The smell of pancakes filled the house the next morning. I figured it was Aunt Zoe getting breakfast for James and me. I glanced over at James in the bed beside me. The bed was neatly made. He must be downstairs with Aunt Zoe. I got out and headed to the kitchen. Surprisingly when I entered the kitchen I didn’t find my aunt there at all. Instead I found James standing at the stove cooking.
He didn’t take any notice of me standing in the doorway of the kitchen and I didn’t even let him know that I was standing there. I watched him cook. I smiled, thinking of the times when he would cook for me when his dad wasn’t home. He was a good cook I have to say. He had to learn how to cook for himself at an early age.
“Mmm, what smells good?” Aunt Zoe said as she walked pass me into the kitchen with Charlie behind her.
James turned around to face us. “Pancakes,” he answered with a smile on his face.
Aunt Zoe headed over to the coffee machine while Charlie headed to the food bowl beside the fridge, munching the dry food he had in there. “Smells delicious.”
“James is a great cook,” I replied, forcing myself to move from the door. I walked over to the fridge, patting Charlie good morning before opening the fridge door, grabbing a carton of orange juice.
“Well, I can’t wait to try some of his wonderful cooking. If he is really good like you said, maybe I should hire him as my cook.”
James giggled.
I have to say he would make an excellent chef someday, but not really sure he would ever become one or not. He isn’t quite sure what he wants to be at the moment. All he wanted to do was move far away from his father. James had only ever made breakfast for me once and the food was to die for. It was Saturday night and he had asked me to come over to have a movie night with him. Mr Waters was out having drinks so we had the house to ourselves. We ordered pizza and sat in front of the television watching the Jurassic Park series. Well, we only ended up watching the first two. I fell asleep half way through the second one. Somehow without waking me, James had carried me to his room and lay me down on his bed. The good thing was his dad never returned home that night. If he had found me sleeping on the couch or in James’ bed, he would have thrown me out of the house and then beat up James.
I almost freaked out waking up in James’ bed the next morning, not even remembering how I had gotten there. But then I remembered falling asleep on the couch and smiled to myself at how sweet James was for placing me on his bed rather than leaving me on the couch, even though it didn’t really bother me if I had spent the night on there. But then I remembered his dad and panicked that he might be home and would kill me for spending the night here. I had tried to leave before we watched the second part to the movie, but James didn’t want me to leave so I stayed. I was going to climb out the window without saying goodbye to James. It was then the smell of his cooking drifting its way into his room and filling my nostrils that I knew I had to stay and I did. I headed to the kitchen where James stood at the stove.
“What are you cooking?” I wanted to know.
He turned to me. “Oh, you’re awake. I wasn’t sure whether or not to wake you up. I thought it would be nice to cook you something for breakfast. I’m making French toast.”
I have never had French toast and had always wanted to try it. I sat down at the table and waited for James to serve the food. I was a little nervous sitting there waiting, keeping an eye out for Mr Waters in case he walked into the room.
“My dad never came home last night,” James replied like he had been reading my mind. “But he will probably come home soon so we better eat up and then get you out of here.”
I grabbed two glasses from the cabinet and then pour orange juice for James and I, placing them down on the table. I sat down as well with Aunt Zoe sitting down beside me shortly after with her coffee table. We waited patiently for James to bring the pancakes over. He got three empty plates and placed them on the table before placing the pancakes down in the middle of the table. Aunt Zoe told him that she didn’t have any maple syrup, but she had some chocolate sauce in the pantry. James grabbed it and put it down on the table. I grabbed two pancakes and then poured the sauce over it.
“Mmm, this is so delicious, James,” Aunt Zoe said as soon as she took her first bite.
“Thanks.” He smiled.
“So, what are you two doing today?”
“Not really sure yet,” I told her. “James and I have to stay low so no one recognises us. We almost couldn’t get out of LA because someone recognised us. I was thinking of heading to the shops to get some dye so James and I can change a bit of our appearance.”
“How would you two like to come help me at the cake store?”
James and I look at each other, not entirely sure if we wanted to do that. I was a little unsure in case some of her employers were to recognise us, even though they all know me. I have always loved visiting my aunt’s cake store as a kid. Orange poppy seeds cupcakes were my favourite that my aunt makes.
“What if the employers call the cops or if the customers recognise us?” I asked.
“I’m sure you two will be okay. You can either help out in the back or help out at the front.”
We finished off breakfast and then went to get ready to head to the store with my aunt. Charlie wanted to come with us, but of course he couldn’t. Aunt Zoe put him out in the backyard.
My aunt’s store is famous in Wichita. People say that she makes ones of the best cakes and sweets in the state of Kansas. A lot of people in the state would sometimes head here just to try one of her famous cakes. When I was younger she would teach me a little about baking since my mother is not much of a baker. One of the things I like making are Meringues. They are hard to make and you just need to make sure you have the egg whites whipped perfectly and then the sugar has to be mixed in well otherwise when you place them into the oven, it goes all brown rather than white because the sugar is sitting all on the top.
I haven’t stepped into Aunt Zoe’s store since the summer I visited her before James’ trail. I wanted to come to visit her so I could get away after James was sentenced, but my parents decided they wanted to take full control of my life and decided where I could go and whom I could hang around with. I guess they didn’t want me to stay with my aunt because they knew that Aunt Zoe would allow me to go out on my own.
It was almost nine o’clock and the store was opening soon. A few customers were already outside of the store, waiting for it to be open. They greeted Aunt Zoe and she greeted them back before opening the front door, which had a sign on the window saying ‘closed’.
Standing at the cash register was a pale blonde hair woman cleaning the counter before business started. I recognised her as Lydia. She had worked here for so long ever since Aunt Zoe opened up shop. My aunt greeted her and when she spotted me, she smiled.
“Ellie, it’s so good to see you again,” Lydia greeted me. “And it’s so good to see that you’re alright. I heard on the news that you were missing.” She glanced over at James. She gave him this weird look like she was about to murder him for all of the things people claims that he has done.
“I’m fine Lydia and it’s good to see you too,” I told her. “Just so you know I’m not missing. Well, I am because I haven’t told my parents where I was going only because I know they won’t let me go. The media may have said that I was being held hostage by James, but that’s not true. James didn’t kidnap me. Don’t believe anything that you heard on television.”
Lydia looked like she didn’t want to believe me. The media surely know how to brainwash people. “Ellie, I read what he did to you. Why are you still hanging around him? And Zoe, why haven’t you called the police?”
My heart crushed in my chest knowing that someone from a town who doesn’t know anything about James was against him too. It made me wonder what would happen if James was to step into a foreign country. No doubt the entire world knows what he “has done” to me. I had to hold my anger that was building up inside of me as I stood there staring at Lydia. I didn’t want to create a commotion in the store just when it will be opening soon.
“James is one of Ellie’s friends,” Aunt Zoe explained.
Lydia didn’t believe her. “Zoe, he is a criminal.”
Tears were starting to build up in my eyes. I thought getting away from LA and visiting my aunt would put an ease on the insults people would say about James, but apparently it wasn’t. No matter where I go, people are always going to remind me of what James’ father did to me and then blame it all on him. Not only will they remind me about it, but they would remind James of what a disgraceful person he is for something he never had done, making out that they were a much better person than he was.
What hurts the most is my family and friends who won’t believe a word that I say. Thankfully Aunt Zoe does believe me that James is innocent, but the rest of my family doesn’t want to know the truth. They all judge me and punish me for what happened. My old friends all turn their backs to me so the only friend I have at the current moment is James. I remember when Alicia approached me at school when I decided to finally go back after missing two weeks of it. She wanted to see how I was after the incident. Well, actually she didn’t want to see how I was. All she did was rubbed it in my face, saying it was my punishment for ditching her as a friend for “the biggest freak” in school. It didn’t matter how many times I told her that I didn’t ditch her, she wouldn’t listen.
I spent the last remainder of high school alone. I tried my best to concentrate on my school work. Music helped me a lot to escape everything, but sometimes it didn’t always help the trauma that I had gone through. Sometimes in class I couldn’t always listen to my iPod. I had to hide my earphones under my hair that I let loose around my shoulders so the teachers couldn’t see it. It felt as the only thing that wanted to listen to me in this world was the music, playing songs to help me through the day.
I turned to James and grabbed his wrist, pulling him towards the door with me. Maybe coming here with him wasn’t such a good idea after all. It’s probably best that I get him out of here before someone really does call the police.
Aunt Zoe called out my name as I walked out the door, but I didn’t listen to her. I just kept walking until I was away from the crowd that was outside the store, waiting to go inside. I didn’t get far before she caught up to me, grabbing my arm and forcing me to stop as I walked past the bookstore that was next door to her store.
“Ellie, stop. Look, I’m sorry what Lydia said back there.”
I shook my aunt’s arm off me. “You know, just forget it. No matter what I do, everyone is always going to think of James as a criminal. Maybe it was a bad idea to come here.”
“No, don’t ever think that it’s a bad idea to come here, Ellie. I love having you here and I haven’t seen for so long and it’s good to have someone staying with me other than Charlie. You and James are welcome here.”
“Maybe you want me and James here, but other people don’t.”
“I know what everyone says about James. Listen, I will talk to my employees and I will tell them not to worry about James being here and that he won’t hurt you.”
I smiled at her. At least one person in this country believe me with what happened or wasn’t judging James, and best of all she was a family member who actually was there for me. Well, maybe not fully there since she lives half way on the other side of the country, but she wasn’t being overprotective and was listening to how I felt unlike my parents or Daniel.
Aunt Zoe suggested that James and I go to do something while she talked to the employees. She thought it would be better if we weren’t there to hear their discussion. I decided to show James around town. We then headed to the local supermarket so we could buy some hair dye.
“Do you think these disguises will work?” James asked me.
“We will only know once we try,” I replied.
“Ellie?”
I turned around to see who had called me. Standing behind me was a tall blond guy with two of his friends. Justin.
“Justin, hey, how are you doing?” I asked him.
“I have been good. I won’t ask how you have been since I heard what happened.”
I noticed he was staring at James and I had this nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach knowing what he was thinking about James. I said goodbye to Justin and then headed to the cash register with James behind me. Once we left the store, James asked me who the guy was.
“I dated him when I was sixteen,” I told him. “It was only for a month when I was staying here for the summer with my brother. He broke up with me because he didn’t want to have a long distance relationship when I had to return to L.A.”
“What a jerk.”
We headed back to Aunt Zoe’s store. It was open now and customers were inside. I figured it was unsafe walking through the front entrance with James so one of the customers was bound to recognise James. I took him around the back way. We walked through the kitchen where three of Aunt Zoe’s pastry chefs were. I only recognised Shelley, who had long curly light brown hair that was put up into a bun. She had been working here since my aunt brought this place. The other two chefs I wasn’t sure who they were. The three of them were working away at cooking sweets.
Shelley looked up at James and me. “Ellie, hey it’s good to see you.” She walked over to me and wrapped me into a hug.
“It’s good to see you too,” I told her.
“And you must be James,” she shook his hand. “I’m Shelley.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” James replied.
Shelley introduced us to the other chefs, Matt and Chris. Aunt Zoe came into the back and gave James and I a hat to wear while being in the kitchen. We helped out in the kitchen and I was impressed with how well Aunt Zoe had talked through to her employees about James. They never asked personal questions about the incident, just questions about ourselves. Lydia also apologised to us for her behaviour.
Once home James and I did our hair, hogging the bathroom as we did. It was James’ first time dying his hair a different colour, and he was excited to know how it will turn out in his hair. We let it set in our hair while we ate dinner that my aunt prepared. We wanted to help her clear the table, but she told us she will clean up. In the meantime we washed the dye out of our hair.
We had just finished washing out the dye when Aunt Zoe called out to me, telling me that I had a visitor. She didn’t tell me who and I was almost afraid to go to the door, afraid that maybe it was one of my parents.
But it wasn’t my parents. It was Justin.
“Justin, what are you doing here?” I asked him. I closed the door behind me so we could stand out on the front porch together.
“What are you doing here with him?” he wanted to know.
I didn’t answer him. I didn’t want to answer any of his questions that were about James. They are always the same questions people ask me about James all the time and I was tired of answering them all.
“Why do you even care if I’m with him?” I asked him. “You’re the one who broke up with me.”
“I do care about you, Ellie. I just don’t want you to be hanging around him after what he did to you.”
“You don’t even know what he did.”
“Sure I do. It was all over the news and newspaper. The news also said that James is holding you hostage.”
I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms across my chest. “Don’t believe everything the news tells you. They get facts wrong all the time. Anyway, does it look like James is holding me hostage? Why would he bring me here to hold me hostage? We were running away, okay? We had to get out of LA so I told him we could come here.”
“Why were you running away? Did he touch you and then someone found out what he did, so he kidnapped you so he couldn’t go back to jail?”
I shook my head at him. There was no use telling the truth to him because he wouldn’t believe it. I told him I was going to go back inside and I turned to open the door when he grabbed me.
“No, don’t go back inside when I’m talking to you,” he said.
“I don’t want to talk to you if all you’re going to do is ask me questions about James. Questions that I do not want to answer.”
“Well, I want you to answer them, Ellie. I care about you and I don’t want that James dude to hurt you again.” He tightens his grip on my wrist.
“Why do you care? You’re the one who broke up with me. Ow, Justin, you’re hurting me.”
“Answer my questions and then I will let go.”
He wouldn’t listen. And when he didn’t, the door flung open. James came out, closing it behind him. He grabbed Justin’s hand and pulled him away from me, leading him off the front porch.
“She said let her go,” James said, shoving James hard in the chest.
“Don’t you dare touch me, you freak.” Justin pushed James away from him.
“Guys, please don’t do this,” I said to them both, but they just ignored me like I wasn’t even standing there.
James held up his fist. When I saw what he was about to do, I hurried over to him before he could think about doing something stupid. But even if I did try and stop him, James went and done it. He swung his fist, striking Justin hard in the eye. I stood there shock by James’ actions. He has never punched anyone before.
“James, no!” I cried, pushing him away from Justin.
Justin smirked. “Yes, don’t touch me again, freak.”
I turned to Justin. “Can you please just go before you cause more trouble? My aunt is inside and I don’t want her to come here to see what’s going on.”
He just looked at me and then at James, frowning at him. He pointed his finger at James like he was some kind of kid that had just gotten into trouble. “You better not touch Ellie, you hear me? If you do, you’re going to wish that you never raped her in the first place.” Without saying anything else, he turned and walked away, getting into his car that was parked on the street, speeding off.
James and I stood there in silence for a moment before I turned to him.
“Thanks for saving me, James,” I told him. “But please don’t punch Justin or someone else again. I don’t want you to get in even more trouble if Justin was to charge you for assault.”
James nodded, promising me he wouldn’t do it.