LXXIV.                                            Heartbreak Weather

      To Odessa's shock, Eli and her dad got along surprisingly well. Their conversations ran smoothly. Her dad welcomed him into their home like he had known Eli all his life. She was cautious until her mom assured her that everything would be okay, that her father had been waiting for the opportunity to talk to Eli now that all of the karate drama was in the past.

"Wait, wait, let me get this straight," Christian said through fits of laughter. They sat at the table right beside the pool, the adults on one side and Eli and Odessa on the other. "You have a back tattoo?"

"Yeah," Eli nodded and glanced at his girlfriend, "it was a, uh, short phase."

Odessa shook her head. "It wasn't that short, babe."

"Well come on. Let me see." Her dad encouraged and sat up in the chair.

Thalia laughed at his excitement.

Eli stood up and pulled his shirt over his head, which happened to not be spiked up. He turned around and revealed huge tattoo with a blue mohawk.

Christian laughed again, louder that time. "Holy shit, look at that, Tal."

"I've been seeing it, honey." Thalia said with a small laugh.

"Hurt like hell," Eli said and he sat back down. He quickly caught himself. "Heck. It hurt like heck. Sorry." He said with wide eyes.

The family laughed. "Yeah, well, this one hurt like hell, too." Christian said and stood up as well. He showed Eli his leg, a small cobra tattoo on his ankle.

Eli's eyes went wide. "Whoa."

"Ugh, I remember when you got that." Thalia brought up.

"Johnny has the same one, right?" Odessa asked.

Her dad nodded. "Yep." He sat back down and looked across the table at Eli. "1983. Johnny and I lost a bet."

"What was the bet?" Eli asked, intrigued.

"Us and Dutch and Bobby were riding our motorcycle and Bobby dared us that we couldn't ride down the side of this mountain without crashing," Christian explained and glanced at Thalia, who was cringing, "and long story short, we crashed."

"Dad!" Odessa gasped while Eli said, "awesome!" with a gigantic smile on his face.

"They crashed into each other, actually," her mother added in, side eyeing her dad, "I get a call at, like, two in the morning from Bobby. 'Tally, Chris and Johnny are in the hospital!'" She reenacted. "So I got there, gave them both a kiss on the cheek, and then slapped them on their heads."

Christian smiled at her. "But I started to feel better after, so, you got the magic touch."

Thalia smiled back, her nose scrunching.

Eli glanced at Odessa, seeing the faint smile on her face as well.

"Okay!" Christian clapped. "Pool time. Eli, you any good at volleyball?"

"Uhhh, kind of." Eli answered and they got up from the table to go get in the pool.

Thalia leaned forward. "I think your dad has a new best friend," she said to her daughter and smiled.

Odessa blew a laugh out of her nose. She looked over her shoulder and watched Eli do a cannon ball into the pool, his blue hair now soaking wet and her dad jumped in after him. It was a lighthearted moment. She watched her dad's eye glisten as he laughed and Odessa swallowed a lump in her throat, the sound of his reminding her of a happier time.

"Get in girls!" Christian yelled at them.

"I'm coming!" Thalia yelled back and stood up to take her shirt and shorts off. "You coming in, baby girl?"

Odessa nodded and stood up as well. She peeled her tank top and shorts off. She ran and jumped into the ball, splashing all of them.

"Hell yeah!" Eli cheered when she came back up, her blonde hat wet and all in her face. "Nice one, baby."

They high fived. Thalia let out a scream and jumped into as well. "That's my girl!" Christian cheered as well.

"Wait, so your double date turned into a double karate fighting?"

Miguel winced. "Yeah, kind of."

He and Odessa were sparing together the next day at training and Miguel went into detail about what happened at Golf-N-Stuff. "And this Shawn dude knows karate?" She questioned and swung her fist, Miguel blocking it with his forearm.

"No, I don't think so. He just knows how to fight." Miguel answered and he grunted, side kicking her in her side. "Robby says they were in juvie together."

Odessa paused. She looked over at Robby, seeing him practicing with Eli, Oliver, and a bunch of the others guys. She remembered when she went and visited him in juvie and the bruises on his face. "And he's Kenny's brother?" She asked, looking back at Miguel.

He nodded.

"I'll be right back, okay?" She said and walked away from him. Odessa walked over to the group of fighting boys and she went up behind Robby, tapping him on the shoulder. "Robby."

He paused his air punches and turned around to the her. "Dess." He said her name.

"Odessa, you can't interrupt us. We were in the zone." Oliver complained.

"Yeah, I was just about to do a sneak attack on Demetri," Grayson spoke and Demetri, standing in front of him, dropped his jaw. "What? My legs are just as long as yours."

Odessa rolled her eyes. "Can I talk to you for a second, please?" She asked Robby.

"Uh, yeah. Sure." Robby nodded.

The two of them walked away so they could talk almost themselves. Eli's eyes followed them and Oliver smirked. "Jealous?" He teased him.

"Who's jealous?" Grayson asked and turned around.

"Hawk."

Eli rolled his eyes. "Oh please, I'm not jealous." He said with a scoff.

"Why would Eli be jealous?" Demetri asked them. "He got the girl."

"Exactly! And Odessa and Robby are friends. I don't care what they talk about." Eli explained.

"Okayyy." Oliver and Grayson said at the same time, making him roll his eyes again.

"What's up?" Robby asked her.

"I know fighting kind of follows us wherever we go, but, hearing that you got into a fight with the guy who beat you up in juvie kind of worries me." Odessa said quietly.

He sighed. "Miguel told you?" He guessed. She nodded and Robby sighed again. "Dess, it wasn't a big deal. I just—"

"You're trying to save Kenny and Shawn got in your face now that he's back." She interrupted him, already having an idea of what happened. Odessa crossed her arms. "Robby, it's not your job to try and save him."

"I get that but you don't get it, Odessa. If I don't keep trying then Kenny's going to end up like Shawn and I. I don't want that for him." Robby spoke passionately.

"I don't want that for him either!" Odessa raised her voice even though it was still quiet. "But I also don't want you to get hurt. I saw your face that day when I visited you in juvie. If this guy is as psycho as I imagine he is, I can only imagine what he's going to do to you if you keep talking to Kenny."

Robby opened his mouth again to speak but his eyes lifted above her head and he stopped.

Odessa furrowed her brows and looked over her shoulder. She was shocked to see Kenny walk into the backyard. She looked back at Robby, seeing his face the same as hers. He walked past her and Odessa watched him walk up to Kenny.

Oliver and Grayson jogged their way over to her. "Don't tell me the shrimp is joining the dojo after all the shit he pulled?" Oliver said in disbelief.

"Yeah, is this gonna be a Hawk 2.0 situation?" Said Grayson.

Odessa rolled her eyes but in a way, she knew they both had a point. She crossed her arms and sighed.

"So what were you and Robby talking about earlier?"

Odessa looked up from her computer. "At training?" She questioned. Eli nodded. "I was talking to him about Kenny."

"Kenny?" He repeated, feeling like an idiot that he let Oliver and Grayson get to him.

"Yes, Kenny. Why do you ask?" She asked with a slight laugh.

"Oh, no reason. I was just wondering." He spoke quickly while shaking his head.

Odessa raised her brows. "Really?"

Again, he nodded.

"What did Oliver and Grayson say to you?"

"What–How did you know they said something?"

"Because I know them." She emphasized and closed her computer. She sat up and leaned on her arm. "What did they say?" She repeated the question.

Eli sighed in defeat. "You went and talked to Robby and they said that I was jealous," he explained.

"Are you?"

He instantly shook his head. "No," he said with a frown on his face, "but it doesn't mean I don't sometimes think about everything that happened."

Odessa's lips formed a frown. Feeling a small amount of guilt pool in her stomach, she reached forward and put her hand on his cheek. "Eli, I love you. I've always loved you. In the end there wasn't an option of who I loved more because it's always been you." She spoke sincerely. "But Robby's my friend and I still care about his wellbeing, especially when he gets into fights he has no business being in. That goes for all of my friends actually," she said with a laugh, making him grin, "but believe you, you have nothing to think or worry about. Don't listen to those bozos. They only tease you because they love me. Okay?"

After a moment of silence, Eli nodded. "I know. You're right about everything. I just get really scared of the thought of losing you again. I love you so much."

Odessa smiled and brought his face close to her. She kissed him on the nose. "Right back at you, babe." She whispered and then kissed his lips.

She pulled away and reopened her laptop, the smile on Eli's face never fading. She laid back down on her stomach. "What are you looking at on that thing?" He asked and leaned over her to look at the screen, his arm crossing over her back.

"I'm looking at the Stanford home page. You should see their performing arts center. It's huge." Odessa told him while scanning the computer screen. When he didn't say anything back, she turned her head and saw his fallen face. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing," Eli responded, "it's just kind of crazy how we're old enough to be talking about college." He expressed. "I still remember the day I saw you in the cafeteria when Miguel started school with us. I remember thinking holy shit, she's so hot."

Odessa rolled her eyes. "Oh, whatever." She chuckled.

"No, I'm serious," he said and leaned down, kissing the top of her head, "who knew someone as amazing as you would change my life forever?"

A smile crept on her lips. Odessa closed her computer again and put it away on the other side of her bed. She rolled over onto her back, Eli still hovered over her. "You changed my life, E. Believe me."