Chapter Four
Amy looked around the room. Caitir and Mahina had been at Renn's now for nearly an hour, and it looked as if her plan was working. Amy was satisfied with the results. By that time Creature had long been gone. He generally left when things got cutesy and the room was quite filled with coupledom. As the night wore on Claudia and Carlton also decided to depart from Nner's house in search of some privacy.
Jeff giggled from the sight of the potential couples. He whispered to Amy. "Hey, Ames... you think we should leave 'em alone?"
"Yeah, that would probably be best. They seem pretty occupied right now."
"Let's go."
Their reason for leaving was simpler than it seemed. Caitir and Nner had struck up a quite interesting conversation about the perfect ice cream flavor. This was a heated debate... at least that was how they were acting...
Elijah and Mahina looked pretty cute as well. Mahina had been curled up in Elijah's lap since arriving, and she was now peacefully sleeping. Elijah looked at Jeff and noticed him giggle. He raised an eyebrow and shot him a look, which instantly shut him up.
"Later, man." Jeff said, standing up. Amy followed him.
"Later." Elijah replied. Jeff and Amy then proceeded to walk out of the door.
"I'm telling you, Moose Tracks is the best ice cream on the face of the planet." Caitir said, nodding her head.
"No way," Renn replied. "Mint chocolate chip."
"Mint chocolate chip is good, but not the best."
"We're going to have to have a taste test on this." Renn said.
"I know!" Caitey yelled, jumping up. A very startled Mahina sat straight up in Elijah's lap, green eyes wide open. "We're going to Wal-Mart!" Caitey then reached over, grabbed Renn's hand, and walked to the door.
"Aren't you supposed to go to Wal-Mart during the day?" Elijah asked the two before they could walk out. Caitey turned and shot him an odd look.
"Who wants to go to Wal-Mart during the day?" She asked in an incredulous voice before both she and Renn walked out of the house, leaving Elijah and Mahina alone.
"That girl may be little," Mahina said, referring to Caitey. "But sometimes, she's terrifying."
"I do believe you're right." Elijah laughed. Mahina also began to laugh.
"Are you hungry?" Mahina asked. "'Cause I am."
"I'd rather have a drink, but food sounds good too." Elijah nodded.
"Yes!" Mahina giggled, throwing a fist up in the air. Without saying another word, Elijah slid his arms behind Mahina's back and underneath her knees. He lifted her off of his legs with ease, then sat her on the floor in front of him.
"Now, we just have to rummage through Renn's cabinets...I hope they're not as scary as they were the last time I was here." Elijah grinned then walked off to the kitchen. Mahina sat back down in the arm chair where he was just a few minutes prior.
"Hey, you want a fuzzy navel and some popcorn?" He yelled back from the kitchen.
"Sure, sounds good." Mahina replied.
A few minutes later, Elijah returned with a large bowl of popcorn and two glasses full of orange liquid and very crushed ice. He handed her one of the drinks and the bowl. She took the glass and the bowl, then stood up. He shot her a look and sat down. Immediately, she plopped right back down on his lap.
"I knew you were going to do that." Elijah said.
"Yeah, and your point is?" Mahina grinned. He shrugged and began to drink his drink. Mahina followed his lead and also began to drink the cold liquid. They both ate a few pieces of popcorn, then sat the bowl aside. After a few more drinks, the alcohol started taking effect. The mixture of alcohol and his unusually high hormone level got the best of him. The hand that he had resting on her knee slowly began to travel upwards. Mahina tensed up, but Elijah didn't notice due to the alcohol in his system. His hand still moved up, finally brushing over the top of her thigh-high tights and touching the soft skin above it.
Mahina began to push away from him. She pushed until she fell to the floor behind her. She attempted to clumsily get up and run away from him, but stumbled along the way. Tears streamed down her flushed cheeks as she found the stairs leading to the upper level of Renn's house. She tried to get up the stairs as fast as she could, occasionally tripping on the steps. She could hear Elijah behind her. After reaching the top level, she ran into the first room she found, which happened to be a guest bedroom. She knocked herself against the doorway while trying to get into the room and fell to the floor. She crawled into a corner and pulled her knees to her chest, sitting in an almost fetal position as Elijah walked into the room.
"Calm down." He said as he walked over to her.
"No, please don't..." Mahina choked out, crying. Elijah looked at her, apparently stunned. "Don't...please don't..." She cried more. Elijah reached out, attempting to touch her arm and calm her down. She jerked away from him, trying to curl into an even tighter ball and get farther back into the wall.
"I wasn't going to hurt you...I didn't want to scare you. Please calm down." Elijah said. She had stopped talking by this point. She finally allowed him to wrap his arms around her. They sat in the floor, Elijah rocking her back in forth in a soothing motion.
After about fifteen minutes of this, she finally spoke.
"...'Lijah," She said, with a shaky voice.
"Yes?"
"I guess you wanna know why that happened, huh?"
"Only if you want to tell me."
"When I was about four years old..." She began, her voice barely above a whisper. Elijah looked at her. The way she looked at that moment, curled up in his arms, flushed cheeks, bloodshot eyes made her look disheveled and older...yet at the same time she looked like a small, frightened child. "My daddy started hurting me. He did bad stuff to me for years...I guess I'm just not over it."
Elijah didn't speak a word. He just continued sitting in the floor, holding her.
Caitey reached out, grabbing Renn's wrist. "This way!" She squealed, dragging him off towards the frozen foods section. Renn laughed at her childlike antics. The small girl practically dragged him through the store, seeing as he was trying to walk at a normal pace and she was almost sprinting.
"Here it is!"
"Thank God..." Renn said, rolling his eyes back into his head. Caitey opened the freezer door and took out a half-gallon of Moose Tracks. Renn reached in too, grabbing the same size container of Mint Chocolate Chip.
"We should get silly string, too!" Caitir grinned. "Here, hold this, I'll be right back!" She giggled, sitting the container of ice cream in her hands on top of the one he was holding. With that, she ran off to the toy section. She returned about five minutes later with two cans of silly string - a pink one and a green one.
"Okay!" She smiled. They walked to the register and paid.
"Now," Renn started as they walked back to the parking lot. "Why did you buy silly string?"
Caitir just grinned. She reached inside of the Wal-Mart bag she was holding and took out one of the cans of it. She uncapped it and aimed it up, squirting the foam straight into his hair.
"Hey!" He laughed. He unlocked his mint green Infiniti G35 and put the ice cream in the back seat before taking the other silly string can out of the bag. He sprayed her with it, getting the foamy substance stuck in the fishnet overlay of her skirt. She laughed and the two continued to play in the parking lot, squirting each other with the silly string until both cans were empty. Still laughing and covered in foam, the two climbed into Renn's car and headed back for his house.
After arriving back at Renn's, Caitey put the ice cream in his freezer. Renn had gone upstairs to change clothes and find Caitey something to change into. As Renn walked up the stairs, he noticed the door to one of the guest bedrooms slightly ajar. Silently, he peaked into the room. Mahina was sound asleep, and Elijah was in the process of picking her up off of the floor. Elijah looked over, noticed Renn, and mouthed for him to go away, his middle finger sticking up in the air. Elijah laid her down on the bed before leaving the room. Renn had already gone to his room. Elijah traveled back down the stairs and got into the duffel bag he had brought with him, since he was planning on staying over at Renn's that night anyways. He pulled out one of his blue Deadsy t- shirts and a pair of pajama pants, which was what he was planning on sleeping in that night. After returning to the guest bedroom, he changed her from her clothing to his pajamas. He then tucked her under the covers, and stripped to only his boxers and t-shirt. He got into the bed beside her, and pulled her closer to him. After around an hour of watching her closely, his eyes became heavy and he soon drifted off into an uneasy sleep.
