Eli continued on sketching, or pretending to, face cupped into his other hand. His hands were so slender, pencil dust all over his fingers because he continuously wiped over his page. His curtain bangs perfectly waved around his face, shaping it as beautiful as it was. And as he listened to this music, completely focused on it, his eyes glittered in a shine so estranged, Ryan felt completely lost. 

“E-Eli.” His voice came out a little too high-pitched, a little too weird, his voice cracking in the most unwelcomed moment. 

“What do you want?” Eli grumbled. “I’m not giving you a ride home.” 

“Don’t be like that,” Ryan pouted. “I’ll get sick in the rain … It’s pouring outside.” 

All the lamer, Eli’s face turned towards him, and their eyes met harder than any truck ever could have hit him. 

Sweat dominated Ryan’s palms, and everywhere across his body, and he rubbed them over his jeans repeatedly, and when he expected Eli to turn away much quicker than he’d looked … he didn’t. Their eyes continued to be locked onto one another for an eternity and more, and Ryan couldn’t think any longer.

He gulped and gulped, but all it did was scratch down his throat, intensifying how dry everything was from his tongue, his lips, all the way down to his raging stomach, butterflies going insane in the tune of the melody, and the depth of Eli’s eyes. 

“I—I like …” And he chickened out much sooner than he could have guessed. “This song. I like it.” 

Eli exhaled and turned away too fast, almost as if he, too, had expected something entirely different, something he didn’t want to hear, and now relief flooded all over him. But his eyes continued to dart towards Ryan over and over again, because he just wouldn’t let go.

“Stop staring like a weirdo, and go away.” 

“I …” Another knot within his throat. He inched closer, making Eli look up once more in a confused frown, their faces too close to one another. Just go for it. He’ll tell me off if he doesn’t want it, right?

“I had fun … when we played the other day,” he whispered with a hoarse voice. “Honestly, I have fun, no matter what we do.” 

Ryan’s eyes flickered over Eli’s perfected face, trying so hard to be emotionless. But his eyebrows tensed and eased, twitching in response to Ryan’s gaze. And even Eli, Ryan saw it jittering down his throat, gulped as a response. 

Was it Ryan’s imagination? Eli sliding closer, ever so slightly? Suddenly, their legs touched, every place they met turning so, so hot. Their shoulders grazed, and so did their elbows, so did their pinkies. A trembling exhale followed on both sides. 

“You have fun, too, don’t you? Don’t you like spending time with me?” Ryan whispered, and Eli watched him speak a little too intently. “I wish you’d stop running away whenever we have a good time.” 

Eli flinched much, much harder than Ryan would have wanted when his fingers reached for Eli’s face as gently as he could, caressing him along his jawline. Within those dark eyes of his, Eli’s pupils grew, but so did his shivers. But he didn’t leave, he didn’t run. He sat there, frozen.

“What are you doing?” His question was barely a breath, so weak, as if he didn’t want to know at all.

Ryan tucked Eli’s bangs behind his ear, fingers running along it in the process, and remembering the tattoo Eli had right there, the imagination alone driving him wild. Eli didn’t stop him. He didn’t stop any of it, even though it was so, so obvious what Ryan wanted to do. 

With his eyes constantly darting down to Eli’s lips, thinking he should go for it, Ryan’s intentions were laid out on a silver platter for everyone to see. They always were. It’s not like Ryan could ever hide the excitement in his eyes, or how giddy his voice became whenever they spent time together. 

The music continued. An emotional, intense violin followed. And Eli said nothing, and Ryan continued to inch closer with his heart beating out of his chest, and with his entire being as clueless as he was, but he knew how to do this much. 

Eli let out a shivering breath, heating Ryan’s face and drying his lips all the more. And as soon as that breath hit him, Ryan couldn’t help it any longer. He jumped the last few millimeters, his lips landing right on Eli’s, which trembled and stiffened in his response. 

Both their sets of eyes remained open, awkwardly so, and Ryan still waited to be stopped, still waited for Eli’s mean words to come and ruin it. But they didn’t, and instead, it was Eli that closed his eyes first, and even leaned into it, pressing his lips deeper into Ryan’s as if he’d craved something like this forever. 

Eli’s fingers, Ryan felt right away, reached for his hoodie, clenching into it to keep him close, or at bay all the same, but they ultimately pulled Ryan in all the closer.

Finally, he allowed himself to close his own eyes, and his hand landed above Eli’s on the staircase, caressing his knuckles, and the slender fingers so tired from sketching all day. Their lips moved against one another so slowly, and so innocently, it might as well have been the first kiss for the both of them. Their bodies shivered, and silence dominated, only a violin solo setting the mood between them.

Ryan’s heart was overwhelmed with the softness of Eli’s lips, and with the gentle kiss he was gifted and responded to, being so much more intense than anything he could have ever seen coming. 

But a moment of beauty, it was only for a second. As soon as the song changed, switching to another classical piece, Eli’s body stiffened, and his hand shoved Ryan away so fast, it ruined all the hard work Ryan had put into coming closer.

And it wasn’t only that. 

Ryan’s eyes bulged out of their sockets and he heard the clap first, and felt the burning pain on his cheek only after the ear bud fell out of his ear, silencing any music he may have heard. Only then did he realize Eli had slapped him across the face, and in shock, his hand rushed up to his stinging cheek, eyes grown into oblivion.

“O-Ow…”

But more painful than that slap was Eli’s gaze, those trembling eyes and chin as he rose up to his feet, trying to get away from Ryan as fast as humanly possible. 

“E-Eli—“ 

“What the hell are you doing?” Nothing but trembles in his voice so full of disbelief, and agony, and things Ryan didn’t understand. “What is wrong with you? You just kiss people on a whim without permission?” 

“N-No, I—Eli—“ He wished to reach for Eli’s hand, but he yanked his entire body away from Ryan, making it impossible. And he clicked his tongue, with glitter intensifying in his eyes, and his one ear bud remained with Ryan as he stomped off in something between anger and disappointment.

“Bastard,” was the last thing Ryan heard out of Eli’s mouth, and still holding his cheek, Ryan couldn’t even bring himself to follow.