across the hall

seven

| | Chapter Seven; One Month and Two Weeks Ago | |

Quote of the chapter: "You make my life bearable."

"Why do you have ice in champagne?" E asks from her spot on Mark's bed. She's sat on the center with his laptop open in front of her, where her email is open.

"To keep it cold." He says slowly, lifting the drink to his lips. "What do you use?" Her eyes move up to his.

"Frozen grapes." With a slight eye roll, he sets down the clear glass and sits across from her. "Are you rolling your eyes at me?" His eyebrows raise and a half smirk grows.

"What would you do if I was?" With a small shrug and a plot forming in the back of her mind, she logs out of her email and shuts the laptop.

"And champagne at nine? Mark, alcohol isn't good for when you're going to bed." She gets off his bed and move his laptop to his dresser. She gets into one of his drawers and pull out a t-shirt.

"Champagne is like pancakes. You can have them whenever you want." Stepping into his bathroom, she changes into the shirt, also using mouthwash and the toothbrush he said was 'an extra.'

"Champagne is for special things like weddings, dinner with the president, some weird foreign celebration, or a fancy date. Or to sit around your home in your pajama clothes and moping about." When she leaves the bathroom, he's got his pants changed and he's in the middle of unbuttoning his shirt.

"I'm moping then." He chuckles as E makes her way over to him. He's just gotten the last button undone when she puts her arms around his neck. He slides his arms around her waist. "I guess I don't have any reason to mope when I have you with me." He lowers his head and presses his forhead to hers. Her fingers tangle into the hair on the back of his head. "You make the darkness in my life seem bright."

"I probably shouldn't leave you then, now should I?" He smiles down at her, faint dimples showing in his cheeks. "You make my life bearable." He pulls her tighter to him and lifts his head to rest his chin on her head. She presses the side of her head to his chest. She lets out a soft giggle at the speed of his heartbeat.

"I'm not going anywhere, E. I promise."

The next morning, E woke up a few seconds before Mark. While she was sitting up in bed and stretch her arms, he was laying relaxed, watching the most beautiful girl he could have ever met wake up beside him. He lifts up an arm and lightly presses his hand on her side, opposite him. She looks down at him, a smile slowly forming on her face as she looks down at the man who saved her life.

She lays down, half on him, as he pulls his arm around her waist.

"Good Morning," he says as he softly kisses her forehead.

"Did I wake you up?" She looks up at him with gentle eyes, her hand laying curled on his chest.

"No. But if I could wake up to you every morning, I wouldn't care what woke me up." With a small smile, she lays the side of her head on his chest and closes her eyes.

For multiple hours, they laid in bed like that. His hand would run through her hair and she would play with the buttons on the shirt he hadn't took off last night. They talked lightly, as if someone were just a few feet from them and what they were saying would send them to prison.

When eleven o'clock rolled around is about the time E rolled over and looked at her phone. She inwardly groans when she sees the remind on her calender that today is the annual lunch with her 'best friend'. In the bathroom, which she disappeared to, she changes back into her clothes from yesterday. She sets Marks shirt in the laundry basket and leaves the bathroom.

"Are you leaving?" He asks, dropping the shirt he was wearing into a hamper. She picks up her shoes sitting at the foot of his bed.

"I'm having lunch with Melanie." She sighs as a hand runs through her hair. He moves in front of her.

"You don't sound too enthused about it." He raises an eyebrow.

"I haven't spoken to her in almost a month." He places a hand on her cheek as his eyes lighten. Her free hand comes up, over his.

"It's going to be fine." She offers him a small smile as he drops his hand. She stands on her toes and presses her lips to his cheek before disappearing from his apartment, into her own to change clothes. In less than ten minutes, she's on her way to the fast food restaurant where she is to meet the red haired girl.

"Hey!" Melanie squeals when E sits down across from her in the two people booth. She offers a small smile before looking down at the tray sitting in front of her.

"Hi." She replies as she bites half a curly fry off.

"I'm sorry." This caught the brunette by surprise.

"What?"

"I'm sorry. When you tried telling me about him, how bad a person he is and I didn't believe you. I thought I was in love with him and then he called me and I heard him Uhm. Forcing you." She swallows her fear and lowers her gaze. "I went to confront him about it a few days later and he. H-he raped me, too." She lifts her head. "I'm pregnant Olli. And I'm scared she'll be his baby." Oliver reaches across the table to hold her hands.

"Mel, that isn't his baby. It's impossible for him to impregnate anyone." She furrows her eyebrows and squeezes her friends hands. "Mel, I'm pregnant too." Her eyes widen. "Lets take a walk, okay?" She nods and together they leave to watts the park.

"A-are you cheating on him?" Oliver shakes her head and tests a hands on her small baby bump. "How-how is that possible then?" She lowers her gaze to her feet as she walks down the sidewalk.

"It was an accident."