erik menendez // if you love me..don't let go

chapter fifteen

Scarlett's POV

He looked so peaceful, I couldn't wake him up. Erik's hand was wrapped tightly around my hip, as if he didn't want to let go. I was sitting upright against the headboard while he was still lying down. His cheek was resting against my thigh and his eyebrows were naturally furrowed.

I lightly shook him. He didn't move. I started to run a hand through his locks.

He murmured something inaudible and then somehow wrapped his arm even tighter around me.

"Erik," I leaned down to his ear. "It's time to wake up."

This time, his eyes slightly fluttered open. I smiled at the sight.

He turned to the other side towards the window, and as his arm left me, my body went cold.

He immediately yanked his hand in front of his eyes, shielding him from the blinding light that came seeping through the window.

"Oh my gosh," He winced. "What time is it?"

"Just a bit past eleven." I told him.

He finally turned his head to look at me, eyes wide.

"Eleven?" He repeated.

I nodded my head and laughed. "Don't worry," My hand reached for his arm, this time he didn't flinch. "Jose didn't come barging in at any time." He let out a sigh of relief. "At least not while I was awake." I thought out loud with a finger to my chin. He sucked in a deep breath.

***

"Dad?" I lightly tapped on our hotel room.

Once Erik fully woke up and was able to get out of bed, I had to rush out before we could get into a deep conversation about what happened last night. Obviously, I didn't have any regrets. It was everything I could have dreamed of and more. But what if he had regrets? I know he claimed he didn't, but we were both still running off of the high from it, I didn't know if I could trust any words that came out of his mouth. I wanted to trust him, but I also didn't want to feel like a fool if I admitted to all of these sudden feelings, only to find out he just did it on a whim.

Snapping my head out of my thoughts, I tapped again on the door.

This time, I heard soft padding before the door opened to reveal a maid.

"Oh," I forgot to hide my shock. "Hi, sorry, I thought my dad was here." I tried to laugh it off.

"He's in bar." She waved her hand down the hallway. "Downstairs. Bar."

She clearly didn't speak much English, so I didn't want to ask more and I just nodded my head and smiled before walking off.

Stalling outside of Erik's door, I decided against it, not wanting to bother him if he's getting ready.

"Dad?" I called out once I entered the bar on the first floor.

For some reason, at almost noon, the bar was full. There were crowds of business men with their beers, clearly discussing important stuff. Some even had their kids with them, who were not acknowledged as they hung onto their dad's legs or played with their shoes.

I darted my eyes around the room, desperate to not be alone any longer. I already had some old man ask if he wanted to buy me a drink.

"Scarlett! Over here!" I would've hoped that was Dad's voice, but it wasn't. Unfortunately, it was that grating voice that belonged to the one and only, Jose.

Holding in a deep breath, I walked over to the direction of his voice. Reaching the table, I realized it was just him and a bunch of other men who were all strangers to me.

"Hi, Jose!" I put on a fake smile and just stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do.

"Come, come." He waved his hand to the -lucky me!- free chair that happened to be right in between him and another old man. "Sit."

"Uh," I awkwardly laughed. Gosh. "Okay." I sat myself down and smoothed out the casual dress I was wearing.

The table got extremely quiet as soon as I sat down. It's like all these people were expecting something from me. Was I supposed to introduce myself? No! I wasn't going to do that, I don't care about these people.

Instead, I turned to face Jose. "I was actually looking for my dad, have you seen him?" I questioned.

"Oh, Robert?" He used his first name. "Don't worry about him, sweetheart." Jose pat my hand that rested on the table with his, and I jolted back just enough for him to stop. "Me and my friends would love to talk to you." The disgusting smile on his face made me not want to talk to him, but what else was I supposed to do?

"So..." He drummed his fingers on the table. "Erik."

My eyebrows flew up at the mention of his name. Jeez, I hope he didn't notice.

"Mhm?" I managed to squeeze out, but I was bouncing in my seat.

"You two are friends?" He wagged his finger at me, and all I wanted to do was cut it off.

"Yeah, we're friends." Friends. Could that be the word to describe us? Just friends? Do friends always kiss and then wake up together? Or was that just us? Are we supposed to be more than friends?

"Good, good." He took a chug of the beer he had. "Erik needs friends." He nodded to himself. "I'm glad he has friends, but Scarlett."

I watched him expectantly.

"He can't have any distractions. His only focus should be tennis. Tennis, tennis, tennis." His finger smacked against the table repeatedly, I almost jumped in my chair. "Do you hear me?" Now he looked at me as if I had all the answers in the world.

"Uh," I stuttered. "I don't really know where you're getting at?"

Apparently, I was a national comedian or something, because everyone around the table started to laugh. And it was one of those business laughs that somehow sounded so serious.

I looked around at everyone, very confused. Did I say something wrong?

"Scarlett, listen." My attention went back to Jose. "You are a very beautiful woman." Jose's eyes started to track all over me, making me feel very exposed. And not in the good way I felt last night. I felt like he was stripping me with just his eyes. Eugh. "And my son is a pretty handsome man." He shrugged a shoulder. I couldn't help but mentally agree with him, even though I felt as if it was kind of gross how he said that. "I just don't want you two getting into any funny business and ruining his chances of going professional." He finally spat out.

Ohh, so that's where this was heading. He thought me and Erik were dating? I mean, if you saw last nights events, yeah, it would look like we were, but him? Jose? Me and Erik never once showed any sorts of public affection, especially not with him around. Is he just assuming that because he's a boy and i'm a girl, we're going to fall in love? Obviously, there had to be other factors. Jeez, he was a married man with two children and he didn't have any idea about what love was?

Needing to blow off some steam with all these weird, enraging thoughts in my head, I quickly left the table with a short lie. For some reason, his words just triggered some sensitive spot in me, and that feeling wouldn't go away. Specifically, what I got triggered by? I couldn't answer that question. But what I did know is that I needed to find Erik and talk this through. Talk everything through.