Promise. (Manthony)

Twenty-Four

         I park my car in an area I hadn't been to before. This is not the type of shit I ever wanted to get into. I also never wanted to keep things from Christian, especially when they involved him.  I wanted to disregard the text I had received. I wanted to run to him and explain everything but I couldn't. We were finally getting back together and the first thing I was doing was going behind his back. I was going behind everyones. 

I shift in my seat uncomfortably. Constantly looking through my mirrors to see if the people I was waiting for had shown up yet. They were already five minutes late, but I wasn't about to rush them. 

Finally, I see headlights turn into the parking lot. I sit up straighter so I appeared confident. 

Christian had gone out with Amber and I told him I was going out to see the friend I had made at the party we went to when we signed with our new manager. 

"You'll be fine." I say to myself in the dark. 

"Mitchel!" I hear a familiar voice sing out in a devious tone. "Get out of the car." He demands. I leave my phone in the car and unlock the doors. I carefully get out and face my ex-friend/ex-lover and his friends. 

"I really thought you were going to listen to me." He says as he shakes his head like a disappointed mother would do.  I sigh loudly. 

"I did what you wanted, Elijah." I say to him annoyed. 

"No," he begins. "You did half of what I wanted." He spits angrily. I hold my stance so I didn't seem scared but I kind of was. 

"Is it really my fault that your dad didn't sign you? You can't always please daddy." I state angrily.  He scoffs. Looking down at his shoes and shaking his head again. 

He steps closer to me. For a brief second, I saw his face show an expression of sadness. I knew deep inside of him he still loved me but it was too deep for him to find anymore. 

"It is your fault!" He screams at me. "We both were signed but my dad found out we were together. He didn't blame you. He blamed me and as my punishment, he signed you idiots and told me I wasn't good enough." He licks his lips harshly. "You ruined everything for me." Elijah snarls. 

To say I didn't feel bad was a lie because I did. I had no idea how I always had daddy issues surrounding me or how it was seemingly always my fault. 

"You know that wasn't my intention..." I trail off. "It's not your fault if you had feelings for me." I attempt to calm Elijah down but I wasn't doing too well. I no longer knew him as I did. That was the old Elijah. This is the angry, jealous, and heartbroken Elijah. 

"I promised I wouldn't fuck with your life anymore if you fucking listened to me and did what I wanted but since you didn't want to then that promise is broken." Elijah grabs ahold of my shirt. Pulling me closer and shoving me back into my car. I stumble and wince at the sudden shock of pain. 

"Elijah," Tanner finally speaks up. "Shut up." He hisses. Staring me down in disgust. I glance over at Tanner and his eyes read nothing but guilt. Tanner and Elijah only bonded over the rejection that they felt from Christian and me. They had nothing but common than that. 

I could never beat Elijah in a fight. He had done Taekwondo since he was 5 and was now a third-degree black belt. He could easily kill me with no questions asked. 

"I'm sorry...I'm really sorry." I plead. I was begging for Elijah to understand that I never meant to hurt him. We had been together for almost a year and I did love him; it wasn't the same kind of love that Christian and I shared but it was hard not to love someone who you'd been with for almost a year. Hiding it certainly wasn't easy and we didn't see each other often but at the time we thought it was worth it. 

It was hard to believe that he now hated me. My thoughts were interrupted when he grabbed ahold of my arm, turns me around, and shoves me into my car once again. My face hit the metal hard. I hoped that didn't leave a bruise or I'd had a lot of explaining to do to Christian. 

"Elijah! We said we wouldn't hurt him!" A different voice yells. I assumed it was the friend I hadn't met. 

"I lied." He tells the friend with a sick tone of happiness in his voice. He grabs me again and shoves me into my car for a third time just to prove that he could. He had power over me and he relished in that over and over. I cough heavily from the pain in my solar plexus.  I was doing everything I could to not cry even though I really wanted to. 

"P-please," I beg. Elijah looks at me. The both of us staring at each other in silence. 

"I really didn't want us to end like this." He says to me. "M-me neither." I stutter. 

"But this is your fault. You pay the price." He throws me to the ground. My head hitting the pavement. I couldn't help but cry out in pain. Tears now falling down my face. My hand reaches the pain jolting from my head out of reflex. 

"I hope you're happy with Christian, but it won't last forever. I promise I'll come after you. Might be tomorrow, next month, next year," He bends down next to me. Grabbing my face and gripping it in his hand. 

"I'll ruin you the same way you ruined me but worse." He lets go and I catch myself before I hit my head again. Elijah walks back to his car. Tanner looks back at me as if he wanted to see if I was okay but knew he'd get shit for it if he did. I wave him off. My way of telling him I was fine and to go before Elijah took his anger out on him too. 

I knew Tanner wasn't a bad guy which is why I thought he'd be good for Christian. I felt bad when Christian ghosted him and left Tanner wondering what went wrong but I didn't expect him to get involved with Elijah. And not like this. 

Tanner's friend grabs ahold of his arm and drags him back to the car as well. Neither of them looked back at me.  I wait for them to drive away before getting up. My body hurt from the beating I had just gotten but I was actually happy with it because I knew I deserved it. 

It sounded fucked up but I wished Elijah had hurt me more so the physical pain would drown out the emotional pain. 

I pull my keys out of my pocket and unlock my car with the car fob. I slowly get up and get in. Numbly sitting in my seat. I hear my phone buzz reminding me that Christian was probably wondering where I was. 

I grab it and see a few texts from Christian. One said he missed me and the others were wondering if I were okay and where I was. I quickly type an apology and said my phone died and I had been waiting for it to charge. 

Another lie. 

Anger consumes me and I throw my phone. 

"Fuck," I scream out. Hot tears streamed down my face. 

My phone buzzes again and I reach down to grab it. I assume it was Christian so I look quickly at the notification before it went away. 

Don't get too comfortable. 

The text read. It was from Elijah. 

My anger rebuilds itself and I repeatedly punch my steering wheel. All I felt was pain in every inch of my body. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. 

"Fuck you," I sob. "f-fuck you," I say in between sobs. 

I so badly wanted to run into Christian's arms and feel his comfort but I had no one to run to. I was alone on this one. I had caused this and now I had to wait for it to end.