Ineffable ? Joost Klein ?

6.

'Sorry,' Joost said. His lopsided smile had vanished from his face, leaving him with tight lips and dulled eyes. He looked at Elke with a pity that she hated but was used to.

Elke sighed and said, 'It's okay. I'm sorry about that.'

'You have nothing to apologise for. In fact, he should be apologising to you.'

Pushing hair out of her face, Elke noticed that Joost's friends had retreated to the black Porsche. They talked about the encounter with scoffs and rolled eyes. Even though it had been tense, they laughed at points and imitated Roan's voice. Elke felt like she should be offended but she was no where near the word.

'Do you have a ride home?' Joost asked, bringing Elke's attention back to the man beside her. His tall frame loomed over her and a street light beamed perfectly behind his head. It made his bright hair cast shadows over his chiselled face. Elke tried to drag her eyes behind him or anywhere that would appear as a casual sweep of the eyes, but ultimately, Elke ended up back at Joost.

'I drove here.'

'In your Swift?' she nodded and Joost broke out into a smile. 'That's brave. Where is it?'

She pointed a finger to the next carpark across the street. On it's lonesome, sat her Suzuki. Fresh from the factory with no modifications, Elke's standard vehicle sunk into the background of the loud sports cars around them. She wouldn't have dared to park it where the petrolheads of the meet would see it or assume it belonged to someone attending.

Joost thought it was the most adorable thing he had ever seen. A Swift sitting on it's own in the dark was one thing, the thought of Elke parking it far away and hurrying with her head down was another. He laughed, turned back to Elke and adored the way she smiled shyly.

'Look, Joost...' she started, her smile fading and putting him on edge. 'I'm sorry about Roan. He can be such a child some times and for him to talk to you and your friends like that is unacceptable.'

'Don't worry about it-'

'No, it's not okay,' Elke crossed her arms and exasperated her tone. 'He's so prideful and I don't know what to do with him anymore. He embarrassed himself and me and I'm just so sick of it.'

There was so much that Joost wanted to say. It was hard enough to watch a man like Roan parade around while a woman like Elke trailed behind him. But to hear Elke voice her honesty on how she really felt, it became a whole new game of Joost biting his tongue.

'I'm just your neighbour,' he started and Elke went to retract her previous rant. Had she let too much slip? Was Joost feeling uncomfortable with her berating her boyfriend?

'But I'm also a guy with eyes, so I don't understand why Roan acts the way he does with someone like you to his name.'

Elke didn't understand and she showed it by raising her eyebrows in question. Joost pursed his lips at her reaction and glanced to his right, where Tantu, Daan, Enzo and Stuntje watched closely.

He had been feeling their stares for the entire conversation. It was only now that he considered calling for their help.

Tantu had filled them in on who Roan was and why the man disliked Joost as much as he did. This made his friends, who weren't occupied like Apson with his own girlfriend, watch the interaction while hanging on to every movement of Joost and Elke's mouths.

Turning back, Joost's fingers fidgeted in his pockets at the brown eyes that stared up at him. He wanted to shy away, make an excuse on why he had to leave. But at the same time, every tortured minute next to Elke was a minute Joost thought about fondly.