This is Elijah Llinas. One of the sweetest people I have ever met. The summer before my freshman year of high school, I went on a date with his best friend Alex. The entire time, no joke, I had wished I was on the date with him. He always seemed so unreachable to me; He was a year older and had such a strong, definitive personality I knew I would never have a shot so I let it fade off for a year in which I would date a boy named Mike Kelly for.
In the fall semester of my sophomore year, we had the same lunch shift and decided to sit together. I will never forget those lunch shifts and the people that sat with us. We began talking outside of school. I had broken up with Mike and at homecoming we danced and he told me how much he liked me. Yet I denied him for my middle school sweetheart of two years, Ben, and things got awkward for awhile.
Inevitably, the thing with Ben went downhill and it was a war between Mike and Elijah. Elijah and I got together around December.
The first two months of our relationship were great, admittedly. We spent our nights playing n64, watching Arrested Development and eating pizza. It was just… wonderful.
The thing is, Elijah battled depression almost his entire life. In his childhood, he literally didn’t have friends. In fact, he didn’t have friends until high school. His depression started acting up around February and he really cut himself off from the world. I cut myself off as well in an attempt to make a boy who had been nothing but sweet to me better. Sadly, at the time I hadn’t quite learned that a 16 year old girl can’t exactly do that on her own. Around March, when I began battling the worst of my own depression an anxiety attacks, I had to leave him.
Two months after, his parents sent him to Arivaca Boys Ranch to finally fully get his depression treated. He’s still there and is coming home between January and March.
The point is, this boy meant a whole lot to me and I miss him every day. I’m very nervous and excited for when he does come home. And I hope he’s touching lives in Arizona like he touched mine.