No Going Back

xvi

I was about to walk up the stairs but I ran into a hard chest, making me stumble back a bit.

Looking up, I sighed in relief when I saw it was Carter.

"Car Car." He raised an eyebrow at me in amusement.

"Car Car?" Daniel asked as he approached us, throwing his arm around Carter's shoulder.

I shrugged, "Welp you kidnapped me so I kind of have rights to give you guys nicknames."

"So wants Daniel's?" Carter asked, probably already knowing the answer to it.

"Dan Dan." Daniel groaned playfully making Carter and I laugh lightly.

I didn't fully trust them but they were really the only two that I could trust right now.

"Did you eat?" Carter asked, and at that moment the last few minutes flashed into my head.

Elijah was here.

Elijah was one of them.

I ... was one of them.

"Valerie?" Daniel's voice brought me from my thoughts. "Yeah?"

He let out a laugh, "I said are you hungry?"

Without another thought, I pointed to the kitchen earning a confused look from them. They walked towards the kitchen and in an instant they bursted out laughing.

Nathan and the girl were trying to cover up the fact that they made a huge mess but it wasn't even possible to do so.

"Uhh hi?" I waved awkwardly at those who were currently staring at me with curious eyes.

"Alright clean this us up." Daniel ordered and without complaining they did as he said.

"I'll cook, if you want?" I offered as they cleared the stove and began washing things.

"You know how?" Daniel asked playfully making me roll my eyes at him.

"Do you?" I shot back, and he stayed quiet making me laugh.

I pulled out a new pan setting it onto the stove letting it heat up as I opened the fridge and pulled out the shredded cheese and eggs.

I began making cheesy omelets which I finished as quickly as possible, considering they were all watching me intently.

"Thank you." They all mumbled with their mouths full of food as the quickly dug in as soon as I handed them their plates.

I just smiled before pulling out the box of strawberries I saw in the fridge and grabbing two bananas.

I cut up the strawberries and bananas throwing them into a bowl, before turning around and freezing when they were all watching me.

"Do you guys have oats?" I asked nervously, trying to keep eye contact with Daniel and Carter only.

"In the cabinet behind you." Nathan spoke and I nodded turning around and continuing to make myself breakfast.

After adding a sufficient amount of oats, I opened the fridge again to put away the strawberries and grab some milk.

I poured the milk until I saw fit before putting the milk and grabbing a spoon. I picked up my bowl and turned around to face everyone.

"So who are you?" I gave Daniel a sarcastic smile before flipping him off and continuing to eat.

Carter laughed, "Right so this is Valerie Costalona, and she's going to be joining our group."

Everyone nodded, and I noticed that one girl seemed to not like that I was joining them.

Well you know Elijah, the hot guy I met at Starbucks. Elijah Hale, 19 and has a sister whose name is Isabelle Hale and she's 18.

You know my roommate, Nathan Carlisle, he's 19 and the girl from earlier who made the mess with him is his younger sister Veronica Carlisle, she's 16.

Katherine Dayes, she's 17 and is the best friend of Veronica.

Clara Garcia, she's 18 and from what I gather she has a thing for one of the guys.

Jeremy Reyes, cutie, he's 19 and if a blind man was here hell he'd even see that Clara and him are drawn to one another.

Nat Greene, she's the girl who doesn't seem to like the fact that I'm joining them, she's 17 and honestly she needs to quit glaring.

Lastly, we have the twins. Damien and Stefan O'Brien they're both 20 and seem to be fairly mature.

And that's basically everyone, It's obvious that they treat each other all like family and Nat made it clear with her glares that I wasn't invited.

I excused myself from everyone only to be stopped by Carter. "Yeah?"

"Be ready in two hours, we'll begin then." I nodded and then left the room not wanting to intrude any longer.

Going back into my room, I plopped onto my bed and shoved my head into the pillow letting out a scream.

Thankfully I have two hours to myself before I have to go to train with Carter.

I'm already pretty fit and I showed them that I was good when it comes to hand to hand combat. So they said we're skipping some steps and going to move forward to weapons.

I'll be competing with Elijah eventually.

Elijah.

The thought of him caused my head to hurt, I can be mad right? Mad that the hot guy from Starbucks is like them ... like me?

I can't be mad considering it wasn't as if I liked him right? I couldn't possibly have gained feelings for someone I barely know.

A knock on my door, brought me from my thoughts. "Come in." I yelled lifting my head only to drop it again onto the pillow.

"Valerie." His voice caused me still.

Why was he here? What did he want?

I pushed myself to sit up and face him. "Elijah."

Sitting at the edge of my bed, he kind of just stared at my sheets. I wanted to ask if he knew that it would be me he was going to be taking.

I wanted to ask if he was apart of taking me, I just wanted to know so many things.

"Did you know?" I finally asked breaking the silence that filled the room.

He shook his head, "All I knew was a name, so when I heard yours I took it as nothing but a coincidence. It wasn't until later that night when I was pulled along for the mission and I saw you."

I hummed not really knowing what to say now, so he didn't know.

"I am sorry that you were dragged into this life, Valerie." He spoke up making me meet his gaze.

I forced a smiled onto my face, shrugging. "It was either this or death."

"Still you shouldn't have to do this, no one should really." He then looked away from me making me frown.

"So tell me then, how did you get pulled into this?" He sighed, running a hand through his hair.

Something I now wished that I could do.

Wait what?

Oh lordy, I'm a mess around hot people.

"Okay then, here goes nothing."