COMING HOME

Chapter One

Lexie

Houston, TX 2014

“There’s a new club we need to check out!” I pull the phone from my ear because my best friend wants to burst my ear drum with her enthusiasm. Don’t ever worry about ever needing to turn on speaker phone when talking to Brianna, she’s loud enough all on her own.

“Hello to you too, Bri..” This girl is always too damn excited about things, which is probably why I keep her around.

“Yeah, whatever! Did you hear me? New club, you, me, tonight, be ready by ten, I’ll

come to your place.” I guess I could go out, and I am off tomorrow. I could do with some dancing and the warm numb feeling one gets after a few drinks. Plus, I haven’t seen Bri in a while, and it doesn’t seem like she’s giving me much of a choice either.

“Fine, I’ll see you then..” I hang up and put my phone back in my scrubs’ pocket. Leaving the hospital, I jump in my car and start heading home to get ready for a night out with my best friend.

At ten o’clock on the dot I hear my front door opening, and it’s Bri walking in like she owns the place. I gave her a key for emergencies when I moved in, and I guess clubbing qualifies as one. She walks in my room wearing a cute little black dress that hugs all the right places. It’s short, and if she bends over something’s going to come falling out. She's wearing red heels with red accessories to match. Her black hair is in a short bob, and she looks really good. She’s curvy and the dress just looks so good on her, the dress she picked out while short does accentuate her small waist and big butt. My best friend is a catch and we can't go anywhere without her turning heads. Bri looks me up and down and sighs because she knows my outfit was rushed and not very thought out unlike hers. I’m wearing a blue tank top, black shorts, and my hair falling in soft waves a few inches past my shoulders.

“Are you ready?” she asks. I nod, making my way towards the door with her.

“Yes, let’s go have a good time.” She shakes her head and walks further into the room.

"Wrong! That outfit sucks and not acceptable for where we are going." I look down at what I'm wearing, it’s comfortable and I like it. I even paired it with heels, and not sandals like I wanted.

"What's wrong with it?" I turn to look her way, but she’s already disappeared into my closet and is going through all my clothes. Outfits are being thrown at me, mostly dresses and I already know we're not going anywhere until she's satisfied with my look, so I kick off my heels and get comfortable.

Thirty minutes later and what looks like half my closet on the floor, we have an outfit with Bri’s stamp of approval. At least my dress isn't as revealing as hers, or the heels as high. It’s a little tight in the boob area, but since I’m still able to breathe Brianna said I could suck it up for a few hours. When we arrive at “Toxic, the new IT club in town,” there’s a line a mile long and I’m starting to regret my footwear choice. I’m about to tell my friend we should go somewhere else when she grabs my hand and starts pulling me towards the front of the line. The club looks high class, and she was right when she said my first outfit would not have

been acceptable. Every single person in line was dressed to a T. There are huge windows that allow anyone to peek inside, and it looks amazing. Glowing and flashing lights bounce of the people dancing and hanging out by the two bars opposite each other. You can even see the bouncers walking by, making sure no one got out of hand.

“Seriously Lex, when have you ever seen me wait in line? Come on, I know the guy at

the door.” She sounds annoyed like I should know this by now. When we get to the front of the line it turns out she did know the guy. The bouncer smiles down at her and says hello, flirting with her while he looks at some list and lets us in.

Our first stop of course is the bar for drinks. The club is huge with neon signs everywhere and LED lights on the steps that make the way to the bar easy to find, there’s a second floor with tables, and booths. The first floor being mostly a dance floor with a few booths as well. I sit on a stool at the bar, a cute Hispanic girl with long straight hair and a tight corset, asks what we want to drink.

“We’ll take two shots of Tequila, and a crown and coke please.” Bri answers. The bartender nods and starts making our drinks, and I can tell Bri is totally checking her out. Did I mention my best friend has been known to sleep with guys and girls? Well she says she’s just experimenting, but I honestly don’t care. I mean, she likes what she likes.

“That ass though!” Brianna yells out, and I laugh because of all the things she could have said that was the first thing to come out of her mouth.

“Yeah, the ass is nice.” I mean I couldn’t deny it. The girl had some nice curves. Was I gay for looking? Not at all, I think all girls do it to each other. I look around trying to get a feel for the place and so far, I like it. I can see this place turning into a popular spot. When the bartender comes back with our drinks; Bri asks for her name.

“Dannie” the girl smiles. They start fliting and I take that as my queue to head to the dance floor. I feel like I’m interrupting, so I slam my shot, and make my way to the dance floor. After a few minutes of flirting Bri decides to join me and we begin to dance with each other.

After a while we take a break and head to an area outside, designated for people to hang out and catch some fresh air. I stopped drinking a while ago knowing I couldn’t get drunk because I was our ride home.

“s**t! I think I‘m gonna be sick.” Bri grabs me for support and I pull her towards a grassy patch so she can empty her guts out while I hold her hair out of the way.

“Okay, I think you’re done. Let’s head home, you can crash at my place.” I steady her while we make it down some steps, and head towards the car.

Do you know how hard it is to walk in heels and try to steady someone taller than you? It's a f*****g battle. One I might be losing if I don't make it to my car soon. The walk seems to never end and I start getting tired of having to hold her up. We are so close when I think I hear someone calling my name, but I when I look around I don't recognize anyone around us, so I ignore it and keep walking. We’re almost to the car when I’m pulled back by someone. I let Bri go and prepare to defend myself in case I need to. When I hear that deep familiar voice, chills cover my body and I forget to breath. It’s been years since I’ve heard it, but there’s no way I’d ever forget it.

“Where are you going, beautiful?” Please don’t let it be who I think it is, please. I’m pleading for absolutely no reason because I KNOW exactly who is talking. I slowly turn around to see the one and only, Elijah Kingswood, looking down at me with a big smile on his face. I don’t reply or I can’t, I’m not sure which, instead I step out of his reach, grab Bri and start walking away. I can hear him calling my name but I choose to ignore him and start walking faster. My heart was beating fast before, but now it feels like it’s going to explode out of my chest. Poor Bri is just being dragged at this point but I just want to make it to the car

and go home.

“Hey wait up!” Damn it! He’s still following us. I attempt to speed up, and finally make it to my car, I unlock the door and put Bri in the passenger seat, making sure she’s buckled in trying to hurry before he reaches me, but I’m too late. He comes up next to me as I’m closing the passenger door.

“Why are you running from me Lexie?” His smile gone, now he looks curious. Where do I begin to answer that question? Maybe I don’t want to see him because I’m still mad at him. He made me fall in love with him, made me promises only to leave me high and dry. He didn’t call, text or even e-mail me after he left, and when I tried to call him his number had changed.

“I don’t have anything to say to you.” I try to make my way to the driver’s side but he side-steps me and blocks my path.

“How about ‘Hey Eli how have you been these past 6 years?” How about ‘hey Eli, fuck

you!' Sounds like a better response, but I hold my tongue.

“Hmm.. nope don’t care.” I shrug my shoulders, hoping I look uninterested to what he has to say.

“Well maybe I want to know how you’ve been?” Maybe I want to connect my knee to

your balls, tough luck.

“And maybe I want to get home.” I don’t have time to deal with him right now. I have a drunk in my car that I need to get home and the longer I stand here the higher chance of her getting sick in my car. I look up at him, and really look at him, I see that he looks good, really good actually. He had always been handsome, and time did nothing but make him even more so. He was tall, light brown hair, cut short, green eyes, straight nose, and full lips. Eli was taller now about a foot taller than my 5’2, had a goatee going on and his body looked wonderful. He filled up in the past few years with muscle, you can tell he takes care of his body. I could also see a tribal tattoo peeking from the sleeve of his right arm.

“Like what you see babe? Cause I’m damn sure enjoying the view.” Ok Time to go! I try to give him my most serious face and tell him to move. I'm supposed to be pissed, not trying to check him out. I take a deep breath and the familiar smell of him is invading my space making my breath catch making my knees weak.

“Move Elijah.” I sound so winded; you’d think I’d just finished running a marathon. Neither one of us being the first to move. We stand there with me looking up at him, and him down at me as if we’re scared to look away because the other might disappear. Until we hear someone clear their throat, and breaks the trance we both seemed to be in. Elijah turns towards the noise and that’s when I make my escape. I run over to the driver’s side, hop in, and start the car while he turns and talks to the guy that approached him. I look his way one more time, then I drive off. I have a feeling it won’t be the last time I’ll be seeing him and the stupid

17 year old part of me is actually really excited.