The Dove And The Grenade.

Chapter 5: Senseless.

Eliese sat up most of the night, her head was lost in a bys of what happened. Did she really allow her best friend to kiss her? Did she let him manipulate her into agreeing to the insanity of him becoming Emily’s step dad? She mustn’t have, but she did. She wallowed in the bone shaking bliss of security for her and Emily. She caved into normality, but this wasn’t normality. This was the opposite; it was insanity.

Gold light from the sun flowed into the dark living room like a river flowing freely downstream. Eliese hid her short legs underneath her as she sat in the corner of the couch, staring mindlessly out the bay window. ‘Why did I let this happen?’ She asked herself mentally, clamping shut the black knee length bathrobe. Her hands clamped it shut at the nape of her neck, concealing the black tank top she wore underneath, along with the black underwear she had on under her jeans. Did they have sex? No. The kiss was as far as they went, but they both went to bed. There was an odd feeling of belonging and serenity when Eliese crawled into bed with her best friend. She felt as if past relationships of emptiness no longer existed. What an amazing feeling that was.

Eliese sighed at the answer to her own question and glanced down at the black iron picture frame with happiness radiating from it. ‘Emily,’ Eliese thought silently. ‘I did this for Emily.’ Eliese smiled to herself as she peered down at the picture of the three of them, they had gone to the amusement park that day and they had a ball. Eliese remembers people telling her Emily was lucky to have two very supportive parents. That was the first time someone besides her own mother assumed that Matty was Emily’s father. It was refreshing but heart breaking. ‘I’m doing this for Emily.’

While Eliese was burying herself in memories, upstairs Matty laid in bed with his arms tied around his pillow. He tried to stay asleep but the absence of having someone next to him kept him awake. His heart sank with sorrow, he had realized what he did last night was wrong. But he so badly wanted those girls apart of his life in so many ways that he couldn’t sort out right from wrong. ‘Love makes people do crazy stuff.’ Matty thought to himself, excusing his inappropriate actions. He scowled and opened his baby blue eyes, seeing the empty bed beside him. ‘Love should do prison time for this shit.’ Love made him misuse his best friend because he was too lazy to build a family of his own. He took what she built and called it his own. Eliese was right; he had no clue what it was like to be a single parent, let alone a parent in general. He wasn’t Emily’s dad, or her Uncle, he was her best friend. The enabler.

Matty’s gut wrenched with a familiar anger when he remembered seeing the dark circle looping around Eliese’s eye. It couldn’t have been more than two weeks old; she said she just got out of a bad relationship. Matty swore to himself that he was never going to touch her like he did. But Matty doesn’t know how many he’s there are, too many to be confessed. Eliese had an addiction to violent men; if they could punch her then they could protect her. That’s what her mom told her when she was small. Eliese doesn’t want Emily to come down this road of being shown numb love, but it’s too late. Emily has seen it with innocent eyes.

Matty’s attention was caught from the thoughts about what he’ll do to the man (men) who have hurt Eliese when a bedroom door creaked open slowly. Matty figured it was just Emily finally getting up to get ready for School, but it could also be Eliese sneaking out before he got up. He wasn’t sure if she worked today, probably but he didn’t mind. She has to get paid somehow.

Emily poked her head out slightly and looked around. She was seeing if anyone was up yet. Emily couldn’t hear her mother downstairs, nor could she hear either of them moving around or talking. Emily carefully stepped out from the bedroom and tiptoed down the hallway to the bathroom with an arm full of clothes. Emily may have a broken arm but she needed to go to School. Luckily she always seems to have an outfit or two at Matty’s house in case her mom works a night shift and she needs a babysitter.