Two Pieces of a Puzzle ✔

Chapter Twelve

ELIOTT

"Next Saturday is tomorrow."

"It is, isn't it?" he chuckled. "Can't wait to see you."

"Nor can I," I said with a sigh of relief. 

"We've gotten so close even with such distance, haven't we?" he began. "All over a puzzle piece tattoo."

"Y'know," I started. "A wise man once said 'closeness has nothing to do with distance'."

"A lot of wise men say a lot of wise things," he chuckled. "Which one do you want me to listen to?"

"The one you relate to the most," I shrugged. 

"Who do you relate to the most then, Eli?"

I would never get over him saying my name. Never.

I hated my name with a burning passion, unless it was him saying it. 

I found myself loving everything I once hated when it was him doing it. 

I glossed over the question he had asked me: 'Who do you relate to the most?'. There was only once answer, really. There had always been just one answer, and I'd be damned if by now you failed to guess what - or who - was on my mind.

"I don't relate to anyone as much as I do you, Elias."

"You didn't hesitate," he noted. "I like that."

I could hear him smiling, and it made my heart throb painfully in my chest. The good and bad kind of pain. The kind of pain that I found myself wishing would stop sooner than later but the kind of pain I found myself wanting more and more of. The kind of pain I struggled to stay on the surface of but didn't mind drowning in at all. 

"Who do you relate to the most?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Unless you're going to say my name, I'd believe you."

"Looks like you won't be believing me any time soon, then."

He always knew what to say and how to say it. He always knew how to give me everything I asked for, yet keep me wanting more at the same time. He always managed to keep me satisfied yet desperate.

He did it all at once.

All at once.

And it scared me.

It scared me how deep I was beginning to fall into his trap. It scared me how I didn't mind falling into his trap at all, even though I was aware I would end up hurt. I was setting myself up for doom and I was ready for it. 

I hated how he made my heart exude so much emotion at once that it formed a stagnant ditch of absolute nothingness but pain and confusion; I hated how he made my mind feel as if I had taken every satisfying drug known to man and was letting myself finally slip away in his arms so he could take me back to that place from ten years ago. 

How I would kill to be taken back to that place from ten years ago. 

"Did I scare you away?"

"Why would you?" I questioned, smiling at his foolishness. 

"Just curious, you weren't responding for a while."

He then cut himself off to take in a deep breath - and it came off slightly shaky as if he were nervous about something, "Can't believe we're finally meeting. Three weeks feels like three years at this point."

"And after we've met, it'll feel like three seconds."

"You say a lot of wise things."

"I could never be as wise as you," I confessed. 

"You're so much wiser than I could ever dream of being, Eli."

There he goes again. Saying all the right things and making me feel all the right emotions in all the right places - at the same time making me feel all the wrong emotions in all the wrong places. I hated how contradictory my feelings were for him. 

But no matter how much I hated the way he made me feel, I could never bring myself to hate him.

For in this damned world, he was the only thing I loved. 

"Tell me how you're feeling," he said suddenly.

"About what?"

"Anything," he spoke. "Anything. Just tell me how you feel."

"Disbelief," I began. "Disbelief, shock, gratefulness, excitement, nervousness. Put all that together. Recipe for disaster, huh?"

Recipe for complete and utter chaos, more like. 

At that point, my mind, heart, and soul were a battlefield.

"I get that," he confessed. "More than I should. Sucks, doesn't it?"

"Sucks, really does," I sighed. "Why do you feel that way too?"

"Never would have thought that things would turn out this way," he chuckled. "Never thought I'd find my favourite person on an app over a matching puzzle piece tattoo. Still sounds so strange to me.. and.. there's another thing too."

"That is?"

"This longing feeling that I remember you. That I must have met you in the past, or in another life. You just give me those vibes," he started. "I feel like I know you. Like I've always known you."

The corners of my mouth twitched into a small grin, "I feel like I've always known you too, Elias."

"That's not what I mean," he sighed. "For real. I feel like we've met before. I just don't know when, where or.. forget it, I'm just rambling at this point."

"That's what I meant as well."

"Did you?"

"I did," I said, pursing my lips. "I.. feel like I might have met you over a decade ago."

"A decade," he repeated. "Probably why I don't remember much. But you remind me painfully of this boy I used to know."

"Tell me when you figure out who he is."

"I will, will you tell me too if you figure out before I do?"

"I will, I promise."

He remembers me.