Letting Him In

Chapter-16

"Take pictures in your mind of your childhood room
Memorize what it sounded like when your dad gets home
Remember the footsteps, remember the words said
And all your little brother's favorite songs
I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone"

-Taylor Swift, Never Grow Up
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Elijah

Elijah's head was spinning. He had multiple texts from Dean: You ok?

You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to.

Allen says its personal, and I don't wanna pry, but just... r u ok?

Now I'm worried..

Elijah sighed. It was lunch break, and the texts were sent over the span of last night (an hour after he had left Kaeden's) to about seven minutes ago. The worst part was, Dean probably did not even know what he was doing; every text had made Elijah feel giddy, like he was some twelve-year-old being acknowledged by his crush; and then the thought of why he was getting the attention ruined it. Every time he met Dean, his feelings grew more and more intense. His carefree attitude, unapologizing sense of humour, his passion for music and painting and cars- it all made him feel at ease. He had never thought anyone could have that effect on him... much less in barely three weeks.

He was staring at his phone when he heard his name. "Yo, Elijaaaah?" said Jason from across the table. "We've been calling your name for the past minute. Lost in dreamworld?"

Elijah just shook his head. "What is it? It better not be another stupid pun about food," he warned. He had had enough of those for a day in the past twenty minutes.

"It isn't," said Mike. "Jake and I are planning to redecorate the teacher's offices a little. You up for it?"

Elijah rolled his eyes. "Seriously, your detention just got over. No, thanks."

"It'll be fun. Lijah," Jason grinned. "And a break from all that brooding," he added, receiving a glare from Elijah in response.

"C'mon. You won't even have to do anything. Just cover for us. Say that Jason had an emergency and had to leave but didn't have his car so we took him. Meanwhile, we'll have some fun with their offices," said Mike, grinning like the devil.

Elijah sighed, knowing they weren't going to let this go. But as much as he disliked their pranks, he had to admit, they could be quite hilarious. "Fine. We all have AP Biology next. You're gonna do it then?" They nodded, and Elijah looked back at his phone. There was a new text.

I'll give you time... but if you don't reply by tomorrow, Chris and I are breaking into your house.

Elijah grinned as he left for his class, shaking his head the boy he was falling for.

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His friends had gone through with their plan and, surprisingly, were not caught. Apparently, all the cameras in the offices had stopped working, too. Elijah had to admit, they were smart. They had even spray-painted some sort of animal on one of the office walls, but it looked more like the drawing of a tree gone wrong.

Walking to his car, he felt an ache in his back. It had been there all day, but it was getting worse, and all he wanted to do was go home and sleep. After coming home last night, he had spent an hour on his phone looking up some stuff that had been bothering him for a while; he had really needed to look into it, but the incident with Kaeden's father had given him the push he needed to finally do it. But now he was exhausted, because even after he was done with what he needed to know, he couldn't sleep; his mind was running way too fast for that.