Letting Him In

Chapter-5

"And all the people say
You can't wake up, this is not a dream
You're part of a machine, you are not a human being
With your face all made up, living on a screen
Low on self-esteem, so you run on gasoline"

-Halsey, Gasoline
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Elijah

After driving around aimlessly for a bit, Elijah went toward the park. He needed time to calm down, and to be able to think straight. Right now, hurt, anger, and even guilt was clawing its way to the surface, no matter how hard to tried to push it all down. All he could think about was what Kaeden had said. The whole conversation kept replaying repeatedly in his mind. Over the past month, he had noticed the slight change in Kaeden's behavior; the increased snarkiness and sarcasm, even the occasional snappy comment. Each time he had tried to bring it up, Kaeden had shrugged it off and changed the topic, until he'd finally simply stated that he didn't want to talk about it. Elijah had respected that and given Kaeden the space he needed until he was ready to talk about it.

But now he was mentally exhausted. What bothered him wasn't Kaeden's yelling. It was the fact that he knew Elijah hated to talk about his childhood; yet Kaeden thought it was alright to bring it up when, for the first time in ages, Elijah had wanted something for himself. Selfish and irresponsible, the words kept going around his head.

He got out and went to the bench at the farthest end of the park, where he could be alone with his thoughts. Being someone who had never loved silence, he pulled out his iPod, and plugged in his earphones letting the music calm his nerves. Looking around, he could see some couples waking about, and even the occasional toddler, even though it was barely 1 o'clock. He closed his eyes, leaning his head back on the bench.

Elijah was pulled out of his peaceful little bubble when he heard his name being called. Looking up, he saw Allen standing near him with two boys who seemed vaguely familiar. He realized he must've been lost in his thoughts for quite a while, as people were starting to arrive at the park. Looking at his phone, he saw it was a little after four.

Mustering up a forced smile, he greeted Allen, hoping she'd leave soon; he wanted to be alone for a little bit more, before he had to leave for work.

"What're you doing here alone?" she asked.

"Just needed to be alone for a bit," he said, glancing at the two boys beside her.

Looking at them for a moment, Allen turned her attention back to Elijah. Pointing toward the one with light brown hair and grey eyes, she smiled slightly, and said, "This is my boyfriend, Nate. And this," she pointed toward the other boy, "is Dean."

Elijah had heard the name before; after a few seconds, he realized that the boy was the quarterback of Riverhill High's football team.

"I'm Elijah," he said after a moment, receiving a nod of acknowledgement from them in response.

"You're Kaeden's friend, right? I've seen you around the field before, after our practice games last year," said Nate.

"Yeah," he replied. "And you're the one he made a bet with him about this Friday," he added, looking toward Dean.

Dean let out a breathy laugh, before saying, "Yeah, that would be me. What can I say; I need someone to clean my car."

"So sure you'll win?" Elijah asked with a smirk.

It was Nate who replied. "Of course we will. It'll be fun watching Kaeden wash Dean's car for an entire month," he grinned.

Elijah just shook his head. "We'll find out this Friday, I guess. Don't be too let down when you guys lose." Although he was mad at Kaeden, he wasn't going to talk bad about him or the team behind their backs.

Allen interrupted their bickering by slightly shoving Dean and Nate in the other direction, saying that she needed to talk to him  for a bit.

When they were gone, she took a seat next to him.

"What's wrong?" she asked. Seeing his expression, she added, "Don't say nothing. You looked sad when you were sitting alone. Even when you were talking, you didn't seem into it. What happened?"

"Weren't you at school today? I'm pretty sure everyone knows what happened." He didn't want to talk about it, but he didn't want to be rude either. He was going to be working with her the entire year, and he didn't want to rush her away because he couldn't control his emotions.

"I took an off today. Didn't feel like going," she shrugged. "So, want to talk about it?"

"Not really," he said. When she didn't budge, he sighed. "Kade and I got into a fight. He brought up some stuff he shouldn't have. It was during lunch break, so everyone heard us. I left and lost track of time," he summarized.

Knowing that she wouldn't get anything more out of him, Allen got up. "Come on."

"Huh?" he asked, confused.

"What? I'm not leaving you alone to sulk around all day," she said, pulling him up and toward the other two, who had been standing and talking by a tree.

When Allen let go of his arm upon reaching them, he said, "One, ouch, you have a hard grip. And two, I appreciate this, but I have to leave for work in a bit."

Dean raised his eyebrows. "Where do you work? Also, yes, her grip hurts. Very much so, actually."

Allen smacked his head, and Nate chuckled, softly kissing her cheek.

Elijah shrugged. "At the arcade," he said.

"That's cool," said Allen. "We'll come too. We could hang out there."

"Sure; we weren't sure what we were going to do anyway. You just dragged us out here because you were bored," said Dean, which earned him another smack on the back of his head.

"Tone down on the violence, girl!" he said, but he was laughing.

Elijah chuckled at their friendship. "Okay, but we'll need to leave now. I work at the one at the mall, so it's a bit far." Although he had wanted to be alone, Elijah found that he didn't mind their company. In fact, he was somewhat enjoying it.

Nate looked at him with huge eyes. "Please say you drove here, because if you didn't, she's going to make us all walk. And I can't do that after the drills coach put us through today."

Elijah nodded, and started walking in the direction of his car. When they reached his car, he heard someone gasp slightly.

Turning around, he saw Dean staring at it with his green eyes wide and dancing with excitement. He laughed softly at that.

Dean looked at him with the same expression and said, "You drive a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette?!"

"Yeah; it was my dad's," he said, shrugging lightly. Even though the car didn't mean much to him, he knew many people felt passionate about such things.

"Okay, I'm probably coming off as really weird right now," Dean chuckled, "but I've always loved vintage cars. My dad collects 'em, but I've never driven a 1963 Corvette."

Elijah smiled and tossed him the keys, causing Dean's eyes to widen even more. "There's a first time for everything, eh?"

"Thanks, dude!"

Nate laughed at his friend's excitement. "I apologize for his antics. He's like an oversized excitable baby when it comes to cars." Dean glared at him, but its effect was diminished by his happiness.

As they got into the car, Elijah got in the passenger's seat and turned on the radio.

This might actually turn out to be a good day after all.

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Hey, guys. Dean's finally here! Any thoughts on Nate and Dean? Let me know what you thought of this chapter in the comments!!

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