“I’m fine.”
“Baby, let me look at it.” I plead with him.
“Fuckingbaby?” Ash sneers over, nearly swinging on him again, but Caroline pulls him back as her eyes widen. I’m actually somewhat surprised when he doesn’t shove her off.
“I’m fine.” Axe grunts at me again.
“Let Fury look at it. Please.” I beg.
“Ella,” he looks at me as I try to reach up, touching his face and where his lip is split open, and the bruise that’s already forming around his eye. Looking away from me, he grabs my hand, moving it away from him. “Ella, stop. Please.” It comes out in a quiet, pained voice. Standing up, he gently nudges me back before he limps away from where we are standing. Moving to his bike, our eyes lock for a second before hehops on it, and he just leaves the grounds. Leaving me staring off after him, my heart crumbling to pieces at my feet.
“Ella,” Ash bites out at me as he grabs hold of my arm.
“Don’t fucking touch me.” I scream at him, snatching my arm out of his hands. His expression is shocked as I’m glaring back at him, “You’re not my goddamn dad.” I snap, instantly seeing the hurt forming on his face. Then looking over at the three men staring at me, “You all want to look at me like I’m a fucking child, still. Guess what? I’m 18. I am technically a goddamn adult, would be nice if some of you fucking treated me like one, but I’ll always be the fucking child you couldn’t bother to take care of.” I shout at my dad. “That you pawned off on everyone else.” I let out a slight chuckle before I look at them again. I walk off. “That everyone else was just obligated to take care of because they were forced to.”
“Where are you going?” Dax asks me.
“I parked a few miles away.” I snap at him before I walk off.
“El, come on, I’ll take you.” Caroline reaches out, stopping me. Ash speaks, but she snaps around looking and pointing at him. “Do not try to fucking stop me.” She cuts her eyes and looks at the three men as she reaches over to me, wiping my face, and then brings me into her and I realize that this whole time, I’ve been crying. “I’ll fucking deal with the three of you when I get back.” I can only assume moving me in the house's direction where her car is parked. “Sh, it’s okay.” She rubs my shoulders.
“Ella?” I hear Billie call out as we approach her house.
“Bil, let me get your keys.” Caroline tells her and I can hear the jingle of the keys as she tosses them. I can’t stop myself from hyperventilating when it starts and I’m sobbing. “On second thought, you drive.” She tells her as she opens the car door and urges me to get inside. She slides in next to me as Billie gets into the front seat and starts the car. I’m not sure how, but through sobs I tell Billie where I parked my car, before Caroline talks to me. “When did you two finally get together?” She asks me.
“Right after my birthday.” She smiles as she nods her head. “I had gone out with some friends and gotten really messed up. I called him because something happened, and I needed help.” I sob out, hoping that she can understand my incoherent sobs. “He knew this was going to blow up in our faces. I convinced him that there was some way that everything would be fine.” I whimper at her as she lets me sob into her chest. “What should I do?” I ask the girls after they hear me recant my story of Axe and me to them.
Caroline sighs before she looks at me again. “Ella, that’s something that only you can answer.” Nodding my head, I sit up. Seeing that we are at my car, I get out of the seat and look at the women.
“Thank you.” Caroline hugs me and nods her head.
“If you need anything, let me know.” She tells me as she looks at me like it’s the last time she’s going to see me.
And she’s probably right.
I just need one answer to figure out what exactly it is I’m going to do.
When I pull up outside of the beach house, I see his bike in the driveway. Knocking on the door, an older woman answers the door as she smiles at me. “Ella.”
“Hey Mrs. Axelrod. Where is he?”
“Out back.” She tells me. Letting me walk through the house. Before I make it out the backdoor, she stops me. “What happened?” I just shake my head.
“Axe.” I call out to him as I step out and walk towards where he’s sitting on the beach, just watching the water move.
He sighs, not even looking over at me. “Ella, go home.” He tells me.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“Talk to me.”
“No.” He snaps back to me.
“Why?”
Sighing, he rubs his hand over his face before he looks over to me. “El, I’m trying to figure out a way to kiss ass so that I don’t get kicked out on my ass. It’s all I have left.” He tells me.
