Dancing in the Rain | ✓

Chapter 18: Teary Eyes and Broken Hearts

When Eli woke up he quickly realized two things: it was still dark outside and Avery wasn't cuddled up to him anymore. He sat up on the mattress and looked around in search of his girlfriend but he didn't find her anywhere. Not wanting to sleep without her he stood up and left Avery's bedroom.

Searching for Avery didn't turn out to be such a big of a challenge. The girl was facing the window in the living room with her hands pressing against the glass. "What are you doing over there?" Eli asked quietly, not wanting to wake up the girls and have their anger upon himself.

"Come over here." She said, not bothering to even turn around.

Eli slowly approached the window and looked outside. The streetlamps were on illuminating perfect little snowflakes twirling in the air. "Winter's here. That's not good." Eli said looking at the snow in terror.

Avery chuckled looking over at him. She had an easy smile on her face and some strange light flickering in her dark eyes. "You've got to be kidding me. Winter's amazing. It's my favorite season." Avery said, looking back outside.

The snow wasn't very intense but it still could mean that the whole winter was going to be unbearable. "Isn't it a little too early for snow?" Eli questioned, wishing he could share his girlfriend's joy.

"It's never too early for snow." Avery said. "Besides, it's almost December. It's about time it starts snowing."

Eli shook his head at her. "I don't get how you can like freezing to death."

Avery chuckled again. "I guess I'm just a cold bitch so it doesn't bother me as much as it bothers regular mortals."

"Maybe you're right." Eli said with a smirk.

Avery punched him playfully into his shoulder. "You were supposed to say that I am not a cold bitch."

"Okay, you're not." Eli said holding his hands up in surrender.

They stood in silence for a few comfortable moments, looking at the snow and occasionally glancing at each other. "Are you alright?" Avery asked at some point breaking the silence. "After everything?"

Eli really wanted to say that of course he was fine but knew he was far from it. "No." He said. "But I'm getting there, slowly but surely." He said with a soft smile. "And well, the rest of the night was pretty special because of you."

Avery smiled back. "I'm glad you're feeling better then."

Eli wrapped his arms around her body and kissed her softly, silently thanking for all she had done for him.

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When Eli returned home around noon the apartment surprisingly didn't look like a complete disaster. But that was probably due to the fact that Sophia was up and throwing out all the garbage. Eli found her cleaning the toilet with plastic yellow gloves on. She looked horrible with dark circles under her tired eyes and a messy mop instead of her usual wavy locks.

Also instead of her fashionable clothes she was wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a black jumper Eli didn't even know she owned. Now that he was looking at this version of Sophia he wasn't scared of her, he was just sad mostly about what they had done to their friendship. "Hi." Eli greeted her from the doorway.

Sophia stopped cleaning the toilet and looked up at Eli. Her eyes immediately filled with tears and a sob quickly escaped her mouth. "I am so sorry, Eli. About everything." She stood up from the floor but didn't take a step towards him. "You were right about drinking. It turns me into someone unbearable." Tears were streaming down her face and she was hiccupping. "I just...I was so angry with you and I had to get it out."