All or Nothing

Chapter Five

"Are you okay?" Was the first questioned Ella asked from her spot on the couch when Emily finally walked through their front door. Nearly three hours after she'd ran out of the gym.

"I'm fine." Emily said still a little embarrassed about her earlier outburst.

"Good . . . now have a seat and tell me where the hell you've been and why you think it's okay to just run out on someone and not tell them where you are or what's going on." Ella said sternly as she patted the spot next to her on the couch. Emily sighed as she heard the motherly edge in Ella's voice and hung her bag up by the front door before taking a seat next to her best friend.

"I'm sorry." Emily said before anything else, knowing just how much her friend really does worry about her, especially given her past.

"Damn right you're sorry," Ella responded. "Now what happened and where did you go?" She asked.

"It's gonna sound so dumb." Emily whined, not wanting to share what was going through her head when she ran out on Tyler earlier.

"No it's not, sweetie. Just tell me what went wrong." Ella replied giving Emily a reassuring pat on the knee as she encouraged the brunette to tell her what had happened that had her so spooked she ran away.

"That other fighter was heckling Tyler and what he said when he responded it reminded me of a conversation I had with Liam before things got really bad . . . and I just kinda freaked." Emily sighed as she thought back to how dumb she must've looked to everyone.

Ella shot a sympathetic look at her best friend. She knew what her friend went through in her last relationship and how even the smallest things seemed to trigger her. She had gotten used to it, at pinpointing the signs and talking her down. But this was the first time Emily's been back in that type of an environment, being surrounded by fighters, since she left Liam. Ella didn't even consider how that might've affected her before demanding she tag along.

"I just don't want to be the girl that lets some guy continuously control her life anymore. I hate that I can't get Liam out of my head, even after I left everything behind." The brunette said as she felt tears start to well in her eyes.

Ella brought her friend in for a hug, "Nobody expects you to be able to just forget what he did to you overnight. It's gonna take time," she responded into Emily's hair before removing herself from the embrace, "but, you also need to allow yourself to move on. Something's going to remind you of him every day, but you can control if you're going to let that positively or negatively affect you. You're so strong and you don't even know it. Not many people have the courage to get themselves out of an abusive relationship, to move nearly 1,000 miles away from the only home they've ever known, to start over completely." Ella said looking Emily in the eye so she could see the blonde meant every word she spoke.

Emily nodded and looked down at her hands. "I went back to the gym and I talked to Tyler." She said still looking at her hands, but even without glancing up, she could feel her friend's permeating stare.

"Do tell?" Ella responded when Emily finally glanced up from her hands to make eye contact.

"I just wanted to apologize for freaking out on him and running off." Emily said.

"And?" Ella responded expectantly. How could Emily just leave her hanging like this? Damn.

"And . . . He asked me out to grab coffee with him sometime, so we exchanged numbers." Emily said, officially regretting bringing up the conversation at the look of sheer joy she saw in her best friend's eyes.

"Oh my god!" Ella responded, shocked. "Oh my god. Wow. That's great Emily!" She praised, not only had her best friend conquered one of her fears today but she'd also managed to snag a hot guy's attention, and phone number, in the process.