Let Me Know| Monty x Winston (13 Reasons Why) *discontinued*

Part Thirty-Four

POV:CJ
Monday, June 9, 2021
9:20pm

The freezing water engulfed my feet and the ends of my rolled up pant legs, contradicting the hot summer night weather.

Elio was sitting beside me, his arms out straight behind him. He was telling me stories from when he was younger, stories of the monarch butterflies that used to swarm his house in the summer in France. He said he never had much memory of france but that was the one thing he remembered as clear as daylight. When he was six, he had just finished settling into his tight, cramped Boston apartment. He said it smelled like sewage and the streets were constantly dirty and wet and that in the winter temperature got so cold he had to sleep with three different blankets just to keep himself at a comfortable temperature. And in the summer, it got so hot that the windows were constantly open but as soon as the first signs of dusk started to show, his mother shut all the windows immediately to prevent the crackheads from climbing up the rigidity brick walls and into their home, he never slept one summer night without waking up drenched in sweat and the hot summer sun beaming on his forehead almost giving him sunburn. Until he was 9 and his father, Maxime, a hardworking, fit man from the slums of Paris worked up enough money to buy a house in the suburbs of Cambridge. It wasn't big, but it was better than the ghetto apartment complex in the main streets of Boston. He mentioned that the house was built similar to his old home in Bordeaux, it smelled that same smell of daisies and on occasion, a monarch butterfly would land on the front porch and drink the left over water in the indents of the wood from the occasional rainstorm. His mother, Esmée, was a high class woman, who fell in love with the slum man living in an old shanty house with four other siblings. It was a classic love story between two people who were forbidden to fall in love so together moved to somewhere more accepting to be happy. So cliche. And then in 2017, at the young age of 14, he came out to both of his parents.

"Your gay?" I questioned.

He smirked, "bisexual."

Oh. He said he was fortunate enough to have two very accepting parents who made sure to tell him every day it didn't matter who he loved as long as he was happy. They even informed him of every pride parade in their area but he never attended one. And finally, when Maxime and Esmée finally racked up enough money to buy their dream two-story, seven thousand square inch house in Crestmont, California in late May of 2021.

"Cool," I smiled.

He shrugged, "Yeah, I mean, I was pretty upset that I didn't get to school this year but like, there was no point."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." I agreed understandingly.

He was sitting kind of diagonally from me across the edge of the pool with his legs folded up to his chest and his arms crossed on top of his knees, his chin resting peacefully on his wrists. His eyes were small and focused on the rhythm of the water from my feet swaying back and forth. His plump lips were open just a a tiny bit for the air to seep in through his perfectly straight teeth and into his mouth. I scooted a little closer to him so we were just two feet apart, adimiring his perfectly built face.

He looked up at me with a confused expression, "What?" he said patting his forehead, "Is there like a bug on my face?" he rubbed his cheeks and then his chin.

I shook my head.

He scoffed dipping his right hand into the glowing pool water and splashing it at my face and chest, "Weirdo," he smiled and let out a giggle.

Elio quickly lifted up his head from his arms and turned it 180 degrees, "What was that?" he stood up urgently rushing to the glass door and giant windows separating the living room from the pool area. Everyone inside the house all collectively walked to the end of the stairs.

"What was what?" I questioned him, I hadn't heard anything, I was too distracted studying each individual feauture of Elios face.

He slid open the glass sliding doors, signaling for me to follow. I squinched my eyes staring into the inside.

I took my legs out the water, shaking them trying my best to dry them off and rubbing my feet on the soaked towel in front of the entrance, not like it helped.

I followed Elio into the living room, standing behind six rows of people. Rafaela was walking down the stairs with that girl, Molly, under her arms.

"She just fell," Elio whispered to me.

I was still shocked that I hadn't heard anything at all, I was starting to feel like I was going insane. I looked back to the top of the stairs. There was Elio and Monty, dressed in different clothes than they were wearing at the start of the party.

Ugh, I thought to my self almost saying it out loud. I rolled my eyes and walked to the kitchen counter. I grabbed a Solo cup from the stack in the table and poured in a cup of tequila, slamming the bottle back down on the table it almost broke.

Elio glared at me mouthing the words, What are you doing?

I grinned, holding my cup in the air as if saying cheers right before chugging down the hard liquor, burning the sides of my mouth and throat.