Her Escape, His Safe Haven

Chapter 34- At All

Eli's POV

"Wow.." Yet again Athena has managed to completely take my breath away. She's dress in a beautiful dress that matches my tie. Her makeup looks perfect, adding nicely to her already perfect face. Her hair...looks completely different. It's lighter and beautiful. "Your hair, you changed it." I smiled.

"Er yeah. I felt like doing something different. Is it horrible?" She looked so nervous, like I was about to tell her I hate her new hair. I took the couple steps needed to get to her. I reached my hand up to caress her cheek.

"You look absolutely beautiful, baby girl." I whispered hoping she'd hear the sincerity in my voice.

"Thank you Eli." She smiled before reaching up a little to give me a gentle kiss. Even with the gentle, chaste kiss my body was reacting. My heart began racing, my breath was caught in my throat and not to mention what was going on you know...below the belt. 

"Alright love birds! Lets take some pictures and then head to get dinner." Savannah interrupted our moment. To be honest I forgot anyone was in the room with us. I cleared my throat and felt my cheeks heat up and I smiled nervously. "Don't be shy boy, she's hot I don't blame you." V winked at me.

"She's beautiful." I agreed. "You look really nice too Savannah." I told her. We have all become pretty close since everything has happened. Mark and I have been choosing to spend out time with these wonderful ladies instead of the dorks from the football team that we used to hang out with all the time. They don't seem to mind really, at least they have never said anything about it.

"Thank you Eli. You clean up pretty nicely yourself." We all chuckled before lining up together to get some photos. We did group photos of all four of us first. Thank god to whoever invented camera timers. Mark and I were on the outside and the two girls were between us. After that Athena and I stepped aside so Mark and Savannah could get some photos together. They seemed a tad awkward, but cute nonetheless. 

When they were done Athena and I replaced them to take our photos. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her to me "Hi baby." I whispered in her ear.

She looked up at me and smiled "Hi. I'm really excited for tonight." 

"Me too princess." I whispered in her ear.

We took photos in a bunch of different poses, but I didn't mind because I just got to stand there with my girl in my arms. I got to feel her body pressed against mine and I got to watch her face light up with a smile meant for me. My heart is pounding in my chest as I stare at the beautiful girl. 

"Alright let's go to dinner now guys." Mark said after Savannah finally finished directing us around. 

We all agreed and the girls grabbed their gear and we headed out. We had already decided a few days ago that it'd be fun if we all carpooled so we went in Mark's car. I would have driven, but I wanted to spend the ride paying attention to Athena, not the road.

We spent the drive chatting about life and school and everything like that. The conversation stayed mostly light, until Athena decided to clue Mark into the text she got yesterday.

"My dad texted yesterday at the game." She blurted while we were all laughing. We all sobered up immediately, and I gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

"What?" Mark voiced out. I'm not sure if he was just surprised or if he actually didn't hear what she said since we were all laughing. "What did you say Athena?" he asked again when no one said anything.

"My dad texted me." She bluntly stated. 

"What did it say?"

"Basically that he'd see me soon. Tomorrow Eli and I are going to the police station. I want to report him. I don't want him to be able to get to me again." She said the last part quietly and looked directly at me. I gave her a reassuring smile and kissed her cheek, hoping she will take some comfort in my support.