32. Elliot
ELLIOT
“ W hat’s going on out here?” Eve asked, causing me to take my eyes off of Gabe, who was standing before me, so I could look up at her as she approached the stairs.
My heart stumbled in my chest.
She came to a stop at the top, and her mouth fell open in surprise. It felt like it had been forever since the last time I saw her. Getting to lay my eyes on her was like when you finally get a drink of water after walking through the desert. I was relieved and so fucking happy I could cry.
“That’s the same thing I’ve been trying to figure out,” Gabe said, stealing my attention away from her.
I glared at him. “I didn’t come here for you, so get out of my way.” I took a step toward her, but he sidestepped, blocking my path to the stairs.
“I swear to God, Gabe… If you don’t get out of my fucking way, I’ll?—”
“You’ll what?” he asked, cutting me off. “You’ll… wait until I’m good and fucked up so you can attack me again?” He was referencing the night I sent Anna home after arguing with her for hours about fucking my best friend behind my back.
After I sent her home, I went looking for him.
I found him, too, drunk off his ass at some random party rather than comforting his little sister who just lost her parents.
He didn’t know it, but I didn’t just kick his ass for fucking my girlfriend.
I wanted to make him pay for being such a shitty brother.
“What?” Evelyn asked from her place at the top of the stairs.
Gabe glanced up at her. “What? You didn’t know that it was Elliot who nearly killed me and left you a complete orphan?” He returned his gaze to mine.
I scoffed. “Don’t be so dramatic. It was a fight. That’s it.”
His brows lifted. “Yeah, a fight when I was clearly too drunk to defend myself. You remember when you knocked me out cold and took off? What you don’t know is that they had to call an ambulance.
I spent an entire week in the hospital after you left me with a brain bleed.
Eve had to stay with her friend until I was released. I could’ve died.”
I felt the punch of guilt hit me in the stomach.
I knew that I’d lost control that night.
I was heartbroken, angry, and full of rage.
Once I found him, I didn’t let up until I was pulled away.
I didn’t even remember how many times I’d hit him.
All the years that had passed, I thought he owed me an apology for fucking my girlfriend.
Then I realized that I owed him one for nearly killing him.
But none of that mattered in that moment.
What mattered was Evelyn, and making her hear me out.
I took a deep breath to calm myself. “Look, man… I’m sorry for all that shit. Alright? But I didn’t come here to deal with that.”
“Why did you come here?” she asked.
I looked up at her and saw her fall back a step. She crossed her arms over her chest and bit down on her lower lip as she turned her head to break our connection. I started toward the stairs again, but Gabe was quick to shove me back.
I held my hands up. “Don’t fucking start, man.”
“You really think I’m going to let you anywhere near my sister?”
“Oh, you’re going to pick right now to be the protective big brother?
” I threw back. “Where were you when she was upstairs, scared and hurting because her parents died and she didn’t know where she’d end up?
” My brows lifted. “That’s right. You were balls deep in my girlfriend.
I don’t know if you remember or not, but I was the one who was always here for her.
I was the one who gave her advice when she needed it.
I was the one who hung out with her and kept her company while you were off trying to screw another girl.
I was the one who was up there comforting her while you were busy fucking my girlfriend.
So don’t you dare try to act like you’ve been here for her all along because that’s always been me. ” I pointed at my chest.
“You son of a bitch,” he snarled under his breath before lunging toward me.
He wrapped both arms around me and tackled me to the floor.
He landed a hit to my jaw that echoed through my head.
I bucked upward and twisted, trying to knock him off of me, but he was holding tight.
He didn’t have time to hit me again, though, because Evelyn rushed down the steps and wrapped her arms around his bicep, dragging him back and allowing me to get up.
I stood, doubled over and breathless.
“I-I just came here to talk,” I said, looking over at her from beneath my lashes. “Will you please just talk to me, Evie? Fuck, baby, please?”
Gabe glared at me. “You motherfucker. My-My sister, man? You’re fucking my little sister? You’re the reason she quit school?”
“Gabe, stop,” Eve called out, her voice wavering.
Gabe visibly swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. He let out a scoff.
“Can we talk?” I begged softly. “Please, Evie?”
“Fine,” she whispered. She started toward the stairs.
I followed along behind her and was halfway up when I realized that Gabe was behind me. At the top of the stairs, I turned to face him.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I demanded.
“You wanna talk to her? You can talk to me, too.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I started, but Eve stepped between us.
“It will only be a minute, Gabe. Don’t worry about him. I can handle him,” she assured her brother before turning and slipping into her darkened bedroom.
I took a deep breath, ripped my eyes from him, and followed her inside. I closed the door behind me and locked it, not wanting Gabe to barge in whenever he felt like it.
She sat on the edge of her bed and turned on the lamp that was on the nightstand.
It filled the room with soft light, making it much easier to see.
I took a moment to review everything. It had been forever since I’d been inside her childhood bedroom.
It was exactly as I remembered it. Nothing had changed.
I sat on the edge of the bed beside her, and my eyes moved to the framed family photo she had on the nightstand. Lying beside it was a picture of us in the pool. I smiled as I reached over and picked it up.
I raked my eyes over her nearly naked body. She was underage then, but I sure as fuck noticed how good she looked in her bright yellow bikini.
“I remember this day,” I say, thinking back on how long it seemed now.
She took the photo from my hand and tossed it back onto the table. “You came all this way so say what you need to say.”
I took a deep breath. “I…I don’t even know where to start.”
“Why don’t you start with how you’ve been trying to get revenge on my brother by fucking me?” Her words were laced with acid, and they burned as they sank into me.
I nodded. “Alright, I admit that was the plan…”
“I knew it,” she yelled. “I can’t believe you’re just going to admit to it like that.” She sprang up and paced across the room.
I kept my eyes on her. “I said that was the plan. Things changed. I changed!” I held my hands out, my fingers outstretched.
“Oh yeah? When? Was it before or after I bought the paper that you wrote and then blackmailed me with?”
I felt the anger inside of me rising once again.
“After,” I said between clenched teeth.
She laughed and shook her head. “I can’t believe this.” Her pacing started back up. “All of this has been nothing but some sick fucking game to you.”
“No, it hasn’t.” I stood up. “I’ll admit that everything I did was fucked up. I wish I could take it all back, but I can’t. But I’m not going to let that stand in our way. Yes, things between us were fucked from the start, but that doesn’t mean that what we found in one another wasn’t real.”
“Yes, it does!” she yelled.
“You’re angry. I get that. You have every right to be, but I’m not going anywhere. I’m right here, and I’m going to stay right here so I can remind you over and over again that what we had was real. Everything I said to you, I meant.”
“Why did you come here, Elliot?” she asked weakly.
“I came for you. I came to fix this.” I took a step closer.
“I came to get you back. I can’t live without you, Evelyn.
I don’t want to.” I took another step. “And I know you feel the same way. I would chase you to the end of the world to prove to you how far I’m willing to go.
” I took her hand in mine, and when she didn’t pull it away, I pulled her against my chest. “If you want to know how far I’ll go to get you back, I’ll go anywhere you tell me to go, Evie.
I’ll go to hell and fight my way back.” I cupped her jaw and tilted her head back.
Our eyes met and locked.
“I’ll do anything you want. Just don’t push me away. You don’t even know how badly I need you.” I pressed my mouth to hers.
She opened for me, and I thrust my tongue inside.
The moment her sweetness washed over me, I melted.
Everything fell away. I forgot that Gabe was just outside her door, probably listening to every word we said.
I forgot how fucked up things were between us.
I forgot about everything except her and me.
I got lost in her, just as I always had.
I picked her up against me and pressed her back to the wall.
She gasped when I throbbed against her center.
She was only wearing a tiny pair of cotton shorts and a t-shirt.
I pushed my hands up beneath her shirt and found her chest bare.
Her nipples instantly hardened against my palms, and she moaned when I pinched them.
She fisted my hair and kissed me harder. I moved one hand between us, running my fingers up her inner thigh until I was pushing her shorts out of the way to rub against her center. She was dripping with excitement, making it easy for my fingers to thrust into her.
“Fuck, I can’t wait to be inside you again,” I said against her lips as I ground my palm against her clit.
She broke our kiss. “No, Elliot.”
My brows knitted together as I looked into her lust-filled eyes. “No, what?” My fingers stilled inside her.
“We can’t do this anymore.”
“Nothing has changed, Evie.” I removed my hand from her breast and wrapped it around her throat, holding her in place as my other hand worked harder to push her over the edge.
She wrapped her hand around my wrist. “Everything has changed, Elliot. I-I don’t trust you.”
Her words were like a slap to my face. After all these years, after everything that had happened between us, she was letting the bad have more power than the good.
“You don’t mean that,” I said thickly, removing my hand from between her legs. I grabbed her hip and squeezed, trying my hardest not to let her slip through my fingers, but I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was falling away from me.
“I do mean it. I want you to go.”
“What? No.” I couldn’t believe what she was saying. How could everything change so quickly for her? Nothing had changed for me. I still wanted her. I still needed her. And I was still losing her. The pain was unbearable. There was so much pressure on my chest that I couldn’t take a breath.
She pushed against my chest, trying to make me go away, but I fought to hang onto her and lifted her against me. “Don’t do this. Don’t fucking do this, Evie.”
Tears welled up in her eyes. “Put me down!” She pushed harder.
“No. Fuck! Evie, just listen to me,” I pleaded. “Please, baby. I need you to listen.”
She bucked against me, screaming for me to release her.
God, I couldn’t let her go. I loved her. I loved her more than I’d ever loved anything in my entire fucking life. She made me feel alive again. She made me feel seen. She made me…Fuck, she just made me .
A loud crashing sound cut through everything else, and the next thing I knew, Gabe was ripping me away from her.
“I think you better go,” he said, dragging me toward the door.
I fought against him. “Just give me one more minute,” I pleaded, fighting against him, fighting to stay in the room when he was trying to throw me out.
I latched onto the doorframe. “Evie!”
She turned and looked at me with tears rolling down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” I told her. “I’m sorry for everything. This is all my fault, and I know that. I know how badly I fucked everything up. I’ll go.”
With that, Gabe stopped trying to pull me from the room. He released me even though I could feel him behind me.
“I’ll go, but before I do, I need to finish this.”
She stared at me, her bottom lip trembling. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Fuck, I hated to see her cry. It was all my fault.
“If anyone deserves to be at that school, it’s you. Don’t let me fuck that up for you. You worked hard to be there. Go back. I’ll leave.”
“You need to fucking leave, Elliot,” Gabe said from behind me.
“I couldn’t go back even if I wanted to. I turned in my key. I don’t have a place to live.”
I shrugged. “If I’m not teaching there, then I don’t need a place there. Take my apartment. It’s the least I can do.”
“I’ll never be able to afford your apartment, Elliot. Just… drop it and go.”
“I own it. I won’t charge you to stay there. You can keep it as long as you’re enrolled. Go back on Monday. I’ll be out by then.” I turned and found Gabe.
“You were teaching at her school?”
I turned back to her, ignoring him. “I know you hate me. I get it—I really do. But know that I never lied to you, Evie. I meant every word I ever said. I’m sorry that I fucked everything up. I just hope that eventually, you’ll be able to believe that.”
Her lips parted. I thought she was going to come to me and tell me she loved me too, but she stayed rooted in her spot, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.
I made to leave, my heart shattering, before I turned back one last time and looked at her from over my shoulder.
“One last thing,” I choked out. “I fucking love you, Evie, and I will always love you. You will forever be my girl.”
Without another word, I turned and walked away from one for the last time.