New Girl in Town

Chapter twenty-one

Elisabeth (Mon, Dec 15)

Two months had passed. Two months since I lost my virginity to Elijah. Two months since the incident with Charlotte. From what I have heard, she is currently out of state with her family due to some financial issues they are facing. As far as I know, the school called the police and so they had to pay lots of money for a lawyer and for court, too. I mostly had Elijah's support regarding this issue - though I don't feel the best that he's paying for the lawyer and everything. He said that it wasn't even my fault this happened and that he would take responsibility for all. As for the more intimate parts...I mean, we had definitely had sex more than just that once, but things have been pretty weird lately, so we don't really focus on it that much. It would anyway be a quite unhealthy way of coping with the issues we're facing. Well, mostly the issues I am facing. My parents decided to get divorced out of nowhere, and my mom's health isn't that well, so she's staying at the hospital. Stephanie decided to leave with dad - she'd always had a soft spot for our father, she'd do anything to have him around her - back in Los Angeles, at our house. And since I had nowhere else to stay, I was forced to move in with Elijah - not that I regret it though.

It's been about a month since all of this happened. I have started getting used to this new life, but it still breaks me. Seeing how my family became a separate trio, seeing my mom at the hospital. Her condition is getting worse every day, and I have no idea what to do to help her. I have often been journaling about everything that's been going on, I've been going out with Elijah and the others, I've FaceTimed Kate, but sometimes the pain is just unbearable. There have been times where I locked myself in the bathroom and cried my eyes out, some other times I cried myself to sleep, and some other times...things were even worse than that. Elijah has been trying to help as much as he can, although I can see it is hard for him, too. There were many times he had to stop me from doing dumb things like drink much so I don't have to deal with the pain or hurt myself in some way.

Today Elijah had this incredible idea of us going on a night drive. He had no idea where we should go himself, though, which kind of...made things more interesting. He suggested we just get in the car and go...anywhere the road takes us to. Apparently, though, we'd go on a trip around the state. None of us felt like sleeping that night, and it's not like I had something else to do. It was winter, and the Christmas holidays were close, but we didn't do anything interesting at school so they gave us an extra week off.

"Are you ready yet?" Elijah asked, waiting for me to get out of his toilet.

"Wait a minute!" I said, trying to do my eyeliner. My eyeliner usually took me about 5 mins for both eyes, but today I was so excited that my hands were shaking like crazy. Elijah and I had gone on many trips together, sometimes just us, some other times with Patrick and Kate, and some others with Lucy and Emily.

The cold air was hitting my face as we had the windows completely turned down. Music was blasting from the speakers, the road being almost empty. The street lights looked like stars, the road being endless, and me feeling the best I had felt in weeks. Elijah's parents were in fact, aware that we were going out and would return in, not even knowing how many hours, and for some reason, they let us go, something unusual coming from them. Letting him go out and return not in hours, maybe even a day, wasn't something they would easily say yes to. But I believe that with everything I've been going through, they both knew it would help both of us.

"Are you okay?" Elijah asked me, getting me off my thoughts. I know why he asked that. He was afraid I was thinking of something dangerous. But today, all I could think about was our trip, him, and how amazing this day was.

"I'm fine, don't worry," I said, smiling at him. I just wished this day would never end. Because I didn't really want to go back to feeling awful. I wanted to be in this car, with Elijah, going to Lord knows where.

We pulled up somewhere about an hour and a half later. The neighborhood looked oddly familiar. But of course! This was my old neighborhood. And the house right in front of me was Kate's house! I was so confused as to why we had come here. I saw Elijah texting someone, and then Kate immediately opened the room and ran towards the car.

"Are you ready for our trip, lady Katherine?" he asked Kate and we all laughed.

"Oh, hell yes I am!" she said, putting her seatbelt on. "I just hope you two don't do your lovelies dovelies in here," she continued. As if.

"Look who's talking," I said, turning my back to face her. She gave me a smirk and I rolled my eyes with a slight smile on my face.

"You sure you don't want to come back here? I'm feeling lonely..." she said, and we suddenly heard someone knocking from the trunk. Kate screamed, and Elijah quickly walked to the trunk and opened it.

"You can now come out," he said, helping Patrick get out of the trunk. I was so shocked...I didn't remember him being there. When did this all happen?

"I couldn't stay at home, knowing my girl was having fun without me," Patrick said and kissed Kate's hand. I was so shocked by what I was seeing. "You see, my brother over there had told me about his plan to get you on their trip, and so he asked me to join along, but I had to hide somewhere to surprise you," he continued, and she hugged him.

"Time to get back on the road, guys. Come in!" Elijah said and we all got on our seats. "Next stop; the beach," he told us, while smirking at me. I turned my head to see the view in front of me. How I had missed living here.

"Thank you," I said, almost tearing up. This day just couldn't get any better.