Elizabeth cautiously made her way down the stairs of Kelly's, peeking around the corner. The diner was bustling and behind the counter, Emily stood, laughing at Zander, who was sitting in front of her. Elizabeth's eyes traveled down to the floor near the counter. She knew the bracelet was probably still there; no one swept the floor in the morning when they opened.
"Hey, Elizabeth," Emily called out, waving her friend over. Elizabeth looked haggard, her clothes hastily thrown on and her hair unkempt. "Are you ok?"
Her eyes still down on the floor, Elizabeth smiled, taking a deep breath before looking up at her best friend. "I'm fine… how are you? You're not having trouble this morning, are you? Because I know it was busy last night and Friday mornings are always the worst…"
Emily laughed, pushing a piece of hair out of her face. "It's fine, Elizabeth. No worse than it usually is."
Nodding, Elizabeth looked over at Zander, muttering a hello to him as she tried to force herself not to bend down and look under the counter. "You know, Em… I've got to get going. I've got a class at PCU in twenty minutes and I don't want to be late."
"Right, I forgot about that. You'd better go…" Emily watched Elizabeth's eyes dart down to the floor again and she frowned. "Did you drop something?" Bending down, Emily reached her hand out along the floor under the counter.
"NO!" Elizabeth's eyes widened and she immediately clamped her mouth shut when she caught sight of both Emily and Zander's wide-eyed stares.
"Are you sure you're ok?" Emily asked again slowly.
Elizabeth adjusted the strap of her purse. "I'm fine… fine… I just didn't want you to… touch the floor. Who knows what's down there. I mean, I know we sweep when we close, but one of us could miss something and there could be crumbs and dust down there and you don't want to have to wash your hands when it's busy like this…"
Emily's eyebrows furrowed as Elizabeth rambled on. Something seemed off with her today. "Elizabeth?"
Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth once again forced a smile on her face. "I'm FINE, Emily… really." She looked around, knowing she couldn't keep the charade up for much longer. "I have to go or I'll be late for class. I'll see ya."
Without another word, Elizabeth tightened her grip on her bag and rushed out of Kelly's.
"Your assignment's on the board, everyone. Have a nice day."
With a contented sigh, Elizabeth leaned back in her seat, closing her notebook. Art Interpretation had to be one of her favorite classes. She loved looking at a piece of work and trying to determine the emotions she felt as a result of that.
"You dropped this."
In front of her stood a tall young man, a pencil in his hand, pointed towards her. Smiling, Elizabeth grabbed it and threw it in her bag.
"Thanks… I didn't even realize I dropped it."
"Yeah, I noticed you were really into the lecture."
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "I didn't realize I was being watched."
The boy shrugged, embarrassment tinting his face a pale pink. "Yeah, well… art's not really my thing. I kind of got stuck in this class as a result of bad scheduling. But you seem to really like it."
Elizabeth smiled as she stood, gathering her things. "Art is my passion."
The boy nodded. "It's always good to be passionate about something. I'm Jeremy, by the way. Jeremy Barker."
"Elizabeth Webber."
"Elizabeth… such a long name… do people call you that, or do the call you Liz, Eliza… or Lizzie."
"Ugh, not Lizzie. My family used to call me that before… when I was younger, but I outgrew that. Some people call me Liz though."
"What about Eliza?"
Elizabeth smiled as the two of them made their way towards the door. "No, I can't say anyone's called me that before. Eliza… that's something new."
Jeremy smiled. "Do you mind if I call you Eliza? Eliza the artist."
Smiling, Elizabeth nodded. "Eliza's fine. I don't mind at all." Looking down, Elizabeth checked her watch. "I need to meet my boyfriend. I'll see you though, Jeremy."
Laughing, Jeremy started walking off in the other direction, calling out over his shoulder to Elizabeth. "Bye… Eliza!"
Laughing, Elizabeth made her way off of the PCU campus. As far as first days of school went, her was pretty good. It felt great to be a student again. Her professors seemed nice, she was meeting new people, and she was finally beginning to do exactly what she wanted.
Things are going to be different from now on. > Elizabeth took a deep breath when that thought crossed her mind. Things were going to be very different… and she knew exactly how to launch that change.
Walking down the docks, Elizabeth paused for a moment, taking time to look at the Corinthos/Morgan warehouse. It was still in shambled from the fire, and Elizabeth remembered the fear she had felt on Valentine's Day.
The second she'd seen Jason run into the building, her heart had stopped, fear freezing herself in her spot. Her eyes concentrated only on the opening in the building as she prayed with everything inside of her that he would come out alright.
She had almost given up hope when neither Jason nor Sonny came out after a few minutes and tears threatened in her eyes as she was preparing herself to turn away. That had been when she saw movement and Jason and Sonny came stumbling from the building. Her eyes locked with Jason's, and at that moment, nothing else mattered
Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth looked away from the building, jerking herself out of that memory. She looked off in the direction of Kelly's and sighed. She had come to a decision on the way to PCU and she'd been going over it in her head all morning. She was going to live life for herself now…
…she just had to keep up her nerve so she could tell Lucky that.
Going over in her head what she wanted to say, Elizabeth made her way towards Kelly's. She knew what she was going to say would confuse and hurt Lucky, but she had to do it. She couldn't even recognize herself in the mirror anymore and that wasn't right.
Pushing the door to Kelly's open, Elizabeth's eyes scanned the customers before finally landing on Lucky at the corner table. He waved her over and taking a deep breath, Elizabeth starting walking towards him.
Standing, Lucky leaned over the table to kiss her. "Hey, Beautiful."
Elizabeth bit her lip. "Lucky…"
"What's going on?"
Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth sat, leaning forward onto the table. "We have to talk, Lucky."
Laughing, Lucky grabbed her hand, playing with the silver ring she always wore on her left hand. "We are talking. But why don't we go upstairs." He grinned suggestively at her and Elizabeth frowned, pulling her hand out of Lucky's grasp.
"I have something I need to say, Lucky, and I need you to listen to me."
"I always listen, Elizabeth."
Elizabeth took a deep breath. "I want to move out of Kelly's."
Lucky's brows furrowed. "What do you mean? Move out? I don't understand."
"I want to live in my studio."
Laughing, Lucky leaned back, wiping his hand over his chin. "Don't you think your studio is kind of small? How will the two of us fit in there? And it's cold too."
Elizabeth frowned. "No, Lucky… I don't think you understand… I want to live on my own."
"We do live on our own."
"No, we don't. We practically live together-"
"That's because we love each other. We're in love, Elizabeth."
Sighing, Elizabeth pushed her hair out of her face. "Just because we love each other doesn't mean we have to spend all of our time together. I need to be on my own… I need to have my own place."
Lucky frowned, not liking what he was hearing. "Elizabeth, we don't spend all of our time together. You're not modeling anymore so we'll rarely see each other. The only time we'll see each other is when we are upstairs. Where WE live. Why are you trying to pull away from me all of the time? Where is this coming from?"
"I'm not trying to pull away, Lucky. And it's coming from me."
Lucky's eyes narrowed slightly. "No, I don't think it is. I know where this is coming from." He paused for a moment, crossing his arms over his chest as he watched her. "Jason's making you do this."
Elizabeth's shoulders dropped in frustration. "Not this again… please."
"No," Lucky said, raising his voice. "Nikolas said that when I was gone, you'd hang around Jason and you'd be different. You'd act different… I think Nikolas was right. You do act different when Jason's around. You lie to me… now you're pulling away from me…"
"Lucky, this isn't about Jason," Elizabeth said in exasperation. "It's about ME and what I want."
Lucky glared at her. "So what you want… what you want, is to break up with me?"
Elizabeth's eyes widened. "Who said anything about breaking up?"
Slamming his hand on the table, Lucky leaned forward. "We I don't know… my girlfriend comes in here after weeks of LYING to me and all of the sudden decides that she wants to move out. Oh, and this comes AFTER she decides she would rather go to school than work with me… that sure sounds like breaking up to me."
"Well, maybe you should get your ears checked Lucky because-"
Elizabeth stopped short when the door to Kelly's was pushed open. A young, petite women walked in with dark, wavy, shoulder-length hair. Elizabeth watched as if everything were in slow motion as the woman slid out of her jacket to reveal a red dress.
Identical to the red dress Elizabeth had worn… that night....
The woman's eyes locked with Elizabeth's as she slid her coat back on, turning on her heel to walk out the door. Pushing back her chair, Elizabeth stood, looking away from the door only when Lucky grabbed her forearm.
"Because what, Elizabeth? Huh?"
"Lucky, let go of me. I have to leave." Elizabeth strained her neck, trying to see out of the door to see if the woman was still out there.
"You can't answer, can you? Because you know I'm right."
"LUCKY." Elizabeth jerked her arm out of her grasp and threw on her jacket, stumbling over chairs as she rushed to get out of the diner. She had to find that woman.
"Don't walk away from me, Elizabeth."
Ignoring him, Elizabeth pushed her way out of the diner, running out into the cold weather.
There was no one in sight.
Elizabeth shook as she look around. That was two nights. Two nights in a row that she had seen reminders of her rape. It wasn't a coincidence. It couldn't have been.
"She looked right at me," Elizabeth said breathlessly. She breathed heavily for a few seconds, looking around in desperation. "What's going on…"
Turning back towards Kelly's, Elizabeth looked inside the window. Lucky's angry eyes were glaring back at her. Taking a step backward, Elizabeth moved away from the door. She didn't want to deal with him right now… she couldn't deal with him.
Stumbling around the outside tables, Elizabeth took off running.
Out of the bushes around Kelly's, Francis emerged, pulling out his cell phone as he took off after his charge. Sonny and Jason would kill him if he lost sight of her and something happened. She was headed in the direction of her studio and once Francis was sure that was where she was going, he slowed his pace, pressing the speed dial button.
"This is Francis… we've got a problem. Something's wrong with Miss Webber."
"Stop… you can stop pulling on my arm now, jeez."
The young women in the dress dug her heels into the ground, forcing the man who was dragging her away from Kelly's to stop.
"Did she see you?" The man asked, keeping himself hidden in the shadows. "Did you make sure she saw you?"
The girl sigh, annoyance seeping into her voice. "Of course she did. I did exactly what you told me to. I walked in, caught her eye, and made sure she saw me in the dress. Now can you just give me the money now? It's cold out here."
The man pulled an envelope out of his pocket, handing it over to the woman. "Get out of here and burn the dress, got it? You're not to stay in Port Charles for another night."
The woman opened the envelope, counting the bills. Satisfied, she tucked it into her coat pocket, smiling widely at the man. "I got it, I got it…" She tapped the pocket that held the money. "Thanks…"
The man watched as she walked away before turning on his heel. "Oh no," he said to himself. "Thank YOU."
Grinning, he walked away.