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It was raining heavily when Eliana picked up the phone, confused as to why Maddy was calling so late. Especially because she thought after babysitting Theo, she would be incredibly tired and would want to go to bed like usual.
"Maddy?" Eliana asked, rising from her seat on the floor of her living room. She had been watching a movie with Ginger and Gwen as they were sitting directly on the couch, trying to take Mikey's advice as best as she could and trying to be more patient with her family. "What's up?"
"You'll never fucking believe what happened," Maddy sobbed into the phone. "I... I can't."
Eyebrows knitting together, Eliana began walking into the next room so her sisters wouldn't hear. "Can't what? What's going on, baby?"
More sobbing into the phone. After a string of almost unrecognizable words (which Eliana would listen to with a finger pressed into her other ear in an attempt to hear better, narrowing her eyes as she tried to make sense of what Maddy was saying) Eliana deduced two things. One being that Nate Jacobs had just tried to kill her and two being that she wanted to kill him. But she had no time to think like that.
She imagined what Maddy looked like, but nothing could conjure up anything close to the reality: Maddy laying on her side as her tears spilt onto her phone screen, coddling the phone close to her ear in a desperate attempt for some sort of warmth, closeness. The truth is that Maddy Perez felt alone. Besides the friends she had — which some had proved to be short-lived recently — Maddy was alone. Eliana knew that. Of course, she knew that because most times she felt the exact same way. And after she talked to Cassie, she was going to march over to Maddy's house and make sure she wouldn't be spending the night alone after what she had just been through. It was the least that she could do.
"I gotta stop Cassie," Eliana said, rushing her nearest shoes on and wasting no time in grabbing her car keys, the Howard house wasn't that far away right? Maddy barely even heard her, still sobbing uncontrollably into the phone. "I gotta go, I'll call you later okay?" Eliana waited for a brief moment, hearing what sounded like a "Mkay" from the other girl before she nodded. "Atta girl, I love you," she said before hanging up, and sprinting out, only telling the twins she'd be right back — offering nothing else, but they knew it was probably Maddy related.
Eliana sprinted as fast as she could, her heart beating out of her chest like a tennis ball against glass as she rushed. She ran and ran until she ended up on the doorstep of a once loving house. A house and family she once wanted to be a part of.
That's why you don't put people on pedestals, especially not people that are just as imperfect as you.
Her whole adolescence, Eliana had been running from the truth in whatever form it took. She pretended her family was normal despite her dad leaving and her addicted brother ending up in jail. She pretended like her friend group was normal when she saw how mean they were to each other. She pretended like the world was in her hands, but the truth was... she was just as lost as the next guy.
Despite Cassie's family's troubles, she had envied the way Suze was there for them no matter what, period. She also sympathized with their father, since her brother nearly ended up the same way. She knew the damages it took on Cassie and Lexi, but when she was younger, she thought they were handling it perfectly. Exactly how they should handle it. God, she knew fucking nothing.
"Open up!" Eliana banged on the door, and it wasn't long until a sleepy Lexi came to the door. She sighed. "Where's Cassie?"
Lexi stepped to the side, her palms laying flat against the wooden door. Eliana stepped inside slowly, almost cautiously. The house looked duller than usual, and that was saying something. It felt like a vessel for sadness, like all the anger manifested through the walls had finally seeped in. You could hear a pin drop. Hell, you could probably even hear a tear hit the floor. Suze sat at the kitchen table, her face evident of the emotional hell she had been through.
Eliana looked around, but there was no trace of her old blonde pal. She swallowed hard, her throat dry from heavy breathing. "Where is she?"
"It doesn't matter," Lexi said quietly. "She won't listen to us."
Eliana shook her head. "No... no, she has to. She has to. He—"
"We know, baby," Suze cut her off. She closed her eyes shut as if doing so would take away this awful memory and turn it into something she dreamt of. "We know."
"He's terrible," Eliana continued shaking her head, her eyes cloudy now. She blinked rapidly, trying to disguise the fact that she was emotional right now. Who was she kidding, she was absolutely emotional! She knew far too much about a family she didn't care to know about, yet another family that was placed upon a pedestal except not by Eliana or a small group of friends, but instead, a whole town. The whole town loved the Jacobs family except those unlucky enough to actually know them.
And unfortunately, Eliana knew them.
Tears fell from her cheeks as Suze nodded, agreeing with Eliana. She was happy to know that Eliana still cared at least, it was evident that they couldn't do much for Cassie, but she tried. She tried and that's what mattered. "It's okay."
"No, it's not," Eliana pressed her lips together tightly. So tightly that the skin around her mouth turned white at the pressure. "She's going to get hurt."
"She already made that decision," Lexi added.
Lexi was right, it was totally up to Cassie. Cassie knew what she was doing from day one, regardless of her relationship with herself or with Maddy, she still fell for Nate's antics knowing how abusive he was to her friend. Eliana breathed heavily, wanting nothing more to shout about how much pain Nate was causing Maddy at this very moment. How they could be working together even, to get Cassie back to the way she used to be. Before she clawed for the attention of some piece of shit.
But it wasn't her place.
"I gotta go," Eliana said quietly, almost so low that the two barely heard. The last of her tears (for now) cascaded across the valleys of her cheekbones and onto the floors of the Howard home. Her mind raced with what she needed to do next, but one thing was for certain. Maddy needed her right now, as did she, and she wasn't about to let her down like everyone else had.
Without saying anything else, she dashed out of the home and back into the night, deadset on making things right. With Maddy, with Fez, with her sisters. Eventually with her brother and mom. The pedestal was officially obliterated.
