Epilogue
Javier
Three Months Later
T ime only flies by when you don’t want it to.
It was already August, where had the summer gone?
I was supposed to be rotting on the couch with my legs kicked up on the coffee table as my boyfriend and I competed against each other in video games.
My time was supposed to consist of gallivanting around town with my friends as we figured out where to go hang out next.
Instead, I was doing the last-minute packing to move into my college dorm tomorrow. Summer skated by in the blink of an eye and I hadn’t realized until it was too late. Now I had to go back to classes and deadlines instead of staying snuggled up with my boyfriend all day.
Eli was more eager to move into our shoebox of a dorm than I was.
He had his things packed for over a month, all besides the new wardrobe my parents surprised him with a few days ago.
He thought they were done buying him things after they gifted him some clothes when he first moved in, but he was mistaken.
Those weren’t even half of the new clothing items that he would receive.
My boyfriend and I would be sharing a dorm and that was one thing I could not be more excited for.
No parents barging in and no nosy siblings listening at the door.
An entire room for just him and I. It definitely made up for the cramped nature of the dorm and the fact that we had to share a bathroom with other guys.
We were completely aware that rooming with your significant other your freshman year of college was not advised.
I had heard horror stories of couples breaking up in the middle of the year and trying to separate, but the college refused to allow it.
Then the exes were forced to live with each other for the remainder of the year.
Those stories made us nervous, but Eli and I were confident enough in our relationship to not let that happen.
The sound of the door shutting took my attention and I turned over my shoulder. Eli had entered the room, a contagious smile on his face.
“Hey, you’re back.” I felt my lips curl into a grin. “I’m taking that by the smile on your face, it went well?”
He held his hands behind his back as he nodded. “We had some really great conversations. I feel like I learned things about them that I never knew.”
Eli had been gone for a while because his siblings insisted on taking him out for lunch.
They wanted to see him one last time before he left for college, even though the college was only forty-five minutes away from my house.
Actually, the twins’ apartment was even closer to the college, so it truly was a short drive for them to see him.
Still, the wanted to take their brother out.
I was wary about him going with them the afternoon before our big day tomorrow. Easton and Emerson had been making an effort to try and mend their relationship with Elias, but they did not always go about it correctly.
They only saw each other four times during the summer, which was not a huge problem because the three needed space from each other to heal individually.
Though, after one of their meetings Eli came back upset.
He tried to downplay it to old memories flooding back randomly, but he eventually let out that they had fallen into an argument toward the end of the outing.
While the siblings were trying, they were also still figuring out how to process their trauma. It made mending their strained relationship with Eli challenging so I was happy to hear that it went well this time.
“Emerson met a guy. He’s, like, seven years older than her, but she likes him. I helped Easton get properly enrolled in community college because he scheduled his classes wrong,” my boyfriend chuckled at his brother’s mess-up as he spoke. “And they get the keys to their apartment in two weeks.”
“Finally, they can get out of Macy’s house.”
“Yeah, they said she’s been even bitchier since she lost her job. She still tries to control them, but they said they stopped giving a fuck once I was kicked out.”
Eli knelt beside me on the floor as I continued to put my clothes into duffel bags. He rested his head on my shoulder as he let out a breath.
“I hope she loses her house once the twins move out,” I muttered under my breath.
Despite my low tone, Eli heard me. “I’d tell you that you shouldn’t wish such negative things on people, but my aunt is an exception.”
I placed my hand on his thigh. “I’m surprised Emerson is getting back into dating so soon after all that mess with Benji.”
“Yeah, same. Easton isn’t happy about it. I think it’s one of her unhealthy coping mechanisms that she needs to work through. I learned that word from the therapist.” Eli smiled pridefully.
Elias was still going to therapy regularly and I could see how much it was helping him.
Not just with the drinking problem, but also with regulating his emotions.
Eli sometimes liked to give the credit of being able to control his emotions to me, but all I did was show him that it was possible. His therapist taught him how to do it.
Unfortunately, fixing his alcohol addiction was not as simple as we thought it would be once he got over the withdrawals.
That was the hump, but he still had a long way to go.
The cravings still lingered, and they specifically got worse when he would get worked up and upset.
Not to mention the embarrassment of it all that he was still working through.
My parents went through great measures to make sure he got through.
They took their liquor out of the alcohol cabinet and hid it somewhere they refused to tell us.
Both my mother and Alan checked in with him once a day.
I had no clue what they said to him because I was not allowed in the room when they had their heart-to-hearts, but he appeared to be benefiting from it.
My boyfriend was doing good about coming to me when it was getting too much. When the voices were loud in his ears and he couldn’t get it to stop, I was there. Honestly, I wasn’t letting him out of my sight to ensure that I was always around when needed.
Now I was working on not hovering over Eli like a control freak. He got on me about it, saying that I could not spend all of my time worrying about him.
Joke’s on him, I could.
For his sake, I stopped watching him like a hawk. I had to put trust into him that he would be okay on his own, and he was doing amazing at proving me right. It was not perfect, but it was healthy.
“Are you ready for the big day tomorrow?” I asked as I wrapped my arms around his torso and pulled him to me, smelling his familiar scent.
Eli sat on my thighs, his body cradled in my arms as we sat comfortably on the floor. “Am I ready for nine months of having my own place with my boyfriend? Hell yeah.”
I rested my head in the crook of his neck. “Just imagine all the fun we are going to have.”
He let out an eager noise that was a mix between a needy whine and a squeal. “So much time where we don’t have to worry about Gabriela barging in.”
“What’s that about Gabriela?”
Damn, it was like we summoned her or something. My sister had her hands on her hips as she stood in the doorway with such a questioning look that she might as well had a question mark floating above her head.
“We said Gabriela is a nosy know-it-all,” Eli told my sister with a smirk.
Gabi scoffed. “Nosy, maybe, but a know-it-all? As if I’m not talk not talking the valedictorian and salutatorian.”
“Fine, but you’re definitely nosy.”
“How?”
“Exhibit A,” he gestured toward her. “You always barge in the room without knocking.”
She folded her arms to her chest, a silly grin forming on her lips because she knew it was true. “Nuh-uh!”
“Exhibit B, you listen to the end our conversations and then ask for us to fill in the gaps.”
“In my defense, you guys were talking about me. Why wouldn’t I want to know?”
“You wouldn’t have known we had said your name had you not been listening,” he said as a matter of fact.
Gabi was staring, her body towering over us as we sat on the floor. She bent down and plucked Eli on the forehead before he could stop her.
My boyfriend’s hand flew to his head to soothe the hurt spot. “Oh my God, how old are you?”
“Ask Javier and he’ll say I act like a five-year-old. Mamá says that I’m super responsible and I act like I’m twenty-one. My age on my birth certificate? Seventeen.”
This was a reoccurring thing between Gabriela and Elias.
As Eli and her spent more time together since he lived here, their relationship had grown.
At first it was a just a regular friendship, but lately it had been turning into a sibling-like bond.
They bickered, joked, and poked fun at each other in a loving way. It was amusing to watch.
Eli had also grown closer with our younger siblings, Milo and Roy. Their bond was nowhere near the one he had with Gabi, though.
I gave my sister a bored look. “He knows how old you are, Gabi.”
“I know, but he asked the question. I gave the answer.”
Eli’s nostrils flared as he rolled his eyes, trying to suppress his laughter trying to break through.
“Anyway, I came to tell you that Papá called for you.”
My brows raised as I leaned forward. “Really? You talked to him?”
“He texted me because you weren’t answering.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. Sure enough there was a missed call from my dad. My phone was on Do Not Disturb, so I hadn’t gotten the notification.
“Maybe it’s him saying he’s back in town,” my sister said with a hopeful glint in his eyes.
Our father was not the most consistent person in the world. It was difficult to be on a steady schedule when working on a ship, so we saw our dad at least every few months but we heard from him weekly.
He and Mamá divorced when I was five and then she married Alan a year later. My sister and I lived with them primarily and spent weekends with our dad. It was not until a couple of years later when our dad got a new job that we started seeing him less because of how high demand it was.
He was sure to try and make up for not seeing us all the time, though. When he was in town he would try and surprise us, taking us out and buying all kinds of unnecessary crap. Papá gave us his full attention when he was with us to make sure we knew he cared.
Since moving into a dorm was a special day, Gabi and I hoped he would make one of his surprise appearances. That was highly unlikely, though, because just a few days ago he told us he was at sea. However, I wasn’t going to kill Gabriela’s hope.
“I get to meet your dad?” Eli looked at me with nervous eyes.
“If you do, he’s going to love you.” I squeezed his shoulder reassuringly.
“Yep,” Gabriela said surely. “Because he loves all good people.”
My boyfriend’s lips curled into a warm smile, his head slightly ducking to try and hide it.
My sister left us alone, but not after a little more banter between herself and my boyfriend. Their bickering was so entertaining that I felt compelled to grab popcorn. Not only that, but it nice to see someone else endure the sassiness from my sister.
Eli and I stayed on the floor, him still in my lap as my arms wrapped tightly around him. I buried my head in the crook of his neck, kissing my way up it delicately. He cocked his head to the side to give me better access as his hand pressed against my cheek.
“Aren’t you supposed to be packing?” he asked between chuckles.
“You’re distracting.” My voice was muffled against his neck.
“I hope I’m not too distracting when we actually have to go to class.”
I hummed a response of agreement. He shifted on my lap, causing my eyes to fall. When they did, I noticed something sticking out of his pocket. A piece of paper?
I removed my lips off him, reaching for his pocket gently. He did not stop my hand, though his muscle tension made me think he was nervous for me to see.
As I held the paper in my hand, I realized that it was not a piece of paper, but a photo. It was an old picture, the quality dingy and edges soft and slightly bent. Eli did not say a word as he watched me. When I raised a brow he nodded his head once, willing me to unfold the photo.
I carefully undid the folded picture, not wanting to accidentally rip it since it was already so delicate.
What I saw was a hospital bed, and in it was a woman with a short, black bob.
In her arms was a newborn that had clearly just come out of the womb.
Leaning next to her with a wide smile was a man.
His brown skin resembled the two babies that he held in his arms, both appearing to be around one year old.
“Your parents?” I asked gently.
My boyfriend stared at the photo with longing eyes. “It’s the only picture we have of them. I’m sure there’s more, but Macy never let us see. Emerson and Easton had this picture, but they gave it to me.”
I hated that woman more and more. How dare she keep them from seeing what little they have left of their parents?
I looked between Eli and the picture, realizing how much he took after both of his parents. He had his father’s skin tone and physique, but his mother’s eyes and smile. A perfect blend of the two.
“You look just like them, amor.”
Eli’s eyes slowly met mine, water that I hadn’t noticed before brimming them. “You think so?”
“I know so. You’re a nice blend of them.”
He smiled, but the smile was sad. Eli never spoke much about his parents, how could he when he did not know anything about them? Still, he loved them like any child would. He missed them, and there was not a thing I could do to fix it.
If I could go back in time and take pictures of them for Eli, I would. I would record a video of his parents telling him how much they loved him so that he would know it. I would do absolutely anything for him.
But I could offer my words. “They’re part of you, baby. You carry them with you everywhere you go. In your face, in your personality, in you. I know you miss them, but they’re always with you.”
My boyfriend’s lips pressed tightly together before he wrapped his arms around me tightly, a tear sliding down his cheek. I squeezed him tightly with one arm while the other wiped the wetness off his cheek.
We stayed like that for a while, and at one point I wondered if Eli had fallen asleep because of how still he was. That was not the case, it was that he was comfortable enough to not feel the need to fill the silence. He was right, he never needed to say anything with me. I had him no matter what.
Eli and I were more than ready to tackle college together, and I couldn’t wait.