Things Are Rough All Over

Chapter 3: I Can't Tell

Elena's POV   ~~~After School~~~

I walked to the gym with Audrey and got ready to stretch with the other girls. Cherry walked over to me. "Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked, I nodded and set my bag down by the bleachers. Cherry and I walked into the locker room and she shut the door, turning to look at me. 

"Elena, where'd the bruise come from?" she asked and I looked at her confused. "What bruise?" I said, forcing a small laugh. Cherry sighed, taking my hand and walking me to one of the mirrors. "That bruise right there that's under your eye." she said, pointing to the mirror. I looked at my reflection and panicked. "I- I ran into my d-door last night." I stuttered, walking to my locker to get my extra makeup bag out. 

"Elena, that's a pretty nasty bruise for it to just be from running into a door. C'mon, you can tell me where it really came from." she said, watching as I applied more makeup to the bruise. "I turned and looked at her. "I-I told you. I ran into my door." I said, walking to put my makeup back into my locker. Cherry sighed softly and took my hand. "Elena, if there's ever anything you need to talk about, I want you to know you can trust me. I promise, it won't go any further." she said, hope in her eyes.

"Everything is fine. Really." I said, walking out of the locker room. Cherry followed soon after, we began stretching with the other girls before we started working on our dance routine again.

Steve's POV

I was working under a car thinking about Elena. I didn't hear Soda calling my name until he nudged my leg. I slid out from under the car and he looked at me confused. "What's up man? You've been acting weird since you got to work today." he said, I sighed standing up, whipping my hands off on a rag. 

"Something's going on with Elena. She's been jumpier than usual. She just seems off lately." I said, leaning against the car I was working on. "Maybe something's just on her mind. You should try talking to her about it." Soda said and I sighed. "I've tried before. She started breathing heavily and goes into a panic attack." I said and he frowned. "Have you tried talking to Audrey? Y'know those two are best friends." he said, I shook my head. "Audrey doesn't know either. She said she knows something is wrong but Elena won't talk about it." I said.

The bell on the door jingled and Soda patted my shoulder and walked back into the store. I slid back under the car and started working on it again, thinking about Elena. I'm gonna take her on a date tonight. Maybe she's just under a lot of stress.

Audrey's POV

After practice, I walked over to Elena and crossed my arms. She looked up from what she was doing, raising a brow. "What?" she asked. "Elena, what is going on with you? You never mess up on the dance routines we do and if you do, it's not noticeable. You're so jumpy all the time and you're just all together not acting like yourself." I said, getting frustrated. 

"I'm just tired, Audrey." she sighed, going back to putting stuff in her back. She zipped it up and I snatched it from her. "Audrey!" "Elena I am your best friend. I know when you're lying and I know when something is wrong. Tell me what's going on!" I said, some of the other girls were looking at us now. 

Elena snatched her bag back and looked at me. "Just because we're best friends doesn't mean you need to know everything that's going on in my life Audrey, okay? There are some things that I can't talk about. So just do me a favor and mind your own damn business!" she shouted, turning and running out of the gym. I sighed, kicking my bag in frustration. 

"Audrey, just give her sometime to cool off okay? She's Elena, she'll come bouncing back from whatever's going on." Cherry said, Marcia nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Elena is a strong girl. She'll talk when she's ready." Marcia said, I smiled at both of them and nodded. I grabbed my bag and walked out of the gym, running into Ponyboy on the way out.