Chapter 7: Auntie?!
Elle's eyes widened in shock as the soft lips that she longed for all these days finally encountered hers in a fiery, heart-stopping kiss.
His strong arms circled around her, enclosing her body in a tight embrace that seemed like they never wanted to let go ever again. Her knees immediately turned to jelly and she felt herself fall right back under his spell.
Emotions overpowered her, clouding her thoughts, throwing her overboard into a sea of passion with no land in sight or even a puffy life jacket to buoy her up from drowning.
Memories flooded her brain, the same memories that plagued her ever since Jake had left her hanging on that fateful day.
All the days that she suffered during her self-inflicted isolation, blaming herself for being so utterly stupid…suddenly there was light at the end of this interminable tunnel.
This was wrong, she knew it was wrong and yet she could not stop herself from falling…
A sudden glint in the dim hallway light flashed across her vision, momentarily blinding her …she barely had time to inhale, let alone scream, before the knife ended hilt deep in Jake's chest, piercing his unfaithful heart.
He looked down upon the silver steel embedded in his chest and then looked up into her eyes, his face twisted in pain and fear. The wet warmth of his life blood spurted from the wound, drenching the front of his shirt, and his legs gave way, tumbling him to ground.
It was completely silent except for his choking gasps as he tried to breathe with all the blood gushing into his lungs. Blood sprayed out of his mouth with each wheeze as he clutched his chest, trying to staunch the bleeding. Anything he did was utterly futile.
His heart was already destroyed beyond repair, the tender tissue sliced apart and faltering with each desperate beat. He raised one bloody hand, trying to reach out to her, as his beautiful face was marred by the agony and terror of impending death.
Soon, his heart will stop. Soon, he will breathe his last. Soon, he will no longer exist.
She will no longer have to deal with his presence and she will never be enthralled by another man again.
Soon, it will all be over.
Of course…it will have solved nothing.
"Elle? Who's at the door?" Light, feminine steps were coming towards them.
Elle finally broke out of her sadistic fantasy and came hurtling back to reality, thanks to Ariel. She opened her eyes and pushed Jake away, slamming the door in his face.
She was pretty sure the butthead...
/Who calls people buttheads nowadays? God, I'm regressing back to my middle school years/
...with the worst timing in the world got the idea: NOT NOW.
Although she would much rather wipe out Jake from the face of the earth per her rather brutal thoughts just now, she did not want to do it in front of Ariel (and also because she knew that she didn't have the heart to harm a single hair on Jake's head, no matter how much he deserved it).
Ariel walked out of the living room, tissues still bunched in her hand, with a questioning look on her face.
"Who was-"
"Oh, you know, the landlord. He's been pressuring me to pay this month's rent but I argued with him that I've always paid on time all the other months. Then he left. You know how annoying these landlords are, you're late a few days and suddenly he's no longer Mr. Nice Guy and becomes Mr. Grumpy, showing up at your door every other day demanding rent. Kinda annoying, right?" she asked with a nervous chuckle.
Her story sounded plausible…right? Or at least that's how the landlords act in all those tv dramas…her heart was still beating faster than the Energizer bunny on speed.
/Any more of this crap and please just slap a straitjacket on me and ship me off to the loony bin…/
"Oh." Apparently, Ariel never had to deal with landlords because she had the most confused look on her face. "I guess…"
Of course, Ariel never had to deal with landlords because her daddy was the CEO of Lin Corporations, and there was never a time when a lack of funds caused delay in payments. So she had never been questioned by hostile people to make payments on time; instead, she's always been surrounded by groveling "nice" people who did whatever her little heart desired.
"Elle…if you ever need any financial help, please feel free to ask either me or Jake. I'm sure that he'll be just as happy to help you, since you're family." She patted her abdomen gently and added, "You're even going to be our little one's auntie."
"Right…" Elle agreed mechanically as she concentrated all her energy on keeping those floodgates from being destroyed by the storm of tears beating upon her weary self.
This was completely out of the norm for Miss Elle, who usually held her emotions tightly in check. Ever since she became pregnant, her mood swings changed as quickly as an innocent rainstorm developing into a full-blown hurricane.
One moment she wanted to murder Jake and chop him into little pieces for barbeque buns and the next moment she is overcome with anguish and self-pity that Jake was not by her side.
Like things weren't complicated enough, now she's going to be Jake's and Ariel's baby's aunt. How utterly fitting for someone like her. And she's supposedly related to Jake too, so what the hell does that make her own baby?? A freak born out of incest?!
\What the f*cking hell.\
"Well, I'm certainly embarrassed to impose upon you like this, but it was the only way to deal with all the emotional distress I was undergoing." Ariel laid a hand on Elle's hand and smiled sympathetically. "I know that you are Jake's sister and it would be unladylike of me to force you to betray his trust. I feel a lot better now, and I think I am going to go. This won't fix our relationship, me going behind his back to pressure his family members to tell me the truth. I think it is time for some confrontation and discussion. Thanks, Elle."
She gave her a tight hug and left just as suddenly as she came.
Beep, beep, beep. Doot, doot, doot. The ringtone for the arrival of a new text message brought her out of her confused state, goading her to search for her cell phone.
Ten minutes later, she found it in a Mickey D's bag stuffed inside her dry dishwasher.
Luckily, she hasn't been in the mood to do any cleaning; otherwise her new Iphone would have certainly been a very tragic drowning victim.
Her fingers flew over the smooth screen, quickly typing in her password. The message was short and succinct:
We have to talk.
J.
"Talk?! That b*stard…" Elle could not even begin to explain the emotions running through her…anger, love, disgust, love, confusion, love, joy, and love.
Tears welled up and proceeded to turn her into a crying mess once again, replete with mascara streaks that covered half of her face.
She was always known to be the strong and silent type, able to take as many knocks as any man and still manage to stand up on her feet at the end of the fight.
However, Jake was the only one who could make her lower her defenses, retire her boxing gloves for a few rounds, and just let herself be pampered and coddled like any other woman.
She had even admitted to him that he was her worst weakness; a ravaging addiction that she simply could not get enough of, could not stop herself from partaking.
It was getting so wearisome to constantly keep up an indifferent façade towards the world, being with him had changed all of that.
The fact that he returned to her showed that perhaps he could not just sweep her away like unwanted dustballs, that he might actually need her. This wasn't the end for them; she just knew that it wasn't.
They shared too many happy memories together, too many special moments. There was no way he could just leave her like that, she just knew it. At least that's what she repeated to herself as she scrubbed her face clean of makeup, leaving behind a tired, sallow face with dark circles.
/Hmmm, I don't pull off this zombie look very well, do I?/
Though Ariel left just minutes before, Elle could not help but feel the urge to thumb her nose at her, showing off that she was still "in the game."
"Wait, what the hell am I thinking? In the game?! Is this just a game?!" Elle could not believe she too had fallen into Jake's way of reasoning, thinking that it was just a game and merely played to see who survives the fickleness that is love.
Although Jake was the one who benched her, he still needed her out on the playing field…or something to that effect; she never did understood sports and all those silly rules and terms.
Suddenly, her murderous schemes of how to exact painful revenge on the man who broke her heart vanished as quickly as water drops on a hot stove.
All she could think of now was the feel of his lips on hers, the happiness of being in his arms again, the chance to bask in his presence once more.
Elle clutched the cell phone tightly to her chest for a few moments, trying to decide what she was going to do.
Ignore him or meet up? Try to get rid of his presence in her life by avoiding all contact or go to him and figure out what his deal was?
While she was pondering these thoughts, little Jakey suddenly decided that she had ignored him for too long and interrupted her musings with a wicked bout of nausea. All thoughts of Jake flew out of her head as she scrambled towards the bathroom, praying fervently that she would make it to the toilet before she threw up all over her stylish Persian rugs.
She didn't make it.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Audrey_Reign
Audrey_Reign Ahhh, to be so foolishly in love...just something about it that causes one to be completely illogical and accept mistreatment as if it was love. Please comment/vote, thanks! *_*
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