Sunsets and Constellations | B X B

• T W E N T Y S I X •

E L I J A H

"Well, I'm fun to hang out with, what's not to like?" Tirzah exclaimed indignantly as Kaz blushed red from embarassment. She'd been trying to get Kaz to go out on a date with her and he'd refused, flat out no.

"You're the first guy that's refusing to go out with me." She pouted, crossing her arms. Elijah laughed, pulling her into a side hug. He caught Kaz trying not to break into a smile as he shovelled the food into his mouth.

"Okay I'll go out with you. But just as friends, the two of us. If you try to kiss me or something, I'm out. Deal?" Kaz reasoned with her.

"Dude what the fuck? Are you hearing this Elijah?"

"I mean, something's better than nothing right? Y'all gotta get to know each other well." Elijah shrugged.

He had caught Tirzah casting longing glances and passing a flirtatious comment to Kaz every now and then and Kaz would blush, while rolling his eyes. They'd become a nice pair of friends, Tirzah always teasing him. But Elijah could see Tirzah catching feelings for the boy slowly, it was hard not to. He was the most down to earth, sweet and shy kid in their ever growing group of friends. They had a new addition to the group, Kaz's friend Everest.

Everest was the youngest among them all, having skipped classes because he was also fucking smart. So Ryder, Viggo and him got along super well.
Fucking nerds.

Arius had arrived late at the table since he'd been practicing with the choir. Their school was doing an adaptation of Hamilton, and Elijah had suggested that Arius join them, because they'd been looking for someone who could play all the tracks. Surprisingly, Arius had actually gone and spoken to the music teacher who was really impressed.

Who wouldn't be?

Kaz and Tirzah were currently locked in a staring match, making Arius clear his throat loudly, but failing to break their gazes.
He looked at Elijah and shrugged as if to say "what the fuck?" when Elijah all but winked at him. He was getting braver with his advances and Arius was the one left speechless and stuttering these days. They'd gone back to their friendship dynamic again. Except, the fact that they'd kissed and had truly romantic moments with each other lingered at the forefront of their minds whenever they hung out.

But the fun part was that they could laugh about it, somewhat.  Well it was confusing, Arius had probably figured out that Elijah had feelings for him. No shit. But hadn't commented on it even once. And for that, Elijah was grateful.
Even the tension was easily diffused by either one of them making sarcastic, snide jokes about the predicament they were in while they laughed about it together. When they were alone of course.
Even in everybody else's company, they'd slip up sometimes but thankfully, no one noticed other than Viggo and Ryder.

Arius had become kind of lost though, the past couple of days. He'd stare off into space and not even respond if someone spoke to him. He'd started napping a whole lot during almost all of his classes and was beginning to look stressed.
The only time he'd look relaxed was when he was in the auditorium, by the piano, playing his heart out as everyone sang along. Elijah had tagged along whenever he didn't have basketball practice, much to Arius's annoyance.
Elijah wanted so much to ask him what was wrong because he was really worried about him. Last time hadn't turned out that well though. And he wasn't willing to risk it again. No way.

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They were all currently having dinner and Arius had skipped yet again. Viggo looked a little stressed too, and had just answered curtly when Tirzah had asked about him. Everyone seemed to be quite tense at the dinner table. Jake was busy typing away on his phone with scrunched up eyebrows and Ryder was eating her food as slowly as possible, stabbing her food ever so often. Koovs and Madilyn were busy talking about something. Everest was missing too. Kaz and Tirzah were the only ones who looked like they were having fun.