The Lies He Spoke

FIFTEEN

ELIJAH 

Elijah hadn't seen Jimmy Peters since their conversation in the hospital room. No matter how hard he tried to get him alone, one of his men would always get in the way and stop him from going any further. They never tried to pick a physical fight with him again, but by the time he would manage to extricate himself from the situation, Peters would slip away and Elijah would be left groaning in frustration.

The Friday after his brief stint at the infirmary, Logan and Olivia came to visit him again. She regaled him with stories about Logan, her history teacher, and the unruly neighbors while Logan sat in silence with a grumpy look on his face. Still, Elijah could see that the corners of his mouth twitched when Olivia smiled, that even his frown was only half hearted.

Elijah felt some of the weight slip off his shoulders. He smiled at the two of them.

Logan caught his expression. "What?" he demanded in between Olivia's breaths.

But Elijah knew Logan would hate it if he brought up the change in him in the open. Instead, he said, "I'm just relieved you haven't killed each other yet."

Logan scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. "We can't have more than one family member in jail at a time, can we?"

Elijah leaned back in his chair, chastised, and let Olivia continue. When she finished grumbling about how the whole school pretended they thought she and Logan were dating and Elijah had reassured her that it would just be a passing phase, she turned back towards Logan.

"Sorry, Logan, did you want to say something?"

"Did you finally run out of things to say?"

"I didn't, so if you want to be a grump about it-"

"That's not necessary," Elijah cut in. Even though they were being civil to each other at the moment, he hadn't forgotten how quickly they could get into an ugly argument. "It's alright, Olivia, go on."

"No, tell me something about yourself. What've you even been doing in here?"

"I've been working in the kitchen. And I read books sometimes."

"What books? Do they have a library"

Olivia interrogated him for another fifteen minutes, during which Logan's demeanor suddenly changed. All at once, he stopped looking vaguely bored with everything and his eyes narrowed at Elijah. His thin lips became set in a hard line. He didn't interrupt Olivia, but he clearly was getting more and more pissed off as time went on.

The security guard to their left cleared his throat loudly and when they turned to him, he tapped on his watch twice. A gloomy look came down on his little sister's face. She put her chin in her hand and looked glumly at the guard. "It must be so lonely here by yourself, Elijah" she murmured.

Elijah reached across the table and gently brushed a hand down a lock of her curly hair. "It's alright," he said. "I know you two and Blake will come again."

"I wish we didn't live so far. I would come everyday."

"And who would get your homework done?"

"It's not like I wouldn't have an hour to spend with you."

He meant to reply, but Logan held up a hand and motioned to the door to the visiting room behind them. "Olivia, go wait outside," he told her. "I'll be there in a minute."

"I don't want to-"

"Go outside right now," he said through gritted teeth.

Elijah frowned at Logan's foul mood and sharp tone. He didn't miss the hurt look on Olivia's face. She chewed on her bottom lip and looked down at the floor before she murmured quietly, "Okay."