sol!

*(the moment I pin point is sometime around the rockslide when Luke has to deal with Elliot nearly dying for the first time and when Elliot makes it clear he prefers Luke’s company over Adam’s that summer, so when they are 14) (there is also that moment at the lake when Luke is doing the EXACT same thing to try and connect with Elliot as the other boys are to flirt with Serene— offer to teach him to swim… and if u tell me there’s not subtext there I’ll fight u)

In social situations throughout the rest of the book, Elliot is constantly just slightly wrong and learns it later, leading to hilarious and sad miscommunications. Like you as the reader are meant to know that Myra had a crush on Luke long before Elliot does, that Serene isn’t as serious about her relationship with Elliot as he thinks. You’re meant to understand that when Luke invites Elliot to parents day and to his house for the summer that, though he acts like it doesn’t matter to him and Elliot interprets it as Luke only tolerating his company, Elliot’s presence actually means a great deal to him. And Elliot usually does make an effort to interpret why he and Luke are miscommunicating and gets it mostly right… except for the glaring potential subtext that’s added if Luke has a crush on him.

Like the fact that Elliot eventually figures out “ohhhh luke got mad at me for how I treated Adam because he is also gay and maybe thought I was being homophobic” but neglects to see the ‘smug blond idiot’ of it all and how that comment could be personally hurtful to Luke… especially if Luke already had a tiny crush on Elliot and had read something into Elliot spurning Adam’s obvious flirting all summer in favor of hanging out with him instead.*

Not to mention that one SRB post where she included in the reasons why Adam thought Luke punched him is that Luke has a crush on Elliot

And there are a million moments like that. Like Elliot thinks it’s odd Luke just “decided” to like Dale, but never asks himself why Luke would make up a crush on the spot like that when Elliot asked him about it.

I think it’s interesting that as a reader, you’re essentially trained by the midway point of this book to understand that Elliot misunderstands people, and particularly misunderstands Luke, but we as fans are all still in such disagreement about what exactly Elliot is misunderstanding. Because almost all of it could be interpreted as “Kid with an intense unrequited crush” behavior….... but even I think a good amount of it is he just cares about Elliot in general, and wants intensely for Elliot to care about him back in whatever way.