Between the Lines | ✓

Falling for the Bad Boy: Elias's POV (Part 1)

A/N: This was originally only going to be a single chapter, but it obviously got away from me, and since it's so long (this chapter is 13000 words oops) I had to split it into two. Plus, I wanted to release something on New Years as a gift to you all - wishing you guys all the best for 2022! Hope you enjoy this first part of Elias's POV, and hope you get excited for Part 2!

Loving the Good Boy - Morning

The alarm rang, shrill from under Alex's pillow, my boyfriend groaning and rummaging around blindly. I let out a sleepy chuckle, tapping his shoulder wordlessly as I fished his phone out from the same place it was every morning. After being together for almost three years, our shared mornings were well rehearsed by now. And, like always, my boyfriend merely blinked in confusion before his face broke out into a serene, half-asleep smile that lit up his entire face, a small fragment of brightness from someone that was sunshine incarnate.

"Mm, thanks, Eli," Alex mumbled, yawning and turning off the alarm, only to roll over towards me to doze off again. I instinctively opened up my arms for him, the tall boy fitting snugly in my embrace, head nuzzling into my shoulder with a little sigh of contentment.

Sunlight was beginning to drift through the slit in the curtains, though it could not even manage to be half as bright as Alex's smile. The sun tried to overshadow him, but in the early hours of the morning, it could only act as a foil to my boyfriend's captivating visage. The sunlight cast a long, crisp line of light across Alex's bare chest, which rose and fell peacefully. 

I grew more awake as I glanced down at the person in my arms, eyes focusing as they trekked down his smooth skin peppered with dark red welts, the colour rich and vibrant against his lighter complexion. These were accompanied by other little marks, fading and darker, but nonetheless captivating.

I licked my lips, the guilty criminals that left the evidence of many nights spent doing very little sleeping across my boyfriend's body. Some of the markings were obscured by the clean white blankets crumpled over his hard and trim waist, Alex's Adonis-like physique no less striking than it was during high-school, even if that was almost three years ago now.

After we graduated high-school, we had both gotten accepted into the universities and courses we wanted; Alex was currently in his final year of commerce, while I was completing my undergraduate science degree with a major in physics, with the aim of eventually, after even more years of study, to become an astrophysicist.

I smiled to myself at the memory of the day we found out our results together; I had been in awe at how calm Alex was, the boy just smiling at me and urging me to check my results, assuring me that it would be fine. His eyes had been so clear, so sure, and that had settled the nerves bubbling inside me. 

This boy had so much faith in me, so much more faith than I had in myself, and that was everything. To know that someone had your back no matter what, that they would believe in you when you struggled to believe in yourself, that even if things didn't go to plan they'd still be there to hold your hand and help carry some of the burden.

Not because they had to, but because they wanted to. Because they cared. 

And Alex cared so, so much. Sure, Alex was no master of words; he was still endearingly embarrassed to say cheesy declarations of love, and had only just gotten used to saying casual 'I love you's' in situations other than in bed. Instead, he showed me that he cared in every little thing he did; the tight hugs he doled out when he came home from his part-time job, his attempts at cooking me dinner when I was hung up with exam revision, the way he would make me cue cards to help me study, even when he still couldn't point out the Southern cross from any other random cluster of stars in the sky.