Falling Apart

c h a p t e r e i g h t e e n

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I wake up to a sound of hammering against wood and talking in the background.

I slowly begin to wake up, looking everywhere around me and seeing nothing but myself and the air mattress.

I get up and walk to open the door, only to be met by a load of strangers rushing around the house with planks of wood, glass and all sorts of building tools in their hands and arms.

I walk between then, looking around and noticing Elias downstairs shouting at three men to get work finished.

"I want that finished in an hour! And for god's sake, Tony! Could you please finish these sets of draws already, it's been over three hours now!"

"Yes, sir" an older man mutters, grabbing a few tools before heading towards the unfinished drawers.

He starts at walking towards a group of men who are fixating a grand white piano in the corner of the room, besides the stairs.

I look down watching over him, my arms crossed over the railing.

"Make sure there's no dust on it. I don't want to have to be cleaning something that's brand new" he states to one of the men.

A women walks into the house, two large boxes in her arms carrying them towards the living room, and dropping them onto the floor.

Elias begins to run towards her, waiting as she opens the box and he himself starts at taking the contents out.

"Finally! Took a while." He says, excitement all over his face.

"How many more boxes are there?" He asks the women.

"Six more, sir" she answers back. He nods his head, pulling out two books.

"She's going to love theses" he says to the women.

Did he buy me books?

"I want all of these in the book shelves on both side of the tv. Make sure it's organised by authors, I heard that's how she likes it" he adds.

How did he know? Aubrey was the only one that-

"He's better than either of us though, right?" I hear someone say from behind me.

I turn my body, arms still crossed over my chest, looking to see who said that and if they were directing it to me.

But then suddenly I see Aubrey, standing before me and smiling. Shock appears in my face, and I rush into her arms, hugging her tightly.

I pull away, arms length and looking straight at her.

"What! When did you... how did you-

"Elias texted me. Said he was in desperate need to.... He just came to pick me up, said it might help you grow comfortable here"

I smile at her, happiness and excitement seeping through my skin.

"He's been up for hours getting all the work done. Well... getting other people to get the work done, might I say. He's down pretty good so far, but I'd leave him for a bit. He was really excited to surprise you, that's why he's trying to hurry them all up."

I breathe out, looking back over the railing and at Elias who is taking out more of the books from the boxes.

"How long are you staying?" I ask her, not looking back at her.

"For the weekend? If that's ok?"

"Of course it is. You're welcome here anytime" I answer her, looking at her.

She had a smile plastered on her face. "You've changed so much, Mer, and I love it. You might not love who you've become yet, but I promise you, Mer. This is the best version of you." I smile back.

I motion for her to come into my room, and we both sit on the air mattress, shutting the door behind me.

"How's everything been? What have you been up to?" I ask her, curious as to what she's been doing lately.

She sighs heavily, "nothing much. I found a job, I work at a restaurant as Nina Brookes, she's a lot different to Aubrey"

I smile at her, nodding my head, "I'm happy for you, it looks like everything's working out for you then-

"Not at all" she laughs between her breathes, "but I'm trying" she says, "eventually everything will work out for all of us. I can see it"

She shows a bright face and excitement in her eyes, but as her sister, I can see the pain in her eyes, I can see the struggle.

I go in for a hug, holding her tightly. It's nice to have her here, I love her with my whole heart and she was always there for me through everything whilst I grew up.

Deep down I know that she struggles with a lot of shit, but I also get the feeling that's she's just like me and wants nothing but time alone to think about it.

I realise my hold on her at the sound of the bedroom door opening. Elias stands there a shocked look on his face.

"Aubrey! When did you get here?" He speaks sarcastically, attempting to act surprised, but anger seeps through his skin.

Both I and Aubrey laugh and stare at him as he walks to us, closing the door.

"It's fine, Elias. I woke up before you could surprise me. Thank you for everything, I know you wanted to show me but I sort of liked seeing you boss everyone around"

Aubrey laughs between her breathes in disagreement to my comment.

"More like angry" she answers back.

Elias continues to stare at me, as do I to him. "Ye that's the point" he says, a smile on his face.

"Anyway. I'm gonna go see if that's foods arrived." Aubrey says, standing up, and walking towards the door that's now opened.

Before she leaves, she turns back around and looks at Elias.

"How many did you say there were?" She asks, but he's too distracted by me.

"How many what?" He asks, still not looking at her.

"Boxes of food. How many did you order? I'm hungry" she answers.

"Twelve" Twelve! What the fu-

"Yes! Ok, bye" then she leaves, closing the door behind her.

"I don't think we need twelve boxes of food" I laugh at the ridiculous amount.

"We're rich" he laughs back.

I stand up walking toward him, "when is it all going to be finished?" I ask

"Hopefully before the end of the day, so I refuse to let you out of the room until then. I'll bring food and drinks in a minute" he pulls out a new phone and charger from his pocket and hands it to me. "You can mess with this until then. I'll bring a book upstairs with the food as well"

I roll my eyes, dropping back down onto the air mattress.

"Don't do that" he says, obviously annoyed

"Don't do what?" I ask, messing around.

"Don't test me. We said slow-

"All I did was roll my eyes. Does that make you horny, Elias? Because I'll be doing it a lot more frequently"

He shakes his head, opening the door and slamming it shut.

I said slow... he's right. But I never said I won't completely mess with him until then. Last I recalled... he still irritates the shit out of me.