Two Pieces of a Puzzle ✔

Chapter Sixteen

[A/N; please play the song above while reading! i'm pretty sure you know the drill by now<3]

ELIOTT 

He had chosen our destination and led me over to a deserted area. It was difficult to see with how thick the fog was starting to get, and the cold outside took no time in biting through my skin, freezing every last drop of blood in my system.

But, I made no complaints, because he was there to provide me with the warmth I yearned for.

We made our way out of the car and he hugged himself, his teeth chattering. 

I wanted to offer a hug in order to keep him warm, but I couldn't bring myself to. He wasn't even fully aware of who I truly was yet. 

And he wasn't even aware of the fact that I, for a lack of better term, was crushing on him.

I was crushing hard.

And even though I had him right before my very eyes after so long, I still found it difficult to express how I truly felt for him. That something was always there, holding me back, even when I made the slightest attempt in letting him know.

Pyrrhic victory.

How I'd love to climb the highest mountain and scream out to the world, profess my love to him. 

How I'd love to let every single person know how in love I was with the man that stood before me.

I followed his lead and when I felt the ground beneath me change to old wood, I realized we were on a bridge. 

A very high bridge. 

He walked over to the edge and leaned against it, glancing out into absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing that stretched miles and miles to the furthest point of the Earth. 

I made my way over beside him and leaned against the bridge as well. 

"I used to come here often last year," he admitted. "Almost tried jumping off at some point."

I felt my heart drop.

He had tried to end his life and I hadn't been there for him. 

"You don't have to say anything," he interrupted once I had opened my mouth; I shut it. "I'm just.. glad I can finally come here with someone else, I guess. Show them that I survived; and I'll continue surviving."

"That's really admirable," I admitted. "You're really strong."

He let out a sigh and I watched, mesmerized, as a white smoke of air escaped from his lips and dissolved into the cold winter air, "I wasn't kidding when I told you that you remind me of someone I used to know."

"Have you figured out who it is yet?"

"Not quite," he admitted as I averted my gaze back to the pale nothingness. 

"I wasn't kidding either," I said after a moment's silence. 

"Who?"

"Can't seem to remember."

"Can't remember or don't want to remember?" 

That hit home. 

He had such a way with words. 

"Need I say anything?"

"No, I already know the answer," he said with a soft sigh. 

"You always do."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well.. because you're you."

He glanced at me for a brief moment before looking back over the bridge with a quiet chuckle, "That's the most cliché thing I've ever heard you say."

"If the truth is cliché to you, then so be it," I fired back with a small grin. 

"What do you mean by that?" he asked in a soft voice after staying quiet for a dead second or two.

"Can't seem to find the right words for it," I began. "I guess.. you just seem to have a way with things. You know so much about everything but you've never been the pretentious kind. You're just different, I guess."

"Different?" he questioned with a slight tilt of his head, his dark hair blocking his way of vision. "That's the first time someone's said that to me."

"I still remember what you said that one time," I confessed. "When you said you wanted to be different so people would notice you."

"And then you said that you noticed me," he finished. 

"I did," I nodded, not bothering to meet his eyes. "And I meant it. I'll continue noticing you till my last breath."

I saw him crack a smile from the corner of my eye, "I'll continue noticing you too, Eli."

Silence fell upon us moments after our - what could be considered - 'wholesome' moment.

Then, he broke the silence like he always did, "Do you ever feel the urge to jump off of high bridges or buildings.. or anything that's really high?"

"Sometimes," I admitted, my knees already buckling with the overwhelming urge to just leap off the edge. 

"There's a really cool explanation for it," he began in that tone of his that indicated that he was going to be talking about something he had spent hours researching; and so, I was willing to listen. Not that I would usually not listen to him, I would always listen. Even if he were describing the process of grass growing, I would listen to every last word. 

"It's called l'appel du vide," he informed. "Meaning call of the void. Makes you feel like doing all kinds of destructive things. Even now, I can hear the call. Can you?"

Whilst hearing to his voice, the call of the void faded into the background. 

I could no longer hear the call.

I only heard the sound of his voice.