― 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅.
❝ you never knew the stars had
a flavor until you first kissed him.
it turns out they taste like ambition
and ancient fire, desperation, and
dark matter, and the mind-numbing
fear of bei...
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STARCROSSED (book one). °• CHAPTER FIVE •°
" YOU'RE DOING THE RIGHT THING. "
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ELIJAH WOLFHART HAD ALWAYS HATED FUNERALS SINCE HE WAS FOURTEEN YEARS OLD AND HIS MOTHER DIED. It's an awful story, really, something for another time. A time that he'd be ready. But he remembered how terrible he felt. How he felt something that felt a lot like grief rip at his insides until they were shredded and he had to pretend he was alright while fixing the tie of his suit. Tobia Wolfhart was too busy with his own emotions to help. Nevaeh didn't know how to do it and all she did was cry that day. Elijah did too. He just didn't at the funeral because he was what held the rest of the family together. He did later, though, when Steve was there. He let Elijah cry onto his shoulder until his eyes were red and puffy, and he couldn't anymore. But Steve wasn't there this time. This was all why he decided to stay home after hearing of the announcement for Will Byers's funeral.
Then again, Will Byers might not be dead.
Esme Wolfhart died when Elijah was fourteen years old. Don't ask him how. Some days he still doesn't know the answer to that question. That pain was still fresh even five years later. It was like losing a part of you and having no other choice but to create different pieces to replace what their loss left.
Five stages of grief follow the loss of a loved one. It was silly to admit how much Elijah denied the death of her as crazy as it was to consider Will was possibly alive because Tobia kept his late wife's ashes on the dresser in his bedroom since the day she was cremated. The child in him just wanted the touch of a mother back. Elijah was furious, at who, he doesn't know. It was his mother some days. It was himself others, to the point where he'd bargain to trade places, and wished it was him instead.
For now, Elijah was stuck in steps four and five. He knew his mother was dead. He's long accepted it in a way he can't accept Will's death. But those facts still left her son in a deep depression he can't crawl his way out of.
Will might not be dead, but Esme is, and Elijah can't help her anymore. But he can still try to help Will.
Elijah found it in himself to find something better to do, more useful, since everyone else was going. He waited until the rest of his family was gone before jumping to it. Nevaeh would kill him if she came home early, but he figured it was worth the risk if it brought them closer to the truth. She's gone, but he's still cautious as he opens the door of his sister's bedroom. Elijah doesn't know how long they'll be at the funeral, if they'll stay through the entire ceremony and the aftermath, so he has to work fast.
