Dependent on You

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Third Person

Elliot carried Adrian out of the locker room as she hid hiccuping into his chest. Both her hands squeezed his sweatshirt in fists as he walked, furiously pushing through people until finally, he stopped dead, muscles tensing against her trembling form. His arms around her seemed to tighten as the murmuring hall of all the thrown out locker room girls went quiet.

Adrian noticed but couldn't bring herself to care when all she felt was violated, terror-stricken, and relief beyond relief knowing she was in the arms of a boy who could be both terrifying to those around him and intense to the point of apprehension. Adrian knew just in the way Elliot's body language changed so suddenly, he was livid. She knew because she has encountered his anger directly on multiple occasions, she knew because it was something that was impossible to ignore.

Adrian sensed it without even having to look at him, causing her to latch onto him tighter as she kept her head buried into his sweatshirt. He smelled of smoke and mint and citrus, a promise of bad things, unpredictable things. The smell brought Adrian comfort, the smell of him. But that didn't stop the salty fluid from escaping her eyes, it didn't stop the hurt or unexplainable pain she was feeling everywhere in her body.

She was past the point of upset and to say she is confused was an understatement. Why was she in Elliot's arms? How did he know where she was? Why were those girls being so cruel? Why was Elliot so mad? Every waking scenario played in her head but none of them made any sense and only ended up making her head pulsate that much more. The only thing she could think was she never wanted to come to school ever again, she never wanted to be cornered and forced to take her clothes off or anything for that matter ever again.

Her heart thudded hard in her chest, differently now that Elliot was here but still exceeding the average rate for normal.

"Who fucking did it." Elliot's voice sears the hall, rough and borderline deadly. "I'll give you cunts five fucking seconds to answer the question." He didn't have to say what would happen after, the insinuation was clear in his tone and the unknown was far worse.

Adrian shook in his arms, wishing she could just evaporate into thin air, wishing nobody could see her right now. Elliot's arms holding her were uncomfortably rigid with his ascending temper, he was squeezing her without even realizing it. As much as it would usually bother her (the touch of others) right now it didn't, not his. His momentary touchiness and closeness depleted some of the pain cramping her tummy.

The whispers began as soon as the threat left his red patience-lacking lips striking chills to your skin. Adrian couldn't see not when she was hiding in Elliot, so she had no idea what was going on. She just wanted to leave, she wanted to go home and sink under her bed sheets and cry forever. She didn't want to be here anymore, but she also didn't want Elliot to let her go.

Elliot began to move again, slow and predatory implementing fear with each waking step as he carried Adrian with him. "Hush little Adrian or I might just go to juvie after all." Elliot hissed under his minty breath so only she could hear. Adrian's entire body became motionless with her mouth clamping shut at those awful words that literally almost cut off her air supply. They didn't sit well with her and he knew it.

Then once again Elliot's movement halted. He was tense again, so so tense. "Slutty Sloan," Elliot said, filtering Adrian's ears along with everyone else's sounding of honeyed poison. "Can't keep your hands to yourself huh?" The silence in the hall held thick with tension, though there were some snickers.

"Didn't know I had to." A girl answered, a voice Adrian recognized to be the very girl who called her names saying mean awful things to her. "My bad."

Swiftly, Adrian is being shifted into a position where her legs are wrapped around Elliot's torso and her arms around his neck, his hands under her thighs. "Open your eyes, Adrian," Elliot growls lowly so only she can hear, his hands clenching and unclenching against her delicate skin. "Now." Her watery eyes popped right open, blinking up to his through her lashes knowing it wasn't optional.