Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Chris
All this time - Toby Mai
I park in front of one of the Xi Ep house on sorority row. It’s not far at all from the residences where Ella lives. Many people are probably waiting at my house in Stoneview, but I have something to settle before celebrating my twenty-fourth year. I grab the documents I brought with me and make my way to their front door. The second a girl opens, she shakes her head.
“You can’t get in. Xi Ep girls only until the party starts.”
“Could you tell Maria Delgado someone’s here to see her?” I say with a smile.
She hesitates, shifting from one foot to another. She can probably feel her friend is in trouble but can’t reconcile that with my warm smile and golden boy look.
“I tend to get what I want,” I add as an explanation. “You don’t want to get in the way of that.”
She closes the door on me, and a minute later, Maria is the one who opens it .
“Christopher,” she smiles brightly. “This is a nice surprise. I thought you weren’t coming to our party tonight.”
“I’m not.”
My curt answer takes her by surprise. Like most people I’ve spoken with on campus, she’s used to a nicer version of me.
I hand her the documents I’m holding.
“I wanted you to know the dean and your cheer coach have been made aware of the drug tests you falsified in the summer to stay on the team.”
Her face falls, shock rendering her speechless.
“You should pack your bags,” I say as I look behind her into the hallway of the house.
“Wait, wait,” she babbles, coming out and closing the door behind her. “Don’t do this. What do you want?”
I shake my head because she clearly didn’t get it. “I don’t want anything. It’s done. You’re being expelled from SFU.”
I’m not about to tell her I’m getting her expelled because she hurt the woman I love. It might have been just about kicking Ella off of the team for her. But to Ella, it’s a hit to her confidence, a stain on the list of things she thought she could achieve. And that can’t happen on my watch.
“How the fuck do you know about my drug test?” she hisses, going for anger rather than bargaining this time.
Tilting my head to the side, I observe the way she’s trying to process this: a hand rubbing her forehead, the one holding the papers crushing them, eyebrows pinched.
“Ah, well. I know a lot of people who can give me information. And they were kind enough to give me information about you.”
Her eyes drop to my hand, and she takes a step closer when she sees the signet ring on my finger .
“We’re on the same side, Chris. My uncle, he’s trying to find me someone I could date so I can get initiated next year.”
Her anxious chatter is annoying, but I let her have it. I understand her fear. I, too, get extremely anxious when I think of losing something I love. Like Ella, for example.
“We’re not on the same side, Maria. See, my side always wins. And I have no idea whatever initiation you’re talking about.”
She grabs me by my shirt, trying to pull me to her but only managing to bring herself closer instead. “I know some men in the Circle. I could ask for a favor?”
I shrug her off calmly. “Again, I have no idea what you’re talking about. But if I did know, I would advise you to keep your mouth shut. Knowledge is power, and that is probably why those men you talk about keep people like you ignorant.”
Tears run down her face as she looks up at me. “Please…I don’t…I don’t want to be expelled.”
“It’s too late for that. You’ll get an email and an appointment with the dean before end of day tomorrow.”
I don’t enjoy her sobs as I walk back to my car, but she should have been careful who she hurt with her actions. Who knows, maybe after a while, people will get the hint. Stay away from Ella Baker. Don’t hurt her. Don’t upset her. Don’t make her feel uncomfortable in any way, shape, or form.
If there isn’t a smile on her face, I want to know why. If there’s a tear on her cheek, I want to know who. And if there’s a name tattooed on her heart, it has to be mine.
All I want right now is to touch Ella, make her feel how much she belongs to me.
One day, she’ll learn everything I did for her to end up in my arms. The good, the bad. She’ll see the regret I had to live with after I ended things with her. Mainly, she’ll understand there isn’t any other ending to her story than the one where I’m her happily ever after.
Even if she disagrees.
My house is full of way too many people I don’t know when I arrive. With my mom away for work, Juliette went to sleep at a friend’s house. There was absolutely no way I was going to celebrate my birthday at the house I share with Megan. That place haunts me with the person she really is behind closed doors. I can’t stand being there. So, my best friends insisted on organizing me a party in my family home.
I should have known not to trust my them for a small party.
“Here he is!” a hoarse voice shouts over the music as I cross the door. “The birthday boy.”
Jake takes me in a hug, shoving a tumbler of whiskey in my hand. “You missed the champagne.”
Luke is right after him, giving me another tumbler. “Drink, brother.”
“The last time we got too drunk on whiskey, we all woke up with a wonky tattoo.”
“Hey, don’t criticize my tattooing skills.” The last voice belongs to Rose.
I’ve been seeing a lot more of her than the others since we’re both assistants to Reeves.
“You three want to get me drunk when you’re already fucked,” I scold playfully. “Who’s going to take care of you? ”
They pause for a second, looking at each other. “It’s fine,” Luke slurs. “We’re fine.”
I roll my eyes, down a glass of whiskey, and take one sip of the other one. “I’ll watch what I drink.”
“No,” Jake groans. “Please, don’t be a dad tonight. We just want you to relax.”
“You’ve been so fucking tense lately,” Rose adds. “He’s been so fucking tense,” she repeats to our friends.
“Probably because his psycho of a girlfriend doesn’t let him take two steps in any direction without asking where he’s going,” Luke chuckles.
“Who with?” Rose insists. “How long? What’s their social security number?”
They all burst out laughing, and I struggle to join them. If only it was funny.
“Where is she, by the way?” I ask, glancing past them and at the crowd of people dancing in my living room.
They stop, sharing a telling look.
“Oh.” Rose squints her eyes as she looks around, nodding to herself. “Yeah, we forgot to invite her.”
“Guys, come on.” I run a hand over the back of my neck as I pull out my phone.
I’ve already got a missed call from her. I know she must have prepared something for my birthday, and it would be suicidal to not go home. I should have told her myself about this party, but it was technically meant to be organized by my friends, and I know that deep down…I didn’t want Megan here.
Rose snatches my phone, gives it to her twin, Jake, and him and Luke are off right away, disappearing in the crowd.
“You forgot to invite her, huh?”
“You know how it is,” she chuckles. “Our parties are private. ”
We both eye the number of people in my house.
“I don’t know how they got here,” she says drunkenly, taking another sip.
“Stop drinking. You’re drunk enough as is.”
She pulls the glass away from her lips and replaces it with something else.
Cigarette hanging from her lips, long black hair in a serious mess, and eyes bright with mischief, she smiles at me.
“A party without Megan will be like the good old days. Don’t tell me you don’t miss it. People partying upstairs, us four in your basement doing our own thing. Ella somewhere in the house, wondering at what point you’re going to take her to a room and?—”
“Rose. Don’t.” I automatically double-check Luke is far enough from us he wouldn’t hear us.
“What? Is she not here yet?”
“She’s not going to come, and you know it.”
“But did you invite her?”
I huff. “Of course I did.”
“Not Megan, though. You didn’t think of telling her we were organizing you a party.”
Refusing to admit she’s right, I change the topic and snatch the cigarette from between her lips. “I thought you told your fiancée you’d stopped smoking.”
“I have.” She scratches her throat, looks away as she starts picking at her hair, and then back at me. “Don’t tell Rachel.”
I roll my eyes. “Is she here?”
“Jake and I agreed not to bring our partners so we could focus on you tonight.”
“I don’t know if I feel like having fun,” I admit.
I know I can be honest with her; she’ll figure it out if I’m not anyway.
“Why?”
“You know why,” I tell her, but she insists on dragging it out of me.
“Spell it out for me.”
I look down at my shoes, back at her midnight eyes, and huff. “Because Ella isn’t by my side.”
“Oh, Christopher. You are so fucked.”
She takes me by the hand and drags me to the door right next to the kitchen, the one that leads to the basement where we used to hang out. Everything is still there from our high school days, the sofas, the TV, the coffee table. God knows why we would have parties when we knew we would end up down here. It’s our little den, our bubble where we can be comfortably ourselves.
I don’t know what time it is when I decide to go back up. The party is still going strong, but if I’m not having fun downstairs with my best friends, I know I won’t be having any fun up here. Everything seems so pointless when Ella isn’t around. My only goal is to get her back, and it’s been driving me so intensely that everything else in life falls flat.
Some girl stumbles into me, and I catch her before she falls to the floor.
“Careful,” I say softly as I grab her drink from her hand before she can cause more damage. “I think you’ve had enough of that.”
For fuck’s sake. I think I can hear it, the way my friends tell me I act like a dad. I sound so boring.
“Sorry,” the girl groans, pushing red hair away from her face.
My lips part when I realize who it is. “Peach.”
“Christopher Murray,” she slurs. “Are you following us or something?”
“You’re at my house.”
“Am I now?” She looks around dramatically. “Oh, wait. This is totally your house.”
I hold her in place by the shoulders, leaning down so I can look into her eyes. “Who’s us ? Is Ella here?”
“Of course she is. She said it was someone’s birthday but didn’t want to go. I convinced her, though. The girl needed a night out. She’s had enough bad news for a lifetime, don’t you think? Anyway. We decided to party in the game room. Maybe I should go check on her.”
It’s like a shot of adrenaline. Now that I know she’s here, the colors in the room are sharper, the music louder. Everything falls into place, and I’m ready to celebrate my birthday.
“Why don’t you go get yourself a glass of water? I’ll check on Ella.”
I practically run up the stairs, heading for the game room on the second floor and pushing the door open. It’s not like they’re having an orgy in here. Really, they’re just a bunch of friends acting like idiots. But Ella doesn’t get to act like an idiot around other men.
She should know better than that.
I walk into the room, and none of them hear me when I calmly say, “Ella.”
Except her. Because that’s how well I trained her when we dated.
What I didn’t take into account is that she’s more drunk than I’ve ever seen her .
“Uh oh, guys.” She giggles to herself as she calls her other friends. “The real daddy is here.”