Heartbroken

03: Their differences

When Eli was taking his books out of his locker he could feel others' eyes on him. When he turned around they looked away. All the way to his art class he could sense them pointing at him and glancing at him. They were whispering about something.

He reached his class, he walked straight to the back of class and sat on the seat which was always empty. He didn't sit on his usual seat, which he shared with Tony. When Tony entered the class, he couldn't look Eli in the eye. He kept his head hung low and sat down.

🌿

Eli walked toward the cafeteria for lunch and Tony stood there at the gate. He was waiting for Eli. As Eli spotted Tony, he stopped in his tracks. Tony saw him and walked towards him. Eli turned to walk away from him but Tony called his name.

"Eli, please. I need to talk to you." He said and Eli stopped. But he didn't turn to face him. He wanted to hear what Tony had to say. But he didn't want to see his face. If he did, he'd lose his cool.

"Eli, I'm sorry. I know you saw me and," he sighed, "I was drunk, Eli. I'm so sorry." he said. As if his sorry was going to fix anything. Eli still couldn't believe that the two people he trusted most did this to him.

Tony waited for Eli to say something but Eli didn't grace him with a reply. He walked away form Tony. Away from the cafeteria. He walked out fast but when he crossed the school gates he slowed down. He couldn't stop the tears anymore. He clutched his t-shirt in his fist and collapsed down. He sobbed and sobbed. It was hard for him to believe that his boyfriend cheated on him. But it harder to believe that he cheated on him with Tony, his only and best friend. But it was the truth. He saw them. He wanted to think that it was all a bad dream but his bandaged hand and temple said otherwise. Tony's apology made him even more angry and upset.

I was drunk. What kind of excuse was that? As if that gives him the right to do what he did.

Eli wiped the tears away and got to his feet. He made his way to the café nearby. He ordered a black coffee and sat at the table far away.

He was lost in thought when the waiter placed his coffee in front of him. He stared at the people walking by.

"Why'd order if you didn't want to drink?" A voice interrupted his train of thought. He glanced up and found Cecilia standing there. Cecilia gave him a soft smile.

"Can I sit?" She asked and Eli nodded.

"I know how you feel. After all, I am going through the same thing." She said.

Eli didn't say anything. He took a sip of his now cold black coffee.

"Tony admitted that, "she paused to take a breath, "He had sex with Tyler last night. I didn't even know until he told me. What an asshole. He blames the alcohol for his mistake. Jerk." She seemed very angry about it.

Tony had been dating her for three weeks. Her anger was justifiable.

Eli and Tyler had been dating for six months. He was angry. But more at himself.

Why did he trust him?

Eli didn't feel like going back to school. But he had to. If he went back home, Elena will ask him about things he didn't wanna talk about.

So he walked at the back of the school. It was a secluded area. He sat down on the dried grass and opened his phone. He opened his gallery and started deleting all the pictures, the selfies of him and Tyler, Pictures of Tyler he sneakily clicked, everything. He deleted all of them. After that he deleted all his messages. At last, he blocked Tyler's and Tony's numbers.

He had nothing to do with them anymore.

It was over.

He laid back and closed his eyes as tears slowly moved down his cheeks.

He got up at the last bell and headed out. The students were all coming out of the gates, chatting away. He made his way to where he parked his bike. When he reached there he found Andrew already standing there, waiting for him.

"Hey." Andrew waved when he spotted Eli. Eli smiled and they both walked out of school.

Once they were away from the school gates, Andrew broke the silence.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yes." Eli lied.

"I heard about what happened. You must be pretty upset.

Eli stopped in his tracks. What did he hear?

"What do you mean?" Eli asked and Andrew turned towards him.

"Everyone heard that Tyler dumped you. Because of your differences." He said.

"Our differences?" Eli was confused.

"Yeah. About Tyler wanting to take things to the next level and you wanting to take it slow. Too slow for Tyler's liking, apparently."

"Who told you all this?" Eli was furious now.

"Hey, calm down. Everyone's talking about it. I just heard it from a friend. He told me that Tyler told people all this."

Eli clenched his fist and sighed heavily.

"That's not the truth." he said.

Andrew just looked at him, so he continued.

"Well, part of it is true but he didn't dump me, I did."

"Okay, I believe you." Andrew said and smiled at Eli.

Eli nodded and started walking. Andrew joined him. Andrew started talking about how his day went rather than pressing on the topic of him and Tyler, for which Eli was really grateful. Andrew's stories once again distracted Eli and by the time they reached their street he found himself smiling.

Before leaving Andrew asked for Eli's number and he gave it to him. Eli felt fortunate for the fact that he wasn't all alone.

This is my first time writing and hence this story is going to be short. (and sweet)
I will write other stories too and probably make them longer.

For now, thank you so much for reading.
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