The Beauty of Living | ON HOLD

09. old buddies

don't give up on me — andy grammer

—

e l l i o t

THE BOY STARED out of the window, his hand placed under his chin. Music played from the old radio as he watched himself pass many buildings to which he had never seen before. The wind softly caressed his cheeks as he hummed to the tune of the song.

     He turned his head to face the girl beside him, and he smiled lazily as she drove. Her short, chocolate hair blew flawlessly in the breeze. The sick boy couldn't help but let a smile form on his face. Though he could only see half of the petite girl's face, she was still so gorgeous.

     "Hey Ella," Elliot said to get get the girl's attention.

"Yeah?" the brunette responded, her gray eyes still focused on the road in front of us.

     "Why'd you agree to do. . . all of this with me?" the boy asked in curiosity. It had been on his mind for quite a while, and it soon became the only thing he could think about. What could possibly make a girl like Gabriella go on a trip with a sick boy to escape a hospital? All of it seemed so unreal to the boy, as if it were a movie.

     "I have nobody except you," Gabriella told Elliot after a minute of silence, "after my mother died and school passed by, my life was meaningless. I had nobody apart from you."

     "Gabriella Irvine, your life is anything but meaningless," Elliot told the girl, his own hazel eyes holding sorrow for her. Silence filled the atmosphere apart from the soft music playing in the background. "But what about your friends?"

     "I've always been the type to never socialize with people, so nobody interacted with me either. I started to get used to it," the petite girl explained after a moment and paused for a bit before continuing, "especially after my best friend's. . . death. My mom told me to live my life, so here I am."

"I'm really glad I met you," the pale boy stated out of the blue.

"Me?" the petite girl said in disbelief before chuckling, "there's nothing special about me, Eli."

It pained the raven haired boy to think that such an extraordinary girl like Gabriella would ever think that way. She was the epitome of perfection in his eyes, and he was sure that would never change. Over time, he started to notice all of her flaws, but those are the things that made her, her. And he would die for her.

     There was something so special and surreal about the petite girl; she was there for the ill boy when nobody else was. Not even the sympathetic nurses the boy was surrounded by could ever understand how he had ever felt, but Gabriella could. She truly knew him— she understood how he felt, and most importantly, she never turned away from him when she could've a long time ago.

     "I would die over and over for you if it meant that you'd understand how incredibly special you are," Elliot replied. "I'll never give up on you. You're the best thing that has ever happened to me."

     Elliot saw the small smile that formed on her face as she drove in silence. There wasn't a reply to his words, and there didn't need to be. Her being there was enough for him. It always would be because she would always be enough for him

     Elliot closed his eyes and listened to the music on the radio for the rest of the ride, and soon, the red car came to a stop. There was a building in front of him with the name of "Glowzone." The sick boy got out of the car in confusion. What's so good about a zone that glows?