Letting Him In

Chapter-21 (Part 1)

"I know you say you know me, know me well
But these days I don't even know myself, no
I always thought I'd be with someone else
I thought I would own the way I felt, yeah"

-Louis Tomlinson ft. Bebe Rexa, Back To You

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Taking another sip of his drink, Elijah shook his head with a grimace.

"This stuff tastes like shit," he said, peering into the red solo cup. It was filled with fruit punch mixed with an assortment of liquor; he wasn't sure he wanted to know what all was in there.

"You said that before this cup. And the one before that too. And before that too. And-"

"Shut up," Elijah grumbled, cutting off the rest of Kaeden's sentence. The drink may not have tasted good, but it was doing its job, because even though Elijah wasn't completely drunk, he was starting to feel the effects of the alcohol. His head felt slightly fuzzy, and he wanted to do something he would never usually do in a million years. So, with a grin, he turned to Kaeden, a buzz of excitement running through his body.

"Oh, no. No, no, no... I do not like that look. We're not doing anything stupid," Kaeden warned, noticing the gleam in Elijah's eyes.

Elijah's grin just widened. "We're gonna go play beer pong," he stated. He grabbed Kaeden's arm, pulling him along to the living room, where he'd earlier noticed some guys playing the game.

Smirking, he grabbed another drink from the table behind him, this one a shot of tequila; at least, he hoped it was. It was hard to tell with the already horrible taste in his mouth. Gulping it down with a grimace, he shuddered a little as the burning liquid went down his throat, before practically dragging Kaeden to the living room.

"You do realize that you were supposed to have some lemon with that, right?" Kaeden sassed once Elijah came to a stop beside where the game was going on.

Letting go of his arm, Elijah tilted his head. That explained why his mouth felt like it was on fire. "Knew I was forgetting something," he muttered. But he simply shrugged it off with a shake of his head. In a louder voice, he asked the people at the table, "Mind if we join in?"

One of them, a black-haired boy with the tips dyed blue, threw the ball, which bounced on the table before landing in one of the cups. Elijah recognized him from the track team of Riverhill High; Isaac Layton was one of their fastest runners. "Woohoo, drink," he said to the pair of girls on the other end of the table.

There was another boy beside him. His dark skin looked flushed, probably because of the amount of beer he may have had in the game. When Isaac's face lit up with joy at the ball landing in the cup, the other boy smiled fondly at him, before wrapping an arm around his waist and pulling him closer. Elijah felt a heavy feeling stir in the pit of his stomach as envy Isaac, who looked happy at the affection he was receiving, leaned up to kiss the boy on the cheek before turning to Elijah with a boyish grin. Elijah pushed aside the feeling of what was too much like jealousy. Just because he couldn't come out of the closet and have something like the two of them didn't mean that he couldn't be happy for others.

"Sure. You're up next," Isaac said. He looked confused as his gaze shifted from Elijah to Kaeden. "Kaeden Gray?" he questioned, tilting his head.

"Yep, that's me," Kaeden said, scratching the back of his neck a bit sheepishly. Elijah was confused until the raven-haired boy spoke up again.

"No offense, but you sure you aren't at the wrong party?" he laughed teasingly.

Damn, he has a cute laugh, Elijah thought, biting his cheek to stop himself from saying anything out loud. And that blue hair suits him.