a perfect contradiction • lrh

chapter forty-four

Injury ⚠️

Eleanor awoke as the sun started to rise. She stretched her limbs and sunk further into the soft sheets. Her body froze as it struggled to remember where she was. Luke's bedroom.

She re-lived moment by moment the events of the previous night and shivered at the thought of Nate.

She looked beside her and the bed was empty. Slowly standing on her feet, she smiled at his clothes that hung on her. They smelt like him.

Treading carefully, she peered into the living room to see the blonde sprawled out on the sofa. A deep purple bruise had started to color his cheek. Her immediate reaction was to reach out for him, but she faltered. Her fingers retracted back. He wasn't hers anymore.

His phone lit up the darkness, a message across the front. It was Jack making a joke about him being too hungover to work. Eleanor sighed at Luke. He needed rest. Tiptoeing out of her apartment and into her own, she notified Jack that she would cover his shift instead of the Friday one.

After a reassuring chat with Chase, she dressed and headed off to Retro Records for the last time.

Eleanor wasn't sure what was going to happen now with Nate or Luke or anything. Life was a mess. She sighed as she read through the forty-three messages Nate had sent throughout the night. Some pleasant. Some not. But she put them behind her and focused on the jobs that needed to be done in the store.

It was a quiet Thursday shift and Jack had popped out for the afternoon although he promised to be back for lock up. As he left, she was alone with her thoughts. Her mind traveled back to the first time she had entered this store, the adventure in her heart and the excitement for everything around her.

Something deep within her burned for that feeling. There had to be more to life than this. Eleanor reminiscised the first time she had met Luke and how long it had taken him to smile genuinely, to stop smoking and to accept her love. Oh how she wanted to go back.

Since no one was in the store, she rummaged through the shelves selecting her favorite vinyl and played Yellow by Coldplay. She waltzed and danced by herself in the store, unbothered if anyone was looking.

She sighed to herself as she sat behind the till scrolling mindlessly on social media. The afternoon sun was burning through the store windows creating shadows that reflected throughout, her eyes danced with them until the door bell caught her attention.

"I thought you weren't going to say goodbye!" She exclaimed, expecting a flustered Jack who was late to lock up. But the men standing in front of her were not Jack. They were hoodied and tall and definitely not customers.

With her phone in her hand, her fingers automatically and swiftly pressed ring, she pocketed her phone and immediately went to the till.

"I am going to open the till for you now and give you the money in it, okay?" She said calmly as she began to empty the cash inside.

Despite the barrel of the gun pointing to her they seemed to hesitate. They looked between each other like something was wrong.

"Get the manager," the man at the front demanded.

"He's just popped out," she explained calmly as she continued to empty the till drawer of money.

"The blonde one, where is he?"

She frowned, staring at them, the blonde one she repeated to herself. These men were after Luke.

"Not here," she gritted her teeth.

"Call him now." The man demanded, the gun inching closer to her.

"No," she would not bring Luke into this mess. She prayed that for some reason he hadn't answered the call after all. She should have rang Jack.