Inferno

~144~ Pick your Punishment

Ellie's POV

I sleep awful all night. My son got arrested. Even though Liam was an idiot sometimes, he never got himself arrested. This could have been so, so bad. If it wasn't for Alex, Luke and Trace could be sleeping in jail tonight. I cry myself to sleep just thinking about how dark this situation could have been.

When I wake up, my alarm clock says it's 4:30 am. I'm so awake, that I'll never fall back to sleep. I decide to just get up and sit on the porch-swing outside with some hot cocoa.

I get downstairs, in my robe, and I see Taylor sitting at the island drinking coffee.

He sees me immediately and tenses up. He doesn't look like he's slept at all.

I ignore him as I put a new pod in my Keurig maker and fill it up with water. I don't look at him at all as I start the machine. I can feel his stare burning my back. I finally get the courage to turn around and look at him. When I do, his face is a mixture of several things. Anger, disappointment, stress, sadness.

"How did you sleep?" He asks, staring at me hard.

"Awful"

He nods. "Me too" he says as he takes a sip of his coffee.

"We still in a fight?" He asks, staring into his coffee mug.

I grab my hot chocolate once the machine shuts off and start to head outside.

"Yeah" I say over my shoulder as I go out to the back porch.

The air is crisp. I should have brought a blanket. I tighten the robe around me and listen to the noises that you only hear in the morning. When the rest of
the world is sleeping, you hear the noises of all the animals and insects that don't normally make an appearance during the day.

The calmness of the morning helps me get a clearer head.

Suddenly the sliding glass door opens and Taylor steps out. In one hand he's holding his coffee, and in the other hand he's got my favorite blanket. He silently wraps the blanket around me and sits next to me.

We both say nothing. We sit in silence for an hour. Finally the sun starts to rise and we watch that too.

"Ellie" he finally says, startling me out of my thoughts.

"No" I say simply.

He sighs but says nothing else.

About twenty minutes later we hear the sliding glass door open. By now it's about 7. None of our kids are ever awake this early on the weekend.

It's Luke.

He doesn't look like he slept at all either. He says nothing as he sits on the patio furniture across from us. He looks at both of us hard, already fighting tears.

"I can't tell you how sorry I am. I promise you that this will never happen again" he says, biting his lip and looking at the ground to keep from crying.

"It just started out as us being stupid. I thought it would be funny to walk around the mall with makeup on. We took it too far. Please forgive me" he says, looking at us again.

We say nothing. Luke isn't one to apologize. I'm impressed with him right now.

"I will do anything. Any punishment you give me, I will accept without complaining. But dad, I'm begging you. I will literally get on my knees and beg if I have to. Don't take Trace away from me. Please" he says, tears silently falling down his face.

I can feel Taylor's posture relax a little bit.

"I know I messed up. Please don't take my best friend away" he sobs.