vagary

"What's wrong, El?"

Eli wishes it was snowing right now. It would have made him feel better, only a little better though. But, instead, it is raining cats and dogs.

Eli is not really fond of rain in winter,  it makes the cold weather even more unbearable and depressing.

He sighs.

Gods, he really messed up, didn't he?

He should have been scarfing down the malpua maa has made and playing call of duty on his wii but here he is, cuddled up in his batman blanket (birthday gift from his parents 5 years ago, he didn't have the heart to discard it) and staring at the vanity mirror in front of him with guilt-ridden eyes.

He glances across the room and his stomach knots.

The Christmas card Shiloh had given him as soon as he had stepped in the class earlier today, lies splayed on his desk. Its garish and over the top, glazed paper with Merry Christmas written with red and green sharpies and decorated with small glitter snowflakes.

Gods, is that tears he sees in his eyes? Tch, he is such a wuss.

He never got around to read the card, so he walks along the expanse of his room with trembling steps and picks it up.

"Hi weirdo,

a very merry Christmas to you!

I hope you like the present :)

p.s. (search your bag, mhm)

XOXO

Shiloh"

Eli rushes to his school bag and turns it upside down, its contents spilling on to the herringbone oak flooring.

A half-eaten egg-mayonnaise sandwich, his textbooks, half a dozen pens, even more erasers and pencils along with his Chelsea club keychain litter the ground.

But all he can pay attention to is a small package, wrapped in simple brown paper and tied with a red ribbon.

Eli thinks his heart leaps.

Feverishly unwrapping it, he finds a novel nestled within the paper.

The Egyptian Game

Inside, there is a small hand-written note in Shiloh's neat scrawl.

"Since you like Percy Jackson, I thought you would like this.

Merry Christmas!"

Damn it, Shiloh!

She just had to be the sweetest and most considerate person in the whole wide world, right?

And before Eli Dasgupta knows, he is straight up bawling in his batman blanket.

Why did he have to open his silly big mouth?

Out of all the embarrassing things he could have possibly done as an awkward teen, he had to go and insult the girl he kind of likes.

He glances at his reflection in the vanity mirror, again. Red, blood shot eyes stare back at him.

He picks up the book, shoves it between two non-descript tomes in his floor to ceiling bookshelf and clears up the mess on the floor, he is bit of a neat freak.

Eli loves his neat citrus smelling room, the citrus does wonders to his anxiety. His prized 1967 Fender which his father got from Austin, along with an old drum set, fills one corner of the room, while there is huge stack of clean laundry neatly folded on the settee, he never got around to keep it in his wardrobe. It's a little hard to imagine it is a 13 year old boy's room, what with the stark décor, a vanity mirror and the soft white carpet, but Eli loves it.