Lost in Hollywood

Boy Melodrama

Eli was in his basement, playing Dungeon Lord on Playstation with Demetri, but he had serious difficulties keeping his mind on the game. The happenings of this afternoon kept running around in his mind, and no matter how hard he tried not to think about her, the trail of his thoughts kept leading back to Sky.

He was sure she'd had a panic attack on the sports field - that, or a PTSD episode, he couldn't be sure, but either way, she had lied about it, claiming she had a headache as if Eli hadn't seen her deal with her episodes a thousand times and known exactly what they looked like.

That lie had hurt, but he couldn't exactly blame her for lying. It wasn't like he had been there for her lately, like she could confide in him. They were barely talking to each other, and Eli knew he was the one to be blamed for that, but still— seeing her falling apart in PE class like that had been unbearable. He had just wanted to help, but she had thrown his pathetic attempts back at his face.

Eli swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump in his throat, and glanced at Demetri, sitting next to him on the plain, gray couch. The light of the setting sun entered the room through the glass door that led to the backyard, and something about this sight - his Binary Brother, the golden light of the setting sun, the leftovers of their sandwich dinner that Mom had fixed them -  was so familiar and so incredibly undeserved, that his chest ached. He had come so close to losing all of this that sometimes it still hit hard in unexpected moments - the gratitude he felt, the guilt he would always carry.

Demetri was fully concentrated in the game - his brow was furrowed and he leaned his bony elbows to his knees as he controlled his character in the game. His avatar - a necromancer, obviously - ran faster on the screen so that the hem of his dark brown cape was flying around his legs, and Eli realized he needed to follow or he would fall behind. Turning his attention back to the game, Eli made his own avatar - a half-elf thief - to follow the necromancer down the narrow path in the woods, but his mind kept slipping away from the game and their mission back to Sky.

It wasn't just the way she had rushed away from him in the parking lot, that kept bothering him. It was what had happened after. 

"Since when does Devon Lee go to Cobra Kai?" Eli asked, briefly glancing at Demetri.

"What? She doesn't," Demetri replied with a frown, keeping his eyes on the TV screen. "I mean— to my knowledge, she is still Eagle Fang's best hope of winning the All Valley. Why do you think she's in Cobra Kai?"

"Cause I saw her jumping into Sky's car today, carrying a Cobra Kai backpack."

"A Cobra Kai backpack?"

"Yeah. That's weird, right? I mean— if she's in Eagle Fang, why have a Cobra Kai backpack? Besides, if Devon was in Cobra Kai, Sky wouldn't be hanging out with her, would she?"

"That— does sound weird." Demetri agreed. The frown on his forehead deepened, creating a stark contrast against the happy music and sounds of the game that still filled the room as their avatars kept searching for a path through the woods.

"I know."

"Maybe you saw wrong? Maybe it wasn't a Cobra Kai logo, but— I don't know, some other evil-looking snake design?"

Eli let out a frustrated huff. "I'm not an idiot, I know what I saw. You think I don't recognize a Cobra Kai logo when I see one?"

"Okay. Say it wasn't her backpack, then? Maybe she has friends in Cobra Kai, or—" Demetri's brows furrowed and he hesitated a short moment before continuing. "She is Kyler's cousin, isn't she? Maybe she was keeping it for him?"

Something tightened in Eli's chest at the mention of Kyler's name. The room and the cheerful Sounds of the game disappeared, and he was sucked back into the most horrible moment of his life, to the Tattoo Parlor, and a cold, suffocating fear hit him like a punch to the gut. He had done his best not to think about that day, and yet it was always lurking there in the back of his mind, ready to drown him in shame, fear, and guilt.