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“Elliot? Elliot!” a girl called out frantically, running through the empty garden. She opened the doors to the greenhouse, her eyes quickly scanning the area.
Not here.
Milly let out a stressed breath of air, glancing to her sides before standing for a moment. Looking back at the school, then the fountain, she frustratedly clenched her fists, a book in one hand, nothing in the other, as her eyes quickly darted around. A second later, her eyes focused on something.
The bright, red, rose hedge-maze garden.
Without a second thought, she dashed in there, her hat almost flying off her head before she slapped her hand back on to hold it in place.
“Elliot!” she yelled, dragging the word out as she cupped her hands around her mouth.
Milly waited a moment, quietly. Sighing in frustration, she turned around to leave, but paused once she heard an odd sound. Listening for a moment, her confused expression turned worried once she noticed it was muffled crying.
Carefully rounding the corner, albeit a little clumsy with her attempted feather-light steps, the adrenaline rush from earlier finally made itself apparent once she noticed her shaking legs and hands.
She could care less about it, though, when the crying boy in front of her was shaking just as much–if not more.
Milly took a deep breath, clearing her throat lightly. A small gasp was heard from the boy as he lifted his head, eyes wide and glossy from tears.
“..Elliot..” she spoke softly, unsure of what to say, causing her to feel slightly frustrated with herself.
“Ah–” Elliot nervously stammered, quickly trying to wipe the tears away from his eyes as he turned his head away from Milly, “j-just– hic g-give me a– sob m-moment–” he stuttered out.
Hesitantly taking a step forward, she struggled to open her mouth at an attempt of comfort. Her gaze moved towards her outstretched hand, and the bruised knuckles that resided underneath her dark, fingerless gloves.
What do I do?
She thought back to earlier in the school hallway. All the people standing around doing nothing. The absolute red that took over her vision once she saw Elliot crying . He ran off before she could even get a word in.
Thinking back to the bruises on her knuckles, even if he stayed, she probably still wouldn’t have been able to talk. She was far too angry to even think, let alone speak.
Running a hand through her hair, she cleared her throat awkwardly again and crouched near where Elliot was sitting.
“Elliot?” she questioned, “..I got your book back, uh.. the one that D–he had earlier..”
Readjusting his glasses, he faced Milly with a very clearly fake smile, and gently took the book from her after she held it out towards him.
“T-Thank you, Milly..”
“Yeah, no problem..”
Hugging the book to his chest, he leaned back against the rose hedge-bush, staring at the ground.
Milly sat with her knees to her chest, angrily staring at her hands. A few moments of silence resounded, before Milly groaned and stood up fiercely.
“Argh! I’m so done with those jerks! ” she growled, “they’re just so annoying and rude! For no reason at all! I should’ve pummeled them harder than I did, they deserve to just-”
Pacing back and forth whilst angry rambling, Elliot just watched her from the ground with a blank expression on his face. He just glanced back down towards the ground, silent.
Glancing in his direction, Milly stopped rambling, before she wordlessly sat back down again, this time directly in front of him.
“Ah–” Elliot stuttered, flinching back a bit at the close proximity, “Uh–..Milly?”
“I’m listening.”
“Sorry, what?”
“Y’know,” Milly paused, looking conflicted herself as she hesitantly opened and closed her mouth, before finally talking, “something obviously happened, and uh, people feel better after talking it out with someone.. or something like that..” she spoke, her voice trailing off at the end.
Elliot stared at Milly, eyebrows slightly raised before he glanced back down with a small blush on his face. He giggled a bit to himself, catching the red-head’s attention.
“What? what’d I say?” she quickly asked, looking unsure of herself.
The boy only shook his head, a smile on his face, “Nothing–it’s just, despite you being really rough on the outside..you’re genuinely just a sweet person who is really caring..”
Milly’s eyes widened, her cheeks slightly filling with color. A beat, and Elliot’s face is completely matching the shade of Milly’s hair.
“N-nono- N-not that I meant that to s-sound weird or uh, anything but–” a voice crack cuts him off as his face gets somehow impossibly redder, “I-I just thought- I- um..”
After his brain short circuited, he raised his book up to cover his face. A small ‘sorry’ left his lips, as he dipped his head.
Milly gently took hold of the book, and lowered it slowly, before taking it out of Elliot’s hands and carefully setting it to the side. The boy glanced over at Milly, his shoulders raising as he glanced back at the ground.
“Thanks, Elliot.”
He blinked.
“W-What-?”
“I really..” Milly inhaled, and exhaled, “needed to hear that. From someone. Thank you.”
He wordlessly nodded, looking Milly in the eyes. The chaotic, flustered blush that was present a moment ago still left its trace on his face, however, he just proceeded to smile, then giggle a bit.
“Now,” Milly continued, patting her hands back and forth against the ground as she leaned forward, “you wanna tell me what happened earlier? If not, it’s fine, but..with how you were earlier and..”
How much you were crying, was left unsaid.
Milly glanced up at Elliot through her red bangs, her brows furrowed and her shoulders tense.
Elliot glanced back at the ground to the side, sighing, “It’s just- really pathetic, honestly,” he chuckled. It was hollow.
“Elliot, look me in the eye.”
He hesitantly looked back up at Milly, fiddling with his sweater sleeve and fidgeting slightly. A small exhale left his lips when the girl’s hands gently but firmly grabbed his shoulders.
“It’s not pathetic. Nothing that affects you is pathetic, okay? Your feelings are your feelings, and you can’t help that! You have to keep in mind that everyone has their limits, and some are more sensitive than others. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Elliot sat there silent. Then, his vision grew blurry, and he bit his lip as he ducked his head. He flinched slightly, as he felt Milly’s hand graze his cheek–possibly to wipe the tears away–before he absolutely just melted into the touch.
“Okay.”
With her long nails angrily clacking away at her phone screen, the blonde-haired girl groaned and stomped her foot on the ground.
“Drewy-bear! I can’t believe she had the audacity to upload the same exact video as me! She’s trying too hard!”
Drew, without taking his eyes off of his phone, responded, “Listen Zoe’, it’s not something to get upset over. You still got more views and likes, or whatever it is, right?”
“Ugh!” she groaned out, “still! It’s pathetic how much she tries to copy me!”
Drew just responded with a ‘mhm’, as Zoey continued to go on a loud rant of how much she hated fakes and copycats.
A few lockers away, the pink-haired sophomore, Elliot, was quietly hurrying with putting his books away neatly in his locker. Casting a nervous side-eye towards the ear piercing complaints of the girl, he just averted his gaze once again and double-checked to make sure all of his books were in their correct places.
A small ding from his phone caused him to jolt slightly, before pulling it out of his pocket and checking the notification. A text from his mother, which was just a picture of the pretty sky from inside her car.
Elliot giggled a bit, smiling. He thought back to when he told his mother about how pretty he found the sky, and how ever since then she’s been taking many photos of it.
The sound of someone clearing their throat snapped him out of his daze, and he glanced up at the person.
“Hey freakface! throw this out for me, I’m in a hurry to leave,” Zoey curtly said, shoving a soda can in Elliot’s face, glaring at him when he flinched back.
An awkward silence took place for a moment, as Elliot struggled to form a verbal response. This however, just caused the blonde to glare even harder, as she raised her voice.
“Did you not hear me flower freak? Too busy giggling at weird crap on your phone?” she questioned, as her raised voice caused heads to turn and stare.
His heart starting to beat faster in his ears, he fumbled over his words with all the pairs of eyes on him.
“I-I j-just-”
“You what?” she taunted.
As he struggled to form a word, suddenly, his phone was yanked from his hands. He flinched back for a moment before whipping his head around to the offender.
“Got his phone!” the green-haired boy, Henry, cackled, “Ooh, his mommy was texting him!”
Elliot could only helplessly freeze up on the spot as the group laughed loudly. They laughed at how there was a giant lack of people in his contacts. He blinked away the tears in his eyes as he tried to block out the nasty comments of him dying alone, feeling the burning heat rising in his face as he clenched his fists.
After the phone was passed to Drew, Elliot quickly tried to catch the object as it was tossed towards him lazily, before being shoved against the locker, a few of his books falling out.
A small chuckle escaped Drew as he picked up one of the books. The chuckle turned into a snicker, “‘Gardening and the Health of Plants?’ you really read this shit?”
“Don’t forget Drew, he’s in the gardening club!” A dark brunette quipped, kicking one of the books in Elliot’s direction, “why was he even in such a rush? It’s not like there was anyone he was going back to anyways.”
After that comment, the group broke out in laughter. Elliot’s heart only broke more.
“Fucking faggot, prancing around in a field of flowers all day? You’re weird as shit dude, it’s no fucking wonder you didn’t have your dad in your contacts. He fucking left because of his weak ass sad excuse for a son!”
The air went cold. It was dead silent as Elliot stared off into nothing, taking in the words. He was too busy to even notice the slightly alarmed looks the other two boys gave Drew.
Elliot felt something warm roll down his face, as his vision was blurry. He hurriedly picked up his books, shoved them in his locker with a slam and ran off as fast and as far as his legs could take him.
“I just..ran. I didn’t know what to do.”
Silence. Elliot nervously looked up at Milly, who was sporting an unreadable expression.
“S-sorry–I w-went on a rant I–”
“Don’t.”
Thinking the girl was angry with him, he opened his mouth to apologize once more before something caught his attention.
Milly was..crying. Her grip on his shoulders softened as she quickly slid her arms around Elliot and hugged him. Her head buried in his shoulder.
“Don’t ever apologize for something like that. They went. Too. Far.”
Milly said it with such conviction that Elliot was starting to believe her. Hesitating for a moment, he awkwardly slid his arms around Milly as well, before ducking his head into her shoulder and closing his eyes. He melted into the warmth.
“Thank you, Milly.”