D E S I D E R A T A [ g.d ] ON HOLD

11

A new chapter is up and I hope you like it... 

Comments and votes are appreciated and as always, thank you for all the support! 

I decided I won't rant as usual but rather let you enjoy the chapter ;)

**

"You look like you ate a fucking box of Christmas decoration!" Matty exclaimed after he was done with observing George moving around the kitchen, cooking dinner. They didn't had too much time left before going on the road around the Europe so they decided to gather some of the closest friends tonight. And although their dinner will probably end up as being wasted, George still wanted to show off his chef skills. "I hardly doubt that cutting a fucking carrot makes you happy."

"It doesn't," George replied calmly, taking the cut vegetables in his big palms and throwing them in the pan. "I am just in a good mood."

"I don't believe you a fucking word," Matty replied. "I am still positive that you've got yourself a woman." Matty walked to the small breakfast island and looked through their piled post. "Maybe that Nellie girl," he added more to himself than to his best friend.

George heard it but decided to keep Nellie for himself for a bit more. He was still between dream and reality, not quite believing that he had actually talked to her but his happiness was hard to lock down. George had been thinking a lot about her since last night, wondering why she sounded so sad and silent and wondering who the man was who answered the phone when he first called.

"I couldn't stop thinking about you," he had said to her.

"George..." she just sighed out but he could feel the emotion laced with shyness in her voice.

And that was all he needed.

For now.

**

Marcia observed her best friend as she put the plates on the table. Her face had yellow spots on the skin but the most prominent thing was a dark blue circle that adorned her left eye. Her bottom lip was swollen and cut at the corner while her wrist was red and bruised. Marcia was afraid to even imagine how her arms looked under her long sleeves.

"Nellie," Marcia called out softly. Nellie just hummed once as she put the cutlery down on the table. "Nellie, look at me."

Nellie stopped in mid of what she was doing and looked at Marcia for a second but then she decided to look down at the table again. She didn't want to talk about it – she was ashamed to talk about it. Nellie was sure what Marcia was thinking, she was sure in what Marcia wanted to talk about and she was more than sure that Marcia will ask her why she just doesn't leave but she didn't know how to answer her best friend.

She had nowhere to go and she couldn't bring herself to become a burden to Marcia and Maël. She didn't want Marcia and Maël to have problems with Clive just because he had problems with her. And at last, she had no money on her to escape somewhere alone because Clive was the one who took care of their finances.

After what happened three days ago, Clive started to pretend like it was nothing. He even told her to cook up some nice lunch and invite Marcia and Maël over to have a good time. She was confused and furious but she had no strength to do anything about it – she was still broken. Part of her knew that Clive wanted her friends to see what he is capable of doing to her. He wanted to show the world how stupid she was to stay with him but less did they know that she was trapped.

And although she was shattered, there was something that made her cope easier and it was the memory of George's voice coming through the speaker telling her how much he thought of her. Even if that wasn't true, if he lied, Nellie didn't mind. It was something that made her forget on the pain but focus on the nice memories that were confined in some corner of her brain.