E L I J A H
"Oh and I'm sure Arius is envious that I got a higher grade last exam, just in philosophy though. Metaphysics kicks - wait, are you even listening to me?" Elijah blurted out mid sentence.
He's met with nothing.
Ryder was staring at her phone screen with narrowed eyes and was positively fuming.
Elijah threw a pillow at her as gently as he could, but hard enough to reach her across their room.
"Ry? Is everything alright?" Elijah sat up straight, getting serious.
"What? Yeah yeah, I'm good!" She shook her head slightly, standing up and stretching.
"You know you can talk to me right? What's wrong? I can tell something's bothering you!" Elijah asked stepping up near the stand from where he grabbed the Neck Deep hoodie and threw it at Ryder who shot him a pained smile as she put it on. It was her comfort blanket, she always wore it when she was feeling upset or sad.
"Nothing's wrong, I'm fine, believe me!" Ryder smiled, this time looking scarily convincing.
Elijah was really worried at this point, Ryder never held back from telling him when something was bothering her, but clearly this was different. He wanted nothing more than to be there for her but she wouldn't let him. And Elijah couldn't do anything about it.
They turned off the lamp and lay in their beds, a thick, uncomfortable silence suffocating them. Elijah was wide awake, his senses hyper alert to any movement in the room. He knew Ryder was awake as well.
He looked at the ceiling, waiting with bated breath for Ryder to say something, anything, but it didn't come.
Just as he was drifting off to sleep, he heard a tiny sniffle and the rustling of covers. And then another sniffle. That was it, he wasn't having any more of this.
Elijah grabbed his comforter and stalked up to Ryder's bed.
"Ry, scoot."
Slowly, Ryder moved a little bit, making space for Elijah to lie down while she faced the wall. He wrapped his arm around her waist as she broke into tiny, silent sobs. She spun around and all but hugged him gently, with shaking hands as he cradled her form, holding her to him as lovingly as he could. Elijah's heart broke for Ryder in that moment, her breath escaping in short gasps. She buried her face in his chest, fisting handfuls of his shirt and crying her heart out.
"I'm just so t-t-t-ired. Make it stop, please." She mumbled into his chest, tightening her grip. His shirt was soaked through, the liquid settling on his skin.
"I'm here, whatever this is, tell me when you're ready and I'll do whatever it takes to help you. But for now, let's go to sleep. You need to rest Ry." Elijah rubbed her back.
She nodded against his chest and closed her eyes.
"I'm sorry for messing your shirt." She mumbled, a tiny smile appearing on her face.
"You owe me one, I'm sure I'll wet yours pretty soon, maybe on our next re-run of some depressing romance movie." Elijah chuckled, hugging her tighter for a few seconds before loosening his grip.
They fell asleep eventually, wrapped up in a comfortable embrace.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Elijah was late to breakfast the next day. He'd allowed himself to oversleep since it was the weekend.
By the time he'd collected his ham sandwich and coffee everyone else at the table was clearing their plates.
"Slept in today?" Arius asked from across him, his usual half smile gracing his face.
"Rough night man, I didn't sleep till like, 3 am." He replied, taking a bite out of the sandwich.
Before Arius could reply, Tirzah had come around from her spot on the table with puppy eyes trained on Elijah.
"Elijah babe, there's a carnival at Charlottesville today and we're leaving after breakfast, so get your ass dressed and meet us all by the gate okay? Perfect!" She said and whirled around after kissing him on the forehead. She was a lot more affectionate than everyone had thought she was, which made people uncomfortable in the beginning, but soon, everyone just found it adorable and wholesome.
Elijah's eyes had lit up at the mention of a carnival. He'd always loved going to carnivals throughout his life. With his mum, Abby, his basketball mates, and even by himself sometimes.
"You're coming right?" He questioned Arius who was looking quite spaced out at the moment.
"Why? Will you ditch with me so we can go somewhere else? Just you and me?" Arius smirked, quickly regaining his composure and drumming his fingers on the table.
Viggo choked on his water and pretended to gag while Elijah just sat there and blushed, speechless.
No one else seemed to have heard the exchange, as the table was bustling with laughter and numerous voices at once.
Pathetic.
He stuck his tongue out at Arius after what seemed like forever at which the other boy rolled his eyes and laughed, shaking his head.
Real mature Elijah, real smooth too.
A few hours later, they were in front of the entrance, waiting for Tirzah and Kaz who were buying the entry tickets for everyone else. Dani and Everest had accompanied them today.
Elijah was growing increasingly impatient with every passing second. Tirzah and Kaz had been gone for ten minutes and the sensory overload was too much to resist, he had to get in there, as quick as possible.
"Stop shuffling on your feet, you're making me anxious for no reason you prat!" Ryder nudged him with her elbow.
After last night, it was mutually understood by them that they wouldn't actively talk about it again as Ryder was clearly uncomfortable.
"I have to go in there! The carousel and smell of butter is beckoning to me, oh my god Ry, do something." Elijah whined dramatically as Dani flung her arm around his shoulder and laughed.
"I feel you, I really do."
"They're here!" Viggo clapped his hands.
Elijah all but dashed forward ine direction of the gates, only to be pulled back by his jacket.
He found himself next to Arius who was grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
"It wasn't them, why are you so eager?" He chuckled, looking curious.
Elijah groaned loudly and stomped his foot. He was being a total baby today, what with not having been to a carnival in over a year. He flung himself on the ground and sat down cross legged with his face in his hands as he listened to the rest of them talk about the most random things while waiting.
"It wasn't Herbert Hoover, it was was Zachary Taylor. Also he died because he ate too many cherries, not blueberries." Elijah muttered, when he heard them discussing weird deaths for some reason.
"Why on earth do you have this random information so accurately noted down somewhere in that otherwise useless brain of yours?" Arius asked, looking down at him from where he stood.
"He's fucking weird, he once told me that researchers from Princeton claimed to have turned a living cat into a telephone." Ryder said, shuddering slightly.
"Yes it happened, in 1929! And I'll have you know, the only subject you're beating me at is math, and I fare better in philosophy. I'm smarter Arius, face it." He said smugly while holding out a hand to be helped up.
"Yeah, right! We'll see, based on our final exam grades." Arius scoffed as he grabbed his hand and pulled him up.
Just as he stood, he noticed Tirzah and Kaz making their way over to them and prepared to run inside again, for good this time.
Soon he was surrounded by the familiar buzz of engines bring revved to life, children screeching at the tops of their voices, people laughing and talking, some yelling, his friends arguing about what they were going to do first and the sound of the bells ringing in his ears.
"We've to do the Ferris wheel first, it's the way to go." Jake yelled, making himself audible over all the chatter.
"I'm hungry, can we get something to eat and then ride whatever horse or chair?" Viggo drawled lazily.
Elijah spun around and grabbed Viggo's arm, leading him or more like dragging him toward the Ferris wheel.
"Just eat later, we have to do this!" He said defiantly.
They were high up in the air, Elijah becoming nostalgic and purely happy because he loved being at a carnival with a new set of people. Arius was a little green in the face but Madilyn held on to him and talked to him throughout, as Elijah shot him a comforting smile which the other boy barely returned.
And so it began, they went on to bump cars into each other, had their insides turn topsy turvy while on the pendulum ride, held on to a metal bar as the roller coaster sped through the tunnels and even visited a haunted house.
There was a very beautiful girl who had the whole female Freddy Krueger thing going. Arius seemed to have caught her eye as just before they stepped out of the house, she clambered upto him and kissed his cheek, while slipping something into his pocket.
Arius politely pushed her off of him and shook himself free immediately looking over at Elijah who raised his eyebrow and smirked.
"Did you really just get hit on by Freddy Krueger?" Elijah laughed, once they were outside and making their way to one of the food courts for lunch.
"How many people can tell their children that? Not many and it's kind of cool." Arius laughed back, while rummaging in his pocket.
"Do these people literally carry around pieces of paper with their numbers written on them so they can hunt hot dudes and hook up? The confidence, I could never!" Elijah said dramatically rolling his eyes.
"I should probably start doing this, Megan doesn't fawn over me any more." Arius pouted slightly.
"She's gorgeous though, really pretty! The Freddy Krueger girl." Elijah said.
"Oh yeah? Here, call her tonight maybe." Arius handed him the crumpled piece of paper.
"Maybe I will, she was pretty hot huh?" Elijah replied, taking the piece of paper when Arius grabbed it back out of his hand and threw it which only made Elijah laugh.
"Why? Jealous?" Elijah smirked, to which the brunette rolled his eyes, fighting back a smile of his own.
"You're off limits, that's all I'm going to say." Arius mumbled softly, looking Elijah dead in the eyes.
It made his heart flutter and beat just a tiny bit faster, as his neck turned a deep shade of red under the intense gaze.
"Get a room or something, disgusting!" Viggo appeared beside Elijah, making gagging noises.
"Who's off limits?" Ryder said as she walked beside Viggo.
"Elijah, apparently!" He replied to which Arius reached across Elijah and smacked the back of Viggo's head.
"Don't eavesdrop, you're so embarrassing!" Arius was blushing slightly now.
"What? I had to make sure your flirting doesn't get too corny, especially with this boy!" Viggo laughed, thoroughly enjoying this conversation as Elijah and Arius both looked everywhere else but at each other.
Madilyn and Koovs were kissing by the hot dog stand they'd stopped by to get some food and Everest just looked bored to death. Tirzah was talking animatedly with Dani and Jake while Kaz stood away from everyone, glancing at his camera and smiling ever so often. He'd been clicking away non stop.
"I saw an ice cream stand all the way over on the other side, can we go? Please? They even had parmesan ice cream." Elijah asked when everyone was busy munching on their food.
"I'm not moving from here for at least half an hour, I'm exhausted already." Dani sighed sinking lower into the seat she was sitting in.
"What the fuck is parmesan ice cream?" Koovs asked in horror.
"And what kind of gross ice cream flavours have you eaten that you want to eat this atrocity?" Arius chipped in.
"Oh you do not want to know, don't even get me started." Elijah scratched his neck.
"He's eaten fish ice cream during his visit to Japan." Ryder mentioned, while grimacing slightly which earned a chorus of no's and yuck's and ew's from everyone else.
"I was hoping you'd forgotten that, apparently not." Elijah mumbled, smiling sheepishly.
"So guys, ice cream?" Elijah cleared his throat.
"I'll go with you, everyone else is tired." Arius stepped forward, motioning for Elijah to lead the way.
"Of-fucking-course!" Tirzah coughed up and grinned, while sharing similar looks with Ryder and Viggo as the rest of them looked confused.
"What do you me-" Arius was cut off by Elijah grabbing his arm and pulling him toward the carousel, away from the group.
"Ignore her, she's ridiculous sometimes." Elijah said nervously.
"If you hurt my baby, I'll kill you Johnson!" Tirzah's faint scream reached them as the two of them spun around, eyes searching for the shock of strawberry blonde hair among the crowd. She waved, a toothy smile plastered on her face.
"He's in safe hands, don't you worry!" Arius yelled, waving back.
"I'm right here and I'm not some toddler who needs safe keeping, please let's go!" Elijah implored folding his hands.
"Well you're acting like one right now." Arius raised his eyebrow.
They made their way through the throng of people, slipping into easy conversation after that, occasionally laughing.
"I'll have the parmesan flavour, big scoop! Arius?" Elijah looked over at Arius.
"A medium chocolate cone, thank you! And you're paying." Arius replied.
"Of course, of course. I dragged you here after all."
The man by the ice cream stand quickly whipped up their orders and handed them over to Elijah in exchange for the coupons they'd purchased.
"Here, go easy." Arius said, gently taking the cone from Elijah's hand because he looked like he was going to drop it. And knowing Elijah, he most probably would have.
"So you and Ryder are super close huh?" Arius asked, licking his ice cream.
"I think so? She knows probably everything about me because we're roommates and I can't stop talking to save my life." Elijah chuckled fondly, not even flinching a little bit when he took a bite from his cup.
"You guys are a lot like Viggo and me, less drama and a lot crazier. Well, you bring out the crazy in Ryder, when she's not with you she keeps to herself and is super silent." Arius replied.
"That, she is. She takes time to warm up to people, like you." Elijah replied, throwing away the cup in the nearest bin.
"Wait what? I wanted to taste that, how did you even finish that so quickly?" Arius looked astonished.
Elijah suddenly looked like the Devil himself as he rubbed his hands together and stepped forward. He didn't know where all this boldness was coming from.
"You can still taste it, well just hints of it though, technically speaking." He snickered.
"Oh hell no, we're not walking all the way back there all over again!" Arius replied indignantly.
"Who said anything about walking back?"
Elijah placed his hands on either side of Arius's face and took another step closer to him as he studied Arius's face shut down and boot up in realization to what Elijah was insinuating.
"Say no, and I'll step away." Elijah whispered, angling his face for better access.
He gripped the other boy's face a little tighter and kissed him softly, tentatively. Arius wrapped his left arm around Elijah's waist slowly and drew him impossibly close, and kissed him back like he was waiting for this to happen. Like it was inevitable.
Arius licked his bottom lip, and bit it gently, his tongue making its way through Elijah's parted lips and meeting his own, as they fought for dominance.
The salty, cheesy flavour in his mouth was being replaced with a sweet chocolatey taste, ever so familiar.
They kissed and kissed, and Elijah was content dying like that. They eventually broke for air, hair all mussed up and lips swollen and red from all the tonsil hockey.
Arius's eyes went wide as he realized that they were surrounded by people from all sides.
"You can't spring that on me at a place like this you fucking numpty!" He whispered, alarmed.
"I only did it because you wanted to taste parmesan ice cream! Not because I wanted to." Elijah shrugged, eyeing the melting cone in Arius's hand.
"The audacity!" Arius chuckled, eyes lit up and crinkling as he smiled.
"Yeah, totally not because I've been wanting to kiss your stupid face." He reinstated.
Arius's usually grey eyes looked the lightest shade Elijah had ever seen, almost a pale blue, reflecting the sky and making him weak at the knees. His hair was curly and messier than usual due to Elijah's hands running through it. Add to that the dimple on his left cheek and the crinkled eyes. His mouth was curved into the most beautiful smile Elijah had ever seen. Arius was so good looking it wasn't even fair to the rest of the human race.
"Stop looking at me like that! And no, I'm not giving the ice cream to you,this one's mine." Arius asked, slightly turning his face away from Elijah's affectionate stare and hurriedly taking a bite of the wafer.
But eventually, he did give in to the puppy dog eyes Elijah was making at him and handed over the last bit.
"Don't flatter yourself, you have something in your hair." Elijah laughed out loud, shaking himself from his stupor and pretending to remove a leaf from Arius's hair, the curls feeling soft and thick under his fingers.
"You could've just asked if you wanted to touch my hair, I usually don't like it but I'll make an exception." Arius grinned.
"You're unbelievable!" Elijah muttered, not knowing what to say to something like that.
On their way back, they played a shooting game where they were supposed to shoot a stack of cans arranged pyramid style and whoever shot the most with the least number of attempts got to take home whatever.
Arius won the game by a single point and shot Elijah a smug smile to which the boy rolled his eyes.
"Pick what you want then, go ahead." Arius nodded his head.
"You mean like - ? Are you sure?" Elijah asked, confused.
"Oh my fucking God, yes. Before I change my mind!" Arius replied impatiently, his cheeks turning rosy almost immediately.
"This is so cliché." Elijah said, trying to hold back the laughter that was bubbling in his throat.
"Shut the fuck up, I know you like cliché alright?" Arius mumbled, scratching his neck.
"I can't decide, they're all nice to look at I guess." Elijah said, his eyes scanning the assortment of palm sized plush toys that were arranged on the make-shift shelves.
They'd been there for a minute or two while the organizer looked at them impatiently, cursing under his breath.
"So fucking indecisive. I'll take the baby dinosaur!" Arius said, the latter part of his sentence directed toward the organizer.
The man handed it to Arius who placed it in Elijah's arms.
"Okay yes, good choice. This one's real cute!" Elijah said, turning it over in his hand.
"Fuck's sake! You'd have probably said the same thing to any plushy I chose." Arius laughed.
"Hey, you're going on the 'fuck' spree again." Elijah noted, gesturing to the parents next to them looking disappointed.
"Oh fuc- shit man. I'm messing this up spectacularly aren't I?" Arius said, running his hand across his face.
They stopped by a stand selling cheap jewellery where Elijah bought a black constellation charm bracelet. He slipped it on Arius's wrist and smiled.
It looked good.
"I uh, thank you I guess?"
"You're welcome, it suits you."
They smiled at each other shyly, breaking eye contact quickly and trying to distract themselves.
"Anyway, how about we race each other back to the rest of them? I bet you can't beat me." Elijah wiggled his eyebrows and started running toward the hot dog stand.
Arius started jogging behind him.
"No you fucking moron, there's way too many people here I'm not doing this!" He yelled, as Elijah only picked up his speed and ran faster. Arius's footsteps were soon right behind him.
"Listen this isn't a good idea, please let's stop!" Arius's voice pleaded from behind him.
Elijah turned around momentarily to look at him while running just as fast and before he could day anything, he saw Arius's eyes go wide and his form grow distant as he kept running.
The next thing he knew, he'd run face first into a really big, muscly person and due to the impact, the man pushed him sideways where his body, still used to the running went scrambling in the direction of the kid's train ticket booth being held up by poles.
He hit his head smack against one of the metal poles and fell backward really hard, his head connecting with the ground painfully. It had all happened so fast, too fast.
He couldn't hear anything but the faint ringing of bells and beeping machines and Arius's voice from miles away asking him what the fuck was wrong with him.
The last thing he saw was Arius shifting in and out of focus in his line of vision while the burly man he had bumped into shook him slightly, trying to keep him awake.
And then everything went dark around him.
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A/N
When I said long, this isn't how long I intended the chapters to get but yeah. Here we go!
Elijah is a fucking idiot guys.
If y'all like what you read, do vote and maybe leave a comment!
Much love XD. Thank You!