Page 59 of Elemasters

“I’m helping you and the first thing you do is question me?” Chris scoffed and sniffled, “you should be thanking your savior,”

“Savior? More like my headache,” Bailey replied, smiling softly, but Chris recoiled.

“Yeah… yours and everyone else’s,” he muttered, pulling the cans to the curb and heading back to the Cadillac without another word.

“Chris, hey Christian, wait!” Bailey called after him, running ahead and cutting him off, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get under your skin like that. Tell me what’s going on,”

“I’m just gonna go,”

“No, don’t,” Bailey put a hand in the center of his chest, “come inside. I can’t cook for shit, but I’ll make you a turkey sandwich or something? It’s not very festive, but you know I’ve practically reinvented the art of sandwich making,”

Chris couldn’t stifle his chuckle.

“Alright, fine. But only because me and Dustin started fighting before we could order from Wong’s like we usually do. I’m fucking starving,”

As Chris sat at the kitchen table, with only an empty plate left in the space between him and Bailey, he mentally cursed himself for being so easily manipulated by food.

“So Hungry Man, you finally gonna tell me what’s going on with you and Dusty?” Bailey asked, resting her elbows on the table and cocking her head like an adorable puppy.

“It’s just… stuff,” Chris sighed, “you really don’t need to worry about it,”

“God Christian, you’re so stubborn. Why can’t you just talk to me? You’ve known me since we were thirteen!”

“Because you don’t even…” Chris started to shout, but his tone naturally tapered off, like the fuel for his fire was just gone, “you don’t even know what it’s like for me. To live like this,”

“Like every second of every day is a performance for other people, and you get so used to pushing your true self aside that you don’t even remember who you are without the stage?” Bailey reached across the table, sliding the plate aside and gently taking Chris’s hands, “yeah, I totally don’t know what that’s like,”

That hit Chris like a bullet, and he immediately pulled his hands away as he fought the lump in his throat.

“P-please,” he scoffed, trying desperately to sound detached, “you only care about me because I come as a packaged set with your precious ‘Dusty’,”

“Christian, give it a rest,” Bailey urged, taking his hands again, “you know that’s not true, and we’re not talking about Dustin right now. I wanna talk about you. The same you that I’ve been obsessed with since the first time Dustin invited me over to play Mortal Kombat: Dead or Alive,”

Chris rolled his eyes, forcing back the tears that were building in them.

“Deadly Alliance Bails, jeez,”

“I know, just had to make sure you were hearing me,” Bailey winked at him, “now please, just talk to me alright?”

A tear fell, and Chris immediately rushed to wipe it away.

“I just… don’t really know what to do anymore. Ever since we were kids, it feels like me and Dustin have been fighting for the spotlight. Like there’s only enough oxygen for one of us, and when we were younger, he got to use it all up. He was the one that our parents were counting on to keep up our family image. But when they looked at me? They saw a problem, an explosive one too. Like if they didn’t handle me with kid gloves, I’d burn everything down,”

“And that’s why you’re mad at Dustin? Because he thinks you’re the favorite, but in reality you feel like a pet they keep on a leash so it doesn’t bite?”

“No, it’s not… like, I’m not even really mad at him. I’m not even mad at my parents for real,”

“So if it’s not Dustin, and it’s not your parents, then who are you mad at?” Bailey gently massaged Chris’s hands, her voice soft and even.

“I don’t know…”

“You do know. You just need to say it out loud,”

“Bails, I…”

“Come on babe, it’s alright, you’re safe here. It’ll stay just between us if that’s what you need,”

Chris closed his eyes and just let the tears fall. More and more came… and then his chest started heaving. Before he knew it, he was sobbing into Bailey’s chest as she held him close. Honestly though, he didn’t even realize she’d gotten up from her side of the table until she put her arms around him.