Natural Selection (Elijah Kamski x Reader)

Spontaneous Generation

Fast-forwarding...
Events compiled.

Things had started spiraling since the night where you'd ignored Anthony's warning, ripping off Elijah's clothes instead of your own in an effort to make yourself more appealing.  Since you were pinned underneath him for hours, and then laughing next to him, talking to him in a haze of ecstasy – a cycle that'd repeated itself until the sun came up and he had to leave to catch his flight.

That was three months ago.

Three months of sweet phone calls, mushy texts, and late-night video calls that kept you up until 5 hours before you had to either go to class or work.

Adjusting to a different time zone was an unexpected result of your reunion with Elijah Kamski.  It wasn't often that one felt jet lagged while not physically traveling anywhere new.  But your schedule revolved around his, something you justified by telling yourself that his work was more important.  Someone had to give, and that person had been you.

And all of it, the constant communication, the tired "I love you's" and the falling asleep with a phone pinned between your cheek and the pillow – it had all abruptly stopped.

For 16 hours, there'd been nothing but radio silence.

"Maybe he met someone else?" Anthony shrugged, washing dishes next to you, "He's always had attachment issues.  You remember when he was with that girl...what was her name?"

You checked to see if your manager was around.  He always hated it when the two of you gossiped on the clock.  Luckily, today was a slow day at Mozzie's Sunny Side Diner, or just Mozzie's for anyone who didn't hate themselves to say the whole damn thing every time they talked about it.

"Rebecca..." You sighed, "Her name was Rebecca."

"Yeah. Her. He was borderline controlling before she finally dipped out."

There had been a period of time after Elijah left the United States that he still kept in touch with you and Anthony, keeping you updated on current events in his life, even if you cared more than your friend.  Anthony barely responded in the group chat, and if he did, it was never more than a few words.  Elijah never said anything about it, but you wondered if that was part of the reason the updates slowly stopped coming altogether.

You'd taken it personally, at first.  Like what you had to say wasn't good enough to keep him around.  Eventually, you'd chalked it up to Elijah just being busy.

"Okay, but she left him." You pulled the brakes on the memory train, bringing yourself back to the present, "Not the other way around."

"Well...sure, but...for as long as they were together, he didn't seem to care, now did he?"

You scrubbed harder, the soap draining from the sponge in your raw hands, "He was like, 16.  We were all different back then."  You turned the faucet off, drying your palms on your pants, "When you're trying to change the world, you don't have time to get hung up on girls, Tony."

"Jesus...listen to you." He swiped his forehead with the back of his wrist, "You just proved my point."

You'd been sacrificing so much to meet Elijah's every need, or want.  Woke up at 1 or 2AM just to say good morning.  Anything.  And this was the first time that he'd dropped off the radar, but it had you in a tailspin.

You knew it was ridiculous, that with a life like his – he couldn't afford distractions.  You'd held on to some sliver of hope that this, whatever it was between you and Elijah, had been more.

"Guess I did.  You're right."  But that hope was quickly diminishing, "No one like him could ever want to get seriously involved with someone like me...I'm a waitress working on an associate's, for fuck's sake."