It was not a crush.
It was not a crush.
Not.
A.
Crush.

Holden woke up after another sleepless night because for some reason or another, he was having dreams about a particular Monroeville patient. Wildly inappropriate dreams on some nights, which were unnerving. Some that were straight up wholesome and sweet. Ones of introductions to his parents and curling up in front of a fire. Those got to him even more. Those were the ones that had him considering dropping his volunteer status at Monroeville, but he knew that he couldn't.

Holden started to get dressed for his shift and tried not to think about the emo kid who made him laugh so much. He tried not to think about which shirt Elijah would like the most, and he really tried to avoid whichever one would make him look a little stronger or more attractive. He was there to help others, not help himself to the first cute guy he had met in a while. Holden ran his hands through his hair, trying to make something of the mess. He took a deep breath and headed over to the hospital, his volunteer pin attached to his plaid shirt and his eyes frantically scanning the crowd for Elijah. He was still debating if he was scanning in hopes of seeing him, or hopes that he could avoid him, but he was sure that it was the former.

He grabbed a pack of cards from one of the nurse's stations and spied a familiar face at one of the tables.

"Hey, it's Sophie right?" He asked, showing her the deck of cards and motioning to the empty seat next to her, "Do you mind if I join you? Play a few hands of something?" He asked, hoping that she would say yes. It would be a good distraction from his all consuming thoughts that seemed to be pairing with his dreams to drive him completely insane. There had been talk of sending him to Monroeville when he hurt his ex, but he was able to convince them to settle for community service. He was sure that other people in his position would have ended up in Monroeville, but he had parents that fought for him to stay out and he was grateful for it, but he was sure that his ex felt like he deserved more than that. A fact he wasn't going to fight him on.

"I'm Holden by the way."