The course of true love never did run smooth - A Midsummer Night's Dream
****
A tale of two lost souls brought together by pain, grief and trauma.
Atlas tries to find a place in a world he's worked so hard to escape. Elijah struggles to balance the...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
SOMETHING HAS CHANGED in our relationship after the funeral. Altas and I rarely go a day without seeing each other, and when we're apart, we text. All the time. It's mostly Tik Tok videos or making plans to meet up or just random, ridiculous things. Every time my phone buzzes, the fluttering in my stomach lurches into my throat, and I have to keep myself from smiling at my phone like a maniac.
With my midterms around the corner, though, I've seen Atlas less than usual. While he likes to complain a lot about my studying, he respects my need to study. I should have put that in quotation marks. "Respects my need to study." Not that that stops him from pestering me constantly with spams of text messages. I've learned to keep my phone in my room until I'm done.
It's strange, this relationship we've developed. Both of us are doing this dance where we don't get too close, yet we can't be apart from one another. My feelings for Atlas have only intensified since my brother's funeral, but I'm too scared to act on them. It's not just the fear of rejection, though. It's that I don't know how Atlas feels.
And then there's the tricky situation with my parents.
My parents don't know I'm gay. Dan was very open about being pansexual because he didn't care what they thought. My parents could never accept it. They believed Dan was corrupted by his addiction and his mind and was beyond saving. My mom especially. Her beliefs are strict and unwaveringly religious, and just the thought of their reproach towards my sexuality is enough to keep me securely closeted.
To be fair, I don't know if I am gay or not. I've wondered about it to Dan often, and he would shrug. "Whatever, you be you, and that's all that matters. The most they can do is disown you. And, besides, you're going to be moving out soon. You might as well go out with a bang."
Even if I knew for sure and even if I wanted to, I'm too much of a coward. I moved out, and my parents still think I'm the golden boy they cherish. I wonder if I'm just afraid to disappoint them after seeing how much of a disappointment Dan was. And, now, with Dan gone, my parents are keeping me closer than ever as if afraid of losing me as well. I can't go a day without texting my mom to see where I am and when I'll be home. They also disapprove of me spending so much time with Atlas.
"He's Dan's friend, so you know what that means," my mom hissed at me after the funeral guests had all gone. "He'll drag you down with him, just like he did with Dan."
"Mom," I groaned, "he's not going to corrupt me... He's fine."
My mom scoffed, dumping a tray of leftovers into a container. "He's not fine, Elijah. His sister told me earlier that he had just come home from rehab before the accident. She's beside herself with worry. Taking care of that junkie all by herself, and with a baby in the house, what is she thinking? God only knows where the father is. I think it'd be best if you stayed away from him. You need to focus on studying."
"How can you be so insensitive? He's in a wheelchair because of your son!"
"My son would never have done something so stupid," she spat, "I raised you boys better than the stuff Dan put us through. And now, that boy is sniffing around you, looking to corrupt another of my children. I will not apologize for trying to keep you safe."
