ROGUE

24 : One More Thing To Worry About

Your POV

It took us the whole of the next day to drive back to Ben's house.
Alara had texted Ben about what had happened to us, so he was totally aware and so was Ellie.
Most of the journey was spent in a comfortable silence, hours of peace.
It was nice to have some tranquility after everything we've been through.
By the time Matt pulled up on Ben's magnificent driveway, it was nearly nine o'clock at night.

Ellie threw her arms around my neck tightly the second I walked through the door.
"I missed you." She squealed.

"I missed you too."
I winced at her tight embrace which was pressurising the wound on my shoulder. She didn't seem to realise, until I yelped.
That was when she quickly pulled back, confused.

"Are you okay?" She looked immediately concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I nodded uncomfortably, biting the inside of my cheek as the pain slowly eased away.

"I wish I went to Vegas with you," She pouted, continuing like nothing happened. "It sounded fun."

Fun?
"What?" I furrowed my eyebrows and found myself trying to hold back a glare.
How dare she?

"Vegas sounded fun," she repeated as if I hadn't heard her. When Jason hobbled through the door with the support of Josh and Matt, Ellie took one look at him and gasped. "Jesus Christ, what happened to you?"
Jason shot her a confused look but ignored her.

At the sound of our arrival, Ben wondered down the stairs.
His dark hair was wet and his grey sweatpants hung dangerously loose and low on his hips.
He wasn't wearing a shirt either, exposing his colourful tattoos.
"Ahh, I'm glad to see you all made it back here safely." He smiled, his blue eyes shining like sunlight reflecting on polished stone.

I wasn't done speaking to Ellie and I ignored him, spinning my body back around to face Ellie.
"What do you mean Vegas sounded fun," The anger in my voice rose by every word. "We nearly died."

Ellie shrunk back like a frightened mouse. "What are you talking about?"

Did she not know?

I glowered at Ben, drilling my eyes into his with frustration. "You didn't tell her?"

He shrugged casually. "I didn't want to worry her." He made his way to the bottom of the grand stairs and wrapped his arm around Ellie's shoulder.
I turned my nose up at him, deciding that I did not like him one bit.

"She deserved to know." I spat.

Alara and Jake finally walked through the door, shutting it behind them.
Ellie furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "What's going on?" She looked up at Ben, her big doe eyes pooling with confusion. "You said they stayed in Vegas because they found a nice hotel and liked all the casinos."

My jaw hung open. "You told her we practically went on vacation, whilst really, we were laying in hospital beds, praying we were all gonna make it out alive?" I scowled at him. "You disgust me."

Jason hobbled over to me, wincing at all the pressure that he was putting on his bones. "Calm down, baby. He didn't mean any harm."
He snaked his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him.

Ellie's eyes were wild with bewilderment. "Will someone please tell me what's going on?" She looked around. "And where's Alex?"