Control

8 - Get in, Dear

a/n - sorry if the format is weird, i had to write this on my phone lol

I was back in the bakery, as usual, just ringing people up. I had to get up early today, since it was parent-teacher conference day with Eddie's teacher, and I wanted to look presentable. I had to put basically all of my makeup and smush it all over my jaw to hide the bruise that Mr. Hadner had left. By now, a couple days had gone by since that night, but the effect of his words had still haunted my nightmares. I barely got any sleep last night, not wanting to dream about his or anyone's hands on me.

Luckily, there weren't a lot of customers; hardly any, in fact. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I just laid my elbow down on the counter in front of me...

Oh that's nice. I mean I'm sure I could put my other elbow down too, nothing bad would happen...

My head dropped. For moments, then seconds, then minutes.

Then all of a sudden, like the feeling of cold water splashing over me, I had a tap on the shoulder. I spring up off of the counter and see two men. One was wearing his normal smile, accompanied with his button up under a cable knit sweater and trousers.

The other man, who I had never seen before, was in a suit that was obviously tailored to fit his incredibly lean body type. It was evident that he had muscle, but he was also skinny and quite tall. His black hair reached his shoulders, and most of it was pulled back into a bun at the back of his head, however a few strands framed his face in front of him.

He didn't have a single expression on his face, just staring blankly at me with the bluest eyes I had ever seen.

Is bluest a word? More blue? Blue as ever? Whatever, you get the point. They were like, super super blue. Oh my god, I'm still staring at him.

I gasp and quickly fix my hair and smooth out my white apron, looking towards Alexander now. "Mr. Alexander sir, I swear I've never done that before, I'm so so sorry! Please forgive me, I've never been so rude in my life! Except when I accidentally called you a bad driver, which I definitely didn't mean by the way-"

"Hi Ellie, I assume you're tired?" He clutched his messenger bad tighter, looking over me with a quirk in the corner of his mouth.

I smile wide at him, releasing a small yawn that I try to cover up. "How'd you notice?"

I turn my attention back to the other man for only a second, but end up completely captivated, cocking my head to the side, studying everything about him. Alexander was sweet, and guiding, and knowledgable. This man, he was something different. It's like he was sucking me in with his eyes.

I get out of my haze when Alexander speaks again. "Darling, you look beautiful today. What's the occasion?"

I blush hard, and slightly cave in on myself. I'm wearing a dress and small heels under my apron, a yellow sunflower dress, one of the only dresses I had that wasn't ruined some way or another. I cherished it deeply. "Thank you, it's not much though. I have to attend a parent-teacher conference for Eddie, so I tried to look okay." I frown involuntarily, and Alexander cocks an eyebrow.

"What's horrible about that?"

"It's not horrible, they just always have a lot of questions, which I understand completely, but it's always the same ones every quarter. They always ask my relation to him, and then I say that I'm his guardian, and then they pry and I say that I'm his sister, and they ask where the parents are, a-and I don't like that question very much at all, but I understand the concern and I just say that I take care of him, which is true because lying is wrong, and they ask if he has a male role model in his life because that's important and stuff, and I never know what to say and it's always so awkward- sorry, I'm rambling again, gosh I keep doing that-"