22
Ella
September 2018
“E lls? Ells Bells?”
“What?” I groan, coming to. “What day is it?”
He chuckles as I stir awake. “Ells, come on. It’s Friday, the first of September, and we’re in the car. Silly goose.”
I open my eyes fully, expecting myself to be in the comfort of my bed, but I notice I’m in Matty’s car with a blanket over my lap. We’re already outside Nick’s place.
Everything rushes back at once: Dean, his kiss, his hand on my behind, running away, the estate agents…
“You slept the whole bloody journey.” He kisses my cheek and I sit up properly.
“Half an hour, Matty, the drive was half an hour. I didn’t sleep, I had a power nap,” I point out.
“You just asked me what the day was, and you were snoring and muttering. But if you want to call it that, go for it,” he jokes. “Come on. Let’s go.”
I wipe my eyes; in the rush of packing and stress, I didn’t put makeup on, which I think half-frightened the estate agent when I walked in there looking like a sleep-deprived and stressed zombie as soon as they opened.
I glance at Nick’s house with a sigh; though I’m not entirely sure whether it’s relief or trepidation. My flat is partly emptied of my essentials and is on the market as of twenty-six minutes past nine this morning. I’ve bought myself a new phone with a new sim card and kept my old one off for a while. I probably have thirty missed calls or messages from Dean, my parents, or both.
My thoughts get interrupted when I nearly get knocked over by Bailey jumping at me, wanting all the attention. The tension in my mind melts as I give her a fuss.
“Hey girl,” I greet. She pants at me and wags her tail in affection. “I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other for a little while. Is that good with you?” I get an appreciative lick on my cheek. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“Ella!” Nick approaches, arms wide open for a hug. I gesture Bailey off and hug Nick. Instantly, I feel that safety net wrap around me.
“Come on.” He gestures me inside with Bailey while Matt unloads the car. “You look like you need a coffee.”
I follow Nick and Bailey into the kitchen.
“Matt told me what happened last night,” Nick mentions as he passes me the milk to make coffee. “I know it’s kinda awkward, so if you don’t want to talk about it, don’t feel you have to. I just want to check you’re as okay as can be.”
Of course, Matt would say something. “Thanks, Nick. I’m all right. I think I’m just shaken up, you know?”
“Naturally. The past five years you’ve been trying to escape this thing, and it’s built up and up like a volcano that’s gonna burst. I suppose last night set it off,” he says as I show him how to work the machine. “I assume they don’t know about Matt or me, or how to find you?”
My head shakes. “They’ll find out about the flat sooner rather than later, so they’ll start looking soon.”
Nick smirks. “A real runaway bride, huh? You’re good at planning.”
Matt walks in, closing the front door behind him. He appears in the kitchen, my old phone in his hand. “Do you want this?”
I stare at it when he hands it to me. I should smash it up, but something in my veins compels me to turn the blasted thing on.
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” Matty questions.
“I want to see, and then I’ll turn it back off.” It only takes a moment for the vibrations to start alerting me of the missed messages.
A few of them are from Dean apologising for his actions. More from him asking to speak to me today, one asking if he can come over to talk. A few from my mum indicate that she’s angry I stormed off and apparently, I need to contact her or my dad soon to discuss what happened. I also have one from Mum saying that she is disappointed that I embarrassed Dean, Anthony, and my dad.
“I assume it’s all ‘where are you’ and ‘you need to talk to us about last night’ crap?” Matty asks, and I nod, scrolling through the last few.
One catches my eye, though. From my mum: ‘If you do not answer Dean or me within the next hour, we will come over to your flat, Ella. You have disgraced us with your behaviour, and I can only assume it is because of this boy you have an infatuation for. This is going to stop now.’
I roll my eyes and show Matt, who reads it out.
“Well, they say mums know everything,” Nick points out. “But she doesn’t know who, and I assume no one else has the keys to your place but you, Matt, and the estate agent?”
“No, there is nothing she can do but bang on the door, but I assume they’re already on their way now because that was sent an hour ago. They’ll know sooner than we thought they would,” I say. “The estate agent said they would be discreet when putting a for sale sign outside the building too, but I guess that doesn’t matter anymore.”
“You’re both safe for now, but I would suggest getting a plan in place. We’re close to Southampton, so if it’s realistic for them to look around here, I’d get planning your next moves,” Nick suggests. “I mean, I’m not involved in this, so ignore me.”
“Let’s just… settle in for now. My brain’s fried.” Matt sighs and I nod in agreement. The mixture of impending doom mixed with the pure happiness of my new freedom is fighting a war of butterflies in my stomach and I don’t know which is triumphing.
∞∞∞
“I forgot what it was like to sleep with the bloody weight of a dog on top of you,” Matt sighs in the dead of night.
“Oh, don’t listen to him girl, come here!” I gesture Bailey over and she shifts to lie beside me. I scratch her ears. “He’s stupid, right?”
“Hey, don’t start ganging up on me, you two! I’m watching you both,” he smirks, tickling my side. I roll over and playfully kick him in the shin. “You’ll regret that!”
“Okay, okay, I surrender!” I giggle and he stops. Bailey gets up and shuffles off out of the room. Matt closes the door after her and I pout. “You made her leave!”
“You did that yourself,” he jokes, kissing me instead. I kiss him back, drowning in his scent, the knowledge that I can openly kiss him now without the fear of other people knowing our secret.
“Thank you.” I let him go. He settles back in the bed, and I shift so my head is lying on his chest.
“What for?”
“Risking it all, for me,” I answer, as if it were obvious. “You’ve uprooted yourself, put yourself in this, well, shit show, where we have no idea what we’re doing, all for me. I’m grateful, you know.”
He sighs and the warm breath falls on my head, making me shiver. “Ells, you don’t have to thank me. It should be me who is thanking you. You’ve given up everything: your home, most of your money, your parents…” He takes a breath. “Okay so your impending marriage was never going to be one of love, but it would have secured you for life. But you gave up that, and more, for me. For us.”
“I’d do it all again.” I smile and look up at him. “But we aren’t out of the woods yet. I dread to think about what my texts look like now. They’ll know by now that I’ve fled.”
“I think we need to have a plan,” Matty says. “Maybe we should rent a place or something. In my name only so they can’t find you. Maybe we should get married sooner rather than later. We may be close to them geographically, but correct me if I’m wrong, they won’t think to look here. There are no ties to your family or his here, right?”
“Not that I’m aware of.” I think hard but come up with nothing.
“So, I suggest we settle here for now unless you have any objections?”
“I don’t care where, as long as it’s with you,” I answer.
“Smooth, Ells Bells, smooth.” He laughs. “We’ll start looking in a few days. I think, for now, we need to take a few days to settle down after yesterday. This has been a long time coming, so maybe we need to just take stock. Maybe look into booking our wedding, huh?”
“I’d like that.”
“Not exactly the most romantic way to do it, but given the circumstances, I think I can be forgiven?” he questions.
“Being married to you would be the best thing in the world. I never thought this would be possible, yet we’ve done it. You could turn up in jeans and a t-shirt and wear that awful beanie that hides your hair, and I would think it’s romantic—”
“Whoa, slow down their Ells. What’s wrong with my hat?” He feigns offence. I shift so I’m straddling him, and playfully hit his shoulder before running my hand through his hair.
“I like seeing your hair. When you wear it, it hides those curls from me,” I whine. “But you’ve completely made my declaration unromantic now, and I hate you for it.”
“Well, I apologise, Miss Grump!”
He pulls me down until we’re kissing desperately. I drink in his optimism and keep it locked in my mind. His hand cups my cheek and I nip at his marshmallow-like bottom lip. He tugs at my pyjama top until I take it off.
“You’re forgiven,” I whisper as he shifts me underneath him.
“Well, that’s good, because if I wasn’t, I was going to do this—” He stops whispering and starts trailing tantalising kisses down my body. They leave a fiery desire on my skin as he works his way further down.
“And then if that didn’t work, I was going to do this—” He raises an eyebrow and takes my pyjama shorts off.
“Well, then I guess I take my forgiveness back!” I smirk and bite my bottom lip again as I let him take full control of my mind and body.