Demons (hemmings au)

Forty

Luke’s POV

“Okay, I’ll be here at nine in the morning and we can go over to the court house, alright?” El asks, well basically says for the tenth time in the last five minutes. She’s talking to me as if I am a child, as if I am her son and she is worried I am going to snap and lose it at any second. Which, I can’t say I really blame her, after getting the phone call a little over an hour ago I broke down. But afterwards until now, I have remained completely emotionless, my face kept neutral. I should have known I would have to testify, I should be ready for it. I just can’t even begin to imagine having to tell my story not only in front of tons of people I don’t know but can I look those guys in the face recounting what they did to my sister?

“Do you need any dinner or anything?” Ellie asks and as I have been for the past thirty minutes I remain silent, I just don’t even know what to say right now. I hear her sigh quietly. “Luke sweetheart, you have to eat something. Please eat and take a shower tonight,” she continues, and I feel her eyes watching my every moment to see any reaction but I remain sitting on my bed. “Okay, well I am going to go home. I will be back tomorrow morning. I love you,” she whispers, finally turning and walking towards the door when she sees that I am not going to answer her. 

“El,” I speak for the first time, suddenly realizing that she is leaving me. My mom is at work right now, so when she leaves it will just be me. “Can you stay with me tonight?” I ask quietly, looking at her with pleading eyes. She can’t just leave me alone. 

“Yeah, yeah of course,” she replies without a second thought, coming over to sit down on the bed beside me before wrapping her arms around me. I place my own arms loosely around her body and lean my head on her shoulder, just trying to focus on her warmth and scent. She’s here, she’s here with me and I will be okay. 

After a few minutes of just holding me while I try to keep myself together I feel Ellie shift from beside me and I watch in confusion as she gets up from the bed thinking that she is leaving. I would leave me too if I were her, I’ve been nothing but anguish since we first started talking. I sigh as I think about how El deserves so much better than me; I was so rude to her when we first met, and even then she still tried to be my friend. When we began to talk I filled her with my sob stories, and ended up breaking her heart. Ellie deserves someone that will make her happy, that she can be happy with because the world needs to see her smile. I feel as if with my past and darkness I can never be that guy. 

As quickly as she leaves the bed she is back, now dressed in a pair of my boxers and one of my many band t-shirts. I see that this time she is wearing one that reads ‘The Offspring.’ Maybe she isn’t ready to give up on me just yet. 

“Trying out new bands, I see?” I weakly tease, trying to get my mind away from the treacherous thoughts just flooding my brain. 

“I’ve always liked ‘The Offspring,”’ she shrugs with a small smile as she looks down at my shirt, her hair falling into her face. I quickly place the strands of hair behind her ear without even thinking about it, and I watch as her worried blue eyes look up at me with the small smile still playing on her lips. 

“I’m sorry El,” I murmur, hating that I am the one that’s caused all of this worry behind her eyes. I want her to know that she’s my everything. Before her I was filled with nothing, I thought I was nothing. She brought the nothingness out of me, I saw that the world around me, while not perfect, is not as evil as I thought it was, that there are beautiful things all around. When her fingertips touched me, grazed my skin I would feel as if my mind left my body to travel to a violently, beautiful place. As wrong as I am for her, she is so right for me. 

“Please don’t be sorry baby, I’m here for you. There’s no where else I’d rather be,” she murmurs, placing one of her hands on my cheek and locking her gaze with my own. The worry is still there, but looking past it I can see that she truly means what she is saying, and I am so grateful for that. I nod my head, telling her that I understand before turning my face slightly and kissing her palm that was just on my cheek. She grazes my cheek once more before sliding down my bed and holding the covers open for me to crawl in after her. I accept the offer, realizing for the first time just how tired and drained I actually am, wanting to fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow and I wrap my arms around Ellie’s body.