― 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅.
❝ you never knew the stars had
a flavor until you first kissed him.
it turns out they taste like ambition
and ancient fire, desperation, and
dark matter, and the mind-numbing
fear of bei...
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STARCROSSED (book one). °• CHAPTER TWELVE •°
" I MISSED THIS. I MISSED YOU. "
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FEELINGS WERE IMPORTANT. Allow yourself to feel deeply. These were words Tobia Wolfhart had drilled into Elijah's head the very day he understood what it meant to feel something. I know many will tell you boys don't cry. Men aren't taught to express themselves, his father would say as he gently stroked curled fingers across his temple, stroking past his birthmark. Eli, it's not true. It's okay to cry. It's okay to be sad, son. I need you to let yourself feel. Somedays Elijah held these words a little too close to heart and allowed himself to feel as much as he possibly could.
Somedays Elijah didn't know if he was feeling everything all at once or nothing at all.
He supposes physical pain counted too. It was impossible not to feel the painful bruises that were beginning to freshly paint his torso. Lewis's gang did a number on Elijah. He holds the hem of his shirt close to his chest and carefully tilts his head down. It's a horrible sight. His bronze skin was colored with a dark, crimson red starting to tint in purple. The swelling was making it difficult to breathe. He made a note to press an ice pack on it later.
Elijah releases the cloth of his shirt and takes a look in the bathroom mirror. His face wasn't in any better shape. One of his eyes was already starting to swell shut, his jaw also bruised and swollen, his nose probably busted with a droplet of blood that trailed to his cut upper lip, and the tip of his tongue was tracing the inside of his shredded cheek. Elijah puckers his lips and spits into the porcelain sink.
The blood splatters and stands out against the bright color. Fuck you, Lewis, Elijah thinks as he fumbles through the medicine cabinet before shutting it and glaring at the reflection that stares back. Elijah loathes the broken boy he sees.
He wasn't afraid anymore like he was when he was curled on the concrete. Elijah was furious. He was beaten bloody, black and blue, and left there like some scum you find at the bottom of your shoe. And they did it just because he was gay. They assaulted a boy for no reason other than he happens to kiss the same gender.
It takes a while to clean himself up. Elijah pretends he can't see the tears left behind as he works on wiping off whatever blood he can see, applying the proper treatment to open wounds, and trying to clean himself up as best as he could. Elijah knows it's important to feel and embrace sorrow. But that's exactly why he can't let Nevaeh or Tobia see the extent of his injuries. It'd crush them. He had almost considered reporting the situation to Hopper, but one, Elijah still hates the police, two, his family would find out, and three, he doubts any drastic measures would be taken.
