Sunsets and Constellations | B X B

• T H I R T E E N •

E L I J A H

Elijah was standing with his hands behind his back, legs apart and face held high as coach Amy Lee gave them a review talk for their skins vs shirts game. Now that there wasn't any tournament approaching, she took her time experimenting with various positions, existing and made-up, and trying out different strategies for the upcoming season.

"Alright, dismissed!" She exclaimed and clapped her hands after blowing her whistle. He went into the locker rooms to change when he saw Mason standing by the sink, unwrapping the gauze around his fists. They were bruised purple and yellow. The sight made Elijah nauseous and dizzy. He shuddered and put on his jacket, looking for a certain cream in his bag. He went up to the tall boy and smiled at him.

"That looks terrible, but I have this ointment that works magic every time I have a bruise." He said, offering it to him.

Mason looked at Elijah and suddenly all he saw was fragile, broken, brittle glass. How he managed to see through that, no one knows. But it was terrifying. The smile slipped off his face and he could feel a profound sense of sadness radiating off the older boy. Hell, there was a reason why Tirzah had told him that he was the most fucked up guy in school. What had happened? None of them knew the exact story.

"Thank you. Good game today." Mason said, taking the tube from Elijah's hand and turning around.

"You too. I hope that gets better soon."
Elijah smiled again.

He was just walking outside the building when he caught sight of a familiar head of messy brown curls and the red hoodie Arius wore almost everyday. Arius was standing near the soccer field as he looked at the team doing their drills. His hands were latched on to the fence that was out around the court and his face was pressed against it.

They had detention today, what was he doing here?

"Arius! Oi dickhead, over here!" Elijah called out, but the boy simply didn't respond.

He quickly jogged toward him and tapped him on the shoulder. Arius jumped in surprise, accidentally knocking their heads together.

"Ouch! Calm it." Elijah screamed, as he rubbed his forehead.

"What the fuck is your head made of, steel?" Arius asked, scratching the nape of his neck, face screwed up in pain.

"Don't we have detention today?"

"Don't remind me man."

"You're privileged to have earned a detention with yours truly." Elijah said, smirking and ducking a little so he could see Arius's face.

He realised that they were both the exact same height; nothing more, nothing less.

"Do you have the keys to the room Arius?"

"Yeah I do. You're not going to change?"

"The Lord have mercy! You? Asking me a question about myself?" Elijah dramatized, putting a hand on his heart.

"Shut the fuck up." Arius said, but Elijah didn't miss that subtle smile that crept onto his face. He'd never seen Arius smile ever other than the one time Jim had handed over their cleaning supplies to them for detention.
It sort of felt nice when it happened because of him.

Yeah, he'd done that.

"Take a picture, lasts longer." Arius said, not looking at Elijah.

Fuck. He'd been staring again.

"Pfftt. As if I'd want to stare at you. Don't flatter yourself jerkface." Elijah mumbled, feeling the heat rising up to his cheeks and setting them on fire.