Psychopathic (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 71

Everything was coated in white and it was freezing cold as Eli grabbed the hot drink Rowan had given him. It had been several hectic months, but once it snowed everything had calmed down and he found himself spending more time inside than he did outside.

There was a lot of time that he spent alone just thinking. The dull ache in his heart was slowly going away until it was easily forgotten, but one had still persisted.

Now that the snow was slowly melting away and they could walk around without slipping on anything, Eli got surprising news from Rowan. News that he didn't expect, and he didn't know how to feel about it. He almost refused to go with her.

Because as far as they both knew, Ari had been secretly seeing someone and his situation had been complicated. Even when Eli asked Rowan about it, she didn't know much and claimed that Ari rarely brought up anything related to that mystery person. All they knew was that he is a guy, and apparently, he was also Ari's mate.

The first time he learned about this, Eli was devastated.

Being in love with someone was never an easy thing, and he slowly found himself realizing that he loved Ari only to find out that their situation was hopeless from the beginning. Eli had been in a relationship with Alec at the time, his own mate, and it didn't help that the both of them were omegas. Even Cassie didn't sound so optimistic when he raised the possibility of them being together.

Instead she gently told him that it was not something that was going to last, and he refused to accept it at first.

But then Ari left, and all that was left between them were occasional calls and texts that helped them maintain the friendship they had, yet allowed for Eli's feelings to die down a bit. Eli's love for Ari became a dull flame in his heart, and while it kept burning, it struggled to remain aflame.

And now Ari was back because Rowan had asked him to visit, and Eli found himself terrified of reigniting that flame. He was also terrified of the pain he felt when he knew Ari was in love with someone else, that he had a mate and was marked already – he had to be, it has been months.

But when he finally saw him sitting there, the flame remained a dull one.

Even when he smiled that beautifully captivating smile of his, one that would usually make his breath get caught in his throat, Eli didn't feel anything more than what he was feeling. They grew apart.

Yet there was still a dull ache in his heart, it never left.

"It's good to see you." Eli smiled warming up his hands with his hot drink, and Rowan sat beside him with a drink of her own. "We really missed you. How's everything?"

Nobody knows if the redness in Ari's face was because of the cold or something else, but Eli knew then that Ari was never in love with him. "Everything is great."

Eli was surprised to find himself genuinely happy to hear that.

"At least you texted this time." Rowan said looking at him fondly, but was still shaking her head at her friend's habit of disappearing out of nowhere. "I really miss our bake and talks. Eli here is atrocious at baking."

Even when he tried to look offended, Eli couldn't help but smile when Ari let out a laugh. The conversations that followed made them fall into a comfortable joyful mood, that is until one of Eli's stray glances caught sight of something that made him go still.

Rowan was talking about something funny, but Eli wasn't listening.

A kick to his feet made him look up at Ari who looked at him as if he knew what just happened, and his next words proved to him that he did. "Maybe you should sort things out."