In My Mind

Chapter 9

The coldness of the wooden bathroom door feels amazing as I rest my forehead against it. My mind still hasn't calmed since the fight just minutes earlier. My body is running hot just thinking about what I had done. Every time I close my eyes, dark red blood seeps through my brain. Blood, blood, blood. It's all I can see. His blood.

"Hello? Come on! You've been in there forever!" I jerk back from the door as it shakes from the fist of the girl on the other side.

I unlock the door, opening it to find a very long line of impatient drunk girls waiting for the bathroom. Shooting them a shy smile, I mumble an apology and make my way back towards the bar.

Eyes follows me. Everyone I pass immediately moves out the way, not wanting to be anywhere near some crazy, psycho chick. I take my spot back behind the bar, all evidence of the fight completely gone, but instead of being hassled with drink orders, I'm left to nothing. Everyone moved to the other side of the bar. Drunk or not, just like the people on the floor, these people want nothing to do with me.

More angry than upset, I slam my hand against the counter. The bottle of liquor that survived the ruckus from earlier cracks down the side. My mouth drops as I stare at the bottle. The few people who were brave enough to stay close to my station quickly move away as I continue to take in the newly cracked bottle.

I go ahead and cleanup my station, picking up shards of glass and wiping up pools of alcohol. Anything that survived, I gently put away in hopes of nothing else destroying. As I'm putting away the last of the alcohol, I feel it. Him. He's here. I can feel him. A tingling sensation I feel whenever I'm around him courses through my body. I don't know how, but I know he's near.

The back of my neck tingles as my eyes search the crowd for those beautiful emerald colored eyes. The tingling finally fades when my eyes latch onto his across the room.

Elliot.

A huge smiles blossoms as I make my way towards him, pushing past the crowd on the dance floor. As soon as I'm close enough I latch myself forward into his arms. He instantly picks me up, twirling us as I take in his closeness. I inhale his lovely scent like an addict taking her next hit.

Elliot chuckles into my neck. He slowly lets me down to my feet, but keeps me pressed tightly against his chest. The feeling of his arms around my waist and my arms around his neck make me forget about everything that has happened these past few days.

"What are you doing here?" I ask as my fingers runs through his hair.

"I came to see you. Make sure nothing happened to you," he replies. "Got here just in time too. You just can't stay out of trouble can you?" Elliot gives me a wink as we move to an empty booth nearby. I slide in first and Elliot follows taking the seat next to me instead of across.  I turn my body towards him to get a better look at him. He does the same.

"How much did you see?" I don't want to know the answer, but I need to know.

His brows crease as he answers, "Enough."

Enough? That could mean anything. Seeing the impatience on my face, Elliot continues. "I saw that asshole get handsy with you and I saw you defending yourself. You're lucky too. If you had waited any longer he would have ended up a lot worse." Elliot's hand clench and unclench as he tells what he saw.

Moving in closer to him, I reach out with my right hand and gently thread my hand through his hair, similar to what I had done earlier to Goldie. However, instead of engaging in some crazy violent rage, his soft, silky locks enrapture my attention, calming me.

My hand that is still resting in his hair gently massages his scalp in hopes of taking away some of his anger. He closes his eyes and leans back against my touch. Knowing that I have just as much of an impact on him as he does me makes me smile.