I woke up with my phone's alarm at eight thirty. I was ready for the day ahead of me. Since it was our one-year anniversary, Eli told me he had something special planned for us after class, but no matter how many times I asked, he wouldn't tell me what it was we were doing. Nonetheless, I had pep in my step as I was getting ready to leave.
After showering, I started to get dressed for the day. The undergarments I chose were black and lacy; for some reason, they made me feel really good about myself. I then put on my black and grey skater dress and grey leggings along with a pair of black flats. I put makeup on before starting on my hair; I did a little bit more than usual: concealer, eyeliner, mascara, highlighter, and a liquid lip seemed like the best way to go. Then I worked on my hair. After blow drying and brushing through it until there were no knots, I straightened it most of the way down then curled it toward the ends. It was a cute look.
Deciding to seize the moment, I grabbed my phone and took a bunch of pictures before grabbing my things that I was bringing to school into my room. Along with my everyday school supplies, textbooks, and my phone charger, I brought my small makeup bag, and flat iron. Eli said that he would pick me up and bring me today, since we were leaving for whatever we're doing right after our last classes. So I figured I'd bring this stuff along to fix whatever may have gotten at all messed up throughout the day.
When I finished, I checked my phone and saw that Eli had texted me that he had just pulled into the driveway. Sending a quick text saying I'd be out in a minute, I grabbed my backpack, flung it over my shoulder, and headed downstairs and out the front door.
As I was sitting down in the passenger seat of Eli's car he said, "hey Birdie." I quickly replied with a hello of my own, then reached over to give him a kiss before putting my seatbelt on. "You look beautiful babe," he said.
"Thank you," I said to him as the blush rose to my cheeks. He backed out the driveway and started our drive to campus. I was in a good mood, and I planned to keep it that way the entire day. Eli and I held hands and kept light conversation on our way there, not feeling the need to fill the few moments of silence when they occurred as they weren't awkward at all like they used to be so long ago.
When Eli pulled into his parking spot, he turned the car off, then turned towards me. "Stay here and close your eyes," he said.
"What? Why?" I asked, wondering what was about to happen.
"Just do it, please," he asked. I sighed and turned myself to face forward and closed my eyes. "No peeking," he said. He grabbed something, then closed his door. After a few seconds, I heard my door open, then he said, "okay. Open."
I did as he said, turning toward the sound of his voice. Opening my eyes, I saw him holding a single flower in an outstretched hand. I didn't know what kind it was, nor did I care because it was just gorgeous. "Oh my God. Ellie! It's wonderful!" I said, taking it from him and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you!"
"Anything for you, baby. The rest of the bouquet should be waiting for you by the time you get home tonight," He said, taking my hand once again as we walked into the building my first class was held in. When we reached my class he gave me a kiss, told me he would see me during math, and made his way towards his class.
Class went by fairly quickly, which was a good sign as to how the rest of the day was going to go since I just really wanted my classes to be over with for today already.
TW: sexual assault (skip to ~~~)
I was making my way to my next class through the back hallway of the arts building that just about nobody used as a shortcut when someone grabbed my arm and pulled me towards them. "Hey Wrennie."
"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?" I asked Xavier, aggravated.
"You can tell me as many times as you want to, but I'm not going to stop calling you that. The nickname suits you." He said, as he started roaming his arms around my body.
Before I got the chance to even question what the hell he was doing, he crashed his lips to mine. I tried pushing him away from me, but he just pulled himself closer. His roaming hands moved under my dress. He pulled away from me to catch his breath and I told him to stop and tried pushing him away again, but he didn't listen to me or budge at all. When he rested his hands on the bare skin above the hem of my leggings, my breathing started to quicken. Xavier didn't notice though; I knew because he brought his mouth back to mine and stuck his tongue in my mouth when I gasped in slight pain when he pinched me.
He continued to kiss me, and when he thought I wasn't paying attention and that I was done resisting him, he started pulling my leggings down. I started to push away from him, but he pulled me back closer than before. My leggings were down to my knees now; he began to grind his hard on against me. I jerked away from him, and I must have caught him off guard because he pulled away from me for a moment. I pushed his arms away and yelled at him to stop as I pulled my leggings back up. He stepped away, saying "you're mine Wren. Don't you forget it. I wouldn't go sharing this either. Not that anyone would believe you; this is our little secret."
~~~
I crumpled to the ground after pulling my leggings up from my knees, and started panicking. My throat seemed to close up and it felt like I couldn't breathe. My head started spinning and I was seeing images of Jordan holding me, telling me "everything is going to be okay. You have nothing more to worry about. You're okay. I've got you now." My breathing continued to quicken as I started seeing flashes of Xavier, between those of Jordan, saying things like "no one's going to believe you" and "this is our little secret."
After a long while my breathing started to slow down, painfully slow; and my dizziness started to disappear at a snail's pace. I didn't know what time it was or if I was still supposed to be in class that I never got to. At the moment I didn't really care. I was too busy worrying about calming myself down.
I didn't know how long I had been in there alone, curled up in a ball before I heard one of the doors to the hallway open. Oh great, look what you've got yourself into, Wren. I thought to myself. You've got a spectator.
"Wren?" The voice asked. Oh shit! I know that voice! "Birdie, are you okay??" It questioned. Eli. It was Eli talking to me. I could hear the worry and fear in his voice. He'd never seen me this bad.
No, no I'm not. Not even close. I thought, but said, "yeah, yeah. I-I uh... I'm sorry." He moved closer to me and opened his arms wide like he wanted to pull me close to comfort me. I pulled away not wanting to have any part of anyone's body anywhere near me, nonetheless touching me at that moment, "I'm sorry. Please just.. Give me a couple minutes." I requested, putting my arms up to stop him.
"Okay... don't apologize, Wren." He said, and at first he sounded a little confused. "I'm glad I found you. I knew something was wrong when you didn't get to class on time. I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner to help you through it."
I could see the guilt in his face, "please don't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault. Please, it wasn't your fault."
"You shouldn't ever have to go through an attack alone. No one should." He said, and it honestly made me feel a lot better.
"Eli?" I said. He looked at me, eyes telling me to continue, "I know you have something planned for later today, but do you think you can drop me off at my place now until we have to go? I just..." I didn't want to continue, because I didn't want to make him feel any worse than he already did. However, his eyes were urging me to go on. "That one took a lot out of me. I think it was the worst one I've had in a really long time." That last part was a lie, I've had panic attacks worse than that while at home alone, but I couldn't stay there any longer. Xavier really scared the shit out of me.
"Of course, baby. Anything you want. I am really sorry I wasn't here to help you." He said, and I could tell he really did feel bad.
"Don't worry about it, Eli. I got through it just fine and you're here now. That's all that matters." I smiled. At least I attempted to. I'm not too sure how well that turned out since I didn't mean it.. Not really. Not at all. I started to get up, but I stopped in the process almost falling back down on the ground, when I realized; I hurt. Most likely from being shoved against the wall.
"Are you okay?" Eli asked again.
"Yeah, I've just been down here for a while. Everything must have fallen asleep." I lied smoothly. I didn't like how good I seemed to be at it.
"Do you want help?" He asked me, his arms hovering around me as I continued to get up. Almost like he was expecting me to fall.
"No babe. I'm a big girl. I can do it myself." I tried to tease, so he would stop worrying and babying me.
It seemed to have worked because he smiled and said "there's my girl." That made me feel like my heart would explode as the blood rushed to my cheeks just knowing that the statement was true. I really was his girl.
We walked to the car, Eli following close behind me. I tried my damnedest to not freak out and start another attack again. That was some other level shit Xavier pulled. He'd never done anything like that before. Ever. He barely spoke to me, outside of greeting me with that terrible nickname, in the past year! Much less come up out of nowhere and pull something like that.
Eli opened and closed my door for me after I got in. I kept reminding myself to breathe deeply to keep myself calm. I thought to myself about the way I was breathing in attempt to keep my mind busy. In, out. In, out. I repeated in my mind as I breathed.
The ride to my house was quiet. I nor Eli talked at all, which was just fine with me. I was too concentrated on not freaking out. When he pulled into my driveway, he turned toward me and asked me once more if I was sure I was okay. I wanted so badly to tell him no and that everything was wrong, but I couldn't force myself to do it. So I reassured him that everything was fine. There was a brief moment where it seemed like he didn't believe me, but it was gone the second I had even thought that it was really there. He surprised me by saying, "I'm coming inside with you."
"What? No. You don't have to do that!" I told him. Half hoping he would go find something else to do, half wishing he would tell me he was coming inside no matter what I said. Part of me just wanted to be alone and break down without having to worry about anyone worrying about me, and another part wanted him to be there because I was terrified that Xavier would pop up out of nowhere like he used to do and that there would end up being a repeat of earlier today.
"Nope. I'm coming inside. I'll leave you be if you want me to, but there's no way I'm actually letting you be alone right after that." He insisted. I nodded and he followed me inside and upstairs. He sat on the couch right away, and didn't ask me about what I was doing when I walked straight into my bedroom. I made my way to my connected bathroom and the first thing I did was look in the mirror. Big mistake on my part. I looked a mess. Hair frizzy and sticking out everywhere, granted if it was a little less randomly sporadic, I could've blamed it on the heat and humidity. However, that wasn't the case. My eyes were all swollen and red and my lips were a little swollen also, but not to the point where it was totally noticeable. I didn't know if Eli noticed this whole mess of a person I was or not, but either way I was glad he did not comment on it.
I turned on the shower and stripped myself of my clothes. Turning on my speaker and connecting it to my phone, I started blasting music so there would be no possible way for Eli to hear this upcoming freak-out of mine that I had already felt start to surface. Not that he would hear since it was in my head, but whatever.
Getting in the shower, I started to wash off the dirt from the nasty hallway. Flashbacks started and I couldn't stop them, no matter what else I tried to think of. I couldn't help but try to scrub off his touch all over me, but I couldn't seem to rid myself of feeling it. This made me freak out even worse than before. I could not calm myself down. I shampooed and conditioned before trying one last time to scrub Xavier's touch off me. I scrubbed and scrubbed until almost my whole body was red.
I finally gave up, falling to the floor of the shower and my breathing started to quicken again. I quickly got back up, turned the shower head off, and wrapped myself in the towel, before my vision was completely messed up from the dizziness. I tried walking out of the shower so I could sit on the floor and bang on the wall for Eli to hear, but I slipped and fell on my ass.
Eli must have heard, because a few seconds later he knocked on the door asking if I was okay. I couldn't answer him because I was still having difficulty breathing and all I could see again were snippets of Jordan and of Xavier from today. I tried sitting up, so I wasn't laying out all over the floor before Eli came in, but when he didn't get an answer he warned me that he was coming in, then opened the door a second later. I was still seeing flashes of my two tormentors and the attack was starting worsen.
I couldn't help but hear Eli mumble, "shit Birdie." He helped me sit up then asked me to focus on his breathing. When he noticed my breathing started to even out, he asked me to pump each arm up in the air. One at a time. As I did this, he kept encouraging me. After about five or ten minutes I was finally able to breathe properly and my sight was just about back to normal. "Thank you," I said to him.
"Any time babe." He said bringing a hand to caress my cheek, "you fell out of the shower?"
Sighing I explained, "yes. I was dizzy but I didn't want to get stuck in the shower or add the possibility of getting claustrophobic on top of everything."
"Oh, I'm so sorry Birdie."
"Eli, it's not your fault. I promise."
I looked at his face and realized the rest of today was not going to be fair to Eli. It wasn't fair that whatever he had planned had most likely already been ruined by some dick-hole. I can't let him see that! I can't do that to him. He did not deserve anything like that, especially not today.
Eli must have turned the music off before helping me, because when he helped me up, all was quiet. Eli made his way out of my room and after a few minutes of searching through my closet I poked my head out from behind my bedroom door and asked, "Hey, Ellie? What kind of outfit should I wear?"
"A nice one?" He said, unsure.
"What kind of nice? Like a dress or nice pants and a top?"
"A dress."
"Fancy dress or a casual dress?"
"Whichever you want."
Before I went to go examine the closet more closely, I checked the time. It was only around twelve thirty. So I knew I had plenty of time to finish getting ready. After looking around in the closet, I found three dresses that I would be okay with wearing. Peaking my head out of the door again, I asked, "a red dress, red and black dress, or just a black dress?" He thought for a moment, then told me to go with the red dress. Which was great because that was the dress that I was leaning towards anyway.
After putting undergarments, a tank top, and a pair of shorts on, I went to go blow dry my hair in the bathroom. Once I was finished with that, I redid my hair, straightening most and curling the bottom, just like how I had my hair that morning and decided to add some hair spray to hopefully keep it tame, then redid my makeup. When my makeup was finished, I ran back into my room to put on the red textured V-neck skater dress with a thin black belt and black quilted heel booties. I put a black moto jacket over my arm in case it was cold wherever we were going. I examined myself once in the mirror before leaving the room, deciding that I looked good even though I was currently hating the person I saw in the reflection.
As I walked out of the bedroom, Eli stood up and looked over me. Although it made me a little uncomfortable, I tried to ignore it as I took note of his outfit change. He was wearing black dress pants and a white collared shirt with a red tie in place of the jeans and t-shirt he had on earlier. I smiled as I noticed that the two of us matched. "Wow. You look stunning." He said, the blood immediately rushed to my face, even though I had no faith in those words, and thanked him telling him he didn't look so bad himself.
I walked over to him, but he met me halfway. He had his hands shoved in his pants pockets and he gave me a nervous smile. "Baby?" He said, I looked into his eyes as he continued talking to me, "bare with me here as this is a very important question. Okay?" I nodded but couldn't say anything as I started to get nervous and wondered what was going on. He started to kneel down and warning signals were going off in my head and I'm positive straight up shock was written all over my face. However he managed to keep a straight face and to continue looking right at me. "Would you do the honor of going to Walt Disney World with me?" He asked me, pulling something out of his pocket. It was a case for something and only found out that it was for a MagicBand after he opened it revealing it in our color of choice tonight, red.
I stood there, still in shock for a minute before mumbling a, "what?!"
"Would you go to Walt Disney World with me?" He asked again.
Still shocked, I managed to utter an excited "yes" with the biggest smile on my face. Eli's smile was even bigger as he got up, took the MagicBand out of the box and put it around my wrist as he leaned in to give me a kiss. Holy shit! I was going to FREAKING DISNEY! Best anniversary date idea ever! His lips landed on mine and I couldn't help but kiss him back. I couldn't believe he had done this for me!
He grabbed his phone off of the coffee table, then said "let's get going then!" His smile was a mile wide as he grabbed my hand and pulled me down the stairs. I had to admit his smile was contagious.
The drive to Disney was only about an hour, but it felt like five. I was really excited, and had forgotten all about earlier today. I had frowned at the thought of it, but seeing the Walt Disney World arch quickly made me forget about it again and turned my frown completely upside-down! I turned to look at Eli, to see he was already smiling and looking at me. "Haha, caught you looking!" I said, and he turned back to look where he was going.
The rest of the ride was spent in silence, listening to the music that was playing on the radio. When we parked, Eli grabbed what looked like a small camera bag and took note of what section and row we were parked in before waiting in the line to board the tram. It wasn't too long and we only had to wait a couple minutes for it to get there. Boarding the tram and waiting for the safety message to finish, he pulled the camera out of the bag and turned it on. He didn't hold it up like he wanted to take a picture, so I turned away, loving the feeling of the wind rushing past us as the tram started moving.
When we made it to the transportation and ticket center, Eli asked if I wanted to take the Monorail or the Ferryboat. I told him we should take the Monorail there and the Ferryboat back. He nodded and pulled me up the ramp. As we got on and were heading to the park, I started to get impatient and really excited. The five minute ride seemed like thirty. Once the doors opened, I reached for Eli's hand and started dragging him behind me. I heard him laughing at me and my excitement as he followed along.
We finally made it passed the security and scanned our bands to get in, Eli brought me to this tourist stand before we actually got to see anything that was in the park. He asked if they had any anniversary pins, the lady at the register nodded and pulled out two red pins. Eli also asked about a first visit pin and she pulled one of those out as well. She gave him a marker and he wrote something on both of the anniversary pins. After finishing, he handed me mine. The pin said "Happy Anniversary" on it. In between the two words he wrote "1st" and in the space below it he had written my name on it. I put it on my dress as he put his on his shirt. I noticed he did the same to his as he did with mine. Then Eli handed me the first visit pin; I placed it above and a bit to the right of the other one. He then said, "there's something that we have to do before we start exploring."
"What's that?" I asked curious. He smiled and grabbed my hand. This time he was dragging me. He went up to one of the photographers taking a picture of a family in front of the castle and we waited our turn. Eli smiled at the man when it was our turn to scan our bands and the cast member told us to go stand in front of the camera and when to stop backing up, so he could get the castle in the background.
Eli wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him. We looked at the camera and smiled. After I heard the picture take, Eli pulled back a little and pressed his lips to my cheek. I smiled and my hand went up to cover my mouth, I couldn't even try to explain why. I heard the camera clicking again as another was taken. The voice of the man behind the camera was what I heard next, "give him a kiss." He was talking to me. I did as he said and realized that in the process of going on my tiptoes, one of my feet popped as I kissed Eli and I heard the camera snap the picture. Oh my god. I just had a Princess Diaries moment. I thought, internally freaking out.
Eli asked if we could take a magic shot and the man nodded changing a few things around with his camera. He then told Eli to point to the ground in front of him with an angry look on his face like he was reprimanding a younger sibling and me to do the best shocked expression I could. Eli did as he was told and I brought my hands to my cheeks and formed an "O" with my mouth and looked in the direction of where Eli was pointing. After the picture was taken, the man behind the camera told us to go have fun and we thanked him.
Eli grabbed my hand as we started walking, "we have a reservation for dinner a little later. I assumed you might not want to look all windblown by the faster rides when we do that, so I figured we could do some slower rides before then?" He said to me. I nodded, "don't worry. I didn't make the reservations too late, we'll have plenty of time to do all of the rides you want to." I smiled, he knew exactly where my train of thought was going.
The first ride we went on was the Pirates ride. It was fun but I almost killed Eli, because the ride works on a bed of water, and there was a small drop. After all he said about not wanting to look a mess at dinner, you would've thought he would tell me that it splashes up at you after that drop. He was so lucky that I did not get too wet.
After that, we went on Haunted Mansion, then the Small World ride. Let me just say... that ride never freaking ends. It just kept going and going. Not only that, we got stopped and stuck in the last room just listening to the children singing the song over and over again. Also, here's something that I figured out, you got stuck because it takes them forever, for some unknown reason, to unload and reload the boats. Never again would I do that one; once was enough for me.
I asked about going on the Peter Pan ride, but Eli said that the line was too long, and that we wouldn't make it to our reservation on time if we were to wait and go on the ride. The last ride we went on before heading to wherever he made our dinner reservation was the carousel ride. When it was our turn to go on, Eli let me lead the way to the animal I wanted. When I was seated, Eli stood next to me instead of sitting in his own spot. When I asked why, he said that he just wanted to be close to me.
I smiled at how sweet the response was. He didn't know this, but he was doing the most amazing job at keeping me in the best mood. I appreciated him so much more for doing this all for me. I still couldn't believe that he did, even though we were already there.
The ride started moving and as it picked up pace, Eli said, "come here." So I leaned down as far as I could without falling, and he reached up and pressed his lips to mine. I smiled and cupped his cheek, continuing to kiss him until he pulled away, not wanting to disappoint him. Even though in my head all I saw were flashes of Xavier. I pushed those images away completely knowing that this was my Ellie, the boy I had fallen in love with.
💜❤️
Hey! This chapter is 4,870 words. Originally it was almost double that, but I decided to split it into two chapters. So, Eli and Wren's anniversary date will continue in the next chapter!
I hope you enjoyed this one! Let me know what you thought by voting and commenting, it honestly helps and motivates me so much!
Until next time...
TM