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Warning: Contains Boys Love and vulgar language.

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Chapter 12: Carefree Burdens (Part A)


The seat was empty.

At first, Elliot couldn’t believe it. They were into the third month of the school year, and up until that day, that seat had never been empty. It was always filled. Always. When he’d entered second period, his eyes had automatically drifted to that one seat, like always…

And it was empty.

Elliot’s breath caught in his throat, trapped. He never once thought that guilt could live for so long, completely parasitic. With each step he took, he felt heavier, every motion requiring much more energy than he thought he could give. He couldn’t tear his eyes from that seat, no matter how terribly the guilt writhed and squirmed inside, pushing and pressing, persistent with its diseased existence.

He couldn’t believe that just two days ago, during the sunny hours of the mid-afternoon, he’d heard her voice over the phone. Calm and serene, and when he really thought about it, too smooth for it to be real. And passive.

And now… What was he supposed to think? To say? To do?

I’m to blame. Elliot took his seat, the desk directly beside the empty one. It was absurd that it bothered him so much. Practically the whole room was empty but for a few students that drifted in and out the door during the last free minutes between classes.

But it did.

She always went to class early. She always sat at her desk, waiting patiently, always smiling up at him with warm welcome. Always. And the seat was empty, goddamnit. Empty!

Nothing could comfort him from his thoughts. Not the insistent chatter of students, not the security blanket of the scheduled routine of classes. Nothing.

The bell rang. Students took their seats, still lively with talk during their final free moments. Elliot couldn’t help but glance back at that seat. His eyes were drawn to it, scared but fascinated by the terrible mystery.

She needed space. That’s what she’d said. Even if she’d sounded calm and peaceful over the phone, as if she had been talking about the damn weather to an absolute stranger. But she’d only sounded so. A midnight wake up call had alerted him that that wasn’t the reality of the situation at all.

She’d called The President, sobbing. Sobbing! And it was all because of him. Him and his damned implacability.

The teacher at the head of the room began their routine drone, exactly on cue, but the words sounded smeared together in a slurred mess, the lines between syllables blurred. The boy who sat in front of Elliot turned around and sluggishly asked for a pencil. Elliot just gave him his. He sure as hell wasn’t using it.

Elliot watched the clock all during class, every fiber of his being sensitive to the tiny tick tock of time. He didn’t want to be in class anymore. Not when that empty seat was right there, continually reminding him of his mistakes, of the inevitable consequences.

He wished the hands on the clock would spin backwards and give him a chance to do it all over again.

When the bell finally rang to end second period, Elliot nearly bolted out of the classroom with his things. He kept his eyes straight ahead. He couldn’t let himself give into the sado-masochistic desire to look back again, for the fiftieth time that hour, and relive that moment all over again.

He couldn’t look back and not see Jacqueline there.

Such a guilty relief, to be out of there and halfway down the hallway…

Elliot didn’t have much more time to dwell and brood over mistakes, however, before he raised his head and spotted a certain redhead only a few feet away.

He’d only seen Cameron just a few days ago, and oh, how nervous he’d been. He couldn’t deny how utterly exhausted and jittery he’d felt around him on Saturday. Although they’d cleared up a lot of things going on between them, Elliot still felt a rush of something hit him with full-force. Head bent, charging at full speed, no stopping it at all. Before Elliot even knew it, he felt awkward in his own skin again.

Unsure of what to do—what could he do?—Elliot decided to just keep walking. He could deal with this different branch of awkwardness later, when his brain felt like functioning again—

“Hey Elliot!”

Elliot halted. Frozen in place. He knew that voice.

Maybe fate has other plans, Elliot thought sardonically. He turned around, fully facing Cameron. The other boy was leaning up against the off-white wall; his entire stance relaxed and slack. Overall, Cameron looked rather pleased standing there. His rusty-orange hair was tied back, but he wore no bandanna that day. The many assorted earrings along Cameron’s ears caught the ceiling lights and glinted and glittered softly. Even the buttons and pins all over the straps of his messenger bag, and protective flap on the front, glimmered from the light.

Elliot sighed. “How do you keep doing that?”

“Doing what?”

“Popping up out of nowhere.” Not to mention catching him off guard all of the time. “I swear, it’s like you’re everywhere,” Elliot elaborated. How many times had a scene like this unfolded, with him trying to sneak on by, only to have Cameron completely interrupt everything?

Cameron shrugged. “I’m magical like that.” He didn’t need to smile for Elliot to catch onto the other’s amused disposition. “You look in an awful hurry. What’re you doing?”

“I could ask you the same.” Elliot sidestepped out of the way of a few charging students. He stood beside the wall, but his foot stopped before it could take a step anywhere close to Cameron. His nerves jumped and forced his body back. The next thing he knew, there were a good couple of feet jammed between the two of them, which was much too awkward to address or attempt to solve with each passing second. “Why’re you just standing here?” Elliot asked, simply to change the subject and keep his mind on simpler things.

Cameron jerked his head off to the side. Elliot’s eyes followed until they settled on a familiar head of dark purple hair, standing before a bulletin board blanketed with slips of white, blue, and even pink paper.

“Elena and I have the same third period together. We met up just a few minutes ago, and were walking to class when she just stopped, right out of nowhere. I think she’s checking out something for an essay contest. Anyways, I didn’t want to just leave her here, so I figured I’d wait instead.” Cameron shrugged his shoulders again. “She is taking a while, though.”

“Oh.” Elliot watched Elena for a second longer before turning his attention back to the red-haired boy, absentmindedly studying Cameron’s relaxed posture, and the intriguing way his piercings and eyes captured the light’s glow and reflected its brilliance. Elliot couldn’t help but feel a tender stroke of envy. What he wouldn’t give to be able to feel as relaxed as Cameron looked.

“Huh. You know, I think this is the second time I’ve seen you before third period.” A lighthearted smile danced across Cameron’s lips. “Except last time you were with Jacqueline.” At the very name of his friend, the tender stroke of envy quickly turned into a punishing slap. Cameron didn’t seem to notice. “You alone today?”

“Yeah,” Elliot mumbled, thinking again of that empty chair…

“Cool.” Cameron re-shouldered the strap of his messenger bag and pulled away from the wall. Elliot cocked an eyebrow and watched curiously as Cameron walked over to Elena. The freckled boy touched her shoulder, smiling as he spoke to her, though Elliot was too far away to really hear what he was saying. Whatever it was, a soft smile blossomed on Elena’s rose-red lips before she mutely turned back to the bulletin board. Cameron approached Elliot, still smiling.

“Okay, let’s go.”

“‘Let’s’?” Elliot repeated, bafflement colouring his voice in a strange hue.

“Yeah,” Cameron replied, as if the one word explained it all and then some. “Where’s your next class?”

“…That way,” Elliot responded, no less confused than a moment ago. He pointed Cameron in the correct direction. The red-haired boy nodded.

“Mine is near there. I’ll walk you to class.” Before Elliot could fit a word in, Cameron was already leading the way, paving a path through a few idle students that stood in the way. When Elliot didn’t follow, Cameron turned around, crossed his arms, and asked in a teasing voice, “What? Need me to hold your hand or something?”

A shock of heat rushed north. Thank God it didn’t mature into a real blush. Elliot frowned, glaring at Cameron through narrowed eyes, but it didn’t cover the unwanted embarassment, and it most certainly did not keep Cameron from breaking out into a healthy fit of laughter.

“Come on. Time’s a-ticking, Elliot.” Cameron waited in the middle of the hallway. Elliot inwardly groaned, though it was only audible to himself. Something about the other’s cockiness warned him that if he didn’t comply, Cameron might actually say something even more humiliating.

“This is stupid,” Elliot grumbled, finally caving in as he walked side by side with Cameron. “You don’t need to walk me to class.”

“I know, I know. You’re a big boy; you can take care of yourself.” Cameron laughed, and again, Elliot failed to see the humor. Thankfully, the laughter left as quickly as it was invited. “Seriously, Elliot. I’m just trying to be nice.”

Elliot snorted. “I’m so sure. You call laughing at me ‘being nice’?”

“Nah. That was just a bit of fun,” Cameron sighed half-heartedly. He smiled at Elliot, as if that was supposed to soften any personal offence. “Everyone needs to laugh at themselves once in a while.”

“Hmpf. Right.”

“No, really.” Cameron blew some of his hair out of his eyes. “Don’t you laugh at yourself?”

“No.” And thank God that he didn’t. He couldn’t imagine such a thing, willing to degrade himself for the shameless amusement of others. Laughing at others was one thing, but laughing at ones self? Disgraceful.

“Oh. Bummer,” Cameron murmured. Then, in a burst of enthusiasm, asked, “Where exactly is your class?”

“Just a little further. It’s at the end of the hallway.” Elliot couldn’t help but glance over towards Cameron dubiously. “You really don’t have to walk me to class, you know.”

Of course, the response he got was, “Why not?”

“It’s weird.”

“Friends walk each other to class all the time. Besides, mine is near here. What’s so weird about that?”

Elliot sighed. He could feel his argument swelling up inside, ready to burst Cameron’s bubble, but in all honesty, he just didn’t have the energy to do so. There just seemed to be no point in it, anyway. Oh well. What did it matter, anyway? Maybe he really was just being a little over sensitive to things…

But only a little.

“Here’s my class,” Elliot said  as they came to a stop in front of an open doorway. One look at the classroom sent a tremor of dread through him. This period was sure to be no better than the last one.

To Elliot’s surprise, Cameron put his hand on the doorframe and poked his head in through the door, like something straight out of a cartoon. He looked around the classroom, and even bothered to wave to a few people who stopped in mid-conversation to stare at his peculiar behavior. Cameron pulled his head back in and stood up properly.

"So, you are dropping by at lunch, right?”

Elliot stared at Cameron blankly. Oops. He’d nearly forgotten, what with everything else plaguing his mind. “Yeah,” he said. “I have to check something else out first, but I will.”

Another of Cameron’s smiles graced his lips, a delightfully small curl of pleasure. Elliot’s heart fluttered in his chest. “Cool. I’ll see you then.”

Before anything more could be said, the bell rang. It was a sound that was once welcomed, but now its interrupting ring only made Elliot curse that the school board agreed on only five minutes between classes. When the shrill reminder ended, Cameron re-shouldered his bag and lazily saluted Elliot with two fingers. “See ya later.”

A few people walked in between them to get into the classroom, a thick stream of white and black uniformed people. When they finally passed, Cameron was no longer there. Elliot turned around and spotted Cameron already halfway down the hallway, his back to Elliot as he joined the rushing current of students. An urge to shout out a good-bye took ahold of Elliot. He wanted to do it, he really did, but…he didn’t. Cameron was too far away now; the words would be lost among the symphony of noise. As much as Elliot wanted to shout out a farewell, how would it look for him to do so, in such an undignified manner as shouting?

Instead, he let it pass over his lips, a breathy sigh. “Later.” He turned back around and entered the classroom. With very little time left, the students in the classroom were still roaring endlessly with chatter, but it was a welcomed background noise, as it was very useful as Elliot did his best to keep himself busy and distracted. He took his seat, much like the one from second period. Without having to turn around, he knew that the seat two chairs behind him was empty.

But, as he sat there and stared at the clock, and occasionally talking to those who sat around him, he realized that practically the whole time he’d been with Cameron, he hadn’t thought about her, or his guilt, as much. There’d been those stabbing moments, but for the most part, it hadn’t been suffocating like before, when he’d been alone.

Of course, now that he was alone, distracting himself was becoming harder and harder. Only the thought of lunch break kept his mind busy, and his guilt from choking him.

Thus began the long count down until the hour was up.


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The walk to the student council, though not long, was certainly an anxious one. Second and third period had proved his theory correct that Jacqueline wasn’t at school for the day, but the reason why further drove to home the unmistakable taste of failure and the consequences of his actions.

Contacting her himself was more than just a horrendous idea. She truly did ‘need space’, so much so that she stayed home from school just to be alone, away from him.

There was only one person who had any information on this, and would probably know anything about her current status.

Elliot thrust the door to The President’s office open with so much force that it banged noisily into the wall. Just as he thought, The President was already there, seated tall and proper at his desk, a salad wrap in one hand, and a few crisp sheets of paper in the other. The President looked up at the sound of the door colliding with the wall.

Elliot couldn’t contain himself. He felt his outer walls crumbling, defeated. He had to know. Needed to know. “How is she?”

“That’s an unusual greeting,” The President pondered aloud, his gaze neutral. “Whatever happened to ‘hello’, or ‘good day’? I realize that it’s trendy to be informal, but that’s a new low. Elliot, I thought you knew better than that.”

“Ugh,” Elliot groaned, low and feral, at the very back of his throat. He stormed across the room, not even bothering to close the door that he knew was still wide open, exposing the entire scene to whomever was near enough to hear and see.

But he didn’t care.

The air was alive with a heated and crackling tension. The President was still staring up at him, calm and passive. That very blankness only fueled the trembling and passionate fire inside. It only made Elliot angry and envious, and oh so tired.

Elliot slammed both hands on The President’s desk and forced out through gritted teeth, “Hello. Good day. Lovely weather we’re having. Now I’ll get to the fucking point: how is she?”

The President hummed. He set his salad wrap back on the plate on his desk. “I assume you mean—”

“Yes.”

“Right, right.” The President took a long sip from his coffee mug, not in any hurry. He said calmly, “She’s no worse.”

Elliot leaned back a little, applying less weight on his hands. He dared to hope, dared to wish, but…

“And?”

“And she is no better.” It was said in the same terrible tranquility.

Elliot stared deeply into The President’s cool and collected eyes, slowly digesting the information. He swallowed a resisting lump in his throat and took his hands completely off of the desk. “That’s why she’s not here,” he murmured lowly, more for absolute clarification than anything else.

The President nodded. “She called me again this morning. She didn’t sleep a wink all weekend, except for a few odd hours here and there. She sounded like she’d been crying again. I told her that it’d be best for her to stay home.” Elliot perked at this, and subsequently The President’s mouth tightened in a fine line. “Did you honestly expect that she could get over this during the course of a weekend?”

“No.” He hadn’t hoped for much at all, actually. At this point, he was just hoping that she could move on.

After moments pause, The President pushed his chair back and got up. He strolled around the desk until he stood beside Elliot. Elliot looked up into The President’s cool eyes. He wished that he could feel as calm and poised as The President looked. Why did the rest of the world seem so calm and orderly today when he felt like he would fall apart at one wrong word or touch? Everything felt so weird and out of place.

“While we’re on the subject of current statuses, may I ask how you are doing?”

“…I don’t even know,” Elliot spoke thickly. He inhaled deeply, wishing that with one intake of air, he could suck in all of the bad thoughts, then expel them through a cleansing exhale. Of course, no such thing happened. In fact, all it had served to do was bring to his consciousness just how tight and knotted his muscles were, and how full and sick his stomach felt. Elliot glared at the ground. “I hate not being able to do anything about this.”

“I know,” The President said in a voice that could have been considered mocking if anyone else used it, but in the case of The President, was as sympathetic as he could sound. “You hate being out of control of things, especially things that concern you. But, unfortunately, this is one of those things that you have to leave be in order for things to get better…”

“But what if they don’t get better?” Elliot blurted, his senses dominated by panicked desperation. “I called her on Saturday! It’s now Monday, and you tell me that she’s still as she was on Saturday?! I can’t stand this! Everything’s topsy-turvy. I have no idea what’s up or down, or what’s even right or wrong anymore, and—and…and just what are you looking at?” Elliot finished with a curt growl that nearly crossed the line into a rumbling yell. Right in the middle of his rambling, he had noticed two girls near the open doorway, barely concealed from sight as they blatantly eavesdropped. They flinched at Elliot’s outburst and quickly fled the scene. Elliot’s hands began to shake at his side. He could feel the very core of his being vibrate with anger and confusion…and hurt…Expressing it vocally towards two shameless gossipers did little more than only bring about its startling realization, not tame it.

“Elliot, calm down. Shouting won’t solve anything.”

Of course he has to say that. Elliot crossed his arms and buried them underneath his biceps, hoping to somehow make his hands cease their furious shaking. The thought of punching a gaping hole into the wall had never seemed so sweet. But there was The President’s voice, calm and soothing with its paternal wisdom, pushing aside the innate jealousy and replacing it with admiring awe.

“Why not go for a walk? Being here is doing you no good, and neither is brooding. Perhaps it would be best if you found something to do to take your mind off of it?” The President gazed at Elliot, shocking him with the amount of concern swirling in his cobalt eyes. The President added in a low voice, “I don’t want to have to worry about you, too.”

“…Fine. I have plans, anyway.” A walk sounded good, as did the idea of walking aimlessly, far away from there, where his problems could trail behind with the rest of his emotional baggage to be temporarily forgotten. Elliot shook his head at the thought. No matter how good it sounded, he knew that it wouldn’t get him anywhere. Ignoring his problems and reality was how he got himself into this mess in the first place. He took a long, calming breath. His hands finally ceased their shaking.

“If…If anything happens, or if something changes—”

“I’ll let you know right way,” The President assured him with a pat on his shoulder. “Now, stop brooding and try to have a decent day, all right?”

Elliot nodded. “Yeah.” The President’s hand fell from his shoulder as he made his way for the open doorway. “Later.”

“Good-bye, Elliot.”


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Though the short walk outdoors did little to tame the thrashing tempest of emotions inside, it did, however, settle his disquieted nerves. The calm, autumn sun felt good on his skin, and even the bright and cloudless azure sky was enough to appease his more savage emotions. He wasn’t sure whether or not the comparably more peaceful mood would last all that long, considering that he really couldn’t help but brood over the undeniable fact that he couldn’t solve or stop anything from going on, but for now, it was considerably…fine.

He didn’t take the usual way to the hill, where he’d promised Cameron he’d meet him. Instead, he’d exited through the school’s front doors and walked around the school, crossing a tiny parking lot for the staff members, before passing a few strategically placed trees. He’d only just made it across the parking lot, and was beginning to cut through a few shrubs when he picked up on a few voices coming from the same direction as the hill. The closer he drew to the hill, the clearer the voices became, no longer sounding jumbled together, but each voice more distinct in unique pitches and tones. He could even make out explicit syllables.

Elliot finally turned out onto the hill, albeit at an odd angle and place. From where he normally approached the group, it’d be within the group’s eye view, but at the moment he was approaching from behind.

The first to notice him was Maxi, who lay on his back, completely at ease, his arms crossed behind his head and legs bent at the knees. He was in the middle of saying something when his hazel eyes drifted upwards. He stopped in mid-sentence. His eyes latched onto Elliot’s, staring blankly at him. Elliot pace slowed as he stared back. Then the corners of Maxi’s mouth curled deviously, and it was back to the same, regular game.

“Greeting’s Elly,” Maxi sang out. The barely concealed bitterness burned in Elliot’s ears, and he automatically tensed. Thankfully, even while Maxi gazed at him intensely, everyone else looked over. Even Elena, who had looked completely engrossed in a thick paperback novel. Alison didn’t look any more pleased or welcoming than Maxi, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered were the pair of blue-green eyes that connected with his as a certain red-haired boy grinned unabashedly at his arrival. Oddly, nothing seemed to really matter when Cameron looked so pleased.

“Hey, you made it!” Cameron gestured for Elliot to draw nearer, his freckled hand patting the light brown grass between him and Elena. Elliot walked past Maxi and Alison, who he couldn’t help but notice eyed him as he went by. Well, didn’t they look happy? Elliot sat down in-between Cameron and Elena, making sure to angle himself so that he turned more towards Cameron, his back to the hostile duo behind him. As he got settled in, he noticed that Elena was also looking at him. Odd. She usually went back to her books when she was done noticing the world around her. Instead, when he looked at her questionably, she gave a tiny wave and smile before turning back to the thick novel clasped in her hands. To anyone else, the gesture would’ve seemed miniscule and insignificant, but with years of knowing Elena—even at an impersonal distance—during both the past few years and the last few weeks of hardship, that one gesture of kindness made a world of difference on his weary being. It was nice to know that at least someone other than Cameron didn’t mind him being there.

“How was third period?”

Elliot shrugged and tried to sound as indifferent as possible. “It was all right.”

“Lucky. Mine went on forever. It was awful. Halfway, the teacher started flipping out all over the place because of this one guy—who’s a complete jackass—and she didn’t stop until the bell rang. Nothing but thirty minutes of tension, then thirty more of yelling,” Cameron described animatedly, his hands flying over the place with wild and excited gestures. “Elena and Alison are in my third period and saw it, too. Right guys?”

Elena nodded, her dark purple hair swaying back and forth a little from the tiny head movements as she kept on reading. Alison glanced over at them, momentarily pausing her conversation with Maxi. She took one look at Elliot. Her mouth pulled into a tight line.

“Yeah,” she said curtly before turning back around briskly. Elliot frowned. He turned his head, but his eyes stayed on the duo, observing carefully. Whatever it was she was talking about to Maxi, they sure seemed completely absorbed in it…

“I don’t think they like me much,” Elliot admitted in a low, private voice.

“Nah. They’re just in a weird mood,” Cameron replied, swatting away the tension with a careless wave of his hand.

“I’m probably the reason for that ‘weird mood’.” Elliot finally tore his eyes off of them, and instead fixed them on the withering grass.

“Well, their loss.” Cameron shrugged nonchalantly. “No one likes everyone, anyway. It sucks, but that’s the way the world works. Who cares if they’re too stubborn to like you, or even give you a chance?”

Elliot snorted. “I don’t.” On many levels, he didn’t. So what if Maxi loathed him with every fiber of his being? So what if Alison most likely supported that very loathing with a calm passion of her own? He didn’t care.

Really, he didn’t.

“Whatever you say,” Cameron said with a small laugh, and with that he flung himself back on the grass, his slender limbs and hair spread out over the light brown grass. Elliot rolled his eyes, but before he even knew it, his eyes were travelling over Cameron’s spread-out body. At first, it was just a fleeting curiosity. Something that he did automatically. But soon, he was studying specific details that captured and held his attention a willing prisoner. Like the exposed slope between his neck and shoulders, the crease where his arms bent, or how finely shaped Cameron’s lips looked. Elliot even noticed how Cameron’s rolled up sleeves exposed pale skin, sprinkled endlessly with tiny orange freckles. Or how the tiny light orange hairs on the back of his arms looked fine and soft to the touch…

Then there were the soft curves of his body, nothing like a girl’s, but still as intriguing, if not more so. There was also the slight curve of his bent legs, and the slight protruding of his hips, even through the black uniform pants.

The tiniest of details, each of them mesmerizing in their own way.

Of course, when Elliot’s eyes glanced briefly at more…private…of areas, he quickly regained his sense of reality, mentally slapped himself and scolded his way back into achieving some form of calmness, and forced his eyes away, and his thoughts on more innocent things. Like the bird off in the sky. God bless that bird.

“Elliot?”

Elliot swallowed. He didn’t need to look for the image of Cameron, sprawled out over the grass innocently, to be burned into his eyes, tempting him with sensual thoughts. “…Yes?” he answered in a guarded, but wavering, voice.

“Got any plans after school today?”

“…No.” Still guarded.

“Cool. Do you want to hang out after school?”

At this, Elliot looked back at Cameron, eyes wide. “What?”

Cameron glanced up at him. He blew at a few strands of rusty orange hair that fell over his eyes. He looked so carefree, just lying there with his arms crossed behind his head. “Yeah, hang out. My place. Possibly early evening?” Cameron studied Elliot’s unreadable expression and smiled. “Are you scared I’ll bite?”

“Of course not,” Elliot scoffed. “What an absurd thing to say.”

However, now that it was said and out there in the open, Elliot’s imagination was given a brand new idea to weave other ideas from. Bite…? Needless to say, the brisk autumn afternoon had just risen a few degrees, much to Elliot’s displeasure and annoyance. Since when did he ever let himself ever get so flustered over something so…juvenile?

Cameron poked Elliot’s leg with his foot, making a small, “Boop” sound as he did so. When Elliot was finally paying attention to him again, and not the thoughts and images in his head, Cameron asked, “So what do you say to an evening at my place?”

“…I suppose,” Elliot relented, a little startled at his own anxious excitement. After all, it was just hanging out. Cameron had even said so. It was a neutral term, used between people for platonic reasons. Only...this of course didn’t feel strictly platonic. He couldn’t help but think of Saturday, when they’d agreed to…well; in any case, Elliot wondered just what could possibly occur at Cameron’s place. Cameron was odd all by himself (as was their situation, Elliot reminded himself) but what about his family?

Would Cameron’s family even like him? Or would they react the same way as Maxi and Alison?

Ugh.

Since when did “hanging out” become so complicating and dangerous?!

“Awesome.” Cameron sat up and reached around for his bag. He whistled a tune Elliot didn’t recognize as he opened up his back and dug through, eventually pulling out a small notepad and a pen.

Confused, Elliot asked, “What’re you doing?”

“Writing down my address,” Cameron replied. He flipped through the small blue notebook until he stopped somewhere near the middle of it, on a clean, blank sheet. “It’d suck if you didn’t show up because you didn’t know where I lived.” He pressed the top of the pen, the tip appearing with a tiny click. He immediately began scrawling words on the paper. When he was done, he ripped out the paper and handed it to Elliot, suddenly looking a little bashful as he did so. “Sorry if you can’t read my writing. It’s horrible, I know. I’ve never been a neat writer.”

“It’s not bad,” Elliot said with a shake of his head. He looked over the address. Huh. Cameron only lived a few blocks away from him, although it was a few blocks further away from the school. “Don’t worry about it, I can read it just fine. Beside’s, it’s certainly better than some writing I’ve seen.”

“I heard that!” Maxi shouted, eyeing Elliot and Cameron with accusatory eyes. Elliot turned his head just enough so that he could see the fuming tanned boy. He rolled his eyes.

“I wasn’t even talking about you.” It was hard, trying to keep the biting edge out of his voice. A little too hard. It certainly came out meaner than intended. Not that he really cared. What did he care if he sounded a little mean to the other, when Maxi was so mischievously hostile towards him? “But since we’re on the topic, yes, your writing is horrible. Anything you write looks like it was written by a five year old while they were enduring a seizure.”

Maxi scowled, his lower lip puckering out a bit as he did so. He narrowed his eyes, the usually warm hazel now smoldering with a resentment that Elliot knew existed only for him. Maxi’s eyebrows shot up, daring Elliot to continue.

But, beside him, Alison snorted with faintly hidden laughter.

“Shut up, Alison,” Maxi barked. His outburst only provoked more laughter out of the blue-haired girl, who no longer bothered covering her mouth or trying to hide her malicious laughter behind her styled blue hair. “Hmpf! At least I’m not obsessive about every single damn letter I ever write, Miss anal compulsive!”

“Maybe, but at least I spell ‘colour’ right.”

Maxi growled, and it vibrated dangerously from the very back of his throat. He looked like was ready to tear his hair out by the very roots. “There are two ways to spell it!”

“Yeah. The right way, and the wrong way,” Alison said sardonically.

“No, no, no! It goes like this…”

By that point Elliot had tuned out of the conversation with a shake of his head. That was the Maxi he knew, arguing even when it was obvious Alison was just fucking with his head for the simple joy of seeing him lose his cool over practically nothing.

Some thing’s never change.

Beside him, Cameron was shaking his head, a grin plastered over his lips.

“They’re at it again,” he chuckled. “Do they enjoy tormenting each other?”

“Probably,” Elliot answered, and after it was said, a tiny smirk pulled at his lips. A few memories of his own, tiny but nonetheless acidic, replayed in his head of his own experiences arguing with Maxi, with the same passion and determination demonstrated by the two off to the side. “Knowing Maxi, he’s probably enjoying every second of it.”

Cameron nodded. “I haven’t even known him all that long, and I agree with you completely.”

Elliot glanced back at the arguing duo. Alison was saying something while shaking her finger at Maxi, who just covered his ears and chanted childishly, “la, la, la, la…!”

Elliot sighed. That looked familiar, too. “How do you even know Maxi, anyway?”

“Through Alison,” Cameron said with a small shrug.

“Figures.”

And really, it did…

Elliot looked away from the tanned boy and azure-haired girl. Just when he was certain that the jolt of bitterness had passed, the bell echoed faintly in the air.

“Crap. Time’s up,” Cameron mumbled. He reached for his bag and stood up, roughly brushing off any dirt that he might’ve gotten on him while sitting and lying on dying grass. Elliot watched Cameron’s hands move over his legs before disappearing behind his back, with only a few patting sounds against the material of his clothes provided for Elliot’s active imagination. Cameron seemed completely oblivious to Elliot’s studious watch, though. “Elliot, you coming?”

Elliot blinked, surprised. “Huh? Oh, yeah.” He got up a little mechanically and got his things together. It was weird enough checking out Cameron, but did he have to pick weird times to do it, too?

Remembering the piece of paper with Cameron’s address on it, he slipped it into his pocket for safekeeping.

Cameron waited just a foot away for Elliot to get his things together. At first, Elliot didn’t know what Cameron was waiting for until it occurred to him that maybe the freckled boy wanted to walk him to class again. A protest was already ready and willing, but as he got his things together, he rethought things and figured to just let it slide. If it made the freckled boy happy, then why bother? It was just a walk, anyway.

As Elliot approached him, Cameron said good-bye to Elena, Alison, and Maxi as they all went on ahead in different directions, for different classes. Presuming that they were going to class, anyway.

“Man, lunch break just flew by…” Cameron mused thoughtfully as they walked. “Elliot, where do you think time goes?”

Elliot raised an eyebrow. “What kind of question is that?”

“Well, people always talk about time escaping them…I’ve always wondered where it went.”

Elliot thought for a moment, but only shrugged his shoulders. “What makes you think I know something like that?”

“I dunno.” Cameron fell quiet as they got closer to the school. Then he perked up and said, “Do you think time gets recycled? You know, like water?”

“I’ve got a question for you, too. Do you ever stop asking questions?” Elliot countered. He’d meant it to sound snarky, because in all seriousness, where did Cameron come up with this stuff? However, it only came out a little more playful sounding then planned.

Cameron hummed thoughtfully. “My mom used to say the same thing. She used to bribe me with candy to get me to stop questioning her, too. Now that I think about it, she probably didn’t have any answers.”

Elliot shook his head, but he couldn’t help a tiny smile. “Cameron, you are something else.” He looked up towards the cloudless sky, squinting against the glaring sun. Then the school building blocked out the sun and cloaked them in shadow as they approached the nearest doors. A few people brushed past them, only one of them bothering to mutter, “Excuse me.”

Once they were in through the doors, Elliot paused when he noticed Cameron stop. Before Elliot could say anything, Cameron smiled and gestured behind him.

“My next class is that way.” In the same voice, Cameron added, “Your class is that way, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

As if on some unconventional cue, an entire wave of students rushed by, a complete flurry of commotion. Cameron watched them fly by before looking back at Elliot. “Oh well. See you after school?”

Elliot nodded.

Cameron turned around, about to leave, but a split-second, Elliot realized that he didn’t want Cameron to leave. The thought of them parting ways after only a short time just didn’t seem fair. Cameron had only taken a few steps when Elliot rushed out, “What time?”

Cameron paused and glanced over his shoulder. He shrugged with a bright and care-free grin on his face. “Five would be good.” Then he turned and continued on his way.

There it was, that feeling again…Elliot was reminded of earlier that day, before third period. He’d been so down all day, with a heavy burden on his shoulders, crushing him beneath its weight. Yet, Cameron had so easily pulled the weight off, as if it were only a sheet of cloth keeping him down, and nothing more. When he had left for class, that weight had re-found its favourite spot on his shoulders, and because it had been previously lifted, when the weight was reapplied it only felt heavier. Just like now.

Elliot couldn’t remember the last time someone could do that. Just make the world go away with a flash of a single smile, as if it were the easiest thing in the world to do. A tired sigh escaped him. Elliot began walking down the hallway, not too eager for his next class, but then stopped. He looked over his shoulder and watched Cameron walk down the hallway with a healthy, confident stride. A confidence that wasn’t at all overbearing.

How could anyone be that carefree?

Elliot’s eyes drifted a little lower, but only for a brief second. He caught himself quickly, and hoisted his eyes up and away, back on track. With a heavy gulp, he hurried down the hallway as he redirected his thoughts so that his next class wouldn’t be too much of an uncomfortable one.


~+~+~+~+~+~+~


To Be Continued