“I want to do that!” he called out, finally causing Tyler to stop and turn around.
Elias felt drawn to the group like a moth to a flame. They seemed relaxed, carefree…fun. So different from the young people in his family’s social circle.
As he walked over to them he could hear protests from Tyler in the form of “No, wait!” You can’t just—” “But they’re…” but Elias did not let these utterances deter him.
“Hello there!” Elias called out. His heart was thumping in his chest, and he could feel beads of sweat forming along his brow. In spite of his fear, there was an invigorating sense of freedom in knowing that if he faced the same sort of social rejections here that he did back home, there was a lovely little trinket in his pocket that could take him far, far away in an instant. “Would you mind if I joined you in this bit of sport?”
“‘Bit of sport’?” a brawny boy with brown hair that had been slicked back asked, waving the red disc about. “Do you not know what a Frisbee is?”
Technically, he did not, but the whole point of his deal with Tyler was that he would be adapting and trying to fit in, so he figured it was best not to say as much.
A girl with long hair and shockingly bare legs intervened. “Shut up, Charlie! Clearly he’s not from around here.” She started to twirl a strand of that long hair around one of her fingers. “Where’s that accent from?”
“London.”
As soon as Elias said it, faces brightened, some of the others moved in closer, and he could have sworn he even heard a few “ohhs” and “aahhs.” It was like his being from Britain had them all suddenly enamored with him. Had he known that this would be the way Americans reacted to the English he would have planned on running off to America years ago.
They all introduced themselves, and once it came time for Elias’s introduction, Tyler stepped in and introduced him as some distant relative (a third cousin twice removed or something of the sort) who was on holiday visiting the States. Elias could not help but raise a speculative eyebrow in Tyler’s direction. Just last night he had introduced him to his friends as an exchange student that Tyler had taken under his wing. There were now two stories out in the world, two explanations for why he was there, which was more than a little risky.
He knew exactly what Tyler was doing. Now that he had agreed on giving Elias a trial period, Tyler had already determined that Elias would be returning home or going somewhere else once those fourteen days were expired. Elias forced down his frustration and tried to focus on the positive: the new friendships that were blossoming before his very eyes.
After some more conversation (which mostly consisted of the others requesting that he say specific words and then fawning over his inflection) the game that they were playing resumed. When the Frisbee was tossed in Elias’s direction, he failed miserably in his attempt to catch it. He went to pick it up, but when he thrust the object forward it fell right in front of him. The others laughed, but it wasn’t in the way his parents’ friends used to laugh at him. There was something different in this laughter, something that made him feel like he was also in on the joke…like he wasn’t alone.
A girl with bouncing golden curls and tight blue trousers that someone had referred to as “skinny jeans,” which honestly looked more like underclothes rather than garments to be worn out in broad daylight, eagerly stepped in to show Elias the proper technique. It took a few tries, but eventually Elias was able to make the disc float through the air. He resisted the urge to cry out “I did it!” because he worried it would make him sound like some wide-eyed child, but the glee he felt was comparable.
Occasionally, he would look over to Tyler, but his bespectacled eyes were fixed on the camera. Eventually one of the students addressed him by calling out, “Why are you filming us, perv?” Elias didn’t know what a “perv” was, but he could tell by the shade of pink that Tyler’s cheeks turned, it was not anything good. Elias understood. How many times in social situations had he felt like the odd one out? The difference was that Tyler at least had Oscar and Zoe, though they weren’t here with him now.
After a bit, the activity was winding down, and some of the others were retreating to their dormitories. The girl with the long hair and the tiny skirt, who Elias now knew was named Vanessa, walked over to him and Tyler. “We’re going to have a Gathering tonight…you should come, Ty, and bring your British cousin along.”
“Uh, thanks Vanessa. Maybe. We’ve got a lot planned while he’s in town, but we’ll see.”
Charlie clapped a hand on Tyler’s shoulder, and Tyler’s cheeks turned pink once more, but something told Elias that this time it was for a different reason. “Yeah, come on, Ty. We never see you out at the Gatherings. It’ll be fun.”
“Yeah, maybe we’ll see you there.” Tyler’s eyes went straight toward the ground before gesturing over to Elias. “Come on, Eli, we should really get going.”
Elias nodded to his new companions and flashed a grin before hurrying off after Tyler.
“What are these gatherings they were talking about?”
“It’s a party that all the popular kids have out in the woods after lights out,” Tyler explained. “People drink and dance and make out.”
“Make out?”
“Kissing. People don’t kiss in 1886?” Tyler flashed him a skeptical look over his shoulder.
“Not when they are not married,” Elias responded.
“Ah, well, see, then it would be a bad idea anyway,” Tyler said, a little too quickly. “Too much too fast, ya know. It could be culture shock.”
“Or, it could be exactly what I need. Socialization. A chance to learn more about your culture and customs firsthand. Plus I do so love a good party. I’m no stranger to drinks, in particular red wine.” The image of a dark stain marring a painting flashed into his mind, and Elias shuddered. But he quickly composed himself, wanting to seem confident in his assertion that they should be going to this party.
“Trust me, it’s a bad idea.”
“You’ve said that to just about everything I have proposed since my arrival. Please, Ty?”
Tyler rolled his eyes and immediately Elias regretted using the nickname. “None of those guys actually call me that. They were just warming up to me so that my cool British cousin would come.”
Elias couldn’t hide his smile. “It’s the first time anyone’s actually wanted me to be in attendance somewhere.”
Tyler stopped walking for a moment. Elias hadn’t intended on gaining sympathy or eliciting guilt with the statement. It had simply been a statement of fact. But he could tell it had touched something in Tyler.
“Maybe,” was all he said as they continued back to his dormitory.
Chapter Ten
A Social Experiment
Each step they took on the cobbled walkway of the campus sounded like a cannon blast. This wasn’t the latest time of night Tyler had wandered around BGA’s grounds, and he was sure those nights had been just as quiet, but the fact they were heading off to one of the famous “Gatherings” heightened his senses and made it feel like the school had transformed into some sort of ghost town.
A handful of more pleading looks with those big blue eyes and some actual begging had been enough for Eli to finally convince Tyler to go to the Gathering. In the back of his mind, another big determining factor was that the footage of a time traveler from the Victorian era interacting at his first modern party was too good to pass up. In the documentary, which he was already piecing together and editing in his head, whatever was about to happen tonight would likely be pure gold.
But his desire to make this life-changing (hell, world-changing) documentary was being tested by the possibility of being caught by a member of the faculty. Though this film he was making about Eli would undoubtedly be his ticket to the future and the career he wanted, getting in trouble and ruining his shot at graduation was still an epically bad idea. Getting caught drinking on campus would lead to suspension. Who knew? Maybe it could even get him e
xpelled. Not to mention that, once busted, adults would start asking questions about Eli, like who he was, what he was doing here, why he didn’t have a passport or a visa or really any form of ID…
It also didn’t help that he was now also freaking out at the prospect of being found out by his friends. Deep down he knew Zoe couldn’t care less about these types of parties, but no doubt Oscar would be bummed about not receiving an invite. Tyler wasn’t exactly in a position to invite anyone, though. Though Charlie and Vanessa had gone through the motions of inviting him, he was really just a plus-one in this scenario. If he hadn’t been standing right there when they had asked Eli to attend, Eli would likely have been wandering the dark campus on his own.
Still, he couldn’t shake the guilt weighing down each of his steps. Maybe he should have at least told Zoe and Oscar where he was going. Then again, how would they even find out?
“What are you thinking about?” Eli whispered.
Hmm, let’s see…guilt, betrayal, suspension…expulsion, no film school, no future.
You.
“Why’s the sky blue? What’s the meaning of life? You know, boring things.”
This drew a laugh from the Brit, and the lightness of it eased some of the tension that had Tyler’s muscles coiled so tightly.
“It was nice of those friends of yours to invite us to this gathering.”
Tyler shook his head as they neared the edge of the woods. “Trust me, those people aren’t my friends.”
Even under the veil of darkness shading the space between them, Tyler could sense that Eli had raised an eyebrow in his direction. “Is that so? You could have fooled me.”
“Huh?”
“You may have been standing off in the distance, watching through your camera, but I could see the way you were looking at that Charlie fellow…and Vanessa, for that matter.”
“It’s complicated. There’s a big difference between having a crush on someone and them being your friend.” As they stepped into the wooded brush, it was almost like crossing a threshold into a different world. It was a cooler, forbidden world, one that had not been meant for Tyler Forrester.
Elias shook his head, clicking his tongue. “See there you go again, speaking as if in another language. If there is to be any hope of me fitting in here you are going to need to start translating some of this terminology.”
Tyler laughed. He’d noticed he’d been laughing quite a bit since Eli’s arrival. For all of the misunderstandings and cultural differences, conversation flowed surprisingly easily between them.
Tyler couldn’t think of the last person he’d felt this comfortable talking with. Sure he had Oscar and Zoe, but this…this was different. Even around his friends, Tyler had an image of himself that he’d already established: the sensitive filmmaker, the intellect, quiet, somewhat shy, thoughtful. He could relax around his friends, unwind, but there was still part of him that was always making sure he lived up to that image. Eli, on the other hand, knew nothing about who Tyler had been up until now and who he was supposed to be. He told himself that this ease he felt around Eli was because he was new and because he was temporary…but he also had a feeling it was something much more than that.
“A crush is when you like someone. And not just normal like—I’m talking feelings, romantic ones.”
“Ahh, so you have ‘crush’ on Vanessa, then?” Eli asked. If Tyler didn’t know any better, he could have sworn he heard a little bit of disappointment in his voice. He was probably just making it up, but even the idea that it was the case set off a strange tingling sensation in Tyler’s skin that he hadn’t been expecting.
He bit down on his lip and nodded. “And Charlie.”
“Both?” Eli’s eyes were wide, and his mouth was hanging open. This was just the kind of reaction he had been expecting. Oscar’s reaction had been pretty similar when he’d first come out to him, but he got over it a lot quicker than a boy from 1886 likely would.
“If I’m introducing you to new terminology I might as well teach you this one: bisexual. It’s when someone is attracted to more than one gender. It’s also what I am.”
“And this is”—Eli leaned in close and whispered the next word in his question—“allowed?”
Tyler smiled. “It’s definitely more accepted now than it was back in your time. And there are still some people and groups who are ignorant and against it. But overall, more and more people are free to love who they love and to be who they are.”
“That’s lovely,” Eli said dreamily. “And I also think it is lovely that you would trust me with such a secret.”
“Secret?” Tyler felt like he was just about to inform a kid that Santa wasn’t real. “It’s not a secret. I’m out—that means I’ve told other people.”
“Oh.”
“Besides, even if it were a secret, I wouldn’t be all that worried about you sharing information about my sexual orientation and who I do or do not have crushes on with some English aristocrats once you go back to London.”
The way Eli’s face fell, Tyler immediately regretted saying it, but Eli was quick to bounce back. “You’re so certain that I’ll be returning to nineteenth-century London and yet upon my first few days my charming British accent has already won me some new friends and an invitation to an elite social gathering. A whole fortnight will have me as one of the most popular young fellows in New Jersey.”
Tyler forced out a laugh this time. It’s not like he was wrong about his instant popularity. That said, Tyler couldn’t lose sight of the fact that, for the laws of nature to remain intact and for the sake of this documentary, Eli would have to leave at some point.
“Anyway, with Charlie and Vanessa, it’s attraction…fantasy. Zoe and Oscar are my only real friends. They just…get me.”
“Get you?”
“They understand me. Accept me for who I am. Charlie, Vanessa, all their friends…they just think I’m strange.” As he said that, his glasses slid down his nose, only emphasizing his awkwardness.
“Or,” Eli interceded, “perhaps you just think the others don’t accept you for who you are when all the while, you haven’t actually shown them who you are. It’s not easy to make friends when you close yourself off.”
“Or,” Tyler replied, mimicking both Eli’s tone and his accent, “I’m smart enough to anticipate what’s coming and also smart enough to protect myself.”
“I’m certainly not judging,” Eli continued. “I’m essentially the king of hiding my true self from others. I don’t have a lot of friends, either. The other people my age always seem so much more dignified—or at least, they acted that way. I got the sense it made most of them feel like they were better than me. Not saying they were wrong…”
There it was again, just like in the library when they’d had that silent moment of understanding after talking about how little their parents (or in Tyler’s case, sort-of parent) wanted to do with them. He would have never in a million years figured that he would have so much in common with someone from nineteenth-century England. Then again, he never would have imagined he’d ever even meet someone from nineteenth-century England.
“You’re not what I was expecting, Elias Caldwell.”
Even though he couldn’t see his face that well, Tyler could almost feel Eli’s smile as it radiated. “And what were you expecting?”
Tyler didn’t have an answer for that. How could he?
Fuck. That whole conversation would have been perfect for the film. It had basically been an interview, albeit, a few more details about his sexual identity than he would want to include. He would have to remember to ask Eli some similar questions about friendship and acceptance on camera sometime.
The deeper they went into the woods, the clearer the sounds of talking, laughter, and muffled music playing from Bluetooth speakers became. Pretty soon the orange glow of the bonfire came into view, illuminating the nearby trees and faces surrounding it. It might soften the blow for Oscar if he were to see just how underwhelming the in
famous gatherings actually were.
Only a handful or two of other students were there. Unless more were coming later or some had already dispersed, it was a much smaller crowd than Tyler had been expecting. A few of them had beer bottles or cans, but mostly, people were clutching red Solo cups, just like a party scene from a movie or TV show.
But this wasn’t a TV show. And it wasn’t a dream, either, no matter how much it was starting to feel like one.
As they neared, Tyler and Eli’s feet crunching down on the leaves and twigs caught the attention of a few people, and they flashed them wide smiles and raised their cups in greeting. “English!” they cheered.
English? The guy had been here less than a couple days and they’d already given him a nickname? Granted, it wasn’t an entirely creative one, but it was still a nickname. Immediately, he thought back to how Charlie and Vanessa had called him “Ty” in an attempt to persuade him to come. He felt particularly naïve because it was one of the many factors that had ultimately made him say yes to Eli. It was amazing the illusion of familiarity a simple shortening of someone’s name could create.
“Hello, all,” Eli said with a charm that came naturally to him and a smile like a secret—like it was meant for only you.
“Someone get English a drink!”
There was a part of him that felt bad about it, but Tyler was excited to watch Eli’s reaction to his first swig of whatever cheap, watery beer they had been able to pay someone to buy for them. Rachel, a girl from Tyler’s Calc class, handed Eli one of the red cups, and he nodded graciously before bringing it to his lips.
Tyler pulled out his camera and hit record. The poor, naïve bastard.
As if on cue, Eli made a choking noise and the beer likely traveled back upward, but he had the sense to clamp his lips shut so he didn’t spray everyone nearby. A few kids laughed and when Eli finally leaned back to swallow, he coughed. One of the guys, Scott Farland, patted him on the back.
“Now, guys, go easy on him,” Scott said. “Our English gentleman here probably doesn’t drink much. Too prim and proper for that sort of thing.”
The Time Traveler's Guide to Modern Romance Page 7