✪☆Eli☆✪

“Closer Than an Excuse” Eli wasn’t the type to fall for the obvious. While the whole campus chased after cheerleaders, basketball stars, and student council presidents, his eyes had landed on someone entirely different—Noah, the quiet boy who sat in the back of class, always hiding behind thick books and sleeves that swallowed his hands. The problem? Noah barely talked to anyone besides Mia, the most popular girl in school and his best friend since childhood. That’s when Eli’s plan formed. He leaned against Mia’s locker one morning, flashing his easy smile. “So… don’t laugh, but I think I might have a crush on you.” Mia raised a brow. She’d heard confessions a hundred times before, but there was something too casual about Eli’s. “On me? Or on the boy who can’t even look up when you walk by?” Eli blinked. She was sharp. “Okay, maybe both. But I need your help.” From that day on, Eli found himself dragging Mia into corners between classes, asking for advice that had nothing to do with her. “How do I get him to notice me?” “What does he like besides books?” “Do you think he’d smile if I brought him coffee?” At first, Mia rolled her eyes, but she eventually softened, amused by Eli’s determination. She gave him little tips: how Noah liked people who spoke gently, how he always paused at the vending machine before math class, how his favorite color was a soft blue. Eli followed everything. He started greeting Noah quietly in the mornings, slipping a blue pen onto his desk “by accident,” and waiting near the vending machine just to bump into him. Slowly, Noah’s eyes began to linger longer, his voice not so shaky when he whispered “thank you.” One afternoon, Mia caught Eli staring at Noah across the library, his grin unguarded, his chest rising like every heartbeat was louder than the next. “You’re in deep,” she teased. Eli didn’t deny it. “That was the plan all along." (pls read configuration for full story.)