When It's Just Us

Elias Murphy: Even Worlds

There's really nothing special about me. I don't know why everyone always praises me. Well not praise. More like looking up to me. If I did one nice thing they would think I'm the sweetest person in the world. Has the world had so many bad people that one good thing is considered being an angel? What I'm trying to say is I think I'm not all that everyone says I am.

I'm not sweet, I'm really not that helpful, and I'm certainly not that funny.

"Elias, you alright?" Lorenzo asked. I was in the last period of the day with my friend and my brother. "Yeah, I'm alright." I smiled at him and he smiled back. The rest of that period was pretty quiet. Our teacher, Mr. Edward, taught us some new materials that we had to review. After the bell rang, me and Trevor said goodbye to Lorenzo. We packed all our things and started to head out of the classroom. Our house was pretty close by so each day we walked to school. Though that also means awkward silence the entire time. Even though Trevor was my brother, we never talked. We never really had anything to talk about either. I didn't know him and he didn't know me.

"Hey I gotta go to my locker before we head home. That ok?" Trevor asked. I nodded and we started to head to his locker. I pulled out my phone to check the time. 3:46pm. Below the time was a notification from Opal. One of my friends. The message read:

Opal: Hey El, I need some advice

I sighed, "Opal wants advice again." Trevor looked at me concerned. "Again?" I nodded and then started typing.

Elias: What's up Opal. What's going on?

Opal: Nothing much, just Sammy again

Elias: Shocker

Opal: Hey don't be mean

Elias: My bad. What's going on?

Opal: He's been acting kinda weird lately.

Elias: Maybe he likes you

Opal: What? No, never

Elias: Uh huh. Ok but seriously, I would say try to figure out if everything's ok. And communicate, ok?

Opal: Alright thank you! See you tomorrow

"She was texting because she thought Sammy was acting weird." I closed my phone. Now we were at Trevor's locker and he was putting in his locker combo. "Why does she only text you when she needs something?" He said randomly. I only shrugged.

"Dude," He looked at me. "You need to learn how to set boundaries. I get that they're your friends but c'mon man!" I looked away. "I know but like-"

"No. The next time someone needs help and you feel like you shouldn't be in the position to help them, tell them so." I nodded. As much as he was being tough, he was also right. Ever since the friend group happened, I've basically been a therapist nonstop. Well not just me. I think Catherine too. Even if she won't admit it. Trevor sees it too. She's only ever really caring about others. She also puts others in front of her...just like me in a way.

"I'll do that. I promise." I looked up at Trevor. He smiled and then went back to trying to open his locker. After a while, he got his lunch box out of his locker and we started to walk home. As we walked home, I took out my headphones and played some of my favorite songs. Meanwhile Trevor took out his phone and took some pictures of the sky. That's something I know I'll never understand. Why take pictures of the sky? Yeah it may be beautiful, but why? I've tried asking him before but he didn't really give me a proper answer. Now that I think about it, Trevor really liked taking pictures of everything. I think he has a notebook with printed out pictures of things that he liked. It's amusing but also nice.

After a while of walking, we ended up at the front door of our house. I walked to the door and got the keys out my backpack. I put in the key and pushed the door open. The door made an irritating squeaking sound as it opened. Inside the house was calm, dimmed with yellow lights. The smell of food hit us. A voice then called, "Are you kids home?!" We both rushed into the house. Our mother, Ms. Murphy, always came home early from work to make us dinner. "Hey mom!" I said as I took off my shoes. Trevor stayed silent as he took off his shoes and put them on our shoe storage rack. He took off his backpack and gave it to me. I rushed over to the living room and placed his backpack down leaning on the couch. I took off my backpack and did the same.