Between the Lines | ✓

Falling for the Bad Boy: Elias's POV (Part 2)

A/N: Apologies for the suuuper long wait - life got in the way, but we got there in the end, slowly but surely! Thank you so much for sticking with this little story, and I hope you enjoyed it until this very last chapter! 

Ah, and heads up, sexual content at the end of the chapter ;)

Falling for the Bad Boy - Part VIII

"Well, I think you should just tell him," Aubrey said emphatically as we left the classroom, books in hand.

I stared at the girl walking with me flatly, Aubrey letting out a series of indignant huffs and bumping her shoulder against me, her smaller frame barely even making me stray from the brick-lined path leading away from the science building.

"What! Don't look at me like that! I'm serious, Elias! You should totally just tell Alex how you feel!" Aubrey urged again, and I shook my head incredulously. The tight, anxious feeling in my chest that seemed all too familiar these days began to trickle in. 

"No. No way, Aubrey. I... He doesn't like me like that, okay? I'd just be setting myself up for absolute misery and embarrassment," I groaned, Aubrey rolling her blue eyes and huffing again. "Listen. Best case scenario, he is totally accepting of my feelings even though he doesn't reciprocate, and he says that we should just remain friends. If that happens, I'll just sadly pine after him for the rest of my life, and maybe have to watch him get married to someone else. Worst case scenario, he has a homophobic freak out and says I should go to Hell, and I lose him forever. Honestly, they're both bad case scenarios, but relatively one is less depressing than the other."

"Alex isn't a homophobe, Elias! I know that, you know that, and that LGBT advocate we passed on the street the other day knows that too. Alex was super nice to her and helped her with directions while also complimenting her pan-pride shirt, remember? But that's beside the point. I really do think that he might like you back," Aubrey offered again, the hope that brewed in my heart every time she said those words only deflating as quickly as it came.

"Aubrey, I've... I've put out feelers, you know? I've... hinted at my feelings, more than hinted, really. Any other person would've realised how I feel with how obvious I've been, but..."

"Alex is just stupid," Aubrey finished for me, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"That, or he's purposefully ignoring all of the signals I'm giving him because he doesn't know how to shoot me down," I said, Aubrey frowning. "Aubrey, you know him. He's kind, sometimes maybe too kind, which is why he made me fall for him in the first place. But... I don't know. He doesn't like confrontation, and he doesn't like to hurt other people's feelings. I think... I think he has to know how I feel, but he doesn't know how to break my heart. He's probably just biding his time, trying to think of a way to let me down gently..."

"But, are you sure...?" Aubrey said, somehow still skeptical. "Because I swear, Alex..."

"Aubrey, after you left after the party, we went to the park, and..."

I sighed heavily, stopping in the hallway and looking at my friend seriously, telling her everything that happened under the trees and the stars.

I tried not to let my breath hitch as I gathered all of my nerves to grab Alex's hand. Despite the night chill, his hand was large and warm, a furnace that blocked out the cold and the frost, warming me from the inside out. I wondered if Alex could tell that my breaths had ceased entirely when I nudged myself closer to him, our heads almost bumping. I wondered if he knew how nervous I was, how I begged my hands not to sweat as I held his, how my toes were curled in my shoes to suppress the urge to squirm.