burning bridges.

eight

once december rolled around, the school was packed with christmas trees, pendulums and lights. elijah loved it. every year during christmas his father would go out of town to visit relatives. so, he would get together with lauren and exchange gifts.

in other words, winter break would be peaceful and quiet for him, with the house all to himself.

he had bought a delightful necklace for his sister and agreed to cook her a special dinner. sure, she was the cook between the two of them, but that didn't mean he couldn't be a responsible brother and let her rest.

lauren was the only good thing going in his life, and he didn't plan on messing that up, as he did with almost everyone he ever got close to. he was extremely uplifted to see her again.

so naturally, the smile that appeared the moment he skipped down the stairs that friday before the holidays, didn't leave his face the whole day.

-

dominic hated christmas with a passion. and valentines day, or any holiday that involved getting together for that matter. he hated walking down the street and seeing everyone all touchy-squeezy. the only good thing about christmas was that he didn't have to go to school. it did mean that he was stuck at the house with his never satisfied mom, but he would rather that over school any day.

he arrived on campus pretty early for his doing. the deadline for the history projects was two weeks after the holidays, so he and elijah would have to meet up at least once more. he went to dom's house twice already, and both times they managed to get into a fight over the project. but the second time, it wasn't just screaming and spitting out useless insults, it was more like a discussion. elijah did give dom his number, so he could just text him if when wanted to meet up again.

he took a turn for the bathroom. once entering the filthy area which seemed to smell like moldy food, he started by washing his hands. super logical order, but he needed to get that smell off. literally.

he gazed up, looking in the mirror, fixing his hair with his still oozy hands.

hearing a toilet flush, he shifted his sight to where the sound came from. a short boy stepped out, a freshman, most likely. the boy looked up and froze as he saw the older standing by the sink. dominic simply let out a "scram!" which was enough to have the little boy's knees shaking. he let out a whimper, hurrying out the door.

he sighed, eyeing himself in the mirror once more.

he didn't know why elijah kept appearing in his mind.

maybe because i'm just stressed about the assignment. he thought, but deep inside he knew that wasn't true. he just didn't know what label to give it.

it was unusual for dom to have someone talking back to him with as much force as elijah did. it frustrated him to no end, yes, but that also meant he had his attention on the younger more than all his other classmates combined.

the genuine worry in his eyes when he helped dom with his headache, the dance duet they unexpectedly did, it was weird.

weird that only he seemed to look past the outside. everyone else kind of judged and objectified him. self-inflicted damage, most likely, but still.

elijah saw the person behind the remarks and insults, behind the poker face and temper. every time they were in the same room, he felt seen. it didn't matter in what way, he was just glad that someone took the effort to.

-omg development