Teenage Dream

July 8

I woke up to Bethany yelling at me.

"IF YOU DON'T GET OUT OF BED RIGHT NOW THEN I'M EATING ALL THE PANCAKES!!" She yelled.

My head pounded and the events from the night before were replaying in my mind. I started to tremble at the thought of Connor and what he had tried to do to me.

"Get out of my room!" I screamed.

"What's your problem?" She asked rolling her eyes. "Drama queen."

"What's my problem?!" I yelled. "You were right! You were all right!" Tears started streaming down my face. "Connor never really liked me. It was all an act!" I sobbed. I buried my face in my pillow.

"Mom!" Bethany yelled. "Your daughters is having a meltdown!" Her voice grew fainter as she went to find mom.

A few minutes later I heard footsteps approaching the room. I looked up. There stood mom in the doorway. I jumped up and ran to her, wrapping my arms around her waist.

"Mom!" I cried. "I went to a party last night and got drunk and Connor tried to hurt me and.." My voice trailed off as I started sobbing again. Mom pulled me over to my bed and sat me down.

"Let's try this again." Mom said soothingly. I calmed down a bit. "Now can you try to tell me what happened without breaking down?" She asked.

I nodded. Soon I had poured out the whole story. I knew I would get punished for drinking and partying, but I was so guilty I felt I deserved it. By the time I had finished, mom was livid.

"How dare he!" Mom exploded. "No one gets away with hurting my babies." She wrapped me in a hug. "I'm so sorry baby." She said.

I hugged her tightly.

"Now." She said. "Let's try to cure that hangover, okay?"

I looked at her in surprise. "You mean I'm not in trouble?"

"Oh no." She said sternly. "By the time your father and I are through with you, you probably won't be leaving the house until your forty."

"Oh." I said, my face falling.

"But for right now I'm going to take care of my daughter because she's been hurt." She said hugging me once more.

We went downstairs to the kitchen and she gave me Tylenol and coffee to help my head. It currently felt like a herd of rhinos were dancing on my head. She also looked at my wrist that was sporting several black bruises from were Connor had held it so tightly. Aunt Liz, who was sitting in the kitchen when we arrived, heard the whole story and began threatening to kill Connor. She was so mad that I almost felt bad for him.

I was eating pancakes when the back door opened and Toby rushed into the kitchen. He sighed in relief when he spotted me and I jumped up to hug him. He held me tightly in his arms as if he was afraid to let me go.

"Are you okay?" He asked in concern when he finally pulled away.

"Yeah." I nodded linking my fingers with his as I pulled him over to the table to sit beside me while I finished my breakfast.

"Toby, thank you so much for saving my baby from Connor last night." Mom said smiling gratefully at him.

"Your welcome, Maria." He smiled in return. He turned to me. "Are you sure your okay, Eliana?" He asked.

I nodded. "Just hungover."

He chuckled lightly. "Are we okay?" He asked hopefully.

"I don't know." I replied honestly. I looked around at my family who was obviously listening in. "Um... Let's go somewhere else to talk." I said standing up. I headed up stairs and Toby followed me. Instead of going to my room, I took him all the way up to the attic.

"Where are we going?" He asked in confusion.I smiled slightly.

"To my hideout." I said simply. I opened the door at the top and heard him gasp in surprise.

"Dang. When you said hideout this is not what I was thinking." He said looking around in awe. "Did you do these?" He asked gesturing to the pictures on the back wall.

"Yeah." I blushed. No body besides my family and Erin had seen my drawings.

Toby focused in on one. "Is this one me?" He asked pointing at a sketch of his face.

I blushed thinking about the amount of time I had spent staring at that picture last week. "Maybe." I said sitting on the couch. "But that's not important right now. Come over here so we can work things out." I patted the place beside me for him to sit.

"Okay." He said coming over and sitting down.

"So, why didn't you answer me last week?" I asked pulling my knees up and wrapping my arms around them

"I can explain." Toby said quickly. "When I got home from your party, my aunt told me to pack quickly because my grandma was in the hospital. We drove to Panama City that night, boarded a flight to Atlanta, flew from there to New York, then from New York to Israel. It wasn't until we landed in New York that I realized I had forgotten my phone." He explained.

"Oh." I sighed in relief. "I was so worried that some thing had happened to you at first then I was scared that you were ignoring me because you'd changed your mind about liking me." I said shyly.

"Of course not! I don't think my feelings for you are going any where." He said sincerely. He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me close to him. I rested my head on his shoulder. "Are we good now?" He asked quietly. I nodded.

                        ~~~~~

Toby's P.O.V.

"Oh." She sighed in relief after I had explained everything. "I was so worried that some thing had happened to you at first then I was scared that you were ignoring me because you'd changed your mind about liking me." She said shyly.

"Of course not!" I exclaimed immediately. "I don't think my feelings for you are going any where." I said sincerely, I might even be in love. I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close to me. She rested her head on my shoulder. "Are we good now?" I asked quietly. She nodded. Good, I thought, I don't think I could stand her being angry at me any longer.