Once the two teens had actually made it down the stairs and into the living room where the makeshift stage was planted, they found a gap where both of their bodies would fit.
Malakai stood behind the girl and wrapped his arms around her neck as the music started, Nell brought her hands up and rested them on his forearms.
When she looked up to observe the boys on the stage, she spotted no one other than Spider, already watching the girl as he strummed on his guitar.
Nell could feel the discomfort crawling up her spine, the room suddenly became 10x more crowded and she felt suffocated by the bodies around her.
This has happened many times before, sometimes she knew what triggered it, other times it was too vague to tell but all she knew was what was about to happen to her.
Her self preservation instincts kicking in, Eleanor turned to the boy behind her and yelled over the loud music that wasn't helping her growing anxiety.
"I really need to go!" she attempted to yell over the music, "I just- I need to leave!" she yelled once more while peeling the boys arms from around her and shooting straight for the front door.
The boy stood in a confused daze for a moment until he began to follow after her.
Nell attempted to weave through the clusters of sweaty, drunk teenagers to reach the front door. On her way out she slammed straight into Cash,
"Oi Ellie, what's up are you okay?" the Eshay crouched down slightly in attempts to come to eye level with Nell as she avoided his eye,
"Yeah just- I gotta go." And with that she pushed past the boy and fled out the front door completely disregarding his efforts.
As she burst out of the front door, her chest heaved in an attempt to get more of the fresh air into her lungs.
The girl flicked her head around erratically, assessing the space around her, only seeing drunk couples well on their way to having sex and drunk girls throwing up in the bushes.
Nell stumbled down the front steps, tears stinging at the back of her eyes and the feeling on her heart about to explode from beating so fast.
This usually occurred when something, usually her father touched a nerve, bringing her back to that night two years ago.
Her legs took her as far from the front door as fast as possible, she turned down the street and paused for a moment of peace.
Stood in the middle of a dark road Nell's breathing swelled in an attempt to calm herself down, she looked up with her palms on her eyelids, still hearing the faint sound of partying teens down the road.
At this point, she felt light headed and Nell sat on the cold footpath. Knees to her chest, breathing still shaky only a new sensation appeared on her left side.
Wordlessly, Malakai had found her and sat beside her. At that point Nell was pulling at her hands, just about rocking herself back and forward.
She avoided eye contact with the brown eyed boy and continued looking straight ahead, just trying to keep herself composed.
He was aware of the girls fragile state so he took hold of her hands and spoke calmly,
"Nellie? What are 5 things you can see?" the words floated through Nell's mind.
"Um, concrete, leaves, a window, a lamppost, you." She rambled quickly, still looking straight ahead.
"Good, just take another deep breath," Nell did has he said, "4 things you can feel?"
"The ground, my shoes, my clothes, you." she spoke between breaths this time, feeling herself calm down slightly,
Malakai smiled lightly and continued on, "3 things you can hear?"
"Music, crickets and you." she glanced into his eyes for a moment,
"2 things you can smell?"
"Vodka cruisers and you." this time Nell laughed a little with each of her words, finally regaining a bit more control over her body,
"Now I feel like that's cheating." he joked,
"Maybe just a little." the girl smiled,
"One thing you can taste?" he asked very obviously staring at her lips,
"Hm, spearmint gum." referring to the piece she had on the walk to the godforsaken party,
Malakai nodded and continued to shine the smile Nell had become oh so familiar with.
Sitting in silence for a minute or two, Nell finally allowed herself a moment to breathe.
"You know you didn't have to leave the party, I would've been okay on my own." The girl spoke softly,
"I'm sure you would have," the boys eyes bounced between looking in both of Nell's as she tilted her head to the left ever so slightly, "But I wanted to, honestly." he held the eye contact, a beat passed between the two, "Plus I feel kinda responsible, I talked you into going tonight." he spoke as he looked down.
Nell could tell how guilty the boy was actually feeling, "No, it's not your fault," she turned to fully look at the soft eyed boy, "I really was having fun, you know." she smiled at him and stood up, pulling him up with her.
"Listen, I'm better now so, thank you." she continued to look into his eyes, "You can go back and listen to the rest of the set now, you wouldn't want to waste that 20 bucks you spent." Nell laughed a little.
"I think it was a waste of money even if I do go back." He whispered as if someone in the party was going to hear, the girl couldn't help but laugh.
She looked down at her phone to check the time, 11:58 PM it read.
"Well, I should probably be getting home so.." She took a step back from him,
"Did you-" Malakai stumbled over this words for a second, "Can I walk you home?" he sighed, glad to finally get the words out,
Nell chuckled at the boys nerves, "You really want to walk me all the way home again?" she tilted her head to the side while looking at the boy.
He looked at the girl for a moment, almost as if he was admiring her. "Yeah," there was a pause, "I really do." he smiled,
Silently, Nell turned to walk off. A confused Malakai stood in the road not sure if that was a yes or a no.
"Are you coming or what?" she called behind her,
Malakai laughed and jogged up to match paces with the now calm girl.
YOU ARE READING
Escape Route - Malakai Mitchell
Fanfictioneleanor 'nell' sanders was just like everyone else who grew up in marouba bay. she came from a broken family, went to hartley high and spent her weekends getting high along the beach, but the difference between her and them, was that she was determi...
