บท 2: Two
It took a few days for the bruise on Elijah's face to fade. The days dragged on as per the usual with no further encounters with Lucas Kim, which Elijah was silently grateful for.
It was another normal day at school. Eli was seated at the cafeteria at his usual booth, munching on his Chicken Ceaser salad while reading and taking a sip of chocolate milk every now and again. He felt a figure stop and clear their throat right next to him and looked up from his book to see Noah standing there holding his lunch tray, a friendly smile on his face.
"Hey, mind if I sit here?"
Elijah blinked. No one ever sat with him during lunch before. No one ever actually willingly approached him. He shrugged, "No, go ahead."
Noah sat down on the chair opposite him, "Sorry if I'm bothering you, but some sophomores randomly decided they wanted to take my booth today. I didn't really think it was worth the trouble so I just let them. You know how the students here get."
"Yeah I do," Elijah muttered, more to himself than to Noah, "I don't mind though. If you find them there again tomorrow you can just sit here."
Noah smiled, "Thanks."
The two sat in silence as Noah pulled out his own book and began reading while eating his lunch. Elijah couldn't help but steal a few glances at the other male. His hair was a light shade of brown, almost golden, naturally falling over his forehead. He had a slender nose and pink, thin lips. His large doe eyes were focused on his book. He was very pretty, Elijah had to admit, almost as pretty or even prettier than a girl.
They continued the rest of their lunch break in silence, each in their own world. It didn't really feel much different from everyday since they didn't talk at all after that, but the company of someone else was pleasant to Eli nonetheless.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the cafeteria, Lucas eyed the two silently.
"Looks like Noah got some company," He said, face scrunched up.
"Gosh, Lucas. Leave the poor guy alone. You've already fucked him up enough," Chris said seriously, "Did you just expect him to be a loner for the entire year?"
Lucas shrugged, "He can go fuck himself for all I care. But spreading his disease to others is not something I can appreciate."
Alex tightened his fists under the table silently. He wanted nothing more than to punch the fuck out of Lucas, but he remembered a promise he made a long time ago.
"Alex... Lucas needs you all, okay? If he sees you hanging around me he won't be happy." Noah said.
"I don't care about him. Noah, you're my friend. Lucas is just being an insufferable brat right now."
"He has his reasons for what he did and you know that."
"Nothing can justify what he did to you. I don't care what his experience in the past was, that had nothing to do with you. He had no right to do this to you."
"And yet," Noah smiled through his glossy eyes, "Do it for me. Stay by his side. For me... please."
Alex ran a hand through his hair in frustration, "I can't lose you for him."
"We'll stay in touch. We'll hang out some time too. But when he's around, you stay with him. Because right now he needs you guys. Promise me, man."
The older male shut his eyes closed and clenched his fists. After a moment of hesitation, he sighed. "I promise."
Alex looked over at Noah with almost longing eyes. Keeping his promise was becoming tiring. Every day when he saw Noah sitting alone at the cafeteria, he had to fight every single fiber of his being to not go and sit with him. Talk to him freely like he once could. Through all the friendly smiles he put on for people, Alex could see the emptiness in his eyes.
"I don't know, man. Isn't it about time you resolved the beef between the two of you already? It's been over a year now." Sam said cautiously.
"There's no way I'm going anywhere near that thing. If you guys wanna talk to him, I never stopped you. I'm not some sort of middle school girl, you know."
Sam sighed and got back to eating, knowing it was useless to argue anyway.
A few weeks had passed and before he knew it, Noah was sitting at Elijah's lunch table every day. They didn't talk much, if at all, instead greeting each other with small smiles. It wasn't awkward either, it just started becoming an everyday thing. Elijah wouldn't consider them friends, but more like acquaintances. They'd talked enough for Elijah to know that Noah was eighteen, just a year elder than him, and that he liked football.
It was Saturday and Eli was having lunch with his parents in the dining room. The atmosphere was always so unpleasant that Elijah never found himself having an appetite, often opting for picking at his food instead. It didn't feel like a family uniting over lunch, but more like strangers forced to eat together.
"Ah, I almost forgot," Elijah's mother spoke up while lightly dabbing at her lips with a napkin. "The Kim's are coming over this evening."
Elijah internally rolled his eyes. Now that his face was fine, he had no excuse to just stay up in his room. Great.
"What time, darling?" Elijah's father asked, the 'darling' sounding flat and robotic with no love whatsoever behind it.
"Seven o'clock."
After lunch, Elijah picked up his plate and walked into the kitchen, throwing away leftovers and washing his dish at the sink. He knew there were tons of servants around to do that but he didn't see the problem in doing something so mundane by himself.
Elijah spent the day trying to entertain himself in any way possible. His weekends were always boring- there wasn't much to do at home, his parents were always busy (not that he liked spending time with them anyway), and it wasn't like he could call up his 'friends' and 'hangout' since he didn’t have any. Those things were all just so foreign to him. Elijah was never much good at making friends anyway, but ever since that incident things got a lot worse. He was just this monotonous robot now, who hid every trace of emotion in the deepest, darkest corners of his heart.
The day dragged on and on until the clock struck six thirty and his mother told him to go get dressed since the Kim's would be there soon. He didn't really bother with getting all fancy and just threw on some black pants and a black button-up. He wasn't overdressed but not shabby either, just enough to look good in front of his parents' business partners.
Half an hour later sees him sitting idly on the couch as the intercom of their mansion buzzed. Pleasant greetings were exchanged from the direction of the front door and Elijah quickly stood up to greet the 'guests' politely. Ms. Kim was an elegant-looking woman in her early forties, who looked quite good for her age. She wore simple makeup, unlike his mother, and had beautiful, kind eyes, also unlike his mother. Then there was none other than Kim Lucas walking in just behind her.
"Ah, you must be Elijah," The lady smiled at him in a friendly manner when he bowed to her politely. "Your mother told me a lot of good things about you."
Elijah simply smiled, not knowing how exactly to reply. He knew his mother was quite the sweet-talker, always going on about how she was so 'proud' of her son when in real life she treated her feet better than him, quite literally. So this came off as no surprise, really.
"She did mention you were sick the last time I came here. Are you feeling okay now?"
"Yeah, I'm alright now. It was nothing really, just the flu," He lied, pointedly looking over at Lucas.
"Well I'm glad you’re all better then," She smiled at him.
"Please, take a seat." Elijah's mother offered sweetly. The five of them sat down on the expensive sofa set in the living room and that was cue for endless dull conversation. He sighed internally and pretended he was interested in their talk about real estate, laughing a little every now and again when everyone else did even though he didn't know what the hell he was laughing at. This was how it always went in rich people houses. Forced conversations and smiles. Boring. Fake.
Soon enough he was getting bored out of his mind and excused himself. It hadn't really been a good day and sitting in the living room was getting so suffocating. He didn't really feel like going up to his room and instead made his way to his studio, lightly pushing the door closed behind him. The studio was essentially a large empty room with hardwood floors, full-length mirrors on every side and a couch in the corner, along with a stereo set. That was his favorite room in the house. It always reminded him of how he and his little brother kept begging their parents for it until they finally made them one. It was one of the few nice things he could remember his parents did for them.
Elijah slumped down against the wall and stared at his reflection in the mirror. His empty eyes stared back at him soullessly. Eyes that once used to shine so bright, when he had someone special to him, someone he could care for.
It's all gone now. All that's left is this hollow, empty vessel. He could hardly consider himself a human being anymore. He was now just... just this thing.
It was one of those moments. Those moments of extreme frustration and anger at life. Those moments when he was overwhelmed with emptiness, that suffocating feeling of desperately needing to fill this hole inside him but not knowing how.
There was just one way he could forget.
He stood up and walked toward the stereo system in the corner of the room, playing a random song. Anything, anything to get him out of this state for even just a second. He made sure the volume wasn't too loud before standing at the center of the room, moving his body along with the music. He started off slow but soon enough as he got into the feeling of the song, he began to dance his heart out. His movements screamed loneliness, a longing for something to live for. His arms moved fluidly along with the soft piano riffs and vocals. He let his frustrations channel through his body and end at the tips of his fingers, where he imagined he would, ever so softly, let them go with a graceful flick. Let them slip through the spaces between his fingers like sand.
He knew they never did. But he liked to think, just for that moment, that they did disappear.
Because for that one fraction of a second, there was the slightest trace of light in his eyes.
Dancing was the only thing that ever brought that light back. Even if just for a little while, Elijah was going to take and snatch and claw at whatever he could get.
Because for that one moment he felt alive.
Lucas, long being disinterested in the conversation going on, also excused himself soon after Elijah did. He decided to just look around the house, it was a pretty nice mansion, Lucas wasn't going to lie. True, he was also more on the rich side but not quite as much as Elijah's family. Hands shoved deep in his pockets, he admired a few paintings on the walls of a random hallway he had walked into before he suddenly heard some music. It didn't seem too far away so, overridden with curiosity, he decided to follow the sound of it. That's a nice song, he thought. His steps led him to face a door behind which the music was coming from.
Lightly turning the knob in his hand, he cracked the door open and peeked inside. He almost gasped at the sight in front of him. It was Elijah. Dancing. Dancing? Elijah can dance? He thought to himself. As if the fact that Elijah actually danced wasn't surprising enough, the fact that every move, ever twist, every twitch of his muscles conveyed so much pain and raw emotion, it sent goose bumps down Lucas's spine. Being a member of the school dance club himself, he was very impressed and awe-stricken. Elijah's dance was so strong, and conveyed a sense of desperation and longing like no other. He wondered if that was the same Eli who was that one nerdy kid at school with the resting bitch face.
Lucas's breath had been completely taken away.
He briefly remembered he needed a dance partner for the showcase in two months and stared at Elijah, enraptured by his movements.
Once the song was over, Eli swiftly landed on the floor, breathing heavy as his chest rose up and down.
"Holy fuck..." Lucas whispered, and Elijah immediately turned to the door.
"Y-You!" He was shocked, but it didn't top the shocked expression on Lucas' face, "What are you doing here?!" Elijah couldn't help but feel like his personal sanctuary had been invaded. And the fact that it was Kim Lucas of all people was pissing him off.
"You can dance," Lucas said blankly, still recovering from his initial shock, "And I mean you can dance."
Elijah stood up and wiped the sweat off his forehead. "Yeah? So?"
"So?!" Lucas exclaimed in disbelief, "Don't take this the wrong way, but dude, that was like, freaking insane! You're even better than Max."
"Who's Max? Actually, forget it. What do you want?"
"Why don't you join the dance club?"
The question seemed to change Elijah's expression but he quickly adjusted it. "Not interested," He muttered.
"Come on! Did you even see yourself? It's such waste for you to not join the dance club."
Elijah sighed, "Why does it matter to you, anyway?
"You have talent. You should show it off to the world. Be something more than just the top achiever in class for once."
Eli pondered over his words for a second. He knew it made sense but he gave up on his dream of making anything out of his dancing a long time ago. He just did it as a hobby now. Or more appropriately just as stress relief.
"Think about it." Lucas said, walking into the studio.
Elijah eyed him suspiciously, "What's up with you being all nice all of a sudden?"
Lucas shrugged and sat down on the floor. "I told you. I'm not a bully."
"Psh. Yeah, right." Elijah also found himself sitting down across from Lucas.
"I wasn't lying though." The brunette looked at him seriously. "And if you want me to apologize for what happened a few weeks back, then fine. I'm sorry."
To say Elijah was surprised would be an understatement. He leaned in a little as his eyebrows shot up suspiciously, "Are you high?"
Lucas rolled his eyes. "No I'm not high and I'm being serious."
"Is there something you want?" Elijah asked.
"No- Yes... Maybe." The brunette sighed, "I want you to be my dance partner for this upcoming showcase. You see, Max and I have had this rivalry ever since, like, forever. But he's the best dancer in class and almost always wins. And he managed to get one of the best dancers in class to be his partner."
"And that involves me how?"
"I'm a hundred percent sure that if we team up, we'll beat their asses. We'll win for sure. And in exchange, you will get the attention you deserve. Fair deal, right?"
"Not really. It sounds like you’re the only one benefitting from this."
"Come on! I even said sorry to you! What do you want? Cookies? More chocolate milk?”
Elijah eyed Lucas. Yes. This is very weird.
"You’re kidding."
"I’m serious! This is a great opportunity for you."
Lucas looked at him seriously and while he knew the guy was a douche, he really did look like he was passionate about dancing and that he was desperate to win. But it would be like willingly agreeing to being used by the brunette because he wanted to win some stupid rivalry. Plus, he hated the guy's guts anyway and the idea of practicing with him for hours on end didn't exactly sound appealing.
But then on the other hand, going to dance class every day, performing in front of people and hearing them cheer for him... that had always been his dream.
"I can't," He said, voice low as he stood up and headed for the door, "Come on, we should get back."
Lucas sighed. But he wasn't going to give up just yet. He didn't care what it took, he was going to convince Elijah to agree. He was so tired of always being second place. Plus, Eli's dancing fitted his style perfectly- slow, sensual, strong. He was positive winning would be nobody's business if he got the blonde to be his partner. So he was going to keep trying. Lucas knew that when he put his mind to something, he was going to get it. No matter what.
Even if that meant sucking up to Elijah and being nice to him.
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