I was about to write more but then I could not help it and just uploaded as much I've written, all because of reading your lovely comments. Thank you so much!
This chapter will cover a lot of You've Got A Way, the second book of the YSTO series (Evan and Ramona's story). I'll be skipping out many scenes that had Oliver included in them from book 2. It doesn't mean that you'll have problems understanding the future chapters of With or Without You. But to enjoy the detailed scenes you can go back to You've Got A Way.
Hopefully we will be done with covering Book 2 for Elli and Oliver in the next chapter or two. In Book 2, we only got to read about Oliver, but here and now we'll see what Elli's been doing all the time. ;)
So, enjoy...
-- -- --
As an act of desperation, Oliver went to Elli's workplace to see if he could get her location from there, but what he got was the information in stead that she had gotten fired. And it was pretty clear that her boss was even trying to hunt down the employee he had fired to take some silly revenge for some issue. Oliver had grabbed the bastard's collar and shook him quite threateningly. Here he was going insane trying to figure out where Elli was and the stupid guy dared open up his own box of silly whines.
Oliver was kicked out of his office by security immediately afterwards.
His brain itched all the time to do something. Something, that would remove the ache inside him. The promoted acidity, now a dangerous heart disease, had settled itself quite comfortably as a constant ache in his chest.
So he brainstormed...
If Elli can decide to take a long respite to a far-away place, why can't he?
If Elli doesn't have a job, then doesn't he have the least bit right to go on a long vacation and try getting himself fired?
And he hoped these would help him calm down.
But, getting himself fired, it was proving to be a very difficult job. Oliver thought with a sneer.
It was a pain in the ass getting a boss like Brandan who was way too much understanding for his own good. Since the day Brandan refused to accept his resignation letter, Oliver had been on a strike. He had stopped going to the office, thinking that it would have that stubborn boss of his to fire him finally.
He aimed to go vagabond soon. If that Brandan accepted his resignation letter, he would be jobless as well. Who knows, Elli would probably return then, to kick some sense into his brain! Oliver thought with an anxious sigh.
"But where do I go?" he asked to the dusty raccoon that was peeking out the tub in his balcony. He would kill himself before even thinking about going back to his family, he thought with a scoff. He shook off his dark look that tried embracing his whole being the next moment and forced himself to try and turn on the bulb in his brain, removing the depressing and maddening images of his so called family. He succeeded, just like all the other times.
Back to the mission in hand - he scrunched his brows and narrowed his eyes at the raccoon which looked highly alarmed now. "I can't even go over to Brandan's, he's more the boss I'm trying to rile up than the shelter providing friend at the moment."
And Oliver couldn't think of any other friend or relative to go stay in their place and annoy and revive himself, because most of his friends were homeless themselves, others had monstrous girlfriends or wives, his relatives were as much wicked as his own family.
Suddenly the light bulb in his brain blasted on, it became a freaking flashlight and zeroed in on an enemy like person in stead, who had himself went away to stay at a new place to find some calm.
Evan.
Emma's widower brother, a single father now, and very much heart broken. Evan's new home was the perfect destination, a place to clear his head. The guy must be feeling lonely in a new neighborhood and Oliver would be the one to eradicate that loneliness. Oliver could be the guest; the companion; the helping hand Evan very much needed, or not.
"Hell, yeah!" he stood up and yelled, the raccoon shrieked in fright and jumped off the balcony. A cringe worthy smashing noise could be heard.
God rest it's soul in peace!
-- -- --
There was barely any peace or calm in the Marques household. But that was what Elli needed to forget Oliver. So she welcomed all the familiar craziness of her family that she once ran away from, with open arms.
So many weeks had passed since she left the city and Oliver behind. But it felt like just yesterday, when she got the biggest shock of the millenium of being pregnant. Oliver's words of praises regarding her still rung in her ears. And not a day passed without her remembering them and cursing the bloody guy. If curses really worked, Oliver would have lied toasted, bloodied, battered, stabbed and pulped a couple hundred feet under the ground.
Elli also couldn't help but imagine and dread about the many more addition to his harem. And just thinking about that made her want to grab a beer and drink till she passed out. But she couldn't just do that, could she?
Because now she had another life inside her to think about. A little, unknown, unseen person Elli often found herself talking to. And she had to agree that this was far better than that beer she wished for. Her many talks under the influence of various moods to her belly seemed to fill her insides with a strange sense of serene affection. It was so close to what she felt for Oliver and yet it was different in many ways.
But it was still that. Love!
Elli was surprised at how in many forms, colors and shades that thing could come. For some relations - it is instant, while for some - it takes time.
"Let's go and see what your uncles are fighting about now?" Elli said patting her stomach, hearing the shattering noises of wood and angered grunts coming from downstairs.
-- -- --
Days passed by.
Brandan still refused to accept Oliver's resignation and in stead granted him a long vacation to clear his head. Anyway, ignoring the impossible boss, Oliver was quick to set his plans into action.
Soon after his resolution was made and sealed with the blood of a raccoon, his bags were packed in a fast forward motion. And he was off to Montpellier, the town were Evan was residing with his baby boy Julius. But who knew, his path was going to be filled with so damn much adventures ever since. A smuggler in the guise of a cab driver was just the beginning.
On his way into the town, he was smirking at how long he would stretch this vacation, that would surely make itself known who Brandan was dealing with. He was the great Oliver after all. But then that smirk wiped off of his face, the shadows of the trees rushing past made the sudden appeared frown on his forehead look like wrinkles of old age. With a sigh of sadness, Oliver slumped back on the dirty backrest of the cab.
He wondered again, where had that crazy woman gone to. Where was his wicked witch?
He still found it hard to believe that she had just disappeared one morning, without a notice, just like that! He missed pulling her leg, he missed seeing her face red with anger and scowling in irritation as he teased, pranked and annoy her to no ends. That was his favorite pastime after waking up and sometimes around the noon in weekends... also in the evenings when he came back from work... and at boring nights to. There was just somehting about her bedraggled hair and the pillow marks on her cheeks at an ungodly hour of night when she tried attacking him like a wild pig.
Damn! He missed fighting with her.
And Oliver recalled all their fights from the day she threw garbage on his face till the day he saw her last.
He felt a pang of pain in his chest at the thought of not getting to see her again, not being able to pull her leg or play a prank on her and get fascinated over the many ways she made his life a living hell. He missed the hell and hated the way his life seemed too bland after she left.
And he still fuc*ing didn't know why? Why had she left like that? He knew, getting fired couldn't be the reason, he knew Elli enough to know that.
The cab jerked to a stop suddenly, making him snap out of his thoughts. Oliver looked around a bit flabbergasted. Had they already reached? But it didn't quite look like to be his destination. Evan's home certainly wouldn't be in front of a bar.
-- -- --
"... and, oh our heavenly father, please provide my sons with some intelligence that no amount of iodine in these eggs could ever. And..., please do something that my daughter gets back the hunger to eat normal food and not that weird mix of peanut butter, fish pickle and whip cream, and...,"
"AMEN!" Everyone cried from around the table hastily.
Daniel slammed his hand down on the table in annoyance. "I was not done with the prayer!"
"That bloody complaint box to God can hardly be considered as a prayer, dad," commented John and dig into a chicken drumstick.
Misha raised his spoon in agreement. "I agree."
"Same here," Elli said, after noisily sipping some water and making a face at the chicken meat on her plate. "You need to improve your praying skills, dad."
She felt a little worried that her father and brothers had been noticing her changed food habit and cravings. Luckily, her puking had reduced to just a morning routine now and that's why anyone had yet to get a sniff of her guts. All thanks to Doctor Fred from the only hospital in their town, whom she had immediately visited after coming back home. The prescription worked as a magic potion.
"What are you smiling about, baby girl?" Daniel asked and narrowed his eyes. "Is there a bloke you fancy?"
In alarm, Elli's head snapped up to see all eyes on her. She herself didn't know that she was smiling. "No," she denied quickly. "Is it a sin to smile for no reason?!"
"It definitely is not," John snorted. "But can be a reason to worry about when you cry for no reason as well."
"See!" Daniel straightened immediately as now that he got a supporter. "That's what I'm talking about."
Elli sighed. It was getting increasingly difficult each day to hide what was surely going to be an atomic bomb when revealed. Because she could clearly visualize how her father would be out for blood if he knew.
She clutched her belly under the table.
Though she knew this one fact for sure, that every single one of her family would love this little, secret person infinitely.
-- -- --
Oliver blinked at the sudden changed behavior of the man standing in front of him. How wrong he had been thinking earlier that the cab driver was a friendly and kind man above all! Seemed like he was too busy trying to dissolve the Elli - Belly mystery.
"I'm not going to hand over my luggage to you, freak. So, shoo..." As if swatting away a stray dog Oliver tried shooing away the cab driver who now seemed to be an active member of the local smugglers' gang.
But Oliver's demeaning action proved to be a wrong move as the middle aged man narrowed his eyes and zeroed in on the duffel bag in his hand.
And soon the douchebag was trying to yank off the bag from Oliver's clutch but he didn't know that - no one could snatch even a candy off of Oliver's hands since he was a child in diaper.
Both of the men desperate to keep the bag to themselves were soon wrestling on the hard - cold ground of the parking lot. The douchebag of a driver was attempting to reach his pocket in between whacking Oliver and being whacked at as a payback. Oliver suspected that he was trying to pull out a blade or something.
No way!
In no time he punched the a**hole square in the nose and the bleeding from his target with grunts of pain made him feel so proud of himself. He would've patted himself on the shoulder for that aim, if his hands were not so busy elbowing the rascal on his rib-cage beneath him.
Oliver was almost about to come out of this war victorious. Almost. But a crazy bunch of people hollering down towards them out of no where startled the hell out of him.
At first he thought that they had arrived to rescue him or something, but that idea was soon thwarted when they picked him off of the bleeding cab driver and slammed him on his back on the ground quite unceremoniously.
Who were they? Backup members of the local smugglers' gang?
And without wasting a single second the trio were beating the living daylight out of him.
They were three in total, Oliver counted. And one of them was a woman with hair as if a rainbow poured over her head, there were that many colors. Definitely a smuggler, he decided.
From the corner of eye he could see the cab driver running away for his life. His duffel bag left forgotten near his feet was the only good thing that came out of this.
Soon though, a change in the scenario took place.
Seeing the smuggler-driver run off to oblivion, the rainbow hair girl seemed a little confused."Guys! Hold on a sec...," hastily, she then had the two guys cease beating Oliver by whacking them.
"Whoa! Why are you hitting us in stead of him?" One of the guys yelled irritatedly while the other hissed, sharing the same feeling upon the interruption.
From the ground, Oliver watched the girl wordlessly point at the retreating back of the scum who was far away from their reach now and disappeared around the corner."Why do you think he's running guys? Especially leaving his bag over here...," the girl said motioning the bag right beside Oliver.
"Because...," Oliver couldn't help the moan slipping out of his mouth, they beat him so enthusiastically, and it hurt. "That bag belongs to me."
A long minute of silence fell over the trio while Oliver picked himself up onto his feet grunting and groaning. "And I'm going to fight for it till my last breath, you scums, don't even think that this well planned attack of you local gang - geeks is capable of scaring 'The Mighty Oliver'," he declared dangerously.
Oliver was ready for the upcoming war this time, they'd beat him up taking advantage from the surprise attack, not anymore. But what Oliver wasn't ready for the shocked and then embarrassed look in their faces.
Turned out the trio saw the duel from the bar and had thought to help out a person from getting mugged and hurt, the only blunder was that they had thought the wrong person to be the smuggler.
Do I really look like a thief? A criminal? Oliver wondered.
They got introduced soon after and Oliver got a lift from them to Evan's place, as a compensation.
The rainbow hair girl's name was Ramona, Oliver learned, and one of the guys was her younger brother - Harry, the other one was a friend - Billy. Oliver liked them all instantly. However, he yet had to know, and very soon, that Ramona and Harry - the siblings were Evan's neighbors and they had quite an interesting, bittersweet thing going on between them.
The kind of bittersweet that Oliver knew could lead to something beautiful, until Ramona got over her demons and Evan defeated his own ones.
And it was strange, and quite hilarious how Oliver had the ability to figure out the puzzles in people around him, but never the puzzle that lied within his own self.
A puzzle that now demanded to break out and come up to the fore front. With Elli - it began; Without Elli - it deepened it's roots, and soon would cover his whole being until he could not resist anymore.
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I need to share this to you all before leaving, I'm extremely enjoying writing about Daniel (Elli's father). How many of you liked his prayer? lol!
Also, people who've read You've Got A Way are already aware of what will happen next, right? But in book 2 it was all mainly focused on Evan and Ramona, so surely, we'll get to see many more things here. And also, keep your eyes open for the villains! (evil smile)
Lot's of love,
Lara.