“Nah. I can’t stay.”
It’s a lie. I have nothing else going on today, but just being here feels weird.
“Ella barely left your room.” I say, trying to veer back to my statement.
“Yeah, I told her I needed some time to be alone.” She nods her head, sighing. “I don’t want everyone making a thing out of it.” She’s shaking her head now, but I can see the emotions she’s trying to conceal.
“But you realize that this is a thing, right?”
She just stares at me, and I can’t quite read her expression.
“You know, it’s okay to feel however you feel about it.”
“I don’t think it’s any of your business.” She snaps at me before turning quickly to, I’m sure, storm off somewhere, but she pauses, wincing and grabbing hold of her side.
Something makes me move over to her as I try to help stabilize her.
“I know it’s not my business.” I’m lying because since I was the responding officer, it’s quite literally my business, but I digress.
“I’m fine.” She snaps again.
“I see why Ella went home.” I mutter under my breath.
I don’t expect her to laugh out before wincing again and looking over at me. “Ow, don’t make me laugh. Broken ribs here.”
“But are you okay, really?” I ask her, looking down at where she braces herself against the counter.
She doesn’t answer me this time; she just continues to look down at the countertop, and I can tell she’s doing her best to control her breathing. This, mixed with her locking the doorbehind us, tells me she doesn’t feel safe, and something inside yearns to fix it, but I stifle it away.
I want to ask her more questions, but I don’t want to push her.
Instead, I wait patiently.
She doesn’t answer me, but instead she looks up, tears filling her eyes. I swear, I’ve known her almost her entire life, and I think this may be the first time I’ve seen her on the verge of tears.
“It’s okay not to be okay right now.” My voice lowers as I say it to her. “You were drugged last night, and if it wasn’t for Tate…” I trail.
“You think I don’t know that?” She whispers through a shaky breath. “But I don’t want to think about it, because if I think about it, I have to deal with it, and if I deal with it, then it’s real.” Her chest is rising more quickly now.
“But it is real.” Pausing as I step closer to her, the moment becoming weighted. “And you should deal with it.”
“No.” She steps back, glaring at me again. “I don’t.”
“Drew.”
“Stop. Eli, don’t come in here and tell me how to deal with shit. I don’t need my overprotective brothers telling me how to live my life, and I sure as hell don’t need their once upon a time bestie’s opinion either. That’s why I moved out of the compound; they have an out of sight, out of mind mentality.”
“I’m sure they’re worried about you.”
“Please,” she laughs out. “My brother’s at Tate’s, and he can’teven put the shit between him and Zeke aside to let him know what happened.”
“He did, actually.” I don’t mean to take his side, but I motion down to the phone sitting on the counter in front of her and, for the first time, she looks at the screen. “It rang the entire way here. Zeke’s worried about you.”
“He just feels obligated.”
“He called me late last night, too. I’m pretty sure as soon as he got offstage.”
“What?”
