Tori's POV
"Shhhh. It's ok. Let it all out."Elijah cooed soothing words in my ear. I was currently curled up in his lap, with my head buried in the crook of his neck, letting out all my tears. It wasn't just a regular cry, it was ugly crying. Tears mixed with mucus and all the other unpleasant things.
"Do you want another tissue?"he asked again. I think this is the 7th time since he asked me that. My response being the same everytime.
"Here you go."he put the tissue in my hands and started comforting me again. We stayed like that for a hour or probably more. I couldn't find it in myself to move, I just wanted to stay in the comforts of Elijah's arms on his couch.
"Hey honey, I'm home."we both looked up to the sound of the front door opening, and in came a middle aged lady, with features similar to Eli, holding grocery bags that blocked her view.
"Come help me with these bags dear."
"I'm coming mom."Elijah gently lifted me off his lap and placed me on the couch.
"I'll be right back."he whispered in my ear before he went to assist his mother. When he finally took the groceries from her grasp and she finally got to see in front of her, she looked taken aback when she spotted me. Imagine walking into your house to see an unfamiliar girl with tear stained cheeks and boogers all over her face.
Ok.....ewe.
"Oh, hello dear. I didn't know Eli had company."she smiled, trying to make me feel better because of my obvious distressed state. Despite how I'm feeling I smiled back and outstretched my hand to greet her.
"Hi. I'm sorry to intrude, it's just that I needed the comforts of a friend."
"Its ok dear, I don't mind. Your welcomed here anytime."she shook my hand and replied.
"Thank you Mrs. Wright."
"Oh no dear, I'm no longer married. It's Ms. Brown."she said with a little sadness in her eyes. Only then do I remember when Elijah told me the story about his father and I immediately regret it.
"I'm going to say by the look on your face that Elijah told you what happened."she looked at me and then looked to Elijah.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."I apologized.
"Its ok dear."
"Mom, Tori is having some family issues, she's was wowandering if she could stay here for a couple of days."Elijah chose this time to join the conversation. I saw Elijah's mom's eyes went wide and then she looked at me with recognition.
"This is Tori? As in the Tori? The one you talk about everytime?"in the corner of my eye, I saw Elijah turn bright red and scratched the back of his head.
He talks about me?
"Mooooommmm! Why must you always embarrass me?"he sighed when he saw me smirking at him.
"Oh hush up. I wouldn't be a mother if I didn't embarrass my child."
"You can't keep doing this, I'm 17. Can't you make an exception?"
"Nope." She popped the 'p' and walked up to him and pinched his cheek.
"Now Tori, we don't have a guest room, but I can give you some blankets and you can make a makeshift bed on the couch if you want."
"Dibs on that offer."Elijah's mom's offer was cut off by my little brother who just walked into the room.
"Oh, I didn't know you had a plus one."she smiled when she saw Leo, smiling, like he didn't just take away my sleeping arrangement.
"This is my little brother, Leo."I put my arm around his shoulder and introduced him.
"Hi, nice to meet you."he did the same as me and outstretched his hand.
"Nice to meet you too Leo."she gave him a firm handshake. Leo then turned to me when Ms. Brown looked away.
"Since I took your supposedly sleeping area, where are you going to sleep?"
"You can share my room with me if you'd like."everyone's head snapped to Elijah when he made his offer.
"Oh no no no no no no. You two will not be sharing a room."Ms. Brown's motherly side came out in an instant.
"You think I'm stupid? Putting two teenagers in a room by themselves always lead to some sexual affection."she continued.
"Mom, we're almost 18, we can control ourselves. Besides, if she doesn't share a room with me, where is she going to sleep?"Elijah defended. Ms. Brown's only response was a hard glare, because she knew Elijah had a point.
"Fine, you two can share the room, but" she turned and looked at me "under no circumstances are you two to be engaged in any form of sexual activity. Got it?"
"Got it."
"Yes Ms. Brown."
"Good. Now I'm going to start dinner."she started to walk towards the kitchen but before she opened the door, she turned and directed a statement to me.
"Oh and Tori, you can call me Margaret."she disappeared on the other side of the door shortly after.
"Come on. Let's go to my room."Elijah took up my messily packed bag and climbed the stairs with me following closely behind. When he opened the door, we stepped inside and he closed the door.
"You can take the bed and I can use the blankets to make one on the floor."that was the first thing Elijah said after he placed my bag on his bed.
"No, it's your room. You can take the bed, I'll take the floor."I couldn't make him give up the comforts of his bed just to satisfy me.
"It's ok Tori. I don't mind."he smiled.
"Elijah, no. I'm not going to take your bed."
"Tori, I insist."
"No."
He sighed when he saw that I wasn't going to give in.
"So what do you want then, huh? Do you want both of us to share the bed?"
"That seems like a better offer."I smiled at him and went over to sit on the left side of the bed.
"Dibs."
Shaking his head, Elijah walked over to his desk, smiling.
"You're one of a kind, you know that?"
"I know."
**********
"You know you didn't tell me what happened after I left right?"
Elijah and I already ate dinner and were currently laying on his bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to let sleep take over. It was already past midnight.
"I don't think I want to talk about it"I turned my head to look him in the eyes. When he saw that I was on the verge of crying again, he got up and held out his hand to me.
"Come on, I know something that will make you feel better."
I stared at his hand for awhile until I finally took it in mine. He pulled me up and led me to his window that led to the roof of the verandah. Mumbling a quick 'watch your step', he helped me through until both my feet were planted firmly placed on the slighty sloped pavement.
"Why did you bring me out here?"was my first question before he sat down and pulled me between his legs to sit in front of him, my back resting against his chest.
"I brought you out here to show you something beautiful."he whispered in my ear and made me shiver.
"What's that?"
"Look up."he pointed to something in the sky and I looked up only for my breath to be taken away. I found myself staring intently at stars that lit up the dark sky. They amazed me. The darkness of the night made them shine more brightly.
"It's beautiful." I craned my neck and looked at him.
"I know, just like you."he smiled down at me. I'm not used to such nice compliments so I looked away and stared back at the stars. We stayed there in silence for awhile until Elijah broke it.
"Are you honestly not going to tell me what led to you finding out that Malcolm killed your mother?"
I sighed. Sometimes he's too persistent for his own good.
"You really want to know?"
The nod of his head confirmed my question and I took the chance to start to tell him everything. From when he left, to what I saw on Malcolm's desktop to how I packed mine and Leo's things and ran here. By the time I was finish, I was a crying mess all over again.
"I'm so sorry you had to see that Tori. Honestly, how can someone be so cruel?"he wrapped his arms around my waist from behind and rest his chin on my shoulder. I leaned further into his embrace.
"It's ok, really. I just cant believe Malcolm would do this. My mom has never done anything to him but love and care for him."
"He's an ass, that's why."
I snorted when he said that and replied.
"The biggest ass ever."
We fell into silence once again.
"I still have one more question to ask you."
Why is it always Elijah to break the silence?!
"Fine, but this is the last one."I sighed, preparing myself for what he was about to ask.
"Why did you choose Cleo over me?"
For every question that I thought he would ask, that was not one of them. I tensed up and I think he noticed because his arms around me tightened.
"It's ok, you dont have to answer if you dont want to."he tried to make the conversation less tense. "I just wanted t-"
"I only chose Cleo because we were caught up in the moment. I had just seen you kiss Jodie and I was upset, he was the one that was there to console me."I cut him off with my explanation.
"Oh. I'm sorry for what you saw though. I promise, I'm done with Jodie."it felt like he was holding himself back from telling me something more. I could tell by the way his voice faltered when he said the last sentence.
"I believe you."
"Good, because it would suck if you didn't."he tried to joke to divert our attention away from the previous topic.
Once again, we fell into a comfortable silence. It wasnt Elijah who broke it this time. It was the screeching of tires in the distance. Elijah and I both looked in the direction from which it came and saw a familiar car speeding down the road.
Malcolm's.
The car pulled up in the driveway and only stopped when it was about to hit the mailbox. We saw him get out of the car and stagger towards the door until he was out of view.
"Shit."I heard Elijah say before he hurriedly got up and pulled me up with him. We heard hard pounding on the door before there were shouts. Me and Elijah went through the window and dashed down the stairs. When we reached the last step, we saw Margaret and Malcolm in a full blown argument.
"I'm taking her home!"
"As far as I know she doesn't want to go home!"
"And who the f**k are you to say what she wants?!"
"Someone who she goes to when she needs a comforting embrace!"
Elijah and I watched the back and forth bicker between the two adults. We then made eye contact with each other and decided to put a stop to this.
"That's enough!"both their eyes snapped to us when both me and Elijah shouted. Elijah continued while I stayed quiet.
"What the hell are you doing in my house and why are you are shouting at my mother?"he directed his question to Malcolm and glared at him, also taking one threatening step towards him. I pulled on his arm and thankfully he didn't go any further. Malcolm looked at Elijah and then looked straight past him and stopped his gaze on me. You know what he did? He chuckled.
"So this is what you chose? An amateur of a man? You left my house to come live with this, this, boy !"he sounded angry.
"I wasn't about to stay in that house with you when I found out what you've done!"I shouted, sounding angrier.
"Watch your tone young lady."he took a threatening step forward only for Elijah to step infront of me and block me from his view.
"Don't go any closer to her."he gritted out. I bet if I could see his face I would see a glare.
"You think your so bad and tough huh? Trust me, you dont want to feel my wrath little boy."Malcolm also took another step forward.
"I'm not scared of you Malcolm."
"Oh really now."before we all could comprehend what was happening, Malcolm's fist was connecting with Elijah's face. Elijah staggered for a bit but quickly recovered and connected his fist with Malcolm's face also. Malcolm pushed Elijah, causing him to fall and got on top of him, throwing punches all over. Margaret and I couldn't do anything but shout at Malcolm to stop. After seeing Elijah getting multiple cuts and bruises I found enough courage to go and pull Malcolm off of Elijah.
"Stop! Leave him alone!"I wasn't strong enough but I managed to get him off of Elijah.
"Leave Malcolm, nobody wants you here, your not needed!"tears were already streaming down my face for the fourth time today. Malcolm and I shared a heated gaze before he looked away and stormed out the house, slamming the door. Margaret was already kneeling beside Elijah on the floor wiping away some of the blood.
"Can you bring him upstairs and clean him up for me? I have to clean up the blood that got on the floor."Elijah's mother asked me. I simply nodded my head and helped Elijah off the floor and up the stairs and into his bathroom. I got out the first aid kit and proceeded to clean up his wounds.
"I'm so sorry this happened to you Elijah. I always seem to bring danger to people."he waited for me to finish cleaning up most of the blood before he responded.
"It's ok, I did it for you. I would do it over again if I had to."he tried to smile but winced from the pain it caused. I was touched by his words. I found myself staring at him.
"Tori." his voice was low, so very low.
"Would you hate me?"
"For what?"
"For doing this."and with that he locked his lips with mine. At first I was taken aback but then I kissed him back. It was like a million
butterflies had erupted in my stomach. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer to me. He responded by wrapping his arms around my waist. He bit my bottom lip causing me to gasp and he used that opportunity to put his tongue in my mouth. We both fought for dominance until we finally pulled apart for air. He placed his forehead on mine and smiled.
"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that.
Truth be told, I wanted it more.
AN: Heres chapter 16 guys. This might be the last one for awhile because my tests start next week. Elijah and Tori finally kissed! Yayyy!! Hope you enjoy this though.
Yours truly,
Gea.