Chapter 014
1014 Words
Elsie's Pov
Nighttime came and went by quickly. I knew because I stayed up most of the night, reminiscing about my life's event lately and why life was being so unfair to me.
I was slowly falling head over heels for my step brother, to the point that the sight of him with any other girl, especially Sophia pissed the hell off.
And to top it all off, I was being threatened with what I wanted most in the world, if I refused to tutor that jerk Ryan.
I got up when the time showed twelve. The hunger pangs were slowly killing me. I couldn’t endure it anymore so I headed to the kitchen to grab something to eat.
Fortunately for me, mother had kept some leftovers from yesterday inside a tupperware in the fridge, so all I needed to do was to take it out and microwave it.
I could hear footsteps approaching the kitchen. It seemed like mom's at first, because I could tell she would have been waiting for me since I didn't come out at all to grab my dinner.
But it wasn’t mother. I heard Adrain's voice, it seemed he was on a call. I quickly placed the food back into the fridge and hid myself behind the table counter.
I didn't know why I panicked just hearing his voice, but the first instinct that kicked in was to hide.
"...Yes babe, you can't tell how much I miss you right now." His voice echoed as he stepped into the kitchen and headed straight for the fridge to grab a box of juice.
My stomach tightened as I listened to the conversation.
The phone was lodged between his ear and his shoulder as he poured the drink into the glass cup.
"You know what, why don't you come over to my place, it's the weekend, so I don't really have any place where i'm going to be."
I bet he was inviting Sophia to the house. Fury snapped into my lungs. The lies he had fed to me just hours earlier, but here he was, all loved up with Sophia over the phone.
"Yeah...yeah, I know." He said, smacking his lips together after taking a sip of his juice.
I was crouched down in the spot, my hands barely hanging over the island. My knees were already aching from having to stay in the same position without moving.
"No babe, I'm not sure if i would be able to make it to the party right after school. I got to look after Elsie and make sure she gets home safely from now on." He said into the phone.
My ears shot up when I heard my name being mentioned.
"Yeah, I know, she can be a handful sometimes."
'A handful sometimes' the words echoed inside my head. My heart was racing fast at this point because I didn't want to loose my cover.
He took another sip from the glass and returned the juice box to the fridge.
"Damn, girl, I know your naughty ass can't wait to come over." He said and held the phone, placing it properly over his ear.
"Alright, babe, it's pretty late now. I got to go get my beauty sleep in."
I heard him giggle. I could have sworn I heard Sophia giggle too from the other end of the phone, even though I couldn't really hear her speaking during the course of the call.
"Okay babe, goodnight." He said and ended the call.
I hadn't realised how long I'd been holding my breath for until Adrain left the kitchen.
When I stood up from my crouched position, it took a while for the blood to flow in properly to my legs. My knees buckled and I had to hold onto the island for support.
I walked toward the fridge like a zombie and took out the tupperware again. I stared down at the food, wondering where my appetite had gone.
I kept the food back into the fridge and took a bottle of water instead, i gulped down the entire content and thrashed the bottle into the waste bin then walked out.
I went back into my room but I couldn't fall asleep. I closed my eyes but the thought of what awaited me when it was dawn bugged my mind, making it harder for me to sleep.
After a couple of hours, I was finally able to fall sleep. I didn't get the right amount of sleep by the time I woke up. I knew that would affect me, but I had to get through the day.
I quickly got up, had a shower to wash off the remaining sleep off my eyes. I eventually microwaved the food from last night and ate.
I snuck out quickly before anyone else woke up. I decided that I was going to go on a walk before the sun came out.
I hoped the walk would clear my head. I blocked out every thought and tried to breathe in the cool morning air. It did help calm my nerve a bit but it only lasted a short while.
The sun was already starting to rise so I booked a cab and headed to Ryan's. I would have traded anything in the world to be in bed right now, doom scrolling on my phone and stuffing my brain with an unhealthy amount of dopamine.
The cab dropped me off at Ryan's house, I got down, paid the cabbie and walked up to the gate.
I suddenly realised that I had left the pass to Ryan's house back at my house.
"s**t!" I cursed underneath my breath as i searched my bag frantically for the pass. I took out my phone instead and dialed Ryan's number.
"Not available?" I snapped.
I dialed the number again, this time, he picked up the phone.
"Hey dickhead. I forgot my pass to your house, now I'm standing outside with no one to let me in."
I heard him mumble something before he finally said, "I'll be right there.”
- Writer
