Chapter Five
Bonnie
Ellie paced back and forth between the kitchen and where I had resumed my spot on the floor.
She rotated between shooting me worried glances and mumbling very detailed visions of how to get rid of a body.
At one point, she even started opening the cabinets, looking for large, black plastic trash bags.
When she came up empty, she asked if I had a tarp stored anywhere—same with acid.
“Sure, El, right under the sink next to the extra sponges. That’s where I keep my tarps and acid.”
She didn’t find me nearly as amusing as I found myself, and I laughed so hard at my own joke that I had to swallow down my vomit before I ended up choking on it.
She eventually laid down next to me on the floor after finally calming down and snatched the drink from my hand and downed it in one gulp.
“Hey!” I protested.
“Oh, hush, you’ve had enough,” she said, keeping her gaze on the ceiling, “Bon?” she asked.
“Yeah, El?”
“Did you realize how he didn’t respond to a single message in the chats? Not a single one. Not in the group chat, not to Tiff?”
She was damn right I had noticed. That was why all the pieces didn’t fit together, didn’t make sense. And I couldn’t put it together, couldn’t grasp the reality of the situation because of the silence.
“Is silence any better?” I let my question hang in the air while we both thought about it. She sat the iPad down between us, and I couldn’t help but pick it up and start to scroll through the messages again, pulling up the group chat first.
Justin: You coming out with us tonight E?
Tiff: Doubtful, you know his old ball and chain probably has him baking Christmas cookies.
Chad: Yeah, she needs another cookie like I need a colonoscopy.
Tiff: LOL
Elijah had said nothing, so I kept scrolling and re-reading everything that had already imprinted itself behind my eyes. I saw the words every time I blinked.
Justin: I saw that we were all grounded this weekend, you guys up for some darts?
Chad: Name the place.
Chad: E? Can you leave the girlfriend at home? She’s always a downer.
How dare he? I was a hoot. I just didn’t much like spending my time with men who had god-like egos, treated waitstaff like they were less than, and couldn’t hold their liquor.
By 9 p.m., they were the worst of drunks.
I found myself constantly uncomfortable in their presence, wondering how the hell someone like Elijah stood his friends. But they were his friends.
Ralph: Sorry I’ve been MIA. Work has been killer.
Justin: Yeah, I’ve seen what flights you’ve been on.
Ralph: Stop dogging on E, we can’t help what we like, maybe she makes up for it in the bedroom.
Chad: Does she E? Come on, you can tell us, we won’t judge.
Tiff: Yes we will.
The tears started flowing freely. Is that what he thinks of me? I loved him, and I thought he loved me, but my god, how wrong was I? Even thinking about someone saying something like that about Elijah made me see red, but he was silent. Quiet when he should have been loud.
His silent betrayal reminded me of snow. Beautiful, cold, and quiet, but deadly in the right conditions.
I couldn’t help but pull up the thread with Tiffany to go over as well.
Tiff: Drinks?
Tiff: Crazy flight, see you at the bar in a minute.
Tiff: Room 401 this time.
Tiff: Room 220.
Tiff: What a great night! See you soon.
The thread of their chats was steadily unweaving what I had considered to be the greatest love story—my love story.
“I have an idea,” I whispered to Ellie.
“I’ll get the tarp.”
She smacked my thigh and got up, holding her hand out to help me up.