I patted my stomach as I lay on my bed. It's been so quiet in this house. So much that I can't stand it. No one wants to say anything to each other and it's getting to the point that I want to pull my hair out.

I picked up my camera and began scrolling through my camera roll on my phone. I've taken some photos since I got here but not many.

The sunset on the lake, some of the plants outside. I bit my lip as I zoomed into the last picture. I had taken a photo of the back of the house. It's always so beautiful with all the windows looking towards the lake. I didn't even notice Tobias was standing there looking outside.

He didn't spot me either which is nice. I had taken a picture of him just observing beauty. Beauty observing beauty, ha. How ironic.

A wave of guilt washed over me.

Thinking about our time in high school, I can't help but feel like it was partly my fault.

Truthfully, the moment I saw Tobias with the soccer kids, I put him in a box. Sure, he stopped talking to me but it's true that I barely put in any effort either. Barely...if not at all.

I picked up my phone and opened up the restaurant's TikTok account. After Daddy Gate happened, our 1000 followers have blown up to an impressive 75K. I loaded up the screen and my eyes went wide. Sitting up on the bed, I realized we hit 115K followers on TikTok. I scrolled down to see the latest video that I uploaded. It was the one that I put together that had a majority of clips of Tobias.

Not only did the food and restaurant look fantastic in the video, he looked amazing. Okay, so I uploaded it taking the chance he wouldn't mind and woah, did it pay off.

1.2M views! This is insane. I opened the comments and started scrolling through.

K.fitzgerald: Who is this blonde hottie???

Pence101: Does he do weddings?? (As the groom)

Laur🌷: In babyblueeyedboy we trust 🙏✨

Coco'sgirl: why is he so hot and booktok coded

Gaberio: I'm obsessed!!!!

I stopped scrolling. Gabe? The Gabe from Tobias's phone? I clicked on his profile and sure enough, I saw that they were mutual friends. Of course, Tobias didn't have any videos up but he sure did have a lot of followers.

I felt my blood start to boil. This Gabe kid doesn't even know Tobias. Does he think they're friends or something?

I grinded my teeth. Following the link in Gabe's profile, I started looking at his Instagram.

Gabe was...good looking. Objectively, speaking. He was older, clearly tall, arms covered in tattoos, artsy, into horror movies like I am. Fuck!

I bet he wasn't a total dick all the time, compared to someone else Tobias knows.

I rolled face first into my bed and punched my pillow a few times.

I bet they're talking right now. I bet Tobias is sitting in bed, chatting and talking to Gabe and I'm sitting here, just letting it happen.

Tobias is going to fall in love with this guy who isn't half as decent as Tobias is and he's going to be stuck in a shitty relationship all because I let it happen.

I felt my breathing pick up. If I didn't calm down soon, I was going to have a panic attack.

I walked over to my mirror across the room and looked at myself, taking big breaths in and out.

Get a grip, Elijah.

I fixed my hair and ran a hand down my long T-shirt. I looked fine.

Taking another big breath, I stepped out of my room and headed for Tobias's door.

Knocking a couple of times, I realized he wasn't in there.

I walked downstairs noticing that Dad was in the kitchen, playing cards by himself at the table.

Looking out the back window, I noticed Tobias was sitting out on the back deck, lounging in one of our lounge chairs, with his hoodie up and earphones in.

"You should leave him be," Dad said, interrupting my stare.

"Oh, yeah. I was just-uh-"

"I've been too easy on him. I see that now." Dad said, placing cards in their separate rows. Clearly, he was playing solitaire.

I stuffed my hands in my short pockets and slowly walked up to join him at the table.

"What do you mean?"

"Since Tobias has come back into our life, I've had rose-colored glasses on. He has a lot of growing to do still."

"Well, we all do Dad. We're just kids." I shrugged, trying to make sense.

"What he did to you was–" He began.

"—wrong but it was in the past." I finished. "Plus, it was something that happened between him and I. We've got to sort that out between us. This has nothing to do with you." I squinted. I've never spoken to him like this but he needed to hear it.

"I just...expected more from him." Dad shrugged, placing more cards down.

"Why?" I asked.

He looked up at me, as though he was surprised by that question.

"Why do you expect so much from him? Did he ask for you to hold him to such a high standard or did you force that on him?" I asked.

Dad opened his mouth to answer.

"I guess I take his mistakes to heart." He muttered. "A huge part of me wishes I was there for him more. He's always been such a great kid...seeing him make a mistake is just a reminder of how much I wasn't there for him when I should've been." He said looking down.

I guess I understood that. "You can't put all of that on your shoulders, though. His mistakes are not yours. " I started. Laying my hand on his, I continued. "You're not his Dad," I said sympathetically, shaking my head.

Just then, I heard the back door close.

I turned to see Tobias walk in, turn to look at us with red eyes, and then turn to walk up the stairs toward his bedroom.

Fuck, did he hear that out of context?

I took my hand back from my Dad's and ran up the stairs after him.

"Tobias," I said knocking on the door. I knocked again with no answer.

Opening the door slightly, I peered in. There he was lying on the bed facing away from the door. I could hear the music from his earphones blasting from all the way over here.

Looking down, I closed the door and left alone, giving him space. 

☀️

Authors Note: 

Ahhh, at least Elijah is trying to mend what he broke. Poor Tobias. He's really going through it. 

All will be better in time...we hope.

PS I created a DISCORD, my lovely friends. Okay, so the deal is - you come and we chat. We'll discuss the books if you'd like, swap pictures about characters, you can drop your books in the chat too. We'll recc books to each other - it'll be SO fun!

Here's the link: 

https://discord.gg/MRwKnebS

If you need a better link, message me! I can't wait to chat with you more 🌻