Until I Found You

Chapter 12

Eli leads me upstairs to his room and he has a seat on his bed. I look around the room for a minute before sitting down beside him. 

Eli's room is ordinary, its fairly small with a queen-sized bed that has a grey comforter on it. He has a small desk in the corner of his room and tons of pictures of numerous things to fill the walls. 

"why'd you come?" Eli finally speaks up. He doesn't seem mad about it just sad and dull. "Well honestly, Aaron seemed worried about you, and he couldn't miss practice, I'm glad I came though" I tell him, and he nods. "Did he tell you?" he asks getting up and walking over to his desk. 

"I don't think so? He didn't really tell me anything, he just told me that I needed to come and demand my way in" I tell him honestly which makes Eli chuckle softly before grabbing something off his desk. He walks back over to me holding a picture and hands it to me before siting down. I examine the picture of a younger boy, clearly Eli and a little girl.

I look up at him waiting for anything that could possibly make sense of what this is, but an explanation never comes. 

Instead, Eli moves to rest his back against the backboard of his bed, and I do the same. I continue to look at the image, Eli was a cute kid, he couldn't have been much younger than he is now, he's changed a lot, definitely grown up. 

The picture must have been taken when he was in middle school, early teenage years. I move my eyes to the little girl, clearly younger than Eli, looks as if she could have only been a few years old.

"That's my sister" he finally speaks which catches me by surprise, I wasn't aware he had a sister. I look up at him and I can see the pain in his eyes as they water up "she died 5 years ago today" he finally gets out as tears run down his cheeks. 

He quickly gets rid of them as to pretend he was fine, but I could tell that wall would only hold a little more before it broke. My mind was running through so many questions that I knew I may not ever get the answer to, but I didn't care, the look in his eyes told me everything I needed. 

I couldn't think of anything to say to him that would make what he just told me any better so I did the only thing I could do to comfort him and that was to hold him.

I put the picture down on the bedside table and put my arm around him, he fell into me and soon enough his head was on my chest. I could feel his tears soaking into my shirt, but I didn't care. 

Oddly enough this felt natural to me, it didn't matter to me that this was another guy I was sharing an intimate moment with or that my mind was once racing trying to figure out if it was infatuation or a crush. 

All that mattered to me was that I was right here with him. I rub his back softly and slowly and soon enough he has fallen asleep in my arms. I can feel his heartbeat syncing with mine and the last thing on my mind is to leave. I can tell he needs the sleep and so I stay as still as possible, continuing to hold him.

After around 45 minutes Eli opens his eyes, I brush my hand though his hair and he moves to look up at me still with his head resting on my chest. 

"I'm sorry, that was embarrassing I-" is all he could manage to say before I stopped him. "no, don't be" I tell him with a slight smile, he returns the smile and sits up. "I'm so fucking weak" he sighs, "I'm not supposed to cry, especially not in front of you" he gets out. 

"Why not" I ask, and he looks back at me and shrugs "how I was raised, I need to toughen up, at least that's what my dad keeps telling me" he says before getting up off the bed and going to the desk to grab his computer. 

"Crying doesn't make you weak Eli, I don't see it that way, you've clearly been given a tough hand and getting that out, expressing that, doesn't make you weak. I think you're fucking brave to be able to be that vulnerable with me and I'm grateful that you were open with me" I tell him as he walks back over with his computer and sits down beside me. When I finish speaking, he hugs me "thank you, seriously, for everything" he whispers to me before letting go.

"Stay the night? Please? You can borrow some of my clothes" he begs, and I nod. I could tell he needs me and even if that hadn't been the case, I'm not sure I could have denied the offer. 

I text my parents and let them know that I'm spending the night with a friend as well as Aaron to let him know that Eli was alright. Eli opened his computer and went to Netflix, "lets watch a movie" he tells me clicking the movie category. We spend some time scrolling through movies and eventually land on a comedy/action packed movie.

We laid on his bed and watched the movie laughing and making jokes. I could see the pain leaving Eli's eyes as he relaxed into the movie. After we finished, Eli ordered us some pizza, so we headed downstairs. The house was quiet and empty as we sat on the couch in the living room, we talked about random things until the doorbell rang. Eli got the pizza, and I waited for him in the kitchen. "Is anyone home?" I asked him looking around to see no sign of life in this home. 

It was very different than mine, as in my house you never get a moment alone "No, everyone's gone tonight. My mom might be back in the morning" is all he said before grabbing a slice. I nod and dig into my own slice.

Eventually we are both exhausted after hanging out in the living room for a while and so we head upstairs to change. 

Eli gave me a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt to wear which were oversized on me, mostly in length due to the obvious height difference, but they did the trick. 

I walked out of the bathroom and Eli stares at me "what" I ask him walking over to the bed but Eli just shakes his head "nothing" is all he said before getting into the covers. I get in on the other side and Eli turns his lamp off. "Goodnight Miles" Eli whispers. "Goodnight" I whisper back, drifting off to sleep.

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Me actually posting? Never 

Next One: Wednesday 1/8/25 @1PM PST