[Twice Featured Noteworthy Novel & Staff Pick on Tapas.io] ✔
[Previously featured on Tapas.io's LGBTQ+ Community collection] ✔
One night. That was all it took for Senn Reyes' life to change drastically--and permanently.
Senn Reyes is a seventeen-y...
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Tuesday
There was a gentle knock on Senn's door—while he was in bed—hiding from the world while under his comforter. Nice, cozy, warm, safe.
No judgemental looks, no gossip or rumors about anything that had to do with his life. No shameless staring, no people telling him 'they knew how he felt'.
They didn't.
Really, they had no idea what any part of Senn's life was like nowadays. Nobody who hadn't gone through so much loss, could ever possibly understand what it felt like to Senn to lose whatever he had with Elio. Who was, in fact—as far as Senn knew—the only person in town that he knew, who could and did understand what it felt like to be him. After all, he was in the exact same position as Senn found himself in.
He lost a parent, and he lost whatever they had shared in the few weeks that had passed since the beginning of Senn's schoolyear.
Senn was longing to see him. Every inch of him was crying out for his jokes, his laughs, his wise words and his lame sticky notes. Which had, obviously, ended since that weekend. No more reasons for Senn to continue fighting, no more notes to tell him where to meet, no more things he should still experience.
No more Elio.
He had been absent from school for two days already, and Senn couldn't help but wonder; was it something with Joseph, or was he too angry to face Senn?
"Senn?" Aunt Tessa's soft voice sounded through the crack of the door, and Senn suddenly realized he never replied to her knock. By the time he threw the cover off his face, she was carefully shuffling into his room with cookies and milk.
"That might be exactly what I need right now," Senn muttered, shoving aside his diary to make room for the tray with the delicious cookies.
"Cookies, milk, or a good old conversation with your crazy aunt Tessa?"
"All three, in that order."
Tessa chuckled, handing him a cookie, a glass of milk, took both for herself as well, and sat down on the bed with him.
I heard what happened," she said with a calm voice and a worried frown on her face. "I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with the boys when we got home on Saturday."
"It's okay, it wasn't really a private conversation."
"Good to know that part is okay. What about you? You seem awfully distracted and withdrawn again."
"Well, I'm officially dragged out of the closet. Everybody seems to know what happened between Elio and me, and they all know what we were fighting about."
"And how are your friends treating you?"
"Good, but Avan and Lucas already knew. The girls just have to get used to it. Other people I used to hang out with are fine too. But there's a lot of hate still. The only positive thing about the accident is that people seem to stop themselves from giving me a hard time."
