Two Pieces of a Puzzle ✔

Chapter Nineteen

[A/N; the song above is the song Elias plays for Eliott. You can go ahead and listen to it whilst you read the chapter because it would do the chapter a decent amount of justice.]

ELIOTT 

"I had fun hanging out with you guys today," I told the boys as they neared the front door. "Sorry I didn't ask if I could tag along earlier. I've been missing out on a lot."

"Hey, it's all good," Tyrone beamed. "Glad you had as much fun as we did. Hopefully you'll come with next time too."

"I will," I promised before repeating myself a little louder this time. "I will."

I'd been missing out on more than a lot. I had known these boys for four years but eventually lost all memory of the times we had spent together when I first started isolating myself only a few months after we had met. 

We walked around the block for an hour, talking about the times we had spent together - and the memories were coming back to me. 

I remembered the first time I had met the boys - they had been playing together on the football field at seven in the morning. I asked them if I could join, and they let me. 

Then, we met Toby. He was so little back then. He always had this little slouch to his posture and never really looked us in the eye when he spoke. His voice often came out shakily and he'd cut himself off mid-sentence so as to refrain from embarrassing himself. He had been crying on the pavement with his face buried in his hands and his knees pulled up to his chest. 

The boys and I spent hours and hours listening to him rant. That was what brought us all together. 

Ironic how I was beginning to recollect my memories with the boys; but I was beginning to forget everything about Eric. 

My phone began to vibrate in my back pocket. 

It was him.

I looked over at Toby. 

"It's him, isn't it?"

"It is."

"Go get your man," he teased with a playful wink. 

I rolled my eyes and raced to my room. I shut the door behind me and scurried to my place in front of the window. 

It was funny how I'd usually sit here to stare out at the moon and ponder; but now, I sat here for the sole purpose of speaking to Elias hours on end, not sparing the moon a single glance. 

"Hello?"

"Hey," he began. "Sorry, I know it's two in the morning- did I wake you up?"

"Wasn't even asleep to begin with," I confessed, shaking my head with a foolish grin on my face. "Everything alright there?"

"Yeah, I just wanted you to hear something," he admitted, a demure undertone to his voice. "But you've got to promise me you won't judge, okay?"

I didn't have a chance to respond before I heard the sound of a piano. 

He was playing the piano. He was playing Riopy's song. 

And he was playing it so beautifully. 

His fingers didn't dare miss a single note, and each note traveled into my ears and raced straight for my heart only to float around it with overwhelming contentment and tranquility. 

Whilst he played, I envisioned that place from ten years ago once again. But this time, the setting was clearer than it should've been.

The blue sky was painted with streaks of violet, and bright stars crowded the sky like freckles on a face. The same stars that looked down upon us pretentiously in all their gleaming glory. The same sky that stretched miles and miles withholding such pride. Torrents of moonbeam poured in through the spaces between the leaves of the trees that sheltered us. The same moon I'd never get tired of looking at.

I had always thought the memory had taken place in the early hours of the morning. I was mistaken.

I could hear the sound of the water splashing upon the rock hitting it's surface. I could hear the sound of my own laugh. 

And then I turned to look at him. I turned to look at Eric.

Where his face once used to be was a blank space of nothingness. Absolute nothingness. No eyes, no nose, no brows, no lips; and then he was beginning to fade. The rocks he was holding in his hand began to fall to the ground one after the other and he began to dissolve into the air. 

Piece by piece, then all at once; he was gone.

And then the song ended. 

"How was it?" I heard him say.

I was left speechless. I had nothing to say. I had never experienced such a strong emotion before. 

"Elias.. that was- that was beautiful," I breathed out. "Wasn't that Riopy's song?"

"It was, I checked him out after you told me about him and I've actually grown fond of his music," he admitted. 

"That's.. thank you, that was amazing."

"I'm not done yet," he interrupted. "I still have one more song I want you to hear."