crossing line - part one
Lorcan Salvaterre was in love with his best friend. There was not one ounce of doubt in his soul that he was a complete goner for her.
Right now, they were on their way to the football game and there she was, sitting in the passenger seat and rapping along to whatever song she had chosen.
“All my life, I want money and power,” Elide was smiling, her lips, painted bright red, pulled into a wide grin, “Respect my mind or die from lead shower, I pray my dick get big as the Eiffel Tower, so I can fuck the world for seventy-two hours!”
Lorcan just shook his head at her antics and turned his gaze back to the road that lead to Elide’s school.
Even though they lived barely ten metres apart, they were technically in different districts so they attended separate schools.
She laughed as they pulled into the parking lot, rolling down her window and blasting Backseat Freestyle when she spotted a boy with beautifully brown skin and bleached hair, shorn short, meticulous wave patterns over his skull, his silk head wrap hanging from his bag, his helmet tucked under his arm. “Fen!”
The boy turned and cheered, holding his fist to his mouth as he rapped alongside her, “I’ve got twenty-five lighters on my dresser, yessir! Put fire to that ass, body cast on a stretcher!”
Elide was opening the door and racing across the parking lot to him before Lorcan had even pulled into a spot, throwing her arms around Fenrys’ neck, “You didn’t show up to movie night!”
“Yeah, I got a life outside the squad, Ellie,” he said, smiling as he set her down, slinging his arm around her shoulders. “Cute bow,” he flicked her cheer bow, attached to the base of her high ponytail.
“Cute pants,” she shot back at him, slapping his ass. Fenrys snapped his teeth at her and they slowly started walking to the field, chatting quietly.
Just as they reached the gates, Elide swore and paused, “Fuck me, I forgot my poms! Shit, I’m so fucked.” She spun around, about to race home in Lorcan’s truck to get them and then saw Lorcan walking up, his football bag slung over his shoulder, her poms in his other hand.
“Looking for these?” he asked, a brow quirked up and he smirked down at her.
Elide nodded and smiled, reaching for them when he lifted them high above her head. She pouted and crossed her arms, sticking her bottom lip out, “Hey, that’s mean!” She just waited, fake sniffling and his restraint was shot, she was too cute and perfect. Elide grinned triumphantly as he passed them to her and rolled his eyes. “Thank you,” she said, wrapping her arm around his waist.
Lorcan sighed through his nose and dropped a kiss on her head “Anytime, E.” They walked in step to the field. The guys were standing by the benches, smirking at the two of them and the look in Lorcan’s eyes promised a slow and pain-filled death.
The smirks dropped from their faces and Elide slid away from him, rocking on her tip-toes to press her lips to his cheek, “Good luck, I hope you lose.”
She pranced away and he called after her, “I hope you fall and break every bone in your body.” Elide just flipped him off over her shoulder and he watched her for a few seconds as she joined the rest of the cheer squad.
When he turned back to the team, they all had shit eating smiles on their faces. “What.” he snarled, tossing his bag to the bench. “Stop looking at me like that.” He used the hem of his shirt to wipe away the lipstick mark she had left.
It was Fenrys, of course it was fucking Fenrys, who began, “Lorcan and Ellie, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-”
“I’m gonna fucking kill you,” promised Lorcan, feigning a move at Fenrys, who shrieked and cowered, waiting for a hit that never came. “Ha, got you.”
“This is bullying, you know.”
“Boy, shut your bitch ass up or I’ll do it for you,” warned Lorcan, his hands busy with adjusting his head band to keep his hair back.
Fenrys just smirked back at him, “No you won’t, Ellie won’t let you.”
All Lorcan could do was scowl, “Fuck you.” But it was completely true.
At halftime, Yrene stood next to a seated, half dressed Lorcan, his jersey and padding on the ground next to him. She held his arm and twisted it this way and that, asking him where and when it hurt. “Y, I’m telling you, it’s not that ba-ah, fuck.”
“Not that bad, huh?” she asked, her eyebrow raised. “Sure, Salvaterre. Wanna go back on and tear it more? No? Didn’t think so, you’re not playing.”
Their team physio-therapist shot him a hard look and he promptly shut his mouth, glowering at the ground. “Lorcan, I know you wanna play, but if you’re trying to get signed to a university, you can’t be hurting yourself in exhibition game, ok? Save yourself till playoffs.”
“Yeah, fine.” He took the instant ice pack that she passed him and the roll of tape, fully prepared to wrap it himself, but then Elide appeared in front of him, worry on her face, her brows furrowed. “El, I’m-”
She slapped him upside the head, frowning down at him. “You idiot, you told me you were fine!”
“Ow, I’m injured, you can’t hurt the invalid!” he protested, passing her the ice and tape when she held her hand out for them. “I can do it myself, you know.”
She snorted as she moved behind him, lifting his right hand to hold the pack on his left shoulder. “Oh, I can just go back, then, if you don’t need me?”
“Shut up, you know I need you, I’m useless without you.”
Elide laughed, the sound melodious and full. It was the soundtrack of his dreams, a sound he would follow when he woke only to have reality crash down on him. “Don’t you forget it,” she said, her tongue poking out of her lips as she concentrated on snugly wrapping the tape. She glanced up at him and he was sure that the blush on her cheeks was from the cold. “That good?”
“Yeah, thanks,” he replied. He leaned to his bag to grab his cutoff tank top, pulling it over his head and missing the way her eyes ogled his bare and sweaty chest, warm brown skin with copper undertones glowing under the lights as she helped him get his left arm through the hole. “You cold, E?”
“Mm, take my hoodie,” he said, passing it to her. She grinned and accepted it, the article of clothing practically drowning her, not that she minded. Elide turned back to the field and Lorcan stood, wrapping his arms around her shoulders, his chin resting on her head.
Elide hummed and held onto his forearms, tilting her head back to smile at him. “Am I staying at yours tonight?”
“Yeah, whatever you want,” he murmured, brushing a kiss to her forehead. “Oh, I got your ticket.”
Elide turned in his arms and looped hers around his waist, “Ticket? For what?”
She scowled at him, her voice monotone, “Wow, what a beautiful and romantic Promposal, thank you so much, Lorcan, of course I’ll go with you.”
“You won’t go unless you get a Promposal?” he questioned, leaning down to press his forehead to hers. “Spoiled brat.”
Elide pinched his side, hard. It was somewhat of a specialty of hers. “Obviously I’ll go with you. That means you have to go dress shopping with me, we’ll go tomorrow.” With that, she slid from his arms, halftime almost over.
“Who’s hosting tonight?” asked Elide, the game over and won by Lorcan’s team, not that that was a surprise, Staghorn Secondary had the strongest team and dominated over every other school, as well as Orynth Secondary, Elide’s school.
“Nobody, Fen and Con are never allowed to host again after last weekend and V is still grounded and Ro has plans.” Most likely with Aelin, the two had been skirting around a relationship for years.
“Fuck, that was so fun, though!”
“Remember the next morning?” Lorcan nudged her, chuckling at the memory of her still faded the next day.
“We don’t talk about that, what happens at Fen and Con’s, stays there.” She smiled at the memory, recalling how she had managed to convince Lorcan to go out and get her food, not that it ever took much for him to do something for her. She had him completely wrapped around her baby finger. “Oh, gods, and you hooked up with that girl, what’s her name?”
Lorcan gritted his jaw, “Don’t remember.”
“You so do, I’ll just ask Ace-”
“Don’t you fucking dare, she-devil. Leave it.”
Elide cackled as she dug her hand into his pocket and grabbed his keys, sauntering off, his eyes on her ass in her green and gold cheer uniform, a mini-skirt that hit just above mid-thigh and a tight, long sleeved crop top, her dark hair pulled up into a tight ponytail and topped with a gold bow. He barely realized that she was in the driver’s seat and starting up the truck.
“C’mon, I wanna get food,” she whined, honking the horn to get him to move from where he was frozen in place. “Hurry your skinny ass up!”
Lorcan bared his teeth at Elide, “I’m thicker than a Snicker and you know it. You wish you had cake like me.” She was completely unimpressed as he tossed his bag into the backseat and slammed the door shut, his shoulder barking in pain as he swung himself into the passenger seat.
Elide busied herself by adjusting her seat, moving it as far as it would go so that her feet could reach the pedals. She then jacked it up, still barely tall enough to see over the dash. Lorcan was utterly in love with her, How does one person become so fucking cute and beautiful?
Soon enough, she was pulling onto the road, the windows all the way down and the sunroof open. A couple moments later, trashy country music was blaring through the speakers and Elide was belting the lyrics, her voice like honey and sugar, even when it was hoarse after cheering.
Lorcan just watched her, falling for her over and over again. With every little, teeny voice crack, his heart fluttered in his chest and eventually she glanced over at him, “Sing!”
“Not gonna happen, princess.” To really make his point, he crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head. “Turn up here,” he nodded his head to the road that they lived on.
“I know where we live, you asshole, and yes, sing for me, you have such a pretty voice!” Elide pointed at him as she sang, “But he don’t knooowwww…..”
Lorcan rolled his eyes and sighed, but still, “I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped-up four-wheel drive, I carved my name into the leather seats…”
Elide laughed and turned onto their road, “Took a Louisville slugger to both headlights, I slashed a hole in all four tires, maybe next time he’ll think before he cheats,” she sang, turning the music low as she pulled into his driveway. She sighed contentedly, shutting off the truck and hopping out before Lorcan had even unbuckled his seat belt.
By the time he caught up to her, Elide was perched on the kitchen counter, swinging her legs as she spoke with his mother, Odette, she turned to stare at him with a look of complete disbelief, You still haven’t told her, have you?
He subtly shook his head and she sighed. Odette noticed his shoulder and glared as she moved closer, her long onyx hair swaying, “I told you not to play!” She began poking and prodding, turning her son this way and that. “You idiot, you’ve only made it worse!”
“Leave me alone, Hellas below, I’m resting, I promise.”
“You also promised us you wouldn’t play if it hurt,” commented Elide, munching on dry cereal, straight from the box.
“Hey, E, fuck off,” he said, batting his mother’s hands away. “I’m fine, I’ll take an ice bath tonight, it’ll be fine.”
“Ooh, sounds fun,” Elide teased, hopping off the counter. “‘K, I’m gonna go home and get some stuff and say good night to my parents, I shall return!” With that, Elide was gone, leaving out the back door attached to the kitchen.
“You should tell her,” Odette stated, picking something off of his shirt. “You should hear how she talks about you when you’re not here, baby.”
“She talks about me like I’m her best friend. And that’s it.”
“Oh, baby, you know I love you, but you are just so mind-numbingly stupid.”
Lorcan was sprawled across his bed when Elide arrived, her makeup washed and her hair in a messy bun on the top of her head. She still had on her uniform when she walked in. “Hey,” she greeted him, leaning over to kiss his cheek.
Lorcan snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her into bed with him, nuzzling his face into her hair. “Hi.”
She sighed and melted against him, “I’m gonna get changed and then I’m sleeping. I’m pooped.”
He chuckled and nodded his head, sitting up and pressing his lips to her temple. “Me too.”
She smiled softly and brushed his hair off his brow, her long nails scratching his scalp. It was times like these, these soft and warm and intimate moments when the words were sitting heavy on his tongue, but he couldn’t ruin any of these fleeting seconds, precious and so incredibly temporary. He stayed silent, grinning sleepily up at her. “I’ll be right back,” she murmured, seeming like she felt the fragility of this second and wanted to preserve it.
Lorcan flopped back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling, cursing himself for everything. He was so, so fucked. Groaning slightly, his shoulder screaming in agony, he sat up and turned on his music, the soft vibes of Frank Ocean floating around the room.
Round the city, round the clock
No, you can’t make everybody equal
Although you got beaucoup family
You ain’t even got nobody being honest with you
A soft grunt was pulled from him as a body launched onto his lap, pinning him to the bed.
His best friend was wearing a pair of his sweats, emblazoned with Staghorn Secondary’s mascot on the thigh, his number thirteen beneath it, as well as his initials. She wore a black sports bra, her thick hair still pulled into a bun. Elide grinned as she straddled his lap, holding up a container of something.
Lorcan shook his head, “I’m not doing it.”
Elide sighed and she unscrewed the cap, leaning back to place the lid on his bedside table. The scent of freshness permeated the air around them as she scooped out a dollop of the face mask with her finger, “You are.”
Too late, his protests went unheard and Elide dabbed it on his cheek, her brows furrowed as she carefully spread the clay mask on his face, making sure to leave his stubble alone. “Come on, it makes your skin so so soft,” she said, a light sparking in her dark irises.
Lorcan just sighed through his nose and let it happen, his hands running up her legs to hold her thighs. He resigned himself to the knowledge that Elide was the love of his life and he just didn’t have the luxury of being hers.
songs (if u were wondering at all) (by order of appearance):
Backstreet Freestyle - Kendrick Lamar (good kid, m.A.A.d city, 2012)
Before He Cheats - Carrie Underwood (Some Hearts, 2005)
Nights - Frank Ocean (blonde, 2017)
