E L I J A H
Elijah didn't know what had boosted up his confidence last night, but he sure as hell was having a hard time concentrating on Mr.Rufus's voice. He loved everything about philosophy, but today he just couldn't focus. They were learning about Epicurus' Ethics of Reciprocity, the Golden Rule.
Every now and then, Rufus would ask the students as to how they'd counter certain points.
Arius was the only face he recognised in the class and he was currently sitting behind him.
There were not many students taking philosophy and it was quite a surprise to see Arius there. He felt the constant need to turn around and look at the boy behind him; it was like an itch at the back of his throat.
When he did turn around, giving in to the urge, Arius's stubborn gaze locked on to his curious one immediately, challenging him to look away.
But how could he?
At least not of his own accord.
"What do you want?" Arius sighed, the look in his eyes no longer steely.
"Uh I was wondering if I could borrow an eraser?"
"You're holding a pen, Kingston."
"Yeah, no. I'm going to doodle, so I need an eraser in case of any errors."
"You're a terrible liar you know that?" Arius said, mouth turning into a half, lopsided grin.
Elijah felt like he was running out of breath again. But strangely, he liked the feeling.
He shot Arius a quick smile and took the eraser from his outstretched palm, his fingers brushing Arius's as he pulled his hand away.
He was nervous and it was so out of character for him to feel this way.
Whatever the fuck happened to having these feelings under control?
He was going to end up dead, at the rate his heart was hammering in his chest.
He willed himself not to turn around or even move his head again and listened to Mr.Rufus as much as he could. He slipped the tiny blue eraser into the pocket of his blazer, totally forgetting about it.
He shot a quick text to Ryder who had a free hour this period.
This is going bad Ry ;-;
3:24 pm
What's up?
3:24 pm
Remember how I told u I had it under control?
Not in the slightest.
3:25 pm
Fuck😂 What're you gonna do?
3:25 pm
Idk. Listen I'll ttyl, or I'm going 2 get caught.
3:28 pm
Ok. See ya :)
3:28 pm
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That was the last time Elijah would consciously think about Arius. The next two weeks were packed and passed by in a blur. They had games starting for the season which required them to travel for longer than the usual school did because they were in the middle of a fucking forest.
Jake had made it to the soccer team and was simply ecstatic.
Tirzah had managed to somehow get him to learn the unit of derivatives even before they finished it in class. At least Harold wasn't breathing down his neck all the time after what had happened. He had scored a 90 on the test, which was actually pretty good for him. Arius had scored a 97. And Tirzah, a 99.
Arius had shot Tirzah a dirty look as Mr.Harold praised her which only sent her into a fit of laughter.
Detention wasn't as eventful as Elijah would've liked it because he was always tired after practice and one week of detention had been moved because Arius simply refused to do more work than Elijah. This is where the prosthetic arm came in handy; pun unintended, and Arius wasn't afraid to use it to his convenience.
He hadn't seen the boy much and was sort of relieved.
What the fuck was he thinking? Crush? On him? No way, he had to get over this before anyone found out.
They'd lost their second game miserably against the Highland Tigers, getting kicked out of the tournament. Coach Amy Lee had been pissed, but they needed more practice together as a team. Their practices were more rigorous now and Elijah could see the team getting better.
Jake and him had snuck out a handful of times during the night to go play soccer so Jake could polish his skills for the season.
More often than not, they had ended up just exploring their vast campus until the morning and had still not reached the boundaries.
Just how big was this place?
There were rumours going around about Arius that were simply outrageous. He'd heard that Arius was in gang and had gotten his arm ripped off because he had formed an alliance with the rival gang. Another version was that he had been bitten by a snake and they'd amputated his arm cause they were too late. Yet another one was that he was depressed and suicidal and had gone one step further than slitting his wrists and hacked his arm off with a saw blade.
Teenagers just loved gossip. If he had to be honest though, the first allegation seemed plausible because of how bad tempered Arius was.
Also, the girls were obsessed with him because of his mysterious self. He only ever hung out with Viggo, and Madilyn and Koovs occasionally.
He'd seen Megan flirting with Arius by the lockers, running her finger along the side of his face and she had proceeded to kiss him smack on the lips. Elijah couldn't make out if Arius liked it or not because his face was absolutely unreadable. He had gently pushed her off and pulled his phone out, completely ignoring her.
After that, the only times he had seen Megan were when she was trying to get with Arius. The boy had incredible amounts of patience; he always turned her down politely which she would totally ignore. She was smitten.
As for Elijah, he tried his best to ignore him at all costs although he would have to fight this insatiable urge to irritate him or piss him off completely whenever they were in close proximity. But he'd done a good job of covering it all up so far. His erratic heartbeat and blushing included.
Elijah was never one to fight his feelings. He believed that going with the flow was the best way to deal with things. There were exceptions of course, his infatuation with the brown haired boy for instance.
Apart from Ryder, nobody else even had the slightest hint, and she stayed true to her promise. He had realised during their late night Lord of The Rings marathon that Aragorn was one sexy king. Ryder argued that Legolas looked better.
After that open conversation with Ryder, he started noticing that he did stare at the shirtless males way more than the lead actresses with bikinis and all that jazz.
Around Ryder, he could be his complete self. He longed to open up to Abby and his mother but he thought it would be better to do it in person.
He wasn't afraid of telling Jake or Tirzah but it was awkward.
So he had made up his mind that he would tell these four people and be done with it, he wanted them to know. Ryder had told him that he didn't have to come out, but he wanted to.
He was gay. Officially gay.
Now it hadn't bothered him that much that he wasn't straight, but it was still weird, because he had lived his whole life thinking he hadn't found the right girl yet. He hadn't even considered that maybe he liked boys. That's how it all worked right?
He was actually really surprised at how calmly he had handled it. This surely wouldn't have been the scenario back at his old school. His teammates made gay jokes and homophobic comments on the daily, and he had laughed along, finding it funny. How ironic, he was one of the gays now. Part of the reason why he was calm was because he wasn't the only one. Ryder was asexual, Tirzah was pansexual and he was gay. Jake? Well Jake was the only straight dude among them. It was like the universe had brought them all together.
He knew Abby would be okay with him being gay because she had a friend who was gay. He didn't know about his mother though; she was very chill and open minded but somewhere at the back of his mind, he still thought he'd probably get kicked out of home or be sent off to conversion therapy. Not that his mother was Christian, but these thoughts would plague him frequently.
Elijah's watch showed 3:22am as they walked past the thick foliage of trees into the opening they had discovered when they had first set out the explore the premises. Jake was dragging his feet along next to him.
Elijah wondered how they hadn't gotten caught yet, did none of the seniors sneak out or what?
"Can we just sit here today? My calves are killing me man." Jake muttered, sitting on a log.
"Sure, it's super chilly today anyway." Elijah shuddered, pulling his jacket tighter around him.
"We have a game next week at Charlottesville, will you come?"
"Yeah man, I'll have to get permission from Delavere though. Ryder and Tirzah?"
"I don't know, haven't asked them yet, but Dani's coming."
They had all met Dani and it turned out that she literally looked like the female version of Jake.
Tall, gorgeous, dark hair, baby blue eyes and goth. She had multiple piercings in her ear and a bunch of bracelets hanging off both her arms. Ryder and her had that in common. They had bonded quickly, fawning over their love for Five Finger Death Punch and other disturbing names Elijah hadn't bothered to listen to.
Dani was rich, her parents owned a private sector business that she wanted to take over when she was old enough.
She was very blunt with her words and they weren't a very affectionate couple. But just the way they looked at each other spoke volumes about how much they loved each other. She had blended in well with all of them and had also bought Elijah enough ice cream stock to last for a month.
"Hey Jake. So I wanted you to know something."
"Are you okay? Who do I have to kill? You never sound this nervous."
"I think I'm gay."
Shit. Fuck. There, he'd done it.
That was the first time he had said it out loud. It felt nerve wracking and liberating at the same time
They sat in silence for God knows how long. Elijah didn't dare to look at Jake. But when he wasn't saying anything, he turned and looked at him, a questioning look in his eyes.
Jake's eyes widened suddenly and his mouth hung open.
"Man you're not going to kiss me are you? Oh my fucking God Elijah. I have a girlfriend."
"Cut it out Jake. I don't like you that way." Elijah said, rolling his eyes and kicking the other boy who sighed in relief.
"Who else knows?"
"Ry, in fact, she helped me figure it out."
Jake's eyes widened again.
"Did you both, you know, like hook up or what?"
"What the fuck? No, she's asexual remember?" Elijah said, rolling his eyes for the fifth time.
"We talked about it and stuff."
"Damn Elijah, this is a lot to take in. You could be the definition of masculinity. Now I'm the only hetero in the group."
"That, you are. Suck it." Elijah said, snickering.
"Too early for that man, too early. It's still sinking in." Jake shook his head.
They sat in silence. Listening to the occasional sound of crickets or water coursing far away in the distance. It was so peaceful out here.
"It's alright man, you love who you love. And if anyone bullies you for it, you tell me, I'll beat them up."
"Oh no, no, no. I'm not going to tell anybody else other than Tirzah."
Jake just shrugged his shoulders and fell asleep after a few minutes. Elijah let out a huge breath of relief. That had gone spectacularly. Jake hadn't made fun of him or anything which meant everything to Elijah. He was just as new as them to this information, and he was still trying to wrap his head around it.
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A/N
Yes, we had a timeline jump here. I'm still new to this thing and experimenting with it. Let me know if y'all have tips to make the transition smoother.
On a completely different note, guys we hit 300 reads. Oh. My. God.
I've been so happy after checking the stats and everything. This is way more than I ever expected, but then wattpad does have a lot of users so. Yeah, now I'm just rambling.
If y'all like what you read, do vote and comment.
Much love XD. Thank You!