The next morning, I woke up in bed. It took my eyes a while to adjust and take in my surroundings as I remembered I was now in England, in my new bedroom. What had happened last night? All I remembered was Vicky calling a lot of people to come over for our party, the hot guy named Daniel who nearly raped me, and Elijah saving me and staying with me until I fell asleep. I had no idea where he went after that. I looked over at the clock and realized I had slept in quite a bit. Must have been the jetlag. It was now 2 in the aftenoon. Guessing I still had a few hours to go check out some stores and the town I got up and took a steaming hot shower. When I got out I wrapped myself in a towel and went over to my closet. There were so many things but I decided to go with black skinny jeans, a white t-shirt, and my dark blue toms. I love Toms. It wasn't raining outside so they wouldn't get wet, which was great because I didn't want to break them. My hair didn't need much work so I just brushed it once it was dry and only applied some cover up and lip balm. I grabbed a thin, white North Face sweater and my keys and wallet, not stopping in the kitchen to eat anything but deciding I would eat at Betty's. I walked to what I guessed was the garage and what do you know? There was a car just standing there. It looked brand new, like it's never been driven before. It was a white Audi R8, my dream car. I found a note taped to the drivers side door.
From Steve: Early birthday present. You're welcome.
I remembered that I hadn't called them yet. I'd have to call them tomorrow. I got in the car and pulled out of the garage, going down the long driveway. I drove past Elijah's house, not seeing any cars in his drive way. Remembering our route from yesterday I made my way to Betty's. When I got there she welcomed me with a hug. I chose a spot in the back, where I could see the entire shop. After a quick chat with Betty and ordering my breakfast I checked my phone for new messages. There weren't any, but there was a voice mail from my family saying how much they missed me and to call them soon. The coffee shop's bell rang, meaning a new customer had walked in. Just as I turn around to see who it was, I come face to face with Daniel.
"You don't mind if I sit here do you?" he takes the seat on the other side of the table without waiting for my answer.
Betty came with my breakfast and turned towards Daniel, giving him a stern look.
"Hello Betty, the usual please." he smiled up at her.
I was still a bit shocked about him just sitting here all innocently as if he never tried getting in my pants last night. Betty looked over at me, sympathy filling her eyes.
"Don't you try hurting this young lady, Daniel. She's new in town and I'm sure you're not making her feel very welcome." she walked away.
I turned toward Daniel, glaring. Of course I was really scared, but I couldn't show him that. Not here, not ever.
"How about we have some fun today? Just you, me, and the city of London." he stared straight in my eyes.
I tried looking away but it was impossible. I couldn't even think straight.
"Sure, whatever you want. " I said, winking at him. I had suddenly started flirting. What was going on with me? I couldn't stop it.
Daniel smiled, knowing I would have never said no to him. Before he had a chance to say anything else, Betty came and brought his food. We ate in silence. Every few seconds, Daniel would look up and smile at me. I'd smile back.
"Alright, let's go." he took my hand, pulling me along. I didn't even bother trying to escape. For some reason I wanted to go with him.
We got to the counter so Daniel could pay. He let go off my hand as another customer walked in.
"What do you think you're doing?" I heard a familiar voice behind me. We both turned to find Elijah glaring at Daniel.
"Taking this beautiful girl out. What's it to you?"
"She's not going anywhere with you." he started raising his voice.
"Oh and why is that?" Daniel smirked.
"I told you not to go anywhere near her." Elijah grabbed my hand, pulling me behind him protectively.
I could only stare, not saying a word. I watched them argue a bit. I had gotten lost in thought when suddenly Elijah turned towards me.
"Do you want to come with me? I want to show you something." I nodded, casting one last glance at Daniel. I knew that this wouldn't be the last I'd see of him.
"I'm sorry I didn't get here earlier, I had to take care of a few things at home." Elijah appologised.
"Thank you, for saving me again." he squeezed my hand gently.
"I will always save you. I won't ever let anybody hurt you." he hugged me tightly. It felt comforting. I knew at that moment that I could trust him.
We were walking to his car when it started raining. I realized I had my toms on. Crap, they'd get soaked. Suddenly I felt two strong hands lifting me up, bridal style.
"I figured you wouldn't want your shoes to get wet. That and I don't think my car would enjoy having a pool of water in it." I giggled, blushing.
"Thanks, but what about my car?"
"We will get that later. Right now we're going some place special."
"And where would that be?" I questioned.
"You'll see." he grinned.
We got in his car and drove for about an hour. It wasn't awkward at all, considering we talked about everything and nothing. It just felt natural. Even if we were quiet for a bit nothing felt off. After another half an hour we got to a small town. It looked beautiful. There was a big green forest surrounding it, and the rain sprinkled slowly through the trees. We stopped in front off a small cabin with a path going behind it into the forest. Elijah walked over to open my door and reached out his hand.
"What is this place?"
"It's where I come when I need to be alone. My father and I built it together when I was a little boy and ever since then we came here every weekend. We played games in the forest and went fishing quite a bit." he smiled and looked down at the ground sadly. He quickly snapped out of it and held out his arm.
"Shall we?"
I hooked my arm with his and walked with him. We went down the path, just talking. It started getting dark when he decided we should go back. The rain had started up again, this time it came in a storm. It started thundering and I jumped. I was really afraid of thunder. The noise just made my heart beat super fast and my skin felt really cold. I had never liked thunder storms, always hiding under my blanket when they came at night and listening to music to block out at least a little bit of the noise. Elijah took in my scared facial expression and told me to close my eyes. I did so because I trusted him. I felt myself being picked up carefully and then I felt cold wind for about two seconds. I opened my eyes and found myself in the cabin. How had we gotten here so fast? I looked up at Elijah in shock. He put me down on the couch.
"I'll go make some hot chocolate. You can use that blanket." he nodded towards a dark red blanket that was at the edge of the couch. I was cold so I gladly took it and wrapped myself up in it. I guess he must have been here earlier because the fire was still going. I still didn't understand what had just happened. Standing up I decided to snoop around a bit. The cabin looked really nice and it was well decorated. There were pictures above the fire place. I took a closer look and realized they were black and white. All the pictures showed an older man and a little boy, all taken at different times. Some of them were of them fishing, others were of them walking through the forest. The little boy had the biggest smile on his face in every picture. I had seen that smile before. Then I realized the little boy must be Elijah, the older man his father. As I looked at each picture I saw the older man slowly aging and little Elijah growing up. There wasn't one picture that could have been taken of his mom and him. The last picture was of Elijah at around 16 or so, with his father sitting down on a chair. He looked ill, and the smiles weren't on their faces anymore. I wonder what had happened.
"The hot cocoa is ready." Elijah appeared in the room, holding two cups of hot cocoa. He realized I was standing in front of the pictures. He handed me my cup and looked at them too. He looked at bit sad.
"Where's your mother?" I asked, only now realizing how stupid it was of me.
"She was murdered. We never talked about it. That year was terrible for us." he pointed at the last picture. "She was beautiful. She wrote me stories and little poems every morning before I went to school. I never really got to know her that well. I was always spending time with my father or reading books. She was always working, never stopping to spend some time with her only child. She loved helping other people. That's why she became a doctor. One night she was called in for an extra shift. She never came back. The next morning we found out she had been attacked by an animal. There had been several attacks that year. It was a Friday, the day I turned 17. She didn't even get to see me unpack her present. It was a brand new journal. I had always loved writing and at a very young age she got me my first journal. I like to keep them and write my memories down, I'd forget otherwise. I also write books from time to time."
"What about your father?" I looked at him. He looked like he was about to start crying. "I..I'm sorry, I shouldn't have opened my big mouth."
"No, it's fine. I guess I just never really talked about it with anyone. It's hard, you know, we were pretty close."
"I can tell. You must have loved him very much."
"He was always there for me. When I got bullied at school he came up with something fun to do. We'd come out here to be away from the rest of the world. It was our little safe haven. There was a boy my age down in the village. We got along well. He'd come out here with us sometimes. My father loved him. He treated him like his own son. When he moved, my father came up with even more things to do to distract me. He never failed."
"Is he... is he still..." I trailed off, knowing I shouldn't say anything else.
"No, he died on my 20th birthday." A tear rolled down his cheek.
By this time we had been long done with our drinks. The cups placed on the table.
"I'm so sorry. I really shouldn't have said anything." I hugged him. He hugged back, burying his head in my shoulder. We stood like that for a while.
Suddenly the storm started getting louder.The wind started picking up speed, creating loud noises around the cabin. I looked out the big window facing the back yard. It looked bad.
"It looks like we won't be able to get back to town tonight. The roads will be terrible. I'm sorry, I should have known better than to take you here today." he ran a hand through his hair, making it look like a mess but still keeping it attractive. I blushed.
"No, it's fine."
"You can sleep in the bedroom. I have a heater there and plenty of blankets. I'll just sleep on the couch."
"No, I'll sleep on the couch." I protested.
"No really, I insist, take the bed." he looked at me. The heater did sound nice.
"The couch looks uncomfortable, you sleep in the bed. I'll stay on the couch. I won't sleep anyways, thunder keeps me up."
He chuckled.
"What are we going to do with you? I used to hate the storms too. My dad let me sleep in his room. So I guess we can share the bed. I'll protect you from the thunder." he winked. Then he started laughing.
"It's not funny! I'll have you know that thunder can be very scary." I punched him in the arm playfully.
"Come on, I've got spare clothes here." he took my hand and led me to the bedroom. It looked like something that came out of a movie scene. Small, but big enough to look perfect. It had a big fancy bed in the middle. There was a dresser on the left side and a big window on the right.
"I'll sleep on this side.' I rushed to the left side of the bed and sat down. I watched Elijah chuckle under his breath and make his way to the dresser. He handed me a big shirt. It would easily cover me all the way to my knees. I figured it must have been his dads old shirt. It smelled like honey and forest.
"I'll go change in the bathroom." Elijah walked to the door by the dresser.
I changed into the shirt and crawled into bed. Elijah walked in wearing just a pair of sweats. He turned on the heater and got in on his side. The room got hot quickly and I started drifting off into sleep, the last thing I heard was Elijah talking.
"I wish you knew how much I loved you."
And then I felt a kiss being placed onto my forehead.