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━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━...‥・
"we're here, cass."
cassie didn't both lifting her head from against the car's window as she glanced to her childhood home through the windshield. the comedown from the drugs she'd spent the last few days on was beginning to hit hard, something elliot was quickly noticing by the way her fingers twitched ever so slightly in her lap.
"they're going to hate me." cassie let out a humorless laugh before she slung her seatbelt off before making her way out into the cold chicago air.
elliot was quick to follow her actions, refraining from flinching due to the slam of the passenger door. he knew interacting with cassie as she suffered through the come down would be like skating on thin ice. it was inevitable for her temper to show through.
"cass."
cassie faltered in her moves towards the closed gate surrounding her home, her eyes shut tight as she felt elliot take a grasp on her shoulder. "what, elliot?"
elliot tried to justify her tone to refrain from feeling offended, but failed miserably. "nothing you do would make them hate you."
cassie forced elliot's hand to fall as she turned to face him abruptly, the tears gleaming under her eyes due to the streetlight above their heads. "and how do you know that? you see the way they look at me. like i'm a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode. like i'm our mother."
"you are not monica." elliot's hands came to caress the girl's face, his words falling with sincerity.
"i am," cassie refused to meet elliot's eyes as she once again forced his hands away. "and it scares the fuck out of you. out of them. even malachi knew. that's why he was so hellbent on saving me. why you're so hellbent now."
"i love you." elliot attempted to inter whine his hand with cassie's, this time the gallagher allowing it to happen.
"and i wish you didn't, eli." cassie furrowed her brows, her eyes remaining on their interlocked hands as she spoke. "all i'm going to do is break your heart."
"perhaps," elliot let out a shallow breath before he pulled her into his grasp. her forehead pressed against his chest, his hand lost in her blonde hair as he held onto the back of her head. "but i wouldn't want it to be broken by anyone else."
a blanket of silence fell over the teenagers as cassie's grip on the ball boy tightened significantly. she held onto him as if he'd disappear from her grasp at any moment.
