BOND

22.

Swept up in your hurricane

Wouldn't give it up for nothing

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Elena reached out in the dark, picked up her phone, and switched off the alarm on its second ring. She hadn't slept for a single moment, tossing and turning the whole night, replaying everything Joey had told her. In a nonchalant daze she got up and changed out of the jeans she'd been wearing since the previous evening.

With no recollection of it whatsoever, she made her way downstairs and grabbed an apple from the refrigerator. The last time she had eaten was before she had left the house yesterday to look around the neighborhood. Which had ended much eventfully. Her phone pinged with a text alert and she went out back to the tennis court where Taylor was waiting.

Taylor, squealing at the sight of her best friend, ran up to her with her arms outstretched.

Elena found herself smiling back at Taylor with the same intensity and embraced her tightly.

"I missed you, girl!" Taylor said into the crook of Elena's neck, her voice coming out muffled.

After a few seconds they untangled themselves and Elena said, "I have so much to tell you, it's downright sad."

As they jogged around the perimeter of the court, Elena started filling Taylor in about everything that had happened from the last night she had spent in New York with the boys. At the first mention of guns Taylor stopped and started looking all over her for any signs of hurt. When she heard about the kiss, she came to screeching halt and gasped. Elena had to physically close her mouth to be able to tell her all the other things.

As she recalled her last conversation with Joey she felt exactly like she had the first time. And Taylor's face expressed all the shock and disbelief she had felt the previous night.

"And then he told me to take a couple of days and think about it all," Elena sighed. "And then tell him whatever I decide to do."

She had moved halfway across the court before she realized that Taylor wasn't next to her. She turned back and saw her, standing with her mouth open wide.

"So he's what, some kind of handsome gangster?" Taylor asked.

Elena rolled her eyes, walking back to where she was, "This would have been much easier to process if he hadn't kissed me." All through the night she had thought and thought about the whole situation and now finally being able to talk about it to somebody, even if it wasn't the one person she should have talked to, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders.

Both of them sat down on the court, legs crossed under them, facing each other.

Taylor waited for Elena to say something and when she didn't she said, "So do you like him?"

Elena chewed on the corner of her lip, wishing that her answer was different, "Yeah." And then with more conviction she said, "I like him. A lot."

Taylor smiled, "I've waited to hear those words from you about somebody."

Elena grinned back. Till then she had simply not had any time for dating between tennis and the situation at her house. And now that she did, it had become irrevocably screwed up. "And I really shouldn't."

Taylor pursed her lips and said, "Why not? I mean what are the downsides of you two possibly dating?"

Elena opened her mouth and closed it just as soon. The downsides weren't of them dating per se, but of what he was. She said, "He's killed people, T," she said softly, still not quite absorbing it.