What Now?

Chapter 5: Gone

(Eve's POV chapter)

I'm in front of my metal door, getting lightly covered in snow & afraid on what to expect when I walk through this door. Disappointment? Anger? Worry? Nope, not from them, of course... I take a breath in & turn the cold, circular, metal knob. 

*thunk* Three, two, one... "WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?!" He says as he stomps his way to the front door. I can already smell it... "Again with your beer, Dad?" I say with a small trace of annoyance. "The fuCK?! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU SAY WITH THAT WHORE MOUTH OF YOURS?" He rages & steps forward with a stomp. I hear a small clatter of beer bottles from behind him & I see my mother.

Her face has a bruise with tears streaming down her face as she stood there, with beer bottles. Cleaning his mess like always... I started feeling really angry inside. The bubbling, boiling rage that was kept inside of me for too long, decided to just erupt. "Dad... actually, I don't think I can call you Dad anymore, because you're not treating us like a family. A family is supposed to be happy, not living in fear. A fucking child is supposed to live joyously & live through fun times, not be haunted by the thing that her own father did to her, years ago... God, I'm so sick of you & this bullshit you're doing to this family. You know what? I'm done." 

& with that, I turn around, open the door & run out once more into the freezing cold. I'm going to go back to Cafe of the Century. At least it's warm & open 24/7... I go down the familiar road, shoving both of my hands into my jacket's pockets. "Hello, again." I turn around & see his familiar pale blue eyes. I breath a small sigh of relief. "Hey, Mason..." I say. He notices I'm cold & he immediately takes off his leather jacket & covers me with it.

It smells of coffee still... "Have you been in Cafe of the Century this whole time?" I question him, knowing what his answers is going to be. "Yeah... I was just waiting there, then I wanted to leave because you weren't there..." He stops talking & asks, "Where were you going? Out at-" He checks his watch. "Out at 10:10 in the night?"  "Could ask you the same thing." I responded. "Waiting for my Uber that's stuck in some of the traffic... You need somewhere to stay?" I give him a questionable look.

"Uh, not that way, just like a sleepover kind of thing. Nothing else going on. We can just hang out or if you're tired, I can set up one of my bedrooms or if you're hungry, I could cook something up, since you only drank your latte..." He trails off & looks at me cautiously. I can tell he just wants to help.... & well... I need help for tonight anyways, so why not.

"Sure. Let's call it a sleepover then." I say as my warm breath swirls into the coldness. He looks like a kid who woke up on Christmas morning. All of a sudden, a car honks & I see him wave behind me. Turning around, I see his Uber. "Let's go." He says & he grabs my wrist & drags me over to the Uber. He let goes & opens the door to the warm car & says, "Ladies first."

I smile at him in response & step in. He shuts the door & sits in the front. As the door shuts, he tells his address to the driver. We sit in silence as 15 minutes pass by & we arrive. 

"You live in a fucking villa?!" I say as we get out of the car. He hands the driver his money through the window & responds. "Is that bad....?" I look at him in shock. "Hell no. I've always wanted to live in one or visit one because they're so pretty..." I look at his house in awe once more & he said, "It's getting colder, let's go." He leads the way to the front of the house.

"Wow..." I say as he pulls his keys from his right pocket to open the brown, metal door. "It's not that exciting, really... It's actually lonely..." He says in a somber tone & the lock turns. "What about your parents?" I question & he opens the door to reveal the spacious inside of his villa.

Inside, there are black & white furniture all over the place. Black sofas, white chairs, tables, with some colorful paintings to contrast against the white walls of his house. "It's prettier inside. What happened to your-"  "Now, are you tired? Hungry? What?" He interrupts. I'm guessing he doesn't want to talk about it, so I leave the question alone.

"I'm actually pretty thirsty, do you have any water?" I ask & sit down on one of the white chairs in the dining room table. "Here, you can sit here..." He says as he pulls out a bar stool out from underneath his counter top. "Oh. Okay." I sit & he pushes the seat in a bit. I see him go into the kitchen to get a cup & a pitcher of water. He sets the glass down in front of me & pours the water almost full. I nod towards him & take a couple of sips & notice that he's looking at me once again.

"You need anything else?" He says, still staring at me. I stop drinking my water & put the cup down with a clank. "A bedroom, if that's okay.. I kinda ran away from home & I don't want to go back there. Like, again, because I'm so done with everything. My parents, problems; everything." I lower my head, wondering if he'll let me stay.

"Follow me." He says as he gets up from the chair & walks past me. I get up & follow him, taking a right & then a left, to a massive bedroom. "Is this your bedroom?" I ask curiously. "No. It's now yours." He replies & starts to clean everything up for me. Withing a span of five minutes, he cleaned everything up & the place becomes more spacious. The lavender curtains compliments the white walls, along with lavender bed sheets with some lemon colored pillows with a nightstand that has both colors swirled, like Yin & Yang.

"It's beautiful... Thank you, Mason. For helping me." I say & look at the bedroom.

"You can stay as long as you want. I can buy you new clothes, some stuff you need; basically anything. I won't mind the company." He grins & walks out of the bedroom. I'm tired... after today, I don't think I can go back even if I wanted to... He'll just abuse me & use me again like he did... *chuckles* Yeah, I still remember, but I wonder how Tom is doing these days... I contemplate as I take off my shoes & my jacket & place them on the arm chair.

I take off my shirt, & left with my tank top & jeans with socks. I take my socks off & put it next to the same arm chair & walk towards the bed. I flop onto it & feel the softness of the sheets.

I crawl to the pillows & go underneath the blankets. Smells like my perfume... Lavender & Lemon... Ha... what a coincidence. I wonder & drift to sleep under the warm, soft blankets.