"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god." Eli ranted as he stood, head in his hands. "I'm gonna die!"

"Eli!" Mason laughed as he picked the empty bottle off the ground. "Why'd you drink it so fast?"

"Because it was gross and I was trying to hurry up and get rid of it." Eli cringed, eyes widened as he took a deep breath, unable to sit down. "Jesus christ, i'm gonna start freaking out any minute now. It's your fault!"

Liam gapped when Eli shoved his index finger his way. "Me?"

"I told you I didn't want one and you got me one!" Eli spoke quickly, his eyes getting wider by the second. "You've peer pressured me."

"Peer- Look, you're gonna freak yourself out." Liam stood up, going to encourage him to take a seat before stumbling terribly, falling over his own feet and hitting the ground.

"What have we gotten ourselves into?" Eli panicked, running a hand through his hair quickly.

Scott was over quickly, helping Liam up as he looked to Eli. "I need your help."

"No!" Eli announced quickly in a panic. "Nu-uh, i'm about to loose it. I drank that entire beer."

"In less the two minutes." Mason confirmed.

Liam grumbled slightly as Scott put an arm around him, looking at Eli again. The Foxx boy took a deep breath, hunched over slightly for a second as he nodded. "Okay, i'm great. Not gonna freak out. Definitely not gonna have an anxiety attack."

Scott lead the three over toward Malia, who was sat down and looking extremely sick. Eli made sure Liam was sat as he looked to Scott, watching what he said due to Mason being here. "I thought you said.."

"We shouldn't." Scott shook his head in worry, understand what he meant, leaning down infront of Liam. Eli went over to Malia, sitting next to her as she groaned loudly and dropped her head onto his shoulder. "How much has he had to drink?"

"Not enough to get him like this." Mason shook his head quickly, looking at Liam in worry.

"Alcohol poisoning?" Eli spoke up with a exhale of panic. He was taking deep breaths, feeling his own heart speed up badly. Though his was from drinking, something he should have never done.

Malia wacked him in the chest from where she was slummed against his shoulder. "Stop it."

"Somethings happening. We need to get them out of here. I think we're gonna, um-" Scott began to stumble over his words, staring as his palms and looking confused.

"How much did you drink?" Mason questioned.

"Nothing." Scott confirmed quickly. "Not even a sip."

He leaned over some, squeezing his eyes shut. Eli reached forward to rub his shoulder before doing the same toward Liam.

"Okay, we can do this one at a time." Eli confirmed, standing up as he looked to Mason. "I think we can all fit in the car."

"Your mom is gonna kill you if you get caught." Mason spoke in disbelief. "You've been drinking."

"Oh my god, I have." Eli confirmed as he slapped his hands onto his face. He reached down, pulling Malia upwards. "Still, let's get them to the car."

Malia laughed loudly as Eli leaned over to lift her up. "You should not be able to do this."

Eli gapped at her, adjusting his position on holding her bridal style. "Was that an insult?"

Malia laughed. "Yup."

Mason has Liam's arms around his shoulders. Eli looked at Scott. "Scott,
come on, the car is better."

"It's not the drinks." Scott looked at him quickly. "It's the music."

"The music?" Mason asked in disbelief. Eli set Malia back down, removing Liam's arm from around Mason to lead him to her side.

"I have to...I have to turn off the music." Scott stumbled over his words slightly, staring intensely at Mason. "Don't let them out of your sight."

"What do you need me to do?" Eli asked quickly as he grabbed his shoulder tightly.

Scott glanced at his chest. "Try not to panic?"

Eli nodded. "Will definitely try."

Scott moved past him quickly, leaving Eli to look over at a confused Mason. "Subliminals."

"What?" Mason asked as he watched Eli lodge himself in the middle of Liam and Malia.

"Subliminals." Eli repeated himself, chewing on his nails. "They mess with your head. Make things happen to you. A certain sound in them triggers something in your brain. In horror films, they sometimes put subliminals in the theaters to make the watchers do crazy things. It scares the people around the into thinking they're possessed."

Mason blinked at him. "Eli. Why do you know this?"

"I use them to help me sleep sometimes." Eli nodded his head, ready to go on before a security guard grabbed hold of Malia and Liam.

"Woah, what are you doing? These are my friends." Mason jumped in quickly.

"Your friends are overly intoxicated." the guard look his way in all seriousness. "They need to be escorted out."

"You don't have to yank on them like that." Eli rose in defense at the way the guard had such a tight and forceful grip on Liam and Malia.

"Okay. We'll go with them." Mason spoke just as quick.

"That won't be necessary." the older man looked his way.

"I said they're my friends!" Mason spoke defensively, causing the guard to give him a harsh shove backwards. Between the tight grip on Liam, the forceful yank on Malia, and now shoving Mason to the ground, Eli grabbed hold of the guard without thinking anything through.

He head butted him extremely hard, indeed making the guard stumble some but not nearly as bad as Eli did. He fell backwards as he held his head, his vision blurried but he saw the guard pulled Liam and Malia off.

"What the hell was that?" Mason asked in disbelief as to what Eli just did. So unlike him in every way possible. The last think he expected from Eli was to head butt someone.

"I told you I shouldn't drink alcohol." Eli held his head in pain, slowly standing up and giving a minor wobble.

"I still think something is really up. Something Liam isn't telling us." Mason exhaled as him and Eli walked through the crowd together, dodging all the guards.

"Maybe, but he's probably protecting yo-us." Eli pointed out, hand pressed to his chest, saving himself quickly.

Mason gave a worried look. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Eli nodded, inhaling deeply. "Just the drinking, all the people, my friends getting taken. You know, casual stuff that makes your anxiety bad."

"We're gonna figure it out." Mason held his shoulder as he looked around. "I see where everything is plugged in at."

"You really think you can get to it?" the Foxx boy asked honestly, following his gaze. "That's a lot of wires."

"I've got this." Mason nodded quickly. "Just cover me."

Eli and Mason pushed through the crowds again, making their way to the large wires. Eli looked around as Mason yanked on them, the music buffering and coming to a completely silence. A stream of boos went over the crowd, the DJ looking over the side in disbelief.

"Mason." Eli hit his shoulder. "We gotta go! We gotta go!"

Mason followed his gaze. "Shit!"

The pair took off in a sprint, being chased by one of the guards all the way back.

"Poor Liam." Eli spoke as he got back into the car. Adeline had been on patrol that night, picking the group up. Scott was the only one not to come, having his own ride with Derek, who Eli was too shy to meet. After dropping Mason off, Eli had helped Liam inside his house before coming back out. "I left him a water bottle but he's so out of it."

"Maybe I should show him that sobriety video that we show the alcoholics at the station." Adeline spoke when Eli was buckled, driving out of the drive way. The strawberry blonde looked at the girl in the backseat with her son. "What's your address, hon?"

Malia blinked, looking over at Eli as he gave a small nod. "You're staying with Henry, right?"

"Sorta." Malia shrugged with a blink. "I usually just go to Stiles' though."

"The sheriffs kid? I can bring you there." Adeline agreed as she glanced through the mirror again. Malia looked over at Eli, not saying anything.

"Maybe Malia can just stay with us tonight." Eli suggested as he glanced toward the front. "It's so late and we actually have a project to work on together."

They did not. Adeline knew that but she cracked a minor grin. "I have patrol for the night."

"I won't let anything get him." Malia spoke up, thinking perhaps she'd worried about leaving them without any supervision for safety.

"Well, that's nice." Adeline laughed slightly. "But that's not why I don't want to leave the two of you alone."

"Mom!" Eli yelled out with a flushed face.

She laughed, turning the wheel. "Both of you have to go to sleep when we get there."

"Obviously." Eli agreed, refusing to look anywhere else but out the window. Malia grinned, looking over as she poked his shoulder slightly. His head turned to her, his gaze meeting a gentle grin across her lips, a small nod his way.

"Okay, bathroom is just right down there. The kitchen has a bunch of stuff that you probably won't like but you can have anything you want. Um, not that you'd need to know, but my moms room is right down there." Eli pointed down to the end of the hallway as he lead Malia through his house. It was a nice little house with a long driveway. Just one story but spread out nicely. Walking in, being met with a living room with shades of royal blue and gray. The hallway long, two bedrooms on opposite sides. "I'm gonna stay in there, and you get my room."

"Your room?" Malia asked, letting Eli take the lead as he walked down the hallway. Malia looked over the photos on the wall, most of them just Adeline and Eli but there'd been a few with others, maybe extended family. She followed after him, his bedroom door opening. Malia glanced around as Eli turned back to face her.

His walls were painted a dark green, a brown night stand and dresser to go along with it. His bed was a queen size, a green plaid comforter across the sheets, white pillow cases on exactly four identical pillows. Malia took her eyes away from the bed, looking at the large world map on the wall above his bed. Turning, she looked at the filled book shelf. Besides it had been a small desk, his laptop on top of it and unfinished homework he blew off for tonight. There was a small shelf of plants by his dresser, being angled perfectly so when his window was open, the sun would hit every single one of them. The final wall had strings and paper clips, holding up a bunch of random photos he'd taken.

Malia realized they were silent too long, looking over to see Eli biting at his fingers. "I like it."

Eli grinned at her. "Me too."

Malia kicked her boots off and Eli realized she didn't have a bag with her. "Oh, hang on."

Malia watched as he pulled his closet open. She laughed. "Think you need more sweater vest?"

Eli grinned as he looked at all of them. "I think so."

He reached his arm toward the back, pulling one of his pink long sleeve shirts out. Malia saw him wear it just the other day, but he'd given her a pair of sweatpants to wear with it rather then when he wore light washed jeans the other day. Malia took them in her hands. "I'll give them back."

"I don't really wear them anyways." he lied to her quickly, shaking his head. Eli glanced at her shirt again, the spill from the flask still there. He blinked in embarrassing at the memory, snapping his eyes back up to meet hers. An awkward laugh escaped his lips. "You can just throw those anywhere and i'll get them back to you. My mom gets here at around eight, that's usually when I wake up. I don't know if you're on a schedule or anything-"

"I'll hear you get up." Malia nodded her head. "Thanks for letting me stay."

"Yeah, you can stay whenever." Eli nodded quickly, biting the inside of his mouth. "My mom has night patrols from ten to eight on Wednesday's and Thursdays but it's usually normal the other nights. She crashes at ten though so you'll have to make it before then."

"You can stay in here on normal nights." Malia stopped him, thinking about where he'd sleep if his moms bed wasn't empty. "I don't care, you just can't sleep in the middle of the bed."

Eli's eyes widened as he nodded quickly. "I usually like the edge anyways, the middle makes me feel like i'm sinking."

Malia nodded. "Can I stay tomorrow too? And the next day?"

Eli blinked. "Yeah, won't your dad get worried though?"

Malia set the clothes down on the bed. "I sneak out after he's asleep. It's hard to sleep there. And I don't want to go to Stiles."

"Yeah, hopefully you like it here." Eli grinned, glancing at his bed. "I wash my sheets with lavender so you should sleep pretty good."

Malia sighed a second. "Would you lie to me to protect me?"

Eli was taken off guard for a second. "Sorry?"

"If something was gonna hurt me, kinda, would you lie to avoid it?" Malia explained, genuinely wanting to know the truth.

Eli thought a seconds. "I think lying to you would put you in more danger then me not telling you the truth."

And somehow, he said exactly what she'd been thinking the entire time, just in words she couldn't form. Eli gave another grin. "Night."

Malia watched him go to the door. "Night."

•

kylie speaks

fav elia chapter?
yes.