Precious Virtue ✓

Chapter 6: Heart On Fire

Precious Virtue

Chapter VI: Heart On Fire

[Preston's POV]

After I got off the video call with Adrien, I closed my laptop and let out a heavy breath, falling back against my bed.

While I had a nice chat with him for the first time in what seemed like a while, I couldn't get what he told me out of my head. It had been on my mind for the rest of the call. Luka. The king he met on his first day of class. How they got along well and hung out nearly every day, and the bright smile Adrien had while just talking about him.

My chest squeezed. It was a painful ache. Adrien had every right to meet new people, to be happy with them, and just happy in general. But I still couldn't get the thoughts out of my head. How this Luka guy slipped into his life so easily, to the point they were hanging out all the time. And if he could slip his way into Adrien's life so easily, could he do the same with his heart?

Adrien and I used to hang out all the time. We did everything together, and now, we couldn't hang out like we used to because we were at separate schools.

Now, he was doing everything with Luka. It hasn't even been that long.

And that thought sucked, and now I was worried my relationship with Adrien was going to tear away slowly, and that Luka was going to take my place. Of course he would, he seemed like a nice guy even though the mere thought of him was pissing me off. Like a pit of fire in my chest. I hated that I was busy and couldn't talk to Adrien like I wanted to. Classes weighed on me and it hasn't even been that long, and to me, it felt like I barely had time for anything else.

The initial excitement of going to University had slowly worn off, and now the reality of how hard it was and all the stress that came with it was finally kicking in.

Fuck, my chest felt heavy. My emotions weighed me down, and it was uncomfortable. Why did I have to feel like this all of a sudden? I had this feeling way too often over summer break, where I felt like I was going to snap and break down. But I haven't had that feeling in a while, so I thought I was getting over it. I thought that I was finally moving on. I guess not.

Thoughts raced through my head as I looked up at the ceiling, my vision becoming slightly distorted as I got lost in my thoughts.

What if Adrien and Luka got together? What if they started dating? An image of them kissing and holding hands flashed in my head and stirred a fire in my chest. What if Adrien moved on from me? What if he just stopped talking to me altogether? What if he moved on with his life, with new friends and a new lover, without me?

I didn't want to think about it, but I couldn't help but think about it. I was horrified at the thought of Adrien leaving me behind, of him not being in my life anymore, of him wanting nothing to do with me. I didn't want to be alone. I didn't want to lose him, for him to abandon me. The mere thought made me panic, and I wanted to do something about it, but sat in it instead, letting it drown me in my own head.

I already fucked up big time, and I still felt guilty about it despite Adrien telling me everything was okay. I felt guilty for having these feelings, for having this panic and jealousy, because I knew Adrien could do what he wanted with his life. But I couldn't help but have these feelings. Why did I have to have these feelings?

I shook my head and squeezed my eyes shut. I sat in my overbearing emotions and my thoughts for a while, for what seemed like almost an hour, before I finally got up from my bed.

The feelings still weighed on me heavily, but I decided to ignore them and grab a couple of towels that I hung up behind my door and stepped out of my dorm room and into the bathroom that Elijah and I shared.

I closed the door, flicked on the lights, turned on the shower, and stripped out of my clothes. I stepped into the shower and stood under the hot water, eyes closed as the water pelted down over my face.

I tried to focus on the scorching water instead of my thoughts, as it touched my skin, blushed pink from the heat, as it soaked my hair and I had to brush the strands out of my face, but it was difficult. But still, the thoughts remained. Even as I scrubbed myself down with soap and washed my hair, even as I stood in the shower for an extra twenty minutes after washing up. They were still there.

When I got out of the shower, I wrapped a towel around my waist and went back to my dorm room, where I dried off, put on lotion, and changed into a t-shirt and a pair of sweats. When I was done, it was roughly around nine-thirty in the evening. I ran my fingers through my damp hair and headed down to the kitchen to grab a quick dinner.

"Hey, finished your call with Adrien?" Elijah asked me, looking up from his textbook from where he sat on the couch, his notebook on his lap.

"Yeah, finished a bit ago," I nodded dismissively. I stepped into the kitchen, grabbed a box of Kraft dinner from the cupboard, and then set a pot filled with water on the stove.

I heard Elijah hum in response, and when I briefly glanced back over from the kitchen, I saw that he was focused on his calculus homework once more, writing down equations in his notebook. He sat crossed legged, dressed in a simple pair of lounge pants and a navy blue hoodie. His dark auburn hair was pushed out of his face from his constant finger brushing whenever he was thinking hard, and he had on his reading glasses.

He always wore them while he was in class, or while he was doing schoolwork. And I have to say, he looks attractive in his glasses.

I blinked, turning back to the stove once I realized the water started boiling. I shook my head and lowered the heat on the stove, pouring the pasta into the boiling water.

Once I finished cooking the pasta and had a steaming hot bowl of Kraft dinner prepared, I went to the fridge and glanced around in it for something to drink, until I looked up on top of the fridge where we left our bottles of alcohol.

I hesitated. I thought about it for a quick minute, and with dwelling longer, I grabbed one of the half-empty alcohol bottles. I needed something to distract me from my thoughts so that I would be able to relax and go to bed, and so the only reasonable option seemed to be alcohol. It always did the trick.

"Drinking on a Thursday?" Elijah spoke up just as I was carrying my bowl and alcohol beverage to the stairs. I stopped at the bottom step and glanced over at Elijah, who looked at me with a raised brow.

"Why not?" I shrugged, and before Elijah could say anything else, I walked upstairs to my dorm room.

Needless to say, I ate my dinner and drank the whole bottle that night, and it was enough for me to stop thinking about Adrien and his new friend, even if it was just for a little while.

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A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Let me know what you think :)