"Guess who's back."
"Jodie?"Elijah quickly responded while making his way in the room.
I stared at the blue eyed girl with platinum blonde hair that Elijah was making his way over to.
Jodie?
"Elijah!"she ran to meet him halfway and threw her perfectly tanned arms around his neck. What surprised me though was that he actually hugged her back, just as tight.
"What are you doing back? I thought you signed a contract in Dubai to do two years of modelling." Elijah gushed, with the biggest smile I've ever seen him with since we've met.
"I know, but I decided to quit because they kept dictating what I do in my personal life."she smiled back, her smile mirroring his.
"Well shit. Glad to have you back. I missed you so much."he examined her, stroking her cheeks with his thumb.
"I missed you too Eli."
I thought he said no one else ever called him Eli. Huh.
I decided to remind Elijah of my presence by clearing my throat.
"Oh shit. Jodie, this is Tori. Tori this is Jodie."Elijah introduced us.
The girl, or should I say Jodie, finally looked in my direction. I could see the calculated stare that she had on me as if sizing me up. The fake smile that she then put on as she outstretched her perfectly manicured hand towards me disgusted me.
"Hi. Nice to meet you."
I took her hand in mine. "Hi."
I wish I could say the same.
"Now that that's out of the way, let's get you settled. Come on, let's go downstairs."Elijah linked his arm with hers and led her to the door.
"Okay."she smiled at him with adoration in his eyes.
Elijah only looked back at me when he realized he was at the door and noticed I wasn't in step with them.
"Aren't you coming Tori?"
"You guys go on without me, I'll be down soon."I had to think.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I'll be fine."
He looked at me for awhile, before they walked out without a second glance back.
I sat on one of the balcony chairs for a while just thinking about what just happened.
I was about to kiss him. I felt wanted in that moment. I've never felt wanted before, so the feeling is still new.
I sighed and got up from the chair and went downstairs. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I decided to go look in the kitchen first to see if I find them in there.
When I reached the doorway and my eyes met the scene portraying infront of me, I stopped.
I saw Jodie sitting on top of the counter with Elijah standing between her legs, laughing and talking as if they don't have a care in the world.
I couldn't do anything other than stand at the door post and just watch them. None of them seemed to notice me, or even if they did, they didn't acknowledge my presence.
"Why are you watching my bestfriend and her boyfriend?"
A voice came from behind me and I turned around and saw a girl I've only ever seen at school twice before.
She had jet black hair and brown eyes. Her figure was almost the same to her 'so called friend' but the only difference was that she was slightly thicker.
"Excuse me?"I had to ask her because I don't think I understand her question. Boyfriend?
"You heard me. Why are you watching Jodie and Elijah like that?"
I was at a loss of words. I felt like a deer caught in headlights. Elijah is Jodie's boyfriend?
"Leave her alone Fantasia."I didn't even realize that Vaughan had come up behind me. He pushed me behind him, in a brotherly manner as if shielding me from her.
"Do not make her one of your victims. Don't let a repeat of what happened to Nat happen again."he seethed as he continued.
"What happened to Nat was no one's fault but her own. I had nothing to do with it."Fantasia's bitchy facade quickly faded to one of pure sadness and guilt.
"I don't care if you had nothing to do with it Fantasia. You and Jodie better leave Tori alone."his demanded leaving no room for arguments.
"Trust me Vaughan, from the moment I saw her I knew I didn't want to associate with her."she gave me one last disgusted look before stomping away.
Vaughan then turned to face me, and gave me a sympathetic smile.
"Thanks for that."I was really grateful that he stepped in when he did because I would have eventually punched her in the face.
"Don't worry about it. You're apart of our group now. I'll always have your back."he smiled at me.
I returned his smile but one question was still running through my mind.
"Can I ask you something Vaughan?"
"Ofcourse."
"Who's Nat and what happened to her?"I questioned as soon as he confirmed that I could.
"She was a girl in our grade last year. She was a very nice person. She was awesome if you put it in other words. All the guys had a crush on her."
"Jodie, Fantasia and their other friend Kelia didn't like that so they bullied her constantly. It got so bad that we didn't see her again. It was only one month later that we found out she had commited suicide."
I was at a lost for words. Suicide is never the answer. I'm living a very shitty life right now but suicide had never crossed my mind. "Oh My God. That's awful."
"It really is."
Vaughan was interrupted when a shattered sound came from his living room.
"Damn it! What the f*ck did you guys break in there?!"Vaughan shouted to no one in particular in the living room from where he was standing. He looked at me and gave me an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry Tori, but I have to go and see what those idiots are doing in my living room. I'll see you later okay?"
"No it's fine. Go ahead."
Vaughan then took off in a rush. When he did so, I looked back towards Jodie and Elijah. They were still in the same position but Jodie now had her arms on Elijah's chest.
I felt an unfamiliar small stinging pain in my chest.
He said something to make her laugh and she threw her head back and put her hands on his shoulder. You would think she would move them but she didn't, she brought both her hands and locked them around his neck.
I couldn't bare to watch them anymore so I made it my night's goal to find where the hard liquor was.
I walked further into the kitchen over to the drink table then took up the vodka bottle, not even bothering to pour it into a cup before downing half the bottle in one gulp. I cringed at the horrible feeling of it burning my throat and the horrible taste on my tongue.
I didn't even get to take a second swing before the bottle was abrubtly ripped out of my hands.
"What the f*ck Tori. What are you doing!? You can get drunk!"I stared at his blue eyes as he shouted at me.
"That was my intention." I rolled my eyes and took the bottle back from his grasp and continue to down it.
He took the bottle from me again. This time throwing it against the wall. The bottle shattered into a thousand pieces and the contents of it splashed everywhere.
"Why would you do that!?"I shouted at him.
"Why would you want to get drunk on purpose!?"he shouted back, just as loud.
"That's none of your business!"
"I don't give a f*ck if it's not my business! All I want to know is why you did what you did!?"
"F*ck you Elijah."I had enough.
"No Tori. I will not f*ck myself. I have plenty of girls lined up to do that for me so I'm pretty satisfied in that area."he replied with the snarky comment.
"Just leave me alone Elijah!"
"No!"
"It wasn't a question."
"And I don't f*cking care."
"I don't have time for this." I started to walk away from him. The half bottle of vodka had just started to kick in so I could barely walk straight.
"Don't walk away from me."he grabbed my wrist and I winced in pain. Tears welled up in my eyes as I stared into his with agony.
"Shit. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."the anger in his voice disappeared as fast as it appeared.
I ripped my arm out of his grasp and shouted, "You never mean to do anything. Do you?!"
"I'm sorry, okay?! Now can we please talk outside?"he had finally stopped shouting. He started pleading with me instead.
"No. I don't want to talk to you."
"Why are you being so difficult?!"
"Why are you still arguing with me?! Shouldn't you be over there entertaining your girlfriend Jodie?!"I whispered the last part so it was only audible to him and not the crowd that had formed at the beginning of our argument.
"She's not my girlfriend."
"Wow. Could've fooled me."I scoffed.
"Look. If I say she's not my girlfriend, then I mean it. I don't take relationships lightly. So stop making a scene and come with me, because we're leaving."
"I'm not going anywhere with you."the vodka brought out my stubborn side.
He didn't even attempt to shout at me again, much less give me a warning. He just lifted me up, and threw me over his shoulder, carrying me out of the party kicking and screaming to where his 2017 Toyota Corolla was parked.
He opened the door and put me inside, fastened my seatbelt and closed the door. He walked over to the driver's side and got in. I tried to get out but by the time I unfastened my seatbelt he had already pushed the lock button on his door to lock my door so that I couldn't get out. He turned to look at me.
"Why are you mad Tori?"he looked annoyed, like he didn't want to be having this conversation.
"I'm not mad."
"As a guy who has been with alot of girls, I've been around enough to know that 'I'm not mad' secretly translates to 'I am mad and you should know why'. So once again, why are you mad?"
" I said I'm not mad."I lied through my teeth.
"Tori look, I know you're mad, but we really need to talk. We can go back to my house if you'd like or we can go back to yours."
I didn't know what to do. I had no way of getting out of this so I just sighed.
"Fine. Let's talk at your house, but I honestly don't have anything to say to you."
"I wasn't expecting you to talk. I just need you to listen to what I have to say."
♤♤♤♤
When we finally pulled up into Elijah's driveway, I was half asleep. He was the one who notified me that we were here.
His house was just a simple two story house with a double garage and a verandah with a porch swing on it. He placed his hand on my lower back and led me into the house then up the stairs and into his room.
His room defined him. Some parts dark and some parts light. With his white walls and black furniture.
"You can take a shower if you want to rid yourself of the vodka smell. I think I can find something in my drawer for you to change into." Elijah ranted as he locked his room door behind us as we both entered.
"That's not a bad idea. Thanks."
He pointed to his bathroom and I headed there and went inside. I stripped out of my clothes and went into the shower with alot of thoughts running about in my head.
I just knew he was going to ask me about the abuse. My only question was, should I tell him?
I really don't like people knowing about that part of my life, but I think it's time to tell somebody.
Another question was, how will he react?
I turned off the shower and wrapped a towel around myself. When I drew the curtain I saw a pile of clothes on the bathroom counter which resulted in a smile from me.
In the pile, there was a pair of grey sweatpants and a large white tee. I put them on and walked out to see Elijah freshly showered and wearing the same thing as me.
When he looked up and saw me, the same smile from earlier at the party graced his lips. He patted the spot beside him, motioning for me to sit. I walked over there and sat at the edge of the bed instead, too shy to actually be near him.
"So? What did you want to talk about?"I asked him.
"Oh right. I got distracted because you smell like my body wash."he chuckled, the sound sounding so majestic. I couldn't help but laugh too.
"Good to see you're not mad anymore because I need to ask you something really serious."
This was it. The question. "What's that?"
"What's really going in your home."
F*ck.
My heart sunk as I heard the question out loud. There was no turning back now.
"You really want to know everything?"
"Yes."
"Okay."I sighed.
So I started.
"My dad died some years ago. To be exact, I was ten and my little brother Leo was two. He and my mom loved each other. They promised each other that they would be together forever. But that promise was broken when my dad went to work one day and never came home. I remember my mom getting a call late that night from the hospital saying that she needed to come down there to verify that the body they found was his."
"My mom was devasted, even to the point where she wouldn't eat anything for weeks. I begged her to do some kind of physical activity but she refused. She was just sitting around getting skinny and sickly as time passes by. My ten year old self had to be taking care of her, my brother and myself. This went on for about 6 months until one of her friends convinced her to go out clubbing one night. That's when he came into our lives."
"When she met Malcolm everything changed. She smiled more, she laughed more and even joked around more. They dated for awhile until Malcolm proposed to her. She was so happy. It was the happiest she has ever been since the death. The day they got home from their honeymoon was the day it all started. Malcolm and my mom got home arguing, and because our house was so big, it echoed throughout the foyer."
"I was in my room and heard everything. Mom was scolding him for looking down the waitress' cleavage while they were on a date and he was denying it every step of the way. At one point he got really mad and from my room I heard the echo of the slap that he gave my mother. After that, they barely spoke to each other."
"They just decided to stay married for the public to see. This went on for the past years until I was 15, when my mom was murdered. She died right in the middle of the foyer with a bullet between her eyes. That was when the abuse started on me. He would call me names and beat me saying that it was my fault she was dead. Every time that he did, I would cut my wrists as a reminder of it, blaming myself for my mother's death. I vowed to myself that I will find her killer."
I only realized that I blocked out everything until I was brought back to reality by two muscular arms engulfing me in a hug.
"It's okay. Don't cry. I'm here for you." He soothed.
Wait. I was crying?
"Thank you. That means alot." I whispered in the crook of his neck. He laid us down on the bed with my head still in the crook of his neck and my leg draped over his waist.
The calming feeling of sleep started to suddenly overcome me.
"Don't worry Tori. I won't let him hurt you anymore."
That was the last thing I heard before I was overcome by darkness.
AN: Here's chapter 7 people. Eli finally knows the full story and yayy, new characters. What do you thinks gonna happen next?
Yours truly,
Gea.