Page 58 of Elemasters

“Bro, are you like… okay? I know everything that happened was a lot and I just…”

“Gonna stop you right there baby brother,” Chris raised his hand, silencing Dustin immediately, “we’ve already been over this. Just because I got out of the garden without having a mental breakdown like the rest of you losers, doesn’t mean I failed,”

“No one’s saying you failed Chris, I’m just…”

“Just what?” Chris narrowed his eyes, “I really don’t need you to play therapist right now. Or ever, really,”

“I’m not trying to be your therapist! I’m just worried about you dude!”

“And that’s exactly your problem! Who asked you to worry? I’ve gotten along just fucking fine by myself, and that’s not changing now,” Chris said, finally stepping past Dustin.

Dustin could’ve let him walk away. He probably should’ve.

But he didn’t. He wouldn’t.

As Chris headed back for his room, Dustin put a hand on his shoulder.

“Ying Ziheng, talk to me. Please. You’re not in this by yourself,”

Chris immediately stopped in his tracks, and Dustin felt his bare skin warming up under his touch.

“Get off me,”

“Chris…”

“Get THE FUCK off me!” Chris whipped around faster than Dustin could anticipate, pinning him to the wall, and shaking the decorative Chinese fans from the force of it.

“Hey! Stop horsing around up there!” their father’s booming voice carried up the stairs, but Chris completely blocked it out, his eyes burning holes into Dustin’s.

“The fuck do you mean I’m not in this by myself? I’ve been in this by myself since day fucking one!”

“W-what are you talking about?” Dustin tried to loosen Chris’s grip on his collar, but it was ironclad.

“You think I don’t know that you’ve only ever seen me as a problem-child? Just like mom and dad? You think they see me as the golden boy, but they treat me like a living landmine, while you’re the one they pin all their hopes on. So don’t give me that shit about us being ‘in it together’, when all you’ve ever fucking thought about is yourself!”

Alright, that was the last straw.

“ME? I’m the one who only thinks about myself? When you’ve been bulldozing your way over me and my feelings for years?! After I took the hit for you so your life would stay on track?!”

“ENOUGH!” the thunderous voice of Elliot Ying rumbled through the hallway as he ascended the stairs, forcing both twins to stop and turn their attention to him, “I don’t know what this is about, and I don’t care. But it ends, now,”

Chris exhaled sharply and let Dustin go, storming off to his room to get dressed.

“I’m going out. Don’t wait up,”

When Chris left the house, he didn’t have anything even resembling a plan. He just needed to drive; velocity always helped. So how he ended up here was honestly a blur.

The tiny little ranch house on the cliffs overlooking the harbor. The same house he and Dustin found themselves at countless times over the years for last minute study sessions.

Bailey’s house.

Her dad’s SUV was gone, but her beat up red pickup was still parked out front. He half-remembered her mentioning something about her parents visiting family in Vancouver, and her opting out.

Chris really didn’t even know if he wanted to knock on the door, or if he just wanted to sit in the car and remember the times the trio spent there before everything went to hell. But the choice was made for him when he saw Bailey struggling to lug two heavy trashcans around from the backyard.

Without even thinking, he hopped out of the car and jogged across the lawn to help her.

“Chris? What are you doing here?” she asked, looking up at him as he took the trash from her grasp, “and your eyes are red. Either you’re high, or you’ve been crying,”