Dominions

Chapter 28: Elle

The cushy living room of the Mayweather estate was a spectacle. The wood flooring was perfectly polished, and the white shag carpet in the center of the room looked soft enough to sleep on without a pillow. There was a wooden table in the center of the room with different stains that gave it an eclectic design of light and dark colors. The white fabric couch sat in an L against the wall, and across the living room sat a wood-burning fireplace with a cobblestone brick outline.

On the wall sat a large big-screen television and right under it, on the mantle of the fireplace, sat a pair of antlers from the first kill of the season her dad got this last year. Elle hated the grotesque meaning behind the antlers. Why did her father need a reminder he shot and killed another living creature?

Elle looked at Selena and gave her a light smile when she looked back. Selena instantly turned her head away and Elle scrunched her eyebrows in confusion.

There was an awkward tension that hung in the air between Elle and Selena as they sat alone in Elle's living room. Elle couldn't tell if it was just quiet, or if there was something else that she couldn't pick up. She opened up her mouth to speak several times, but each time was met with silence.

Elle watched as Selena looked at her nails and inspected them. Selena was beautiful. Even with everything that happened today, there wasn't a single piece of her long brunette hair out of place. Her makeup was still perfect, not a smudge in sight. She picked an outfit today that highlighted the light golden brown color of her eyes.

Elle's parents would have been much happier with a daughter like Selena.

Unlike Selena, Elle's long blonde hair was in a messy bun. Her navy v-neck and jeans were far from the latest fashion. Her mother always tried to get her to wear a dress like Selena was wearing, but Elle didn't feel comfortable in dresses. She didn't like anything girly.

The silence became too much to bear, and Elle grew sick of comparing herself in her head.

"Girl to girl," Elle finally managed to get out of her mouth. "Is there something wrong that I should know about? I know we were close before but in this world we aren't, and I'm not expecting to be best friends forever, but we are bound together by something greater than both of us. We can't be at odds."

"There's nothing wrong," Selena said.

There was something in the way that she scrunched her face. The way she shook her head and instantly smiled seemed familiar. Like the face, her mother would make when she feigned innocence and wanted to just move on from the awkward conversation.

Elle closed her eyes and searched her memory for anything she could have done to upset Selena, but she had barely spoken to the girl since they met just a couple of weeks ago. Elle bit her lip and tried to access some of her old Glorianna memories. Surely Selena could not be holding a grudge over something that happened when they were kids, could she?

"Don't give me that," Elle said boldly. She had a long day, and while she'd normally have a little more tact when she approached this, her patience was already used upon the monster that wanted to kidnap her and take her to another monster. "I've seen you sit in silence exactly zero times, and here we are, in a quiet room. Something has to give, Selena. We have to be able to trust each other."

Selena twirled her hair and leaned back against the couch. Elle wondered if she played her hand right. Selena was an expressive girl, but altogether, she was hard to read. She had a lot of emotions, and you could never tell which was going to pop out.

"You don't remember, do you?"

"I don't?" Elle said confused. "I want to understand what's going on because we can't be in a place with tension right now."