying to say was, I also get that you're going through a lot right now. You've been beating yourself up over what happened to me and there's all this chaos going on at school so it makes sense that you need to, you know, release it somehow. If I was at home for two weeks I'd probably owe mom a new mattress."

I stare at Tanner for a couple seconds, waiting to see if he's actually finished stroking his ego about stroking his you-know or if he's still got more to say. Eventually, his mouth stops moving and I force myself to respond to him even though it'd be so much easier to just kick him out of my room.

"Okay. Fine. You're right. I am stressed. Between you, Dad, and the trash floating around about me online, thinking about a girl I barely even know is the only way I'm staying sane. And yeah, maybe I was fantasizing about her or whatever but I wasn't being creepy about it. It's different with her."

"Who?"

"Lacey!"

And just like that my best kept secret goes flying out of my mouth and right into my brother's ears too fast for me to take it back. Tanner's eyes light up and for the first time all morning, he's quiet for longer than thirty seconds.

I hate that he knows. I hate watching him slowly figure out that she's the reason I've been locked away in my room, spending so many hours online that I've skipped meals just trying to find out who she is.

I open my mouth to defend myself but Tanner's already squeezing my shoulders to calm me down. I shrug him off, more embarrassed at myself than anything else, but he sees right through it. He knows me better than I want him to. But I guess that's not always the worst thing in the world.

"You genuinely like her, don't you?" He asks, and as much as I expect the question it still completely catches me off guard.

I shift my focus away from Tanner and stare out at the beach through the half-open window. The quiet rush of the waves takes me back to the afternoon I first saw Lacey standing there with the Pacific at her back and the wind in her hair. I shut my eyes for a couple seconds and rethink the answer to Tanner's question.

Do I like her?

Like isn't a big enough word to capture that feeling, that moment, or the way it's been changing me ever since. "Like" doesn't explain how that whole day shifted the second I heard her laugh.

I don't like her.

I like spicy Cheetos.

I like cold horchata.

I like living this close to the water.

But when it comes to Lacey—like doesn't cut it.

'Cause she's something I don't have words for yet.

"I don't even know her, man." I say, and the reality of that statement drags me right back down to earth.

"I didn't know Caleigh the first time I saw her either. Have you talked to her yet?"

I grip the back of my neck hoping it'll ease some of the tension kicking around my skull, but nothing helps.

"Kind of. She said like five words to me so that doesn't really count for much."

"Five is better than zero, E."

"Yeah, but she doesn't even know who I am. Even if she found out, I'm pretty sure she has a boyfriend so, yeah, good talk. But let's stop here," I say, but Tanner doesn't budge or even remotely look like he's willing to drop the conversation.

Instead of taking the hint and leaving, he struggles to lay back on my bed and stares up at the skylights.

"Elias, listen, I love you and you've got a lot going for you—but right now you sound like a total pussy."

Accurate.

"Think what you want. I'm just being realistic."

Tanner tilts his head in my direction and corners me with a single look.

"Realistic? How is inventing a boyfriend for the girl you're crushing on realistic? It ain't over till you know fo' sho."

Loser.

"I know because I saw him, dude! Lacey was on hospital volunteer duty for her school or whatever and some guy at the lobby was there to pick her up. She ran—literally sprinted over to him and he twirled her around like they were in some kinda rom-com. She's obviously taken."

"And you're obviously stalking her—which is cute, but you've gotta get better at this if you wanna lock down this girl. Give me your phone."

Tanner extends a hand and I eventually give him what he wants despite myself. He doesn't even have to look for Lacey because she's already full screen.

"You said she was there volunteering right?" Tanner asks.

I nod but don't see how any of that information will change things. But he's determined. A furrow the size of the Mariana Trench etches itself into his forehead as he stares at my phone. He studies Lacey's picture for a few long and excruciating seconds and then does the unthinkable.

He zooms in on her chest. Even though he has an almost-but-not-quite wife. Even though she's wearing a plain white, baggy, t-shirt, he keeps zooming until the area where her boobs should be looks like a bunch of pixels.

"Found it," he says, and as much as I'd like to know what he's talking about, I don't.

"What? Her bra size?!"

Tanner sits up and slaps me on the back of the head with his good arm. He winces from the impact but he's in a lot less pain than I am.

"Her school logo, moron. Cardinal Academy. Says it right there. And if you hadn't taken a two week vacation from planet earth, you'd know that we're playing them tonight."

It takes a second for Tanner's words to settle in--and the second they do, I finally understand exactly why my mom prays. Why she believes in miracles and blessings because in the middle of a ordinary afternoon on an ordinary Friday, I finally find a way to get to Lacey. 

And maybe it's stupid to hope. Maybe I'm crazy for thinking that she could be standing somewhere inside a three hundred person crowd cheering for teams either of us could probably care less about. But there's a chance that she will be.

A shot in the dark.

But all anybody ever needs is one.

And this is mine.

"Alright, Romeo, if you wanna make it to school before kick off, we've gotta head out. So like I said---"

"Get dressed. Shower. I smell. I know," I say.

Tanner laughs to himself and then reaches out for me to help him get to his feet. I slide to the edge of the bed, drop my pillow, and lift him off the mattress--careful not to brush his sling on accident. 

I still hate seeing him like this--less strong and assured than he usually is. But despite everything he's been through, he's still handling the situation with a smile. I wish he knew how much I love him for being who he is, for still being here for me when he doesn't have to be, and for helping me find Lacey.

But that's a secret I'll bury between me and the silence.

Tanner slowly makes his way out of my room with that telltale lazy walk our mom's always nagging us to get rid of, but I stop him a couple steps short of the door. I sprint across the room, tap him on the shoulder, and stare up at him wide-eyed and grateful as soon as he turns around.

"Elias, seriously, if I have to ask you one more time to get ready--"

"I know, but I just wanted to---"

I choke up for reasons I don't even understand.

"What?"

"I just----just thanks, Tan. For helping me. For everything," I say and immediately feel completely lame and exposed for opening my mouth at all.

Tanner pulls me into a half-hug that I try my best to return without hurting him. We stay like that for a while. Long enough for me to understand the difference between him and dad. Tanner doesn't let go. He never would.

"You know you owe me, right? I don't stalk girls for just anybody so you better come back with Lacey's number after tonight, you hear me?" He says, with a sideways smile pulling at his lips.

My heart does somersaults at the thought of actually talking to her much less asking for permission to call her whenever I want.

"Sounds easy enough when you say it like that but---what if she says "no"? What if she thinks I'm a weirdo or doesn't wanna talk to me because of the rumors or--"

Tanner lifts his hand and shushes away all my doubts before I let them spill out into the open.

"Forget the what if's, and the maybes, and the excuses, and just go for it, Eli. Trust me, if this girl's really worth it and she believes in you half as much as I do, she won't be able to walk away."

Tanner slaps me on the shoulder one last time and then disappears out of the door into the hallway.

I'm still hanging on his words long after he leaves.

And even though the room's silent and full of afternoon shadows, a million and one fireworks are bursting inside my blood stream.

Lighting up a feeling that's dancing on the edge of my fingertips.

Buzzing in my bones.

And knocking on the door of a heart that almost forgot what it was to hope.

I stop and memorize the moment.

The rush. The excitement. The high.

And keep it somewhere sacred.

'Cause, now, the best memory I'll have to go back to no matter how tonight turns out will begin and end with her.

###

Thank you so much for taking the time to tune in to listen/read this week's update! Can't wait to share the next one with you guys! I get back from vacation next Friday so I'll keep you guys posted on whether or not I'll be able to update on that day or Saturday instead (because I might be exhausted from the travel when I get back). But as it stands, next update should be on FRIDAY, JAN. 03! See you guys in 2020! Wishing you all many blessings in the new year!