Amidst The Reverie (boyxboy)

Chapter 22 : Shit Sorting

One can really find the most ridiculous way to hide if he's avoiding his best friend and his best friend's boyfriend. The weirdness of what happened on Sunday still lingers on Eli.

Olivia's acting crazy, Mateo is Mateo and Eli can't stop thinking about him.

Mateo didn't know that Olivia and Eli followed him and Olivia didn't know that Mateo's just busy with his job.

But Eli knows and he has no idea how he can have a proper conversation with them without blurting out their secrets to each other.

And also, Eli has his own secret. He's in love with Mateo and no one should ever ever know that.

The other day during lunch time, once Eli saw a flicker of Olivia's blonde shiny hair, he immediately ducked into a nearby drinking fountain. Given that it didn't hide him fully but Olivia didn't see him nonetheless.

Other students might have given him some weird looks but Eli shook them off.

And when he saw Mateo sauntering in the hallway, he ran towards the closest available room and hoped that Mateo didn't see him.

Once a moment passed without someone trying to open the door. He dimmed it safe to breathe again and he rested his forehead into the cold door as he closed his eyes. Trying to calm himself.

"Can I help you?"

Eli winced as soon as he heard the voice. Of course, it was none other than Luke, which he just added to the list of people that he should avoid.

He slowly turned around and Eli could not believe how stupid he was. He walked inside the office of the student council.

Stupid.

Luke stares at him expectantly as he sits in a comfortable looking swivel chair and his hands atop of a mahogany desk. His eyes crinkled as he smiled at Eli.

"Uhhhhhh. No. Sorry." Eli muttered, fumbling with the door knob to open it. As he swung the door open he saw Olivia and Mateo talking to each other near his locker and he just couldn't do it. He can't deal with that right now.

And so he closes the door and faces Luke again.

Eli gave Luke an unsure smile.

Luke raises his eyebrows at him. Amusement present within his eyes.

And okay, he looks good. Like good good. He's wearing a plain white shirt with a jean jacket and Eli knows that that shouldn't impress him but somehow Luke manages to look so good in them.

"Who are you hiding from?" Luke questions. He starts typing in his laptop, casually looking from where Eli is standing as he waits for his reply.

"No one." Eli responded after a while. He lets his eyes roam around the golden trophies in a glass case behind Luke, and to the white curtains still casting the sun rays, spilling into the wooden floor. He sucked his bottom lip.

"Right." Luke said, not believing Eli at the slightest but not asking any further questions about it either. "Well, whoever it is, I'm glad I'm not the only person you're avoiding."

Eli can't help but flinch at what Luke has said. Because it's true. He has been avoiding Luke ever since their date last Saturday. Eli should really write a list of people he's avoiding right now.

Luke gestured towards the chair in front of him. "Sit"

Eli doesn't want to. He wanted to go. He wanted Luke to stop smiling at him. He wanted to stop being a mess and start facing his problem. But he can't.

He took a tentative step towards the chair and hesitantly sit.

He sat frozen on the chair, unable to move. He stared at Luke as he typed furiously in his laptop. Eli sucks in his bottom lip.

He should say something. He really should. Ghosting someone after their first date and first sober kiss is not what Eli usually does. He's more polite than that.

He knows that what he did was wrong but also how can he possibly explain that he thinks that he's in love with his best friend's boyfriend because he saw him in his coma dream?

Where the hell would he even start to explain?

"You okay? You look like you're gonna puke." Luke glanced at him. And Eli wanted to whack him over the head.

Of course he's not okay, he feels like his insides are eating him. How can he be okay?

"I'm sorry for avoiding you." Eli opted to say.

"You know you could've told me if you hated our date." Luke gave him a pointed look and raised his brow at him.

"No. The date was great. It was..." Eli sucked in a breath. He ransacked his brain with an excuse but he still came up with nothing. "...great."

"Very convincing, Eli!"

"No. It's true!!! It's just-"

Eli fumbled with his fingers, his eyes cast down on it. "I'm still hung up on someone."

There was a momentary silence even the sound of the keyboard stopped. Eli wanted to slap himself in the face. He shouldn't have said anything.

Thinking it and saying it are two different things.

"Ex-boyfriend?" Luke asked after a minute. Eli studied him, he was back at typing nonchalantly but his shoulders were tensed.

"You could say that"

"Do you want to get back with him?"

"No. No. He-" doesn't know I'm in love with him. Eli wanted to say. But he didn't.

"He's moved on." He lied, clearing his throat wanting to run out of this conversation forever.

"I see. Well I get it." Luke smiled at him, and Eli felt so bad. He really likes Luke. He's charming, smart, good-looking, and Eli actually had a good time with him.

But he's not Mateo and life is so fucking unfair.

"I just don't think that I should be in a relationship, you know? Not now at least. I feel like I should figure out my own shit first before I deal with other people's shits." Eli explained. His hands gestured exaggeratedly before him.

He just wanted to make Luke understand that whatever's going on with Eli has nothing to do with him.

"Am I making sense or am I just rambling?" He asks Luke, his face contorted with frustration. Luke laughs at him.

"You're making perfect sense. I get it, don't worry." Luke reached out to him, over the mahogany table between them, and held his hand. A brief touch. And then both of them smiled.

"Thank God." Eli mumbled as Luke chuckled. The student body president seats in his chair again.

"Well I should go and leave you to it." Eli gestures towards the pile of papers on the table. "But we're good right? Friends? We're friends?"

"Yes. Eli, we're friends." The boy raised his eyebrows at Eli with a glint playing in his eyes. "For now."

Eli shook his head and head out.

Man. He should really sort his shit out.