To Have Loved [BxB] Book I ✓

Chapter 45

a/n: So this is my first time writing an Elias chapter, but I had a ton of fun and honestly, I think this has to go up in my top 5 favorite chapters. I still think the Thanksgiving chapter was my top favorite, but this is up there. I'm curious, what are your favorite chapters so far? Also, originally I was going to cap this at 50 chapters, but I'm realizing the timeline may have to be a tad extended so it might be a couple more than that. Maybe not, we'll see, but I thought I'd let you know. Anyways, I hope you like the chapter, and have a great weekend! 

Elias woke up to the sound of a shower running. He rubbed his hands over his eyes and reached for his glasses before he glanced over to the large window in their room, noticing that the curtains had been drawn to either side. It was bigger than the one in his dorm, almost floor-to-ceiling. He could see the sun starting to come up over the horizon, casting a yellow glow into the room. He could also see the city below him. It'd been too dark the night before to pick out any details, but now he could see people walking the streets, shops and apartment buildings below, and of course, the pier jutting out into the water. There was something almost poetic about it. He nearly always wrote about nature, fields, and rivers far away from any civilization, untouched by human hands, but even at the peak of industrialization, there was something still so beautiful about the sunrise shining through the gaps of buildings and reflecting off of the glass of skyscrapers.

He didn't realize how long he'd been laying in bed just looking out the window until the water shut off and his gaze moved to the bathroom door. He hadn't taken Kayden for someone who showered in the mornings, though maybe that type of thing didn't matter to him and he just showered whenever it was most convenient. Elias was more rigid than that. He almost always showered in the morning twenty minutes after waking up. Before he really got to know him, he envied Kayden for being so seemingly carefree and impulsive. The blond had never really been able to do that. In the last few months though, he was realizing Kayden wasn't any more carefree than him.

Elias wasn't sure what it was, but there was something different about Kayden. He didn't know why he was so drawn to him, why he had been from the first day he saw him. He was hotheaded and incredibly annoying from time to time, but also...he was kind-hearted, and though he acted overconfident and hyper-independent, he lacked self-esteem and needed help even when he wouldn't ask for it. The more Elias got to know him, the more he realized that Kayden was a lot more like himself than he realized. He worked hard, he was extremely intelligent, and he pushed himself too far more often than not. He didn't have the same sort of coldness that was deeply embedded in Elias, though, he was filled with warmth and excitement and he gave everything he had to the people around him. Maybe that was what Elias found so intriguing about him, or maybe it was just everything.

As the door opened and Kayden stepped out of the bathroom dressed in his school uniform with his hair still damp and tie done unevenly, Elias reached over to grab his watch off of the side table.

"Oh, you finally woke up," Kayden said with a little smile.

"Yeah, just a bit ago. Are you done with the bathroom?" Elias asked, running his fingers through his hair.

"It's all yours," Kayden said as he walked back over to his bed and checked his phone. "Do you know what time we're leaving?"

"Around nine. We should get down to breakfast soon."

---

As they loaded onto the bus, Elias took a seat beside Kayden and glanced over to where Ezra was sitting next to Grant.

"I guess they made up," Kayden murmured. It seemed like he'd been worrying about them.

"Looks like it," Elias said, pulling out his small 3-ring binder and the worksheet he'd been given for the aquarium, beginning to look over the questions. Kayden had, of course, folded it up and put it in his pocket as soon as he was on the bus.