Chapter 5 Elijah
Elijah
I flop onto the stiff mattress, already dreading the restless nights ahead this school year.
The trip here was long enough, and hauling all my stuff up to my dorm from the parking lot was the icing on the cake. I’m fucking beat. Now that I’ve finally washed off the mix of Tobias and me in the shower, I can rest for the night before unpacking tomorrow.
I bury my face in my pillow and breathe in the faint scent of Tobias’s shampoo.
He always smells so bright and airy, like sunlight on linen.
I wonder if he’s noticed I stole his pillow instead of mine.
The thought makes me smile. I’m glad it still smells like him.
I want it to linger for as long as possible.
After missing a school year following dad’s passing, the housing office had to place me in a new dorm since my old room and floor were completely booked.
Which means I’m starting fresh again, without a single familiar face on this floor.
I’d be a third year if only I hadn’t had a year away.
It’s like I’m re-starting all over again.
Part of me wants to repack my bags and leave, but I can’t ignore the disappointment I’d see not only from Tobias… but from dad. I know how much school meant to him. I just hate that it means being away from the one person that makes me feel sane.
A knock at the door yanks me from my thoughts.
Suppressing a groan, I roll off the bed and make my way across the room.
Opening my door, I’m met with a shock.
Katelyn, my ex-girlfriend, leans on the door with a smile on her face. The last time I saw her, she was less than impressed with me after I broke up with her immediately after she spent March Break with my dad, Tobias, and me.
After what I did—dragging her away for the week, hooking up with Tobias in the next room, then dumping her before our five hour drive home—I can’t blame her for hating me.
“Katelyn—” I gasp, mouth open like a fish out of water. She flashes me a slow, deliberate smile, flipping her long, shiny hair over one shoulder. Looks like she’s dyed it back to black after the red, and she’s added a few more tattoos to her arms since the last time I saw her.
“So the rumours were true. You’ve come back.” She looks me up and down before pushing past me and straight into my room.
I leave the door open a crack, just in case she decides to murder me in here. “Yeah. I just got here today.” I answer.
“Nice!” She strolls over to my desk and picks up my American Werewolf in London artifact that Tobias got me for my birthday. “It was weird not having you here.” She admits, tilting it in her hand.
Weird?
“Sorry, I thought you hated me?” I question, taking it from her hand and setting it back down on my desk.
She takes a moment to look me over before sighing. “Yeah, well. I did hate you for a while. But, then I saw this–” She pulls out her phone from her back pocket and starts searching for something on her screen.
I’m confused. What could she have seen that changed her mind?
Tilting her phone, I see it—one of the worst nights of my life. My stomach knots before the first frame even plays. The gymnasium, twelfth grade, my art show… except it isn’t my art on display. It’s naked pictures of me, strung up where my work should have been.
My breath stutters. I watch as I rip the images down on screen, the sound of paper tearing loud in my memory. I thought I’d buried this behind me, but of course someone filmed it.
“Why do you have that?” I bite, looking away. That wasn’t a memory I’ve ever wanted to relive.
“I met a friend who went to your school. Told her who my ex was, and she showed me this. A friend of hers had it.” She looks down at her phone. “But, it was this that really made everything click for me.” She tilts the phone back to me.
My eyebrows pinch, not wanting to look.
“It’s not bad. I promise.” She urges me, pushing the phone closer.
I swallow deeply, turning my face to view it.
Pressing play again, the camera shifts. Its focus is now on Tobias.
Only, he looks different here. He’s not the calm, warm Tobias I know.
Instead, his face is raw, furious as though my pain is his own.
He shoves Harry, rips his phone from his hand, smashes it against the floor—plastic and glass exploding.
My breath hitches. I didn’t know. I yelled at him that night, pushed him away… and the whole time, he was fighting for me. Love warms my chest even more than it already was before.
“I didn’t know you two were so… close.” She pauses the video.
I stare at it, like it has more to say. Even though I already know how the rest went. Tobias chased after me, and I shooed him away like a dumbass.
I shook my head. “We were close when we were kids but not then…”
And yet he protected me. While I hated him, he jumped to my defense because that’s what kind of man Tobias is.
“He was in love with you.”
My eyes connect with hers, and I see the slightest glimmer of pain mixed with compassion.
I roll my bottom lip into my mouth and nod gently. “Yeah…apparently he was.” I can’t help the soft smile that finds its way on my face.
“You two are more than just brothers, aren’t you?” She asks carefully.
My lips twitch. “Yeah…I fell for him pretty hard, I guess.”
She nods her head and looks back down at her phone.
“And then, I saw this from this past summer.” Scrolling through Tobias’s Instagram profile, it’s clear, judging from the numerous photos he has posted with me in them, that we share more than just a close bond.
Pictures of my back standing at the Bloom & Brew coffee shop, looking up at the menu that hung on the wall behind the bar.
Or me lying down in the grass with my hat over my face and a book lying on my chest with my hands behind my head.
Or the picture he just posted of me and him during our last run of the season with the caption: My world.
My stomach flips just looking at them all and reliving the memories of this past summer.
“Why didn’t you just tell me? I would’ve understood.” Her voice breaks slightly as she sits down on my bed.
I run my hand through my hair and lean back on my desk chair. “I’m not sure I fully understood myself. That’s why I needed to end things. So that I could figure it out without hurting you.”
She bit her lip. “Yeah, I mean, I was pretty angry with you. I mean, you dropped me like I was nothing.” She absentmindedly softly punches her fist into my pillow.
I tilt my head as my gaze lingers on her. My heart aches thinking of what that would’ve felt like. “Katie, I’m so sorry. You were a great girlfriend, but…”
“You’re just in love with someone else.” She shrugs simply.
I nod my head. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”
I’m surprised to see a small smile creep up on her face. “Well, are you going to tell me about him or just stand there looking all sad at me?” She leans back on my bed and props herself up on her elbows.
My eyebrow arches. “Wouldn’t that be weird? Being friends with your ex…”
She rolls her eyes at me. “I got over you last year, thank you. Plus, Tobias is hot. The thought of you two together–”
I laugh, flopping down on the bed beside her. “Okay, okay. Enough.”
“No, we’re only getting started. You’re stuck with me allll year long. I want to hear about everything—first kiss, first time.” She laughs, nudging me off the bed with her foot.
“I’m already so done with you,” I groan, crawling back on.
“Mark my words, you’ll be sick of me.”
She waves toward my bare walls. “And this—this is a problem. Where are all your posters?”
“Fuck off, I just moved in,” I laugh.
I lay there, laughing as Katelyn berates me and my room, reminding me why we were friends in the first place.
I can’t help but feel a wave of relief wash over me. I’m thankful Katelyn is willing to be here for me after everything, and who knows? Maybe it’ll be nice knowing someone this year.
Being friends with her may not be so bad.