The Elijah Walker Fanclub

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

I was still dazed over my nettle interaction with Elijah a week later. Even after having spent some more time with him, and the rest of the student council, in the week preparing for the Winter Formal. Everything was planned and at this point it just needed to be set up on the day, something that had been organised with the stage crew from the school's theatre department. Everything was organised, except what I was going to wear.

I woke up for my shopping day with Cody and Rosa super early, way earlier than I would usually get up on a weekend. It was a bright, slightly cool, day and I was feeling upbeat. After all, things with Elijah were going well, even if there had been a few hiccups along the way. Even better, the mentioning of my ex and his new girlfriend was becoming less frequent, which I was eternally grateful for.

After having checked on the condition of Charles, who was still hanging in there like a trooper, I skipped downstairs to grab some life juice before I was due to be picked up. I only had a few minutes, so I didn't slow down as I went sliding into the kitchen to find someone sat at one of the bar stools. Someone with long tanned legs and slightly dishevelled brown hair, and wearing my dad's dressing gown...

"Oh hi, you must be Mae," said the woman, having the audacity to sound terribly awkward. She put down her mug and attempted to pull the dressing gown more tightly around her.

It didn't escape me that the mug she was using had a photo of dad and me when I was about six-years old on it. I stared between the mug and her, my mouth hanging slightly open in confusion.

"Sorry, this is embarrassing," she said. She had a youthful face, but the lines at her eyes suggested she was fairly close to my dads age, if not a little younger. "Your dad said you wouldn't be up for a few more hours, so I was just going to finish my coffee and head out."

I stood blinking at her for a moment before I was able to find the words to respond. "I'm going shopping," I said, by way of explanation. Not that she needed to know that, this strange woman barely dressed in my kitchen.

She pushed a hand through her hair, attempting to re-volumize it. "Well that's nice, I do love a good shopping trip. Sometimes it's just nice to window shop, you know?"

"Uh huh," I said, wondering if she was hoping I'd invite her along. "Erm, where's my dad?" I asked, finding the silence worse than when she was talking.

"Oh, he had to head into work," she said, stepping down from the bar stool so she was standing right in front of me. She was almost my height, give or take an inch, and it was rather unsettling having her on my eye level. She watched me with a weak smile. "It's quite a shame that he has to work on weekends, he deserves a break as much as the next person."

I pressed the red stain of my lips together. Dad didn't work at weekends because he had to, he did it because his work was important and sometimes that meant he had to make sacrifices to get it done. This woman clearly didn't understand that.

My mobile vibrated in my hand and I looked down at the screen to see a text from Rosa. They were already here, and I hadn't had my coffee yet. I looked at the mug this woman had set down on the breakfast bar dejectedly. I would just have to grab one when we got there.

Without saying a word, I turned away from her and walked out of the house. I had a dress to buy, and a boy to impress, I didn't have time to deal with whatever reason it was that she was in my home. Even if my dad had left me alone with a complete stranger and said nothing about it.

**Author's Note**

Sorry! Another short one, but I'm in a rush today and as it's been a fair few days since I last wrote/posted I felt it was more important that the story moved forward no matter how long a chapter it was. Thanks for reading, I'll be back tomorrow wit another Chapters!