To Have Loved [BxB] Book I ✓

Chapter 11

a/n: So I feel like I should mention, after consulting exactly one source, I decided to include the poem in the actual text of this book and this is how I'm dealing with poetry written by the characters, if you don't want to read it, just skip past, that's a-ok. Anyways, so I hope everyone's liking this so far, I've been trying to get chapters out a bit faster now that more people are reading it, and so here is the next one. If you would like, give the song up there a listen, it fits Kayden's vibe so well I can't even describe it. Alright, I'll leave you to read now, have fun and have a good day or night whenever you're getting around to this. 

On Friday afternoon when the last class finally let out, Kayden could hardly wait to get to the library to show Elias his test score, even Mr. Roberts had given him a fond smile when he handed it to him. Kayden wasn't sure if that had been a 'good job' smile or an 'I told you so' smile but he thought maybe it was both and at the moment he wasn't very upset by it. He also had to show Elias the notes he'd taken all week. Towards the end, they'd gotten a bit more sparse, but they were still there, and thus, he'd done what he was supposed to. 

When he got into the library and saw Elias sitting at their usual table, he grinned and slapped the test down, causing the blond to raise a brow, though he smiled too when he saw the prominent A- in red ink at the top. "Good job, Kay, you really stepped it up." Kayden smiled brightly and couldn't help the fuzzy feeling he got in his stomach or the heat that rose to his cheeks. Obviously, he wasn't trying to succeed just so Elias would tell him that, that'd be stupid, though he had to admit it was kind of nice to be praised for something he was proud of. 

"...oh, also, I took all the notes," Kayden said, pulling out his notebook and carefully taking each notepaper out of his notebook to sit on the table, leaving a little pile that Elias picked up to look through.  

"Alright, I'm impressed. I didn't know if you'd actually do it." He said with a small smile, glancing over the sheets before he sighed softly and took a leather journal out of his backpack, leafing through the pages for a moment before he stopped, reading over one of them and then setting it down on the table, sitting open for Kayden to read it. 

The voice of a nightingale,
that sharp and heavenly song,
how it echoes through the trees,
reverberating with exuberance,
uniquely ensnaring,
capturing the forest's attention,
disturbing the quiet in a most exquisite way,
but just as notice has been taken,
extents his wings and lifts into the canopy.

Kayden read over it a few times, looking at Elias curiously. "What's it mean?"

"Nothing, it's not meant to mean anything, it's art for art's sake," Elias said and Kayden took a moment to think about that. 

"Is all of your poetry like that, y'know, without meaning?"

"In some sense, it doesn't usually mean anything to anyone else," Elias said, closing the book and setting it back in his bag. 

"So it means something to you.." Kayden asked though it wasn't a question. 

"Sometimes," Elias said, the tone of his voice level and unphased as it always seemed to be. 

He wondered why Elias was always so closed off, he seemed perfect, but that was only because he didn't let anyone see past the surface, Kayden was sure of it. Nobody could be unaffected and exceptional all the time, everyone eventually got tired or overwhelmed or just upset, everyone had moments where they couldn't uphold the image that they'd painted of themselves. A part of him wanted to find out what Elias was really like when he wasn't hiding behind his overconfident persona of flawless golden hair and achievements, but it was none of Kayden's business and he knew that.

"We should get to studying, there's another test coming up soon and you need to be ready for it," Elias said, taking a moment to fix his sleeve cuff before he pulled out the history textbook. Kayden nodded. He didn't give any more thought to his questions about Elias's life, he wasn't going to ask and he knew it was unlikely that he'd get any kind of satisfying answer from him anyway, they were hardly even friends. "Alright, let's talk about The Persian Empire."