Elliot

Thirty-Six

The next few days went by and college started to take over our lives. I went to classes, did painting, hung out with my friends, and spent time with the world. Life was so much easier when you take the worst things out of it.

"There's an old bookshop down the road, though I'm guessing you know that by now."

"I don't think I know." Tobias had this smile on his face—the smile where I knew he was teasing me. Then he laughed. "Yes, I do know about it. Why?"

"Do you wanna go visit it?"

"That would be a marvellous idea."

And so we went to the old bookshop. I was now familiar with the smell of old books and wooden shelves. The warm steam of sunlight bursted through the windows and it made the library so much alive.

Tobias began scanning the books. I took a picture of him. He looked brighter than before. The prettiest man I've ever seen. When the sunlight hit his eyes, the wicked brown color of it lit up. And it felt like I was falling in love for him all over again.

There were a lot of things I could remember that had been a part of my life, and I knew that have marked on my mind. Games. Skateboarding. Failed baking shits. College. My mother's death. French. Organizational clubs. Sexuality crisis. Blood. Bruises. Filthy people. Cameras. The garage shop. More failed baking shits. My father. My sister. Alvin. My friends. The French Society. Minerva. My artworks. Esmée. Claude. Dancing in the park at night. Working in the kitchen together. And him, Tobias.

"Elliot, come look at this." Tobias held up a hardcover book. "It's a special edition of my favorite book. I've never seen this before."

"That's because it is the only copy that we have here." An old man walked up from behind us. "It's indeed a rare book, young man."

"How much for it, sir?"

"Nah, you keep it."

Tobias and I exchanged a look.

"Seriously?" Tobias said.

The old man nodded. "I'm not selling all of these books either way. You have that on your hands. Keep it."

"You're giving these books away?" I asked.

"Uh-huh."

"Why is that?"

"Knowledge in books, they are a big importance in our world. There's no point of making money out of knowledge. It's something we shouldn't pay for just to have it in our lives."

Tobias shook hands with the old man. He reminded me of my mother. She loved sharing knowledge to everyone without asking for anything in return. "Thank you again, sir." He tapped Tobias' arm and smiled at the both of us. Then he walked away and pushed a small cart of books.

"Well that just made my day."

"He's such a good person to ever exist in this world." I said.

"Maybe he values knowledge as much as you value your life."

That made me smile.

"Do you have a pen by any chance?"

"No."

Tobias went to ask the old man for a pen. And, luckily, he gave him one. "What are you gonna do with that?" I said.

"Let's write our names into this book. So that everytime we would go read this piece of literature, we would be reminded of the special bond that we created in this world."

I knew I was smiling. And he was too. Tobias opened the book and wrote our names on the first page. In that way, our names were written in the page of a book. That would be a reminder that somehow, we were part of a story, and soon ours will be told too. I wasn't a good fan of books before, but if Tobias was a character on it, I would read it over and over. His character was the man who taught me many things about life, the man who had the best contagious smile, the man who helped me discover the treasures of the world, the man who made me realize that true love did exist, the man who was the most beautiful work of art.

"I like to think that this is an another way of expressing your love."

"Maybe it is." His eyes met mine once again. Then he smiled. "I love you, Elliot."

I did too. "And I love you more than everything."

He leaned in and kissed me. And I kissed him. We kissed each other because we knew it was one of the things that made us happy. And we were happy. Because we were together. The world, the universe, and us. I kissed the man that I love and held him tight. I finally knew that everything was undeniably okay.

THE END