BOND

39.

So sue me for being good friends with your friends

And running into you at the place that we met

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

"Joey," Elena strangled out, her heart dropping down into her shoes. She hadn't done anything but the feeling of Michael's lips lingered on her mouth and it was enough to make her tremble.

Joey's eyes turned emotionless by the second and she hesitantly took a small step towards him.

He didn't move back. He scoffed. "I can't believe how much of an idiot I've been," he said dispassionately.

Elena raised her hands up in a surrendering gesture as his lips turned into a deep scowl. "Joey, please." Her voice came out stifled and when she sucked in a quick gasping breath she realized she had teared up.

"Don't," he shook his head, trying to not look into her eyes and failing. He spared a second's glance towards Michael before fixing her under his gaze.

Elena, barely breathing, clutched her hands by her sides to stop them from twitching. "Nothing is going on, Joey."

She watched as he ground his teeth, the vein in his jaw popping out. 

"What's going on is that I was here waiting to see you after a month," his voice rose and she flinched. "While you were whoring around."

Dead silence ensued from the three of them. 

"We're done," Joey said softly, almost to himself, turned around and forced himself to walk away.

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

Taylor leaned back into the headrest, letting Daniel be the one to call Elena downstairs.

She and Michael had landed the night before and both of them had since then, disappeared off the face of the earth. Neither of them paid any attention to it, pegging it off as jet lag.

When Elena didn't pick up her phone, Daniel looked over at Taylor, "I think she's still asleep."

Taylor frowned at the abnormality, Elena was usually the first one up. "I'll go up," she walked quickly over to the house.

She slipped out her spare key instead of knocking and went right in. A suitcase and kit bag were practically dumped on the floor just a couple of steps from the door. Sidelining around the chaos of the kitchen, that looked like everything eatable had exploded in it, Taylor rushed upstairs to Elena's bedroom.

Inside she saw what she hadn't seen in a long while. Elena sitting on the floor, her back against the bed, hair hidden into the tightly wrapped blanket with red rimmed eyes and tear stains on her cheeks.

Pausing for just a second, Taylor raked her brain for anything that could have happened. Coming up blank, she carefully stepped through the empty candy packets and sat down in front of Elena.

Elena looked at the floor between them, blowing her scrubbed red nose into a tissue, and simply sunk into the crook of Taylor's shoulder. She let out a small sob, refusing to cry anymore, which she hadn't done as much as she had wanted to, as Taylor's arms wrapped around her.

Taylor took in the room as much as she could from her vantage point. On the bed was Elena's half closed Mac Book, no tab open on it, the background photo of hers and Joey's faces squished together glaring on the home page staring onto the keypad.