Chapter Nine: Rude Boy
It was Saturday night, and Adam and Eli were at the Dot, planning to go see the latest horror movie after dinner. "Dude, I got to ask you a question," Adam said, dipping a fry into the pile of ketchup on his plate.
"Then ask it," Eli said between bites.
"What are you going to do about this Clare thing?"
He raised his eyebrows at Adam. "I didn't know there was a 'Clare thing'. Last I checked, she broke up with me."
"Well, I don't know where you're sitting, but from where I'm at – she's clearly not over you. And you're obviously not over her."
Eli set his burger down and cleaned his fingers off on his napkin. "I fought for Clare already, when she was actually still with me. I was willing to do anything for her, and it wasn't what she wanted. So as far as what I'm going to 'do'…nothing." He shrugged. "Clare's emotions are a catch-22. If I respond to them, she'll get scared because it's too intense or because she might not really feel as strongly back. If I ignore them, then she'll try harder and want me more, just like before."
"What are you saying? If she wants you back, you won't go for it?"
Eli looked at Adam carefully. He had wondered what the answer to this question was many times himself. "I'm saying that I can't see that happening, and even if it did, I can't see it sticking. Right now, I don't have Clare at all. I can't be friends with her when I care as much as I do, so I'd rather work on not feeling that way anymore so I can at least talk to her again. The rest –"
A burst of rap music interrupted him, and Adam made a face. "Sorry," he said quickly, pulling his phone from his pocket. "It's Drew," he said apologetically, reading his phone's display.
Eli made a gesture indicating Adam should answer it and leaned back, taking a drink of his soda. He hadn't spoken to Clare since that Monday when he'd brought Anya to school, but he'd thought about her a great deal since then. He couldn't deny he still loved Clare, though some days he wondered if it was more out of stubbornness than anything else. She was the first girl he'd cared about since Julia, who he'd fully intended to love forever, and a part of him wasn't willing to accept that those feelings could just go away. He wanted to be right about her, about them together.
But there was no denying that things between him and Clare had changed. She couldn't look at him now without seeing someone dangerous, someone who was likely to destroy himself at any moment. How could he be in a relationship with someone who not only kept him at arm's length, but didn't even trust him to be alone with himself?
Adam leaned forward, pressing the phone to his ear, a look of confusion on his face. "Whoa, bro, slow down – you want who's number?" Eli set his drink down, and Adam looked up at him. "You don't need it. No, no I get it, I – listen to me! I'm sitting here with him right now," Adam said into the phone. Eli couldn't hear the other half of the conversation, but he could tell Drew was obviously worked up about something.
Eli's eyebrows raised and he pointed at himself, to which Adam nodded jerkily, holding out the phone. "Drew says he needs to talk to you, says it's important."
This was new. Eli had talked to Drew a few times, mostly when he'd been around Adam's house, but they hardly sought each other out for conversation. They were from different worlds, and Drew was part of the same football team on which Eli had so many enemies – it just wouldn't have ended well for either of them to strike up a friendship. Eli didn't see Drew as a bad guy. Maybe a little slow to do the right thing, but he always eventually stood up for Adam, and Eli respected that.
"Hello?" he said. He heard Drew breathing, and could just make out the sound of music in the background.
"Okay, look, I don't have much time and I don't feel very comfortable doing this anyway," Drew said quickly, sounding angry. "But the way I see it, you've always been good to my brother, and I should help you if I can. Besides, Milligan's got it coming to him, and after what he did to Adam, I don't see any reason to protect him. "
Eli sat up straighter. This was about Owen? "Okay…" he prompted, when Drew didn't continue.
"The football players and cheerleaders like to get together for little parties throughout the school year. Tonight we're at Marisol Lewis' house." He rattled off the address, and Eli fished a pen out of his pocket, scribbling it down on a napkin.
"What does any of this have to do with me?"
"Owen's got a big mouth. He's all talk, and so he likes to tell everyone when he plans on going after a girl, like we're all supposed to be so impressed." Eli froze. He knew where this was going now. The only reason he would care about what was happening at a football player/cheerleader party.
"Is she okay?"
"Last I knew. I went outside to make this call, but last I saw she was fine. But he's planning on getting her drunk, and she doesn't seem to realize he keeps refilling her drink when she's not looking. I'd really rather not get involved – it has nothing to do with me, but like I said – Milligan's got it coming to him, and I just thought –"
"I'll handle it," Eli said quickly.
He heard voices in the background, and when Drew spoke again, his voice was lower and closer to the phone. "I have to go. Just…do what you want." The call disconnected before Eli could respond.
"What's up?" Adam asked as Eli handed the phone over, standing up and shoving the napkin into his pocket.
"Owen," he said simply. "I'm sorry, I will make it up to you, but I have to go."
Adam was on his feet too, looking at Eli in concern. "Do you need me to go with you?"
Eli smirked. "No…it'll be my pleasure to handle this on my own."
It wasn't the first time she'd ever thought this, but as Anya sat on the couch at Marisol's house, surrounded by cheerleaders and football players, she wished she was capable of letting people down. She didn't want to be there. She'd thought about coming up with an excuse to flake out on the party, but these get togethers were tradition, and it was a lot easier to just play along and make nice for the night, instead of trying to make it up to everyone later.
She certainly didn't want to spend any time with Owen, but luckily Marisol had smoothed that situation over from the moment he walked in. He tried to make a comment, asking her where "pretty boy" was, but Marisol had rounded on him. "Owen, I don't think this is the time or place for your paranoid jealousy." She'd smiled sweetly at him and even had the nerve to pat him on the head like a dog, which most everyone had laughed at. And so Owen had shut up about Eli. But it wasn't enough to get Eli off Anya's brain. As she sat on the couch, listening to the music and making small talk where required of her, she found herself continually opening her phone, starting text messages to Eli she never finished.
What did she want to say to him? They hadn't really spoken since she'd left him in the parking lot. It wasn't Eli's fault that those rumors were going around school – he'd tried to cover for her, but still…it was hard to be comfortable around him when she knew all eyes were on them. She wanted to be able to talk to him, but with the rumors people made about them, it only left her feeling worse about everything.
She knew she had told Holly J she wouldn't drink anymore, but when Owen and the other guys started filling drinks, she found herself taking one. Call it peer pressure, call it cowardice…but Anya needed to find a way to mute her thoughts. Her brain was teeming with thoughts of chemo, death, Eli, and the sense that everyone who looked at her now thought they knew something so personal about her. She needed to shut it up, and alcohol was the only way she had to do it. What could it hurt?
About halfway to Marisol's, it occurred to Eli that he should try calling Anya. He fished his phone from his pocket, thankful that her name was so high on the contact list, and flexed his hand on the steering wheel while he listened to it ring. "Hi, it's Anya! Sorry I missed your call, but please leave me a message and I'll be sure to call you back!"
The phone beeped, and Eli started talking, not entirely sure what he was saying. "Anya, please be okay. Please call me back, and please be okay. Whatever you do, do not go anywhere with Owen alone, I –" He was interrupted by a beeping on his phone. He pulled it away from his ear and looked at the screen. "That's you. Okay. Good."
He pressed the button to change lines. "Anya?"
"Eli," she breathed. He could immediately tell she was drunk. She sounded confused and a little scared.
"Are you okay?"
She was breathing hard. "I think so," she said quietly. "I couldn't figure out how to answer when you called, but Owen showed me –"
Eli tensed. "You're not alone with him, are you?"
She giggled. "Silly, everybody's here. Music – music was really loud though, so Owen let me come in the room where it was quieter. I don't know what happened…I didn't mean to drink so much." She was more drunk than he'd ever experienced before. Eli could tell she was disoriented, and probably had no idea what was happening.
"Please listen to me," he said, forcing his voice to remain calm. "You have to get out of there. Go sit with everyone else – find Drew. Don't stay in that room with him."
"Eli –" she started to say something more, but then he heard a lot of movement.
"Anya?"
"She's a little busy, pretty boy." Owen had the phone now.
"Listen, you sick bastard, you leave her alone!"
Owen laughed. "You act like I'm going to take something she's not willing to give away. Not everyone finds it as hard as you do to get a woman. Trust me, she'll be begging for it."
The call ended, and Eli pressed down harder on the accelerator.
Eli was gone. Anya reached backwards, above her head where her phone had gone. Everything was so hard to understand. Somehow, she'd drank way more than she intended. She thought she'd only had a couple drinks, but then again, her drinks seemed to take so long to finish, like they were always full….
She felt her phone hit the bed beside her, and someone grabbed her flailing hands, leading them back down to her lap. In doing so, the person's arms ended up wrapped around her. She felt the person's chest press against her back.
Owen. It was Owen. She had to remember that. She was on a bed and Owen was touching her and she didn't want that. She wished she could somehow reverse this, suck the alcohol back out of her body so she could focus on getting rid of him. She didn't know how to stop this.
She felt hot lips in her hair, and she jerked her head away. "Come on, princess," he whispered, one hand moving up to brush her hair off to one side. His lips were on her neck, and she found herself squirming, trying to move away. His lips felt so different from Eli's – smaller, rougher, and they made her skin crawl.
She should be scared. She should be screaming. But everything was so confusing. She kept forgetting who was touching her, forgetting where she was or what was happening. She wanted Eli.
The hands moved again, this time curling around the bottom of her shirt and lifting, calloused fingers trailing up her stomach.
To say that the rest of the people at the party were surprised when Eli threw the front door open was a major understatement. Most of them seemed to fear it was the police, and immediately started scrambling to hide any evidence of drinking. Others tried to untangle themselves from their respective make out partners, adjusting clothing and wiping their mouths.
"Where are they?" his said, his voice dangerously low as he stalked over to Drew, whose hands were still on the thighs of a cheerleader Eli didn't recognize. Drew looked uncomfortable at Eli addressing him in front of all of them, but jerked his head toward the hallway.
"Second door on the right."
"Hey, you." Eli turned slowly, tipping his head to one side and then the other to stretch his neck. Every inch of his body was tensed, something that would do no good if he was about to get in a fight. It was Marisol, who stumbled a little as she came up to him. "No one invited you."
"No one invited the cops, either, but if you let what's going to happen in that room happen, you better believe they'll be coming too."
Marisol blinked. "She asked him to take her somewhere quieter," she explained, as if that made it okay. "I'm sorry, I know you guys had some sort of thing, but…it looks like she moved on." She shrugged, brushing the whole thing off as if he was some sort of jealous ex-boyfriend.
"Just let him go, Marisol," Drew said behind him, sounding almost bored with the whole discussion. "Sooner he goes and does what he wants, the sooner it's over."
Marisol seemed to consider this, and then nodded slowly. Eli didn't wait for any further objections, and skirted out of the living room, rushing down the hall. Second door on the right….
Owen hadn't even been smart enough to lock the door, which resounded loudly against the wall when Eli threw it open. Owen jumped backwards, stumbling to regain his balance as he moved off the edge of the bed. Anya looked over her shoulder at the door, trying to focus on Eli through hooded eyes. She was sitting on the far edge of the bed, her feet on the floor, her back to Owen. Owen had moved fast, but Eli had still seen enough to know what he was doing.
There might have been a calmer way for Eli to approach it. In fact, before he'd gotten to the door he wasn't even so much angry at Owen as he was just determined to stop him. Maybe if Marisol hadn't stalled him in the living room, he would've gotten here earlier, and things wouldn't have been the way they were. But as it was, Eli entered at the time he did, and saw what he saw, and his rage erased any thoughts of civility.
He rushed forward, shoving Owen to the ground. Before Owen could respond, Eli was on top of him, straddling him as he landed punch after punch. After a few punches square to the face, Owen got the better of him, reaching up, grabbing his fist, and twisting his arm. He pushed up and to the side, slamming Eli to the ground. He was on his knees between Eli's legs, and Eli saw stars when the first punch landed near his mouth. The hand that Owen had used to catch Eli's fist found its way to his throat, pinning him to the ground.
He regained his senses in time to see Owen pull his arm back for another punch, but before he could deliver, Anya was there, her hands clamping around Owen's elbow and holding it back. He pushed backwards, and the forced knocked the already unstable Anya backwards. Eli heard a crash and saw a pop of light – no doubt she'd knocked the lamp off the nightstand table and broken it.
Her distraction was all he needed, though. Owen hesitated, realizing what he'd done to Anya, and his grip on Eli's throat loosened. Eli grabbed his arm with both his hands and pushed him to the side, jumping up when Owen fell over. He kicked at Owen, making contact but not really seeing, or caring, where.
A crowd had started to assemble at the door, but it was Drew who ran in, pushing Eli backwards and standing between the two of them. Owen didn't get up off the floor, but glared up at Eli, holding his jaw. "Enough," Drew said firmly, pushing Eli back again when he made to move around him. Eli stopped, seeing he wasn't going to get any further with Owen that night, and shook his head, trying to straighten out his hair.
"Anya?" Everyone was standing outside the room, crowded in the hall, and Chantay had pushed her way closest to the door. She was looking in horror at Anya, who had pulled herself into a sitting position, pressed into the corner made by the nightstand and bed. She was trying to curl into a ball, her knees drawn to her chest in hopes that her jeans would cover the fact that she was only wearing a bra on top.
Eli watched as Drew's eyes followed to where Chantay was looking, and saw the way his jaw clenched. Good, Eli found himself thinking. Maybe this would teach him to have a little more courage, and not wait so long to do something himself. Drew looked away, and addressed the floor when he spoke. "This has gotten completely out of hand."
"Pretty boy just can't stand that Anya wants to know what a real man's like," Owen snarled.
"Shut up!" Drew barked over his shoulder, once again holding out his hand to stop Eli from moving forward again. "You need to leave. All of you. We're all going home. Now."
He turned then, putting his hand under Owen's arm and hoisting him up. Eli was glad to see that when Owen hesitated at the doorway, Drew gave him a shove in the back. "Seriously, we're leaving," Drew repeated, when those in the hall continued to gawk. Finally, they started down the hall and Drew looked back at Eli. "It's Marisol's house and all, so…five minutes?" Eli nodded quickly, and Drew shut the door behind him, leaving Eli alone with Anya.
The first matter of business was getting her properly clothed again. He found her shirt on the bed, but found that one sleeve was ripped pretty badly and thought better of giving it back to her. Lucky for the both of them, he believed in the power of dressing in layers, so he quickly threw off his jacket and pulled off the dark blue Henley he was wearing underneath it, leaving a white t-shirt that he covered with his jacket.
Anya hadn't moved, her arms around her knees and her head buried in them. The broken lamp lay only inches from her, so Eli was careful as he approached her, but he still heard the glass from the lightbulb crunch under his sneakers. "Anya," he said quietly. "It's okay now. I'm here."
She shook her head, trying to bury it even deeper. "Wanted you here before," he heard her whisper.
He felt as if he'd been stabbed. "I know," he managed. "I got here as soon as I could. Can you just…can you take this shirt for me? I need to take you out of here." He crouched down next to her, careful to move slowly and breathe lightly, terrified that he would scare her. She moved just enough so that he could see one of her eyes. He hated how much fear he saw reflected back at him, and it took all his self control not to go find Owen right then and finish what he started. She lifted a shaking arm, grabbing the shirt from him. He moved back then, turning around and sitting by the far side of the bed while she put it on.
"Where do I go?" she finally asked, her voice thick.
He swallowed. Bullfrog and Cece were home, and he wasn't sure how to explain all this to them, but he couldn't very well just drop her off at her house as if nothing had happened. But he remembered what his parents had told him how many times before – "If something really bad happens, just know that if there's anything we can do, we'll do it – no questions asked." "At least not until it's over and done and you're ready to talk", Cece always added. She always did love learning all the juicy details.
"You're coming home with me," he said firmly. "And you're staying with me as long as it takes for you to be okay."
Next time, in Chapter 10: Nothing Else Matters – Bullfrog and Cece try to catch up, Eli and Anya spend the night together, and Eli gets a shock.
A/N: Poor Anya. :( To clarify, Owen didn't rape her or anything, but he did do some stuff he shouldn't have...lucky Eli got there when he did. Thank you all again for all your awesome reviews, you guys are the best!
