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Diaz apartment !!

ELIANA STEPPED INTO THE BUILDING WHILE WAVING TO ELI. He smiled and said goodbye, looking a little better than before she helped with his hair.

The door shut a little louder than she hoped, and she heard a bed spring squeak.

"Ellie?" Carmen peeked her head out her room, closing the door softly behind her as she walked out.

"Hi, Mama."

"Why are you here so late?"

"Sorry," Eliana spoke quietly, "I had to help Eli with something."

Carmen nodded and wiped her face, walking back to her room. "Please get some sleep, it's very late, Amor."

She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and pulled off her hoodie. Dark red poked out from her brown hair. Maybe not the best color to dye her hair right now, but it was her favorite.

She made her way to her bedroom and pulled off her hoodie before plopping onto her bed. She almost settled on the bed before reaching over to untie her shoes, finally climbing all the way over her bed.

Her head on her pillow, she felt her phone go off. She struggled to lift her butt, trying to pull her phone out of her back pocket.

Hey

What r you doing

Just got home

So not doing anything?

No

Anthony's contact name appeared at the top of her screen just as her phone started ringing, her camera turning on suddenly.

She sat up and fixed up her appearance before answering the call.

"You look tired," Was the first thing she heard out of her phone.

She turned her head to hide a smile. "It's pretty late at night."

"What time do you usually fall asleep?"

"Is there a reason you called?"

Anthony shrugged and ran a hand through his curly hair. "I was bored, didn't know what to do." He looked at his screen, Eliana still wasn't facing the camera. "What happened, your neck stuck that way?"

"What, no." She put down her arm covering her head and turned to the camera, bending her legs to lean on them and resting her arm on her knees. All in an attempt to cover the bottom half of her face.

Anthony's eyes squinted, "I think there's something in your hair."

Eliana reached for her hair and then giggled after remembering it doesn't look the same. "No, that's dye."

The sound of her laugh filled Anthony's ears. It was his favorite sound. He saw the skin around her eyes wrinkle, indicating a smile, and he wished she would lift her head up so he could see it in full.

"When did that happen?" He pointed to her hair, as if she was able to tell.

She adjusted herself to sit comfortably against her headboard, "Like, 25 minutes ago."

"Oh, wow." He nods his head, his mind stuck on her expression. Her toothy grin, he'd never seen her smile that big. It was beautiful. "It.. looks good."

"Thanks." It was obvious he hesitated to finish the compliment, but what was important to Eliana was that he said it.

Lately, she noticed she would look around the hallways in school to find Anthony, or during lunch, she would look around the cafeteria to find him.

She assumed it was just because of his sudden interest in her. That she felt the obligation to pay attention to him. She was wrong.

She was slumped over, sliding down, getting closer to laying again. She moved to pull her blanket over her legs and put her phone down.

Anthony sat on his chair, leaning his arms against the desk. "Where'd you go?" His voice was soft.

"Relax, I'm just tying my hair up."

He stared at the sight of her ceiling, waiting patiently for her to show up. He lit up when she appeared in frame of the camera. "Hey there."

"Hi." She grinned and fixed her bangs, briefly yawning.

"It's, like, 10 pm." Anthony shrugged while lifting himself off the desk and leaning against the back of his spinning chair. "If you're tired, I can go."

"No, no. It's okay." She yawned again, and tried to hide it in her arm. "What are you even doing?"

"Oh, I was just watching stuff on my computer."

"What were you watching?"

He hesitated, "Is that.. important?" He peeked at the paused screen.

"It can't be that bad."

He grabbed his phone and turned the camera, slowly lifting it to show the computer screen. He watched as her eyes widened and she laughed in disbelief.

"Y'know, I'm not sure why but I would've never guessed you watched Lego movies." He rolled his eyes as he turned the camera back around and set his phone against the computer.

"What would you have guessed?"

"I don't know, Breaking Bad or something."

"The closest to Breaking Bad I've gotten is Shameless."

"Oh, I love Shameless! It's so good."

They discussed their favorite moments from their favorite shows. Anthony mentioned the first dance sequence of The Umbrella Academy's season 3. Eliana gushed about Brooklyn 99 and her favorite episode, Jake & Amy. And she followed with The Box.

She went on for a while about the show in general, catching herself after a bit and letting Anthony talk. He didn't mind watching her talk about the things she loved, but her recognition of him, and the fact that she let him speak his mind with her undivided attention gave him a feeling he wasn't sure he felt before.

It was nice, finally being the focus of the conversation. Where whatever he said was important to the exchange, and no matter how dumb or nonsensical, Eliana would listen.

And not how people usually listened to him. She would process the words in her head and add onto them. She paid attention.

While they talked Anthony could tell Eliana was struggling to stay up but she refused to sleep. Why didn't she just go to sleep? The question circled his mind, clouded over by all his other thoughts. Thoughts of how Eliana looked, how she acted, how she made him feel.

By 11:50, they were both comfortably lying in their beds.

Eliana had a thought. It was deep in her mind for a bit already and she decided to voice it.

"Why are you suddenly so interested in talking to me?"

Anthony's face contorted, "What do you mean?"

"We never really talked as much as we've been talking. I'm just curious."

A bit of time passed while he tried to come up with an excuse. "I guess, I just wanted to talk to you. It's not that big of a deal."

Eliana assumed he would've said something along those lines, so it didn't surprise her. She didn't know why she thought he might be truthful about it.

"I'm glad you did." Her voice was quiet. Her tone was sincere.

Anthony smiled, and before he could say anything Eliana was asleep.

"G'night Lana." He softly spoke, and watched her for a bit, eventually hanging up the call. He didn't want to waste her battery.

He turned his lights off and plugged in his phone to charge. He pulled up his blanket to be comfy, and his eyelids closed. He was asleep.

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Dylan speaks !!

This was supposed to be episode 5 but I need to update this book and I can't write the episode rn cause I'm watching a movie.

Js trust episode 5 is coming real soon 🙏🏻