I shivered.
Not from cold, but from pure adrenaline. Or some ghost form of adrenaline or whatever.
Meredith, Jay, and I were standing in the shadows next to Eli Tanner's garage. We were decked out in black, complete with masks and gloves because I had insisted we look the part. After a lot of complaining from Jay, trembling from Meredith, and a few bad directions from myself, we had finally arrived at Eli's at half past eleven.
I pressed my fingers to my lips when we at last heard Eli's expensive car pull into the driveway. He drove into his garage and I was struck yet again with just how much money his family had. My father had money, sure, but he preferred to put it into savings and investments, whereas the Tanner's lavished their son's home with a six car garage, modern architecture, and a vast plot of land that was clearly well maintained.
The lights in the garage clicked back off and the garage door rumbled to life as it began it's decent down. I waved Jay and Meredith to follow me and dove underneath onto the cement floor.
I picked myself up in time to see Jay and Meredith's silhouettes casually duck under the door that was still ever so slowly closing. I could almost feel Jay's smirk and I could vaguely hear Meredith stifle a giggle.
"Hey..." I said, "Just 'cause you guys don't wanna have fun doesn't mean I can't." I stuck out my tongue and, although I didn't think they could see me, I heard Jay snort. I was pretty sure he just assumed my action more than actually saw it, though.
After that embarrassing escapade, we crept through the dark garage, careful not to bump anything loud and warn Eli of intruders. When we reached the door, I cautiously turned the handle and sighed in relief. Unlocked.
Shushing the other two again, to which they responded by rolling their eyes, I cracked open the door and peaked inside. I waved them to follow again and we ended up in a dark hallway. Vaguely I could hear voices but couldn't place where they were coming from.
Jay stepped passed past me and peaked in the first door in front of us. "Basement stairs," he whispered and disappeared through the doorway.
Meredith and I shrugged and followed. Once in, I couldn't hear or see Jay at all, let alone the step we were on, so Meredith pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight. Jay was nowhere in sight so we hurried down, quietly.
"Jay!" I hissed. Nothing.
"Jay!" Meredith whisper-yelled a little louder. Again, nothing. We looked at each other in panic and began to run stealthily through the dark, cavernous basement. It appeared to be finished and some sort of man cave, which we quickly discovered when Meredith stubbed her toe on a foosball table.
"Hey, Kelly!" I heard Meredith whisper from behind me. "Here's a door... And someone's in here."
She knelt down to the keyhole and peaked through. "What the...." She quickly opened the door and was bathed in light.
"Meredith, what are you doing?!"
She put her hand over her mouth and turned to me, her eyes dancing with laughter. "Kelly, I found Jay."
I looked past her and nearly laughed out loud. Jay was reclining back in an easy chair in a huge home theater. Not only was a movie already started, but he was munching a candy bar he must've found in the mini fridge next to him.
"Dude," he mumbled through a mouth full of chocolate, "This guy is loaded."
"Oh my god, Jay. Focus!" Meredith laughed. I shut the projector off and laughed with her. After scolding Jay, we quickly walked out and checked the rest of the basement. There were no more hidden rooms and my body was nowhere to be found, so we crept back upstairs.
We were back in the dark hallway when we heard Eli's voice from just around the corner. "Yeah, hun, hold on. I forgot the paper in my car, I'll be right back."
A light clicked in the room attached to the hallway and I saw Eli's shadow get closer and closer to the corner. I looked at Jay in panic and he swung open the closest door, dragging Meredith with him. He'd just closed the door with a soft click when Eli rounded the corner and turned the light on.
I looked at him curiously as hummed to himself, oblivious to a ghost in the room and he went back out to the garage. He looked so normal and happy, I was surprised. Our entire relationship he was either passionate, pissed off, or stressed. I felt a flicker of jealousy at his fiancé for not evoking his strong emotions. Part of me almost wished for a calm, easy relationship.
Sean was an easy boyfriend, but that was because I ignored him unless I needed him. I always seemed to drag out the most drastic emotions of any men I was legitimately attracted to. Eli was a prime example of a man who I brought the worst of. For gods sake, he was a murder suspect. Clearly, I was an awful girlfriend.
I sighed dramatically at my own thoughts and walked into the door that the other two had gone in.
"Guys?"
Meredith's flashlight flicked on. "Over here."
As I followed her light, I found we were in, none other than, Eli's home office. I grinned, because if we were to find anything on Eli, it would probably be there.
------------------------------
At one in the morning, Jay, Meredith, and I were sitting with our backs against the wall, completely exhausted and had nothing to show for it. We'd searched Eli's office for two hours and found nothing. It seemed the man had too many secrets he kept from his fiance to risk keeping anything anywhere as obvious as his office.
Moonlight streamed in through the window and I got a good view of Jay's face. Where Meredith's eyes were simply drooping and her head kept tipping forward, Jay's face was tense in frustration. He couldn't believe Eli hadn't kept anything in there, refusing to give up until long after Meredith and I had already sat down.
I sighed and pushed myself up off the floor. "Guys, I guess since they're obviously asleep by now, it's safe to search the rest o the house real quick and then call it a night. It honestly doesn't look like we're gonna find anything on this guy." I sighed again sadly.
The search of the rest of the first floor was boring and resulted in nothing. It wasn't until we had crept upstairs and were snooping in an empty bedroom when we realized we weren't the only ones awake.
Not even close.
In the room adjacent to us we could hear whispering through the walle so after motioning us to copy him, Jay pressed his ear to the wall.
"...honey, my wedding is in two months and I just closed the big deal with Mr. Diamond that means I'm relocating. Explain to me how I'll be able to see you while in San Fransisco?"
There was a pause of silence before, "Joanna! How could you say that?!" we heard Eli whisper-yell, "I thought what we have was special to you? Or am I the only one who cares?"
Another paused confirmed our suspicions that Eli was on the phone, apparently with someone named 'Joanna'. I wrinkled my nose in disgust. This guy couldn't be serious. How many times did he have to cheat of his soon-to-be wife before he realized something was seriously wrong with him?
Eli and his mistress continued to argue over the phone and I realized if he was relocating to San Fransisco, then that might have been what he was referencing earlier that day.
I turned to Meredith to whisper my conclusion to her, when there was a loud creak from te far end of the hallway. Jay, who was closest to the open doorway, peaked through.
He whipped back in panic and frantically beckoned us to follow him into the ajoining bathroom. Just as we closed the door, I saw the hallway light click on. There was was moment of complete silence enveloping the whole house and then....
SMASH. There was distinct sound of glass shattering accompanied by a loud "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING ELI TANNER?!"
"Selena! I'm just on the phone with a business partner, I'm sorry I forgot to tell you! He's overseas so the timezones are-"
"STOP LYING TO ME YOU FILTHY BASTARD!" There was more shattering as I assumed Selena was throwing things at Eli, "I heard you the last three nights in here, phone-fucking some slut!"
"Selena, no-"
"BITCH YOU BETTER HANG UP THIS PHONE! Or do you want to hear me kick you're boyfriend's ass to the curb?! Believe me it won't be pretty - GET OFF ME ELI! - and believe me you'll be next you -" the rest was a stream of horrible words all directed at her now ex-fiance and his mistress. This was all followed by the clear cracking of Eli's phone being rocketed down the stairs and Eli's pleading for her understanding.
I grinned. "Go Selena!" I then silently fist pumped and Jay laughed.
"Guys," Meredith started shakily, "If we don't leave now, we'll be stuck here when the neighbors or Selena start calling the cops. We gotta take our chance now and get back to Jay's car."
Jay and I just looked at her. "Now!" she yelped as Selena screamed a particularly offensive adjective.
We quickly made it to the bottom of the stairs, where we faced a difficult dillemma.
Selena and Eli were in a screaming match in the living room, facing the exit to the garage, effectively eliminating that option. Our only other way out was through the backdoor in the kitchen that we could see from our position.
The only problem was sneaking through the back of the brightly lit living room without either of them turning and seeing us. Since they wouldn't have been able to see me anyway, I hurried into living room to get a better idea of what to do next.
"One at a time, and only when I say!" I called to them over the din.
At that moment Selena threw a book at an extremely expensive looking flat screen TV, the cracking sound following momentarily distracted the distraught looking Eli and an extremely pissed off Selena.
"Now!" I called over to Meredith who sprinted the length of the living room and dove behind the kitchen counters.
When Selena began to throw things at Eli too, that was Jay's cue to go. He mimicked Meredith and threw himself behind the counters at record speeds. I was momentarily stunned at his agility when I knew for a fact he was exhausted, before I shook myself out of it and ran over to the back door.
Eli and Selena kept turning around to where they had full view of the back door so I knew I had to be quick and subtle. Unfortuanately, I guessed neither quick nor subtle were my specialy because I saw Eli's eyes train on the open door and narrow in confusions before he had to duck to avoid a glass paper weight hitting him square between the eyes.
"Quickly!" I yelped as Jay and Meredith crawled towards the door. Once they were safely on the back patio and scrambling quietly to leave, I sighed in relief.
Unfortuanately I sighed too soon. I'd forgotten it was still early May and windy and I'd forgotten to shut the back door. There was a brief gust and then, SLAM.
I cringed at the series of events following. The slam had silenced the screaming pair inside, scared Meredith so bad she shrieked aloud, and surprised Jay to the point where he stumbled backwards.
Into the inground pool that had been conviently unnoticed by all three of us.
"Who the fuck is out there?!" Eli roared from inside and I knew we only had seconds.
"RUN!" I screamed. "Jay! Meredith, quick help him out!"
Meredith quickly helped Jay out of the pool and turned to run away, but not before the back door banged open and a very angry Eli Tanner ran out. Although I knew Jay Carmichael would've been able to fight Eli off, no problems, I knew he couldn't have beaten the sleek black handgun in his hand.
"Get to the car guys, NOW. I'll stall him!" Meredith and Jay began running, but due to the moonlight were still rather visble in the back yard.
I started knocking over the wrought iron patio furniture and the loud crashes ensuing were enought to cause Eli to stop in confusion. I heaved the table onto it's side and turned to see Eli's ghostly white and terrified expression.
"Selena! Something's happening! Call the cops!"
I laughed and smiled. I had finally gotten revenge on the two-timing bastard who had tried to convince me I was the devil when he found out I was underage. "Who's the devil now, asshole." I smirked, despite him not hearing or seeing me.
Satisfied with my handiwork, I closed my eyes and transported to next to Jay's car, parked a block away.
Jay and Meredith reached me and jumped in just as we heard sirens in the distance. The car revved to life and we took off towards Meredith's house which was closest.
The farther we got from the scene, the more Meredith began to laugh nervously. Until she melted into a nervous wreck in the back seat, laughing so hard tears streamed down her face.
Jay and I looked at each other in confusion. "Umm Meredith, honey? Why are you laughing?" I asked.
"I-I-I j-just broke into s-someone's house!" She gasped. "I, Meredith Dunne, did that! Oh my god!"
"Oh Meredith, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to scar you so bad. Maybe we shouldn't have done that..." Jay gave me his 'ya think?' expression and rolled his eyes. I stuck my tongue out at him and i saw his mouth twitch upwards.
"No, Kelly it's okay! That was..." Meredith inhaled deeply in attempt to calm her ragged breathing, "awesome."
I turned in surprise. "What?!" Jay choked, beating me to it. "We almost just got arrested or, worse, shot by some crazy, cheating millionaire and you think that's awesome?"
"This is the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me... I'll never forget it." Meredith sighed happily. She remained silent the rest of the ride and told us, still smiling, to pick her up the next day before we decided our next course of action. With that, she crept back into her house.
"That girl is certainly crazy," I laughed. "But she sure as hell is sweet. I like her a lot."
"Yeah.. She's surprisingly alright..."..Jay gave me a sideways glance and smiled slightly. "I guess you can't judge people until you get to know them."
"And breaking and entering is definitely a good bonding experience." I snorted.
Jay burst out laughing and continued until we pulled into his driveway. I noticed his real, loud laugh was incredibly infectious and I couldn't help but join in.
As we tiptoed through his house and into his room, I felt pretty relaxed for having just witnessed two people almost get caught trespassing all because of me.
When Jay came out of his bathroom, I was sitting on his bed. "Hey Jay?" I looked up.
"Mmmm?" He mumbled, pulling his black hoodie off. His are chest momentarily caused me to forget what I was saying but I shook it off quickly. In the three days we'd hung out, I'd seen him shirtless plenty. The only problem was it seemed to take me by surprise more and more each time.
"Thanks for.. Everything. That was really cool of you and Meredith to be willing to break into a guy's house for me. Even if it was pointless and accomplished nothing, it means a lot." I smiled at him.
Jay threw himself back on the bed and looked at me. "Kelly. That was not pointless. We just gave Meredith Dunne an experience she'll 'never forget' and we found out Eli Tanner isn't the killer. That's a step closer to saving you."
I sighed. "We didn't find that out for sure. For all we know, he hid my body somewhere else and is fleeing the state before he gets caught."
Jay laughed again. "You really tuned out that whole fight didn't you?"
"What?"
"Selena found out about what happened between you guys two years ago and forced him to sign the relocation deal. She didn't trust him working with your father and being so close to you all the time now that you're eighteen. He definitely isn't planning your murder, that's for sure. If anything he probably was planning on getting back together."
"That scumbag really can't be faithful for shit, can he?"
Jay just smirked. "You really can pick 'em, Diamond."
He promptly rolled over and went to sleep. I laughed at the fact he could fall asleep so quickly. I decided to watch movies again that night and snuggled up next to him. His breathing lulled me into a calm state and I smiled.
Jay Carmichael really wasn't bad. Not bad at all.
A/N: Going on vacation and then have midterms so I can't post again until at least next Thursday (hahaha I know, I'm funny..but seriously, next Thursday) and I'm sorry :(( But I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and any feedback/suggestions is great as always and please don't forget to vote :)