The exchange student

Gummy Bears

Elliot was in his room reading one of the biggest novels he owned, not because he had nothing better to do, but to take his mind off of things.

When he allowed his mind to wonder he thought of his worst memories, the saddest songs he's ever heard, really anything that made him feel uncomfortable and it ultimately led to small sobs, then louder ones signifying his increasing discomfort.

He cried often, but he never liked to make himself cry, so his rule was to always keep busy, busy to the point where you're exhausted. If you're so tired to the point where you fall asleep almost immediately, then there's no space to think. Elliot liked that, thinking made him scared of what might come out of it. It was never good.

His mother had told him days prior that they would be the host family for an exchange student in his grade. Elliot has hoped With all his heart it was a girl. Boys didn't like him because of his body figure, something that was passed down genetically and you can't control. The most he could do was loose weight but the shape would stay so he opted for just being chubby and wearing sweatpants and hoodies all the time. "My thighs are too fat to be on display", he'd say or "my arms are too chubby to be shown". His parents didn't know about their sons on going issue with his body and bullies, I mean how could they? Elliot never spoke to them unless they spoke first and even then the response was a few words and that usually signaled the end of conversation.

Back to the topic at hand, the student was coming from Sweden to study in America for Junior and Senior year of high school. They'd be coming 3 days before the official start of school so the family could get accustomed to them and they to the family.

Elliots mom refused to tell him the gender, insisting on it being a surprise, which made him think it was a boy, she likes to push him to make new friends (unwarranted), but he still hoped it wasn't anyway. Since nothing else went well in his life. He hoped that this one tiny thing would.

He realized his mind started to drift, looking at the fragile pages of the ginormous book yet not reading a single word, following along in eyes alone, thought elsewhere.

"What if they don't like me and bully me at home"?

"What if they do something worse than my bullies at school"?

"What if they break my things while I'm not looking"?

"What if they blame me for things and get me in trouble"?

With each passing question an image, some kind of silhouette appeared in Elliots mind, each time this figure did as his thoughts described and just thinking about it made his shiver just a bit. He was not ready for anyone to come to his house, he already had no friends and felt like an outcast in every aspect of his life, how could it get any worse?

A week had passed.

Then another.

These few weeks were normal and not, at the same time. Elliot just HAD to fix his room, even though the student was going to stay in the guest room. He had to make everything look perfect, although eventually while living here the exchange student would very well
See the facade that he was putting on just for their first meeting. His parents meticulously prepared the house for this person as if they were a celebrity, even going as far as getting decorations to welcome him "home".

Although Elliot says parents, he only has his mom, and an older brother that moved out for college 2 years ago, Elliots mother still kept his bedroom in tact for when he came back on breaks.

Elliots father was out in the world doing whatever dead beat fathers do, with all the problems Elliot has, he didn't have the energy to give a fuck about someone who never gave a fuck about him and left his mom to take care of two children on her own. That's all there is to that story.