Elias by Amy Aislin

Author:Amy Aislin [Aislin, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2020-05-11T16:00:00+00:00

"Do you wanna colour with me?"

God, did he ever.

Elias followed the pig-tailed five-year-old over to the kids' play area in the den, where most of the children had congregated to play. A couple of pre-teens were playing a video game—something with lots of bloopy noises—and three pint-sized girls were playing house over by the plastic kitchen playset.

The five-year-old handed him a Harry Potter colouring book, pointed at a box of coloured pencils, and sat in a child-sized chair at the child-sized table. Elias sat on the floor across from her, which put the table at mid-chest. Perfect colouring height for him.

Too bad he hadn't found the den an hour ago, when the press of so many bodies in the Green house started to be too much. He could handle introducing himself and talking about himself for only so long before he lost the will to live. Luckily, midway through the arrivals, he'd discovered a trick. If he began the conversation with "So, what do you do?" instead of the other way around, then all he had to do was pick apart their answer and jump on a second topic. "Oh, you're an electrician? How did you get in to that?" It was brilliant, because by the time the other person's explanation ran down, Elias was being introduced to someone new who'd just arrived, and he could start the cycle all over the again. It meant, in essence, that he barely had to say anything at all.

Ty was in his element as he accepted birthday wishes from his family and friends. Every guest who arrived gave him a huge hug and pressed a gift into his hands. Yet there was a certain tightness to Ty's eyes that told Elias what he really wanted was to crawl into a corner and read.

Elias could relate.

"Ah," Ty said from the doorway. "There you are." He sat next to Elias, bracing himself with one hand on Elias's shoulder. "Hannah, can I draw, too?" he asked the pig-tailed girl. She handed over a My Little Pony colouring book.

Ty took one look at it then leaned over to see what Elias was drawing. His eyes lit up. "Trade you?"

Elias looked at his half-coloured Hogwarts crest. "No." He moved his book out of Ty's reach.

Ty pouted. It shouldn't have been adorable on a grown man; somehow Ty pulled it off. However, it seemed that Ty didn't actually want to colour. He tested out four shades of pink for his pony. Unhappy with them, he switched to purple. Then he flipped through the pages of his book for a different page to colour. Apparently unsatisfied, he set it aside and grabbed a different one: Despicable Me. Apparently, he didn't like that one either.

"What's wrong with you?" Elias asked, straight to the point. Ty was not normally a fidgeter.

"Do you want to see my room?" Ty said instead of answering.

Why yes, yes he did.

"Bye, Hannah," he said. It was only appropriate since she'd invited him to colour with him in the first place.

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