❝Much like the intricate dance of love, the canvas of life unfolds in unpredictable ways. Experiencing what you believe to be love can at times resemble your worst nightmare. Just as the world you've tirelessly built may crumble before you, akin to the delicate strokes of art and the graceful movements of dance. The frustration of watching your efforts dissipate is reminiscent of the artist who questions the worthiness of their creation or the dancer who practices tirelessly, yet still feels inadequate in the end.❞
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Andrew stands under the running water, pour down from the fancy shower head. The pressure felt right, not too hard, but good enough to leave him feeling less stressed out. As he rinses the soap from his body, Elijah is standing behind him, lathering his back with soap. The shower was intimate, but it was quiet. Typically, the two would be able to keep their hands off of each other, the actual showering would come later. However, they were truly just showering. He could tell that Andrew was having one shitty day, and sex wasn't on his mind. Though he's probably a lot more sexual than Eli, he too has days where sex doesn't help solve his anger issues or problems. Elijah turns him around, looking in his eyes before pressing a soft peck to his lips. Again, nothing too intense, that's just what he does. Reassuring him that he's there with physical touch. As he stood under the water for a moment, to make sure all the soap was off of him, his thoughts were starting to appear in his negative head once again.
"I'm going to get out now." he murmurs, causing Elijah to nod his head.
When Andrew slides the shower door open, Elijah steps forward, rinsing the soap that was on him off. As he steps on to the shower mat, the one that was placed on the floor, Andrew takes the towel from the rack, and uses it to dry his hair. His thoughts were now front and center, recalling the events of the day. His parents cut him off, which he didn't care much about. They only started being a pain in the ass since he began to make a name for himself. His parents never were the type to tell him he couldn't do things. His mother used to sign him up in almost every class a five year old could take, just to see what he liked more. When he took one hip-hop class, he fell in love with it quickly. His father used to hold family gatherings just to show off his talent to the family. However, the moment he turned eighteen and landed in his dream university, and he became the talk amongst the campus and the campus rich society, his parents began to hassle him about reputation. So, when he overdosed last year, they were disappointed.
Even before they forced him into a rehab, Andrew told them before that he didn't take whatever the paperwork was saying. He even admitted to taking one pill, just one, and it's like from that day forward, his parents distanced themselves. They no longer cared or supported him anymore. They wanted him to move to South Korea, with his grandparents, just to finish university there. He didn't want that, he didn't want to go for numerous reasons. South Korea didn't have his dream university, and South Korea didn't have Elijah. Everything was only pissing him off further,
Genesis and her attempt of trying to be in his good graces by showing him a world that he missed only made him mad further. Before, when he first started, Genesis and Sean were his closest friends, people he didn't mind hanging out with, but then they involved him with a guy that never liked him. A guy who clearly ruined his life for a reason he doesn't know, but he's sure it has a lot to do with Jackie. Everything is just getting worse for him. It's like a tornado of glass and he can not escape it. He just keeps going up and up, getting cut along the way.
He sighs from frustration.
"Shit."
Andrew dries his hair more aggressively this time before using the same towel to wrap around his waist. He was letting his thoughts get the best of him. Allowing it to just, piss him off further. The anger was only rising.
"You okay, drew?" Elijah asks as he turns the shower faucet off, stopping the running water.
"Uh," he says, looking himself in the foggy mirror before looking over at the shower door, where he sees Elijah's silhouette squeezing the water from his hair. "I'm trying to be, okay."
Elijah slides the shower door open, stepping out of the shower in his wet naked glory. Andrew leans against the counter, towel hanging low on his waist as he watches the blond male take the extra towel hanging up and wrapping it around his waist. His damped curly hair frames his face as he approaches him. Once again, he pecks his lips before tying his damped hair in a low bun.
"Are you ready to talk about what happened today?" He whispers softly, making Andrew turn his head, avoiding his eyes for only a moment before returning his gaze.
"Which part?" He asks, searching his partner's eyes as he crosses his arms across his chest and tilts his head. "The part about how fucked up my life became when i started hanging out with Genesis and Sean? Or the part that my parents are so far up the school ass that they can't see that their son is constantly being screwed by them for their own fucked up entertainment."
Elijah was tall. He had a few inches on Andrew, so when he stood in front of him with his arm crossed across his chest, it made him appear bigger. "I want to hear about what happened with your parents, and why are you hanging out on campus when you know you're not supposed to be there."
Andrew sighs and mirrors Elijah's arms, looking in the opposite direction, not wanting to look him in the eye. "You're always nagging me."
"Is it wrong to be worried about you?" Elijah questions, but it was clear asking the question made him more concerned than receiving an answer from Andrew. "You've been hanging out with them again, and I know this because you wouldn't have been on the campus that long otherwise."
"I'm sorry, i didn't know I was fucking a cop." Andrew says, making Elijah frown a bit. "Yeah, I was dancing with my old friends. Is that so fucking wrong? Me wanting to do the thing I love?"
"I didn't say that," Elijah sighs. "I just don't want you self-destructing because of all of this. Like breaking the law by being on campus. After that meeting you should've left."
"After the meeting, I called you!" He snaps watching Elijah's frown disappear. "I get it, you were helping, Aurelia, which is why I'm not mad or anything, but don't try to make it seem like I deliberately went out my way to be with Genesis. Genesis of all fucking people."
"I'm just worried about you," Elijah says, making Andrew sigh. "I'm worried about my boyfriend, you disappear a lot and don't answer my calls. What else am I supposed to assume when you're not even texting me."
He cringed. He's not used to Elijah saying boyfriend.
"Please, please Eli," Andrew's face twists and he shakes his head. "Please just say babe or something."
"Putting babe there in that sentence, doesn't even sound right." Elijah chuckles, pulling him close again.
"Now stop changing the subject." he murmurs, pressing a kiss to his forehead. "I know you. I know you do this because you don't want to open up."
"That's because I'm tired of talking about it." He says, shaking his head as pushes him back so he could turn around to brush his teeth.
"How about you open up to me about what you said to Angel." asks him as he puts the toothpaste on his toothbrush. "What did you say to make her hate us."
Andrew was curious because it was like one day she was interested in the both of them, now she wants nothing to do with them.
He could see his face crumble from that neutral happiness to unsettle frustration in the mirror. Elijah turns around and sits on the toilet seat. "She overheard us one night, and the next day she avoided us."
"Which night again?" Andrew jokes as he brushes his teeth.
"It's not funny," Elijah's expression is serious, his eyes holding that gaze. The gaze that shows he wants to talk about it, but Andrew gotta take it seriously. "We had no business saying her name while we were fucking, Drew."
"She said she didn't care," Andrew spits in the sink, covering his mouth so his spit everywhere. "I think you're overreacting, Eli."
"Correction," Elijah stands up. "She said that she didn't know how she felt about it. I can't go through what we went through with Danika, with her. I just don't want to feel like we're putting everything on line again. I can't experience that heart break again for fucking up."
After rinsing his mouth out, Andrew crossed his arms. "Aurelia is nothing like Danika, don't even try to compare the two."
Danika was their ex, their third.
Andrew and Elijah are in an open relationship. However, if the both of them like same person a little more than causal fuck buddies, they would agree to be exclusive to that person and each other. Thus, making the relationship close. Danika was the first person they both agreed to be exclusive with, but what felt like equal feelings, shifted to Danika only liking him. Elijah.
Even though she was only able to meet Elijah through Andrew first, Danika wanted Elijah more, which is not the relationship he wanted, they wanted together. When he first met her, she was like every party goer on campus. One night at a party he was at, after he got done just dancing in a circle full of people for fun, Danika was eyeing him, subtly.
"Who's that?" Andrew asked Sean.
Sean looked around before he finally looked in the direction Andrew was looking at. His friend laughed before and shook his head. "That's Danika, but everyone calls her Dani. She's Aiden's people, I don't know that much about her besides the fact that she's hot and fun."
At the time, Andrew didn't approach her, he thought if she really wanted to talk she would come up to him, and that night she did. He thought they hit it off well, and Sean was right, she was attractive, especially up close. Two weeks after seeing her, Andrew finally introduced her to Elijah, and unlike their first interaction, she basically threw herself to Elijah. Which made him waver if he could even like her. A month after both he and Elijah had seen her, they finally had the discussion. The discussion of whether or not they want Danika to be their third.
"I really like her, Drew." Elijah said at the time, his face look serious. "She's like everything we wanted."
"I know," Andrew agreed, before he looked away. "But I don't know. I just, been trying really hard to like her but it feels one-sided. It seems like she likes you a lot more than me."
That day, Elijah never looked so distraught. "I didn't notice, shit, I'm sorry, babe."
Andrew knew how much Elijah liked her, and it wasn't like Andrew disliked her, it just felt like she wasn't in it to be with the both of them, it felt like she was only in it for Elijah. Nevertheless, he agreed to try. He thought maybe he could get her to like the both of them, but when they started their relationship with her, the truth started to come out.
One day, when Danika went back home for the holidays, Andrew and Elijah had just come back from his mother' place. It was a Christmas party, and Eli wanted him to be there. When they got back to Elijah's place, they were clearly slightly tipsy.
Andrew and Elijah were all over each other that night, even though they were a bit tipsy the moment they saw what they did, the alcohol, and lust, was out of their system. Andrew moved over to Elijah's nightstand, where they kept all their condoms. When he opened it and slide on himself, that's when he noticed that it was a hole in the condom. Andrew thought he ripped it on accident but when he went to get another one the same thing happened,
As the both of them checked every condom they had, it sent chills down their spine. Of course, they didn't want to accuse Danika, they actually started to believe they got a faulty box. However, after the break was over, Elijah found out that she wasn't taking her birth control. It was clear what she was trying to do at that point. Andrew had to recall everything, but the picture was very clear. Elijah's family is an important one, the city knows of him and his family. He would be considered one the richest people in the city if they had a list. From the moment she approached Andrew at the party Danika's entire plan was to trap Elijah in a pregnancy.
"Are you two serious!" Danika screamed at them, tears running down her face as she threw the condoms at her. "Why would I want to get pregnant at this time! You two know I'm trying to be a model! What agency would hire a pregnant woman!"
Elijah was crumbling, and Andrew could see it on his face, but he wasn't affected by the tears.
"So we're just fucking stupid, Dani?" Andrew snapped, watching the woman's face twisted with frustration and anger. "You stopped using birth control anymore, and our condoms were tampered with! We're just pulling this out of our asses!"
Danika screamed so loud that night. "I stopped using the birth control because my doctor recommended that I don't take the pills anymore! I set up an appointment to get a Nexplanon! The condoms have nothing to do with me! Nothing, maybe you two got a faulty box."
It was all bullshit. Andrew knew it.
"Elijah you have to believe me, I wouldn't do that to you and Andrew." She tried to appeal to him, but before Elijah could say anything, Andrew stopped him.
"No," he said, shaking his head. "Even now, at this moment when we're trying to speak to you, you're lying to us. We fuck all the time, and how inconvenient it is for us that the moment we started dating you our boxes become faulty? Just admit while we're willing, just keep this between us. You're trying to trap us, yes us, especially Eli, in a pregnancy and for what money?"
Danika slapped him, slapped him hard and Elijah finally stepped in.
" We're done, Dani." Elijah told her that night, causing her to cry hard, and Danika never cried like that.
Since then, Elijah and he have been really closed off with adding someone new. Elijah especially. Andrew knew the night that they found out what she had been doing, broke him. Andrew was only broken up about it because he had never witnessed Elijah that way. Even with all that they went through with Danika.
Aurelia is different.
"It hurts now," Elijah says, leaning his face on his fist. "It hurts when Aurelia doesn't look at me like she used to. It hurts to know that I'm the main reason she's like this. Fuck, I haven't even taken her out or expressed this to her, and I'm starting to really like her."
Andrew closes his eyes, remembering the day he came back, the day he sat on the campus stairs with his hood up. Aurelia sat down right beside him, smiled and handed him water. She probably didn't realize it was him, but he had a good memory. Being a dancer and all. "We barely know her, but I agree. She's... different. When I'm around her I feel..."
"Free." They say in unison, staring at each other before looking away.
"It doesn't even compare to the feelings I had for Danika." Elijah says. "I need to fix this, but..."
Andrew walks out of the bathroom, with Elijah trailing behind him, he walks to the bedroom and into the walk in closet. "But what?"
"What did you say to her at the event?" Elijah asks, leaning on the threshold of the closet. "She said something to me as I was helping her move. She said that she hopes I treat our new girl better than I've been treating her. What girl is she talking about?"
Andrew tilts his head trying to recall if he ever mentioned any new girls to her that night. As he pulls on some boxer briefs, he looks over at Elijah and sighs before covering his face with his hand.
"She must've assumed I was talking about another girl."
Even though the conversation on the elevator was interesting, to say the least, she left him there and disappeared in the crowd full of people. Now that he thought about it, when he was talking it was indirectly, so of course she would've assumed it was another girl, but why?
Elijah walks towards him, his hair wavy and falling just above his shoulders. "What do you mean?"
Andrew sighs. "She asked a question and I answered honestly. I sort of mentioned that we were into her, but she must've thought I was talking about a different girl."
The man watches the other find clothes to wear himself as he shakes his head at the confession. Andrew never intended on making her more pissed at them than she already was, but nevertheless it seems like he needs to apologize to, and maybe see where they would go from there.
"Wait, Eli." Andrew pulls on some sweatpants, tying the strings in the front. Elijah drops his towel, pulling his boxer briefs on before looking over at him. "Why did you get Nina involved? She's Danika's best friend."
"She was her best friend." Elijah says, pulling on pajama pants. "Nina said after she found out that Danika was trying to trap us, me, in a pregnancy, she cut her off. You know Nina, she doesn't associate herself with people like that."
"Is that why she ignored me when I was at the event?" He was being petty, he knows that's not what he meant, and Nina did acknowledge him when he was there, but still just the wording of that made him sulk just a bit.
"Come on, Drew, not everyone hates you for what you went through. Not everyone is like Aiden and his friends. Those people are stuck in their immature mindset, and need to grow up." Elijah walks towards him and kisses his forehead. "No one outside of them will shame you for overdosing. What matters is that you got helped."
Andrew didn't want to get in at the moment, he just sighs and pulls on his shirt before walking out of the room to get something to drink. They both agreed to show and drink afterwards. However, one thing he did know, he didn't take any of the drugs that the doctor was telling him, he will figure it out. He took one thing that night, so the help was not necessary, he was not an addict.
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