from august to december

chapter six

the air was thick, even when the first raindrops were hitting the concrete streets and the first thunder shook the sky, breathing was still difficult.

eli sat up straight in his chair and rapidly looked out the window.
he was deeply scared of thunderstorms.

a few strands of his red hair fell into his eyes because of his fast movements and he instantly squeezed the pen in his hand even tighter.
he was just about to finish his colorful drawings he had been working on to get his busy mind to calm down.

and so, when the lightning followed the rumbling thunder after a few seconds, his cold hands started to shake, and he pulled his knees to his chest for protection.

in an attempt to calm his breathing, he looked around the room, searching for one particular photo.

after slowly getting up and placing the pen on the desk he abandoned his mandalas.

as always, he hummed a familiar melody his mother used to always sing to him when he was a little boy and crying because the heavy rain scared him so much.

he remembered how eden used to always sing this melody when his mother couldn't anymore, after passing away due to a fatal illness.

what was he doing now?
was eden finally a famous author?

eden loved to write stories, he loved to invent things inside of his mind.

for a second he thought about reaching out, he missed him and his warm hugs, his delicate voice and body, how he held him in his arms when he was frightened in moments like these.

another loud thunder made eli flinch and he started to breathe faster.

fear washed over him, but this fear was irrational and for a second, he didn't even know why he was so afraid.

he felt as if the thunder was breaking his body apart piece by piece and as if the following lightning burned him alive.

he was so scared of the sudden loud noises.

the only comforting thing he found when he was faced with his biggest fear was the polaroid of him and eden looking at each other, laughing.

they spent that year in the clinic together, recovering from prior addictions.

never had eli touched another glass of alcohol ever again, after eden had been transferred into this mental clinic and finding peace with him again.

before, they were both part of the same friendgroup, a really close friendgroup.
eli had loved him even before surprisingly meeting here again.

and, no doubt, the younger helped him find himself again.

that's why he missed him so much, he missed the feeling of being alive and blooming he used to always have.

now, the walls of this room seemed to be suffocating him.

and that's what was the final push for him to walk over to the illegally brought in telephone and dialing the number he always dialed when he felt like the world was crushing underneath his fingers.

what he didn't know, is that the person already expected his call, eden sat next to his phone, wondering if his instinct was right.

because when he heard the violent thunderstorm, his thoughts wandered to his once good friend, and maybe something more than that, questioning if he would make it on his own.

"hello?"

without his calming and angelic voice reassuring him and stroking his hair peacefully, drowning out the loud noises of thunder and lightning.

"i know i haven't called you in years, but-"

the black haired chuckled quietly on the other end of the line and sunk deeper into his couch, observing the rain hitting his large windows.

the red haired did the same, his windows were much smaller, his whole room was smaller, the light was out, so it was almost pitch black.

and messy, the little space was crammed with books and random papers flying around, dirty clothes laying on the floor and his mandalas laying on the crooked desk.

"but you want me to sing for you?" he responded in his smooth voice that made eli already feel so much better.

how the older had missed the familiar feeling of his skin prickling with comfortable tension because of him.

"i already knew when i heard the first raindrops hit my window," the black haired said and sniffled.

eli couldn't help but smile, even after all those years, he still hadn't forgotten about him like he had expected.

"i'm sorry for-"
"no don't be, i should've called you," eden cut him off again and eli could hear him shifting around on his couch, he was trying to find a comfortable position to start singing.

after a few seconds of comfortable silence, the sound of him humming the familiar melody filled eli's ears.

he laid down on his bed, taking in every piece of it, bathing in eden's ability to hit every note perfectly and sounding like an angel.

he couldn't help but close his eyes with a little smile, it felt like eden was right there, laying next to him, his fingers intertwined with his, while he softly stroke eli's thumb.

before he knew it, eli had fallen into a deep and peaceful sleep, not hearing the thunder grow even louder and the lightning become even brighter, in his mind, only the voice of eden was ringing.

as soon as eden heard the little snores of his friend, he softly cleared his throat and hung up the phone, raising one corner of his mouth in contentment.

and the beautiful silence was once again disturbed when suddenly eden was yawning loudly.

it was late, way too late for eden to still be up, he usually always tried to go to bed early.

he hated going to bed late, because that would mean having to deal with his late night thoughts.

when those were probably the reason everything turned out the way it was now.

so, the tiny man got up and stretched, before climbing up the marble stairs to his bedroom.

with one last thought about eli, eden tried closing his eyes to fall asleep.

but he wouldn't for a long time tonight.