Live While We're Young (An Elounor Love Story) **UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Chapter 20

 Eleanor’s POV

I had told them. I had told the boys everything. It was well past midnight now, and I knew I really needed to get some rest. But how could I? The boys looked like I had just ran over their cats or something, and Louis looked like he didn’t want anything to do with me anymore. I knew it would be a bad idea to tell them everything. I sighed as I turned over on the bed to glance at the clock on the nightstand by my bed. It read 3:45 AM. I stood up and tiptoed to the door. Liam and Zayn were still up, talking about something. I needed some fresh air, but I knew they would stop me if I tried to go outside again. So I walked soundlessly back into my bedroom and crept out the window. Luckily, the house was pretty well taken care of. There wasn’t a single squeak or noise that could be heard from my exiting.

Once I had made it a pretty safe distance from the house, I allowed myself to breathe. I was right; the fresh air did calm me. I didn’t want to stray into the woods again, just in case Steve was lurking in the eerie shadows. So I walked to the gated garden that I had seen earlier with Harry. There was a bench at the far end, and that’s where I was headed. I opened the gate door and let myself in. The garden looked really familiar, but I didn’t really know why. I made my way over to the bench, and sat. For the first time in a long time, I allowed myself to go back to my past. To remember what had happened to me.

My parents were very hard workers. They were lovely people, and they loved everyone so much. But that was their problem. They trusted everyone with everything. My mom and dad worked in the same company, so they ended up traveling a lot together to go to some sort of business meeting. Since I had school, I usually ended up getting some sort of babysitter. At first it was a Nanny from a company, Lila. She was very sweet to me, but she ended up moving away. Coincidentally, my uncle Steve moved in the next week.

So of course my parents had to let him take care of me. He lived two houses down, and, to them, was a very sweet man. But he had a dark side, like everyone does, that rarely exposed itself. At least, not to them. The first time he stayed with me, he didn’t lay a hand on me, besides the goodnight hugs. He was kind and gentle, making me think that it would be okay for him to be around. But after my parents got back, I never saw him. Until they had to leave for a month, and leave me in the care of uncle Steve. Nothing happened the first week, but the second week, when I came home from school in the fifth grade, he was there. He was waiting and he was furious.

“Eleanor. Get inside now,” Uncle Steve said angrily, frightening me. He had never been this loud before. At least, not to me. I bent my head down low and walked in, Steve following behind me. “Come here,” He ordered. I turned to him. He grabbed my wrist roughly and tugged me to the kitchen. There sat my morning dishes. He pointed at them, still firmly holding my wrist. It was starting to hurt.

“Do you see this, Eleanor? Do you see that you have left your morning dishes in the sink, probably bringing bugs and other germs into this house?” Steve sounded scary. I could smell the musky scent of alcohol coming from his mouth, and I immediately knew that I needed to be obedient.

“I’m very sorry Uncle Steve! I’ll do them write away,” I murmur, trying to pull away from him to get to the sink. He tugged my arm back, causing me to wince in pain.

“Oh no, little girl,” He said. His eyes were crazed, and his grip was tighter than ever. Tears sprung in my eyes from how he turned my wrist, almost to the point of snapping it. “I can’t just let you get away with that. You are going to get a punishment. And you are not to tell anyone about it, do you hear me?” I nodded, not being able to speak. I was far too scared.