call me again → cmbyn ✔

11-the depature

third person

they walked a distance from each other, neither wanting to disturb what seemed to have settled between them. oliver upset with elio, or so elio thought. in reality, oliver didn't want to overstep the boundaries between himself and mr perlman, so he kept his distance. it seemed good that they were ending this way, there would be no reason for a surprise return to europe for oliver.

though neither would admit it, they didn't want to part, because the love between them grew even now as they walked a metre apart closer to their separation.

oliver would soon be on his way back to his little piece of normal, or so he hoped he would. he didn't know what was in store for him back home, all he really knew was that in leaving elio behind, he was denying what he truly wanted, craved even.

out of the corner of his eye, mr perlman kept close view of oliver and his distance. he didnt want to become the antagonist between romeo and romeo but he had to protect his son.

it pushed oliver on, stopped him from walking to elio and dragging him back to the car and eventually back to the house where he could do as he pleased.

elio wasn't aware of the encounter between his father and his lover, oliver didn't want to risk losing all bonds with the family so he decided against sharing the conversation. which left elio little to no information on where the sudden coldness had come from.

the departure was brief but meaningful, the boys didn't hug this time, there were no last minutes confessions. elio nodded to oliver and oliver returned the gesture, mr perlman and annella brought him in and told him how much they'd miss him whilst elio watched, secretly wanting to be in the middle of the group.

they watched from afar as the plane took off, elio willing the tears not to fall. annella noticed the sadness in her boy but didn't want to disturb him so she told herself she'd wait till they arrived back home.

elio was fuming, they were angry tears he was keeping locked up. why had oliver betrayed him at the last minute? second thoughts he assumed, though he wondered if it could be something else.

oliver ✰° ✧ ⁎ ·˙․

the thing i struggled the most with was the change back, feeling the love of someone who so desperately wants you is something i could never explain. the difference with home was that neither of us had the same drive, the same desire me and elio shared.

it may have been because we both had others, because neither of us were loyal to each other. we didn't love one another, and it was clear to anyone who looked deeper than what meets the eye.

"i went back to him, to harry" she whispered to me on the night of my return, everything had gone smoothly since my parting of ways with the perlmans. we were curled up in bed, me reading a book i'd brought back from my trip and her just staring at a wall
blankly, our forearms slightly touching as she breathed softly, normal sunday night for us, normal every night for us.

"me and elio were closer than i let on, i went back to him" i spoke, sighing as i finally admitted what i'd been lying about for last few months.

we both sat there in silence. at some point my book found its way back to the night stand and we fell into each others arms. i wasn't angry, and neither was she we weren't shocked either which may have been the worst part.

we spoke for hours about my trip to italy but this time, the real trip to italy. i could tell each new thing i brought up was another blow to our chance of making this work. she told me about what went on whilst i was gone and about how her mother was asking for me and that she had to lie. it all seemed too long winded for us to keep up.

we mutually decided that there was no love between us and we even discussed the idea of moving away for a while. but the topic of family came up. and the big decider was, are we going to let our families down by not going through with what we promised.

END OF PART ONE

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hey! i'm so sorry this is so short. i'd like to say a massive thank you to YOU! you reading this book; you give me the motivation to carry on because there're times when i think no one reads or cares about what i write so thank you for proving me wrong <3

also i hope everyone is mentally and physically good at the moment!