Shanes pov
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I got to chemistry early Monday morning, Ellianna had texted me this morning that she didn't need a ride which was strange to me. She also didn't talk to meor text me Saturday or Sunday which meant we hadnt talked since the events of Friday night.
I thought we had left things on a okay note but now I was starting to believe she was mad at me, because we at least texted each other almost everyday. I didn't think shed be mad at me, she didn't seem mad when I dropped her off Friday night, things were a bit awkward but in no way hostile. But still Isat here with a peace offering for her, chicken minis and sweet tea, her favorite breakfast.
The rest of the class filtered in but still no Ellianna, finally as the final bell rang Elli walked in looking a little worse for wear. Her eyes were puffy and red and her was up in a messy ponytail instead of her usual long waves. My heart sunk to my stomach and suddenly my peace offering seemed silly. Was it possible that I had hurt her by not kissing her Friday night? I thought what I was doing was saving her from my inevitable fuck ups, I wasn't boyfriend material and she didn't deserve to have her heart broken but by the looks of it I might have been too late.
Elli went and said something to Mrs. Andrews, was she trying to get her seat changed? I hoped not, she was the only good thing about this class. When she was done talking to Mrs.Andrews she took her seat next to me and didn't say a word, I just stared at her for a minute, deciding what to say. "Hey." I whispered heaitantly, not knowing if I should talk to her at all. She turned to face me, I didn't know what was going on with her but I wanted to fix it. "Hey." she whispers back painfully. "I got you some food for breakfast." I slid over the bag of chickfila and tea she accepted it but still didn't smile. "Thanks." Mrs. Andrews passed out review packets for the quiz we had Wednesday. After she put packets on our table I turned back to Elli.
"I didn't mean to upset you Friday night, I just really think keeping things the way they are right now is for the best." she shook her head and then put her head down on the desk. "It's not you Shane, I'm not mad at you." I heard her mumble. "Oh" I replied figuring I probably needed to give her some space. I didn't tell her anything about me the other night so I didn't expect her to tell me what was going on.
"It's my mom, Scott, the Ex boyfriend that assaulted me he is out of jail and my mom is talking to him. I haven't slept all weekend." she turned her head to face me her blue eyes so tired.
I wanted to hold her in my arms, I wanted to tell her it was all going to be okay, I wanted to keep her close so she felt safe and she would sleep. But we were at school and right now all I could offer her was some luke warm chickfila and help on her chem packet. " I'm sorry Elli, if there's anything I can do, just let me know." she sat up and grabbed her pencil and just stared at the chem packet. "He hasn't come to our house yet but if he does I don't know what ill do, I've been having nightmares every night that he will walk into my room and do something, it's horrible Shane, I just wanna sleep and not think of him, but I can't even do that. I feel like I'm going crazy right now."
The sheer thought of some man who was a sex a offender with a record coming into Ellis house made my blood boil. When it came to Elli I for some reason felt this fierce need to protect her, but when she was at home I had no way to do that. It made me angry I couldn't do anything to control the situation. Maybe I couldn't protect her from everything but I could at least cheer her up a bit or maybe even give her a chance to sleep.
So I decided that I had to do something, I don't know what but I couldn't let her stay upset like this, the world needed her smile, I needed her smile. "Let's do something after school, just me and you. I don't have football practice anymore." She sat up and looked me in the eyes a wash of relief came over her tired features. "Really?" even her voice had perked up a bit. I smiled at her, I could tell she needed a smile.
"Yeah what are best friends for?" the corners of her mouth turned up a little, it wasn't quite a smile but ill take what I can get. For the rest of chemistry Elli seemed to be okay, we did our packets and then when the bell rang we went our separate ways, and I didn't see her again until lunch.
Since Ryder and Maddie had exiled themselves from our table Ellianna and Miranda had been sitting with us along with the usual suspects. I bought my lunch as usual and took a seat next to Julia leaving space on the other side of me for Elli.
"Hey Shane." Julia greeted me with her signature perky smile her bubbly personality a welcome addition at our table. "How are you doing today Julia." I asked her, her toothy grin never faded. And not that helping Ellianna was a burden or anything, I loved that I was able to help her work through things. When I was going through my shit back in Jefferson having Brianna there really helped me, until I fucked that all up. But still it was nice to see someone who was always smiling. "Oh my day is great, we're starting preparation for competition season for cheer this week so I'm excited." Julia reminded me of me, she was extremely talented at her sport, she was the only cheerleader to make varsity as a freshman and was poised to be he junior captain next year as was I.
Before Julia and I could talk more Elli and Miranda sat down at the lunch table. Ellianna looked just as exhausted as this morning but somewhat less stressed out so that was a positive. As soon as she took her seat next to me I turned my attention to her. "How are you doing?" I asked, she shrugged. " better I guess I'm just ready for school to be over." Miranda gave me a slightly confused look before turning to face her best friend. "You told him what was going on?" she questioned. " I don't think Miranda had realized how close I had gotten to her best friend, I don't think Elli told her everything thing that happened after the game especially not the part where we had almost kissed.
"Yeah I told him in chemistry, it's okay, I trust him." Ellianna turned to look at me her blue eyes with this sad kind of gleam, but that look made me feel so much pride, that look boosted my ego more than any kind of football win could, she trusted me. However this quiet comment caught the attention of the rest of the people at our table. From the looks on their faces I could tell who was in the loop and who wasn't. I was 98% sure Matt knew just because he was Mers brother and I knew Elli was close with their family. I don't think Juila knew I'm not even sure how close of friends her and elli are. And I knew for sure there was no way in hell Colin knew. And of course he was the next one to speak.
"What's going on?" he asked, Matt gave him a death glare, a look that told Colin he should've kept his mouth shut. Ellianna gave everyone at the table a good look and then took a deep breath. "Colin, this is gonna be a test of our friendship and I swear to god you cannot tell anyone at this school what I'm about to tell you, you too Julia." Julia gave Elli a solemn nod, Colin spoke up. "I swear I won't Ellianna." he told her, I hoped we was sincere or else his ass was gonna be kicked hard by me.
"The guy who tried to rape me and assaulted me is out of jail and my mom is talking to him." the whole table went silent. "I'm serious you cannot tell anyone, but that's what's going on." Colin sat there still in shock but Julia spoke up. "If you need anything Elli, I'm here girl to girl." I decided after that comment I liked Julia she was authentic as they come.
"Yeah, I'm right next door Ellianna, if anything happens just come over, like old times." I was surprised she was so willing to share what was going to every one at the table, especially Colin. "Thanks guys hopefully this phase will be short lived but still it's nice to know I have a group of friends to support me." she said before turning to eat her lunch.
We didn't talk much after that, It was a quiet and somber lunch, and when our thirty minutes were up, we all went our separate ways to class.
