Fallen

Concert times

I awake from my terrible flashback and shed a tear at the thought of how Michael and I were so good together. I walk into the bathroom feeling guilty about yesterday with what happened with Dan and Molly. I can’t help but need to apologise for my cowardly behavior. I splash water on my face and brush my teeth, ready to apologise and beg molly for her forgiveness, when I see Dan in only his briefs eating a bowl of cereal with Molly in the kitchen making what I could smell were her specialty, chocolate chip pancakes.

“Molly, what’s going on? Are those your chocolate chip pancakes?”

“Yeah, look I am so sorry about just inviting the boys over without even consulting you. I just brought them along because I felt guilty” she smiles and offers me a plate of her delicious pancakes which smelt fantastic. I hug her and question why Dan was only his briefs and not at his own home.

“Yea… he came over after you fell asleep because I missed him” I put my index finger into my mouth pretending to gag. Molly slaps my hand away and laughs.

“Anyways! I have a surprise for you!” she takes my hand and drags me to the sofa to where Dan has finished his cereal and crossed his legs on our sofa. His eyes beam open and he smiles showing his crystal white teeth.

“Oh yea! We have a show tonight at Leeds. Do you want to come?” he wiggles his eyebrows and attempts to persuade me to come. “Aw, that is so cool! Sure! ” I smile at Molly as she jumps up and down and cheers. “The boys have been rehearsing for so long. They are really good” she states with confidence as she drags out her letters.

“And worried” Dan calls from the kitchen washing his bowl in the sink. Molly walks over to Dan kissing him on the cheek and tells him not to worry about anything. I am left alone in the living room until I hear a distant ring from my phone and run to pick it up.

“Hello”

“Ellie! We are swarmed with customers. Do you think you can work tonight?”

My heart drops in disappointment.

“Yeah… I guess” I groan

“Perfect Ellie! Thank you so much. Get dressed! You start in an hour”

Susan hangs up and my face immediately drops. I was so excited to see them perform and dance around with Molly. They were actually a nice group of lads. Except Dan… he seems not bothered to even make conversation with me. I think the only time we have talked properly was a few minutes ago.

I walk in front of the television with my most obvious sad face and explain: “Guys… I have work tonight”

“What?! You said you were going to come! We were so excited to dance to their songs and make fun of Dan for his dancing!” she cheekily smiles while Dan growls at her playfully. “Ugh, I know. You guys have fun. I got to be there in an hour”. Molly frowns and says it was okay, groaning quite loudly in the process.

I take a shower and put on my green polo shirt which has a basket of fruits near the right collar with small brown curly text saying “Marnie’s grocer”. I had been working there since I have graduated high school and all through college. I use to love it when Michael and I were working there together. Now that everybody knows he and I are separated, I don’t really look forward to seeing anyone there.

I walk out the door waving goodbye to them both and set off for the walk to work. I arrive to customers yelling at their children to stop crying and my team members calming down customers because of the long ques. Chaos would be an understatement to say the least.

“El! Thank god! Can you hop on register on 5?” Lisa our manager directs me, which was the only part of the store which didn’t seem to have customers flooding in and was still decent and tidy. I switch the light on for the customers to notice and a whole swarm of customers attack me with their groceries: chucking fruits onto the conveyor belt and glass bottles smashing together in their trolleys.

After the rush settles down and things start to become really quiet, I check my watch and notice the boys would have been halfway through their gig. I ask Kelly, one of my good friends, to cover for me while I go to the toilet. She agrees and insists on me hurrying up before Susan gets here.

I walk to the toilet and splash my face with cold water. I turn my head to see the window unlocked and open. Looking through the gap, I notice the gate to the main road open widely. The street lights were barely lit and the darkness of the night consumed most of the view of the road.

A sudden thought of me escaping is already put in play when I feel myself already crawling through the tiny gap and plummeting onto the concrete ground near the gate.

I pick myself up and dust myself, looking around to see if anyone had noticed. I walk through the gate and just hope this was all worth it in the end. I did not even know why I was escaping, all I knew was my legs did not let me turn around and walk back into the store.

The concrete ground hits hard under my feet as I feel myself quicken my pace and shiftily look around to see if they were still behind me. I avoid the street lights and the main road and find myself within alleys and darkened roads.

“Ellie!” I hear a familiar sound and shift my eyes to see two large men with balaclavas on and large leather jackets, handcuff me and place a potato sack over my head. I straddle and kick both men in what I was presuming was their chest areas as they dump me in the back of a van. The doors close and no longer can I see a slight gleam of light, but just utter darkness.