Chapter Two
El's silently watching Mike from across their kitchen counter, all his clothes were messily sprawled out across the tiled floor. What caught her eye was how Mike seemed to react to El wanting him out of her life, his body had slid down onto the ground and he had his head in his hands. Her heart started to break then and there, at first it was supposed to be a simple game. A game that would make her feel less broken inside, and yet, it ended up breaking them both even more.
There are moments in every relationship that define when two people start to fall in love, for El though, her and Mike weren't the average couple. In fact, she had thought that their love couldn't be defined on paper or simple fact sheets. She once thought they could get through anything, but this scene in front of her proved her wrong. Just as El was about to push herself off the counter, Mike spoke and her heart shattered. "El, I know you don't owe me your forgiveness. Hell, if I were you I wouldn't forgive myself either but hear what I have to say," He looked away, a tear rolling down his cheek. "Please, don't do this. Don't walk away." He looked back at El desperately as she fought back a sob escaping the back of her throat.
El felt herself escaping further and further away from Mike's voice, deeper into the blackness that she once escaped from all those years ago. Here is where El let herself go, the tears kept on coming and she was utterly afraid they would never stop. She cried until she was gasping for breath, tears streaming down her already swollen face. As she cried over her heartache and knowing what she was really losing in the end, Mike. Her watched her, his face contorting in pain as if she was the one for his suffering.
"Explain." El's voice was cold and distant but her eyes remained on him.
El watched as he took a deep breath and tried to keep his voice steady as he spoke the next words, "I have loved you for years. The moment I had laid my eyes on you in the forest till the very next day when you let me name you," Mike swiped another tear that fell from the corner of his eye, and a chucked escaped as he pictured a small Eleven, covered in dirt and terrified. Yet, the second she saw Mike it was as if she knew he would rescue her. That their love would forever be madness, but they wouldn't have had it in any other way. Until he fucked up.
"I felt so privileged, I finally felt like I had someone who understand what was going on inside my head." he said with a shudder, "You knew all my thought's, my darkest emotions, and you still wanted me. I knew that I couldn't lose you again, it would break me El. You would be the end of me."
Then he quickly stood before he crossed over to where El stood still, until their foreheads were pressed tightly to each other's. She made an effort to move but he whispered a broken "Please." and no matter what her head was telling her, she couldn't leave him all alone. This was her Mike, even if they stood for a few mere seconds, she'd be forever happy. El felt his chest rumble against hers and she realised he was trying to calm down his frantic heartbeat as it was placed against hers, he needed to calm down if he wanted her to know every thought that was seeping into his head.
"Then graduation came, I was terrified. What if you realised you could do better than me? What if you saw potential in someone else? Would I let you go if I knew this person could make you happier than I ever could?" He buried his face in her low curls, inhaling deeply. "Would you sit back and watch your first love drift off into another guy's arms? Tell me El, what would you have done."
That's when something inside of El clicked, almost as if all the bones in her body snapped at once and she felt the most excruciating pain fill her veins. She pushed him off her with all her might, her cheeks flushed and her voice croaky. "I wouldn't have gone and fucked the first person who gave me the slightest bit of attention. I definitely wouldn't have broken up a love that I once thought could get past anything, so ask me again." She pushed him over and over until it was his back pressed against the kitchen counter top. He looked down at her as if he was a trapped animal and he was her awaiting prey. He looked terrified of her and she didn't like it one bit.
El's heart felt like it'd stopped-so that she could hear him mutter those stupid words. He paused as he licked his lips as he asked her again, "What would you do?"
"Nothing, absolutely nothing." Eleven's voice warbled with barely any emotion. "I wouldn't have been so goddamn insecure in myself or on this relationship. I wouldn't be babbling on about bullshit as to why you cheated on me like your willing to do in my face right now. Mike, just admit it!" Her voice shook with anger as she threw a pile of his clothes that had been on the floor to the empty suitcase that lingered next to the staircase. Her back was turned to him as she reached for more of his shirts, tearing them in the process but she didn't care. Her chest was heaving but that didn't stop him from reaching over and trying to pry her hands off his luggage, so she gave him another shove. Leading him closer to their patio and out of her life for good.
"You didn't fuck Emily because you feared losing me. You fucked her brains out because that's what you wanted to do in that moment. Don't you dare use me as the excuse." El took a moment to breathe, regaining her composure. She sounded so devastated that Mike looked like he didn't know what to say. She wanted him to see the damage he had caused inside of her; all the humiliation and pride began to flee from her body as she remembered defending her loving husband to her sister in law as she broke the news. After all, a wife should always believe their husband?
What a load of bullshit.
Mike held Eleven's gaze a bit longer and then broke into a fit of rage. His hands grasped on everything in his sight, all he could think about was breaking whatever was in his path. Lamps were busted, glasses that had been in the cabinets were now smashed to tiny fragments all over the kitchen that it left tiny little cuts on El's porcelain skin. She flinched as she felt the glass tear at her legs.
He stopped abruptly and blew a long, frustrated breath. "I didn't fuck her because I wanted her. I fucked the shit out of her to get out all my pain and anger that I've been holding in for so long. All my fucked-up insecurities that I thought you wouldn't be able to handle, I took it all out on her." His eye's locked with mine again and he flung both his hands to his curls, tugging on them roughly. "I fucked her so hard that even when we were finished, I knew she'd still be feeling me inside her for days."
She flinched as if she had been slapped. She took a few staggering steps backwards that the back of her knees hit the stairs and she fell backwards. As she sat on the steps, the only movement to be seen was her chest swiftly going up and down. She felt as though she couldn't breathe, she couldn't even make eye contact with Mike without feeling the betrayal he had marked on her heart. "I fucked her because the way I touched her, it was so raw and primal, I couldn't be that way with you. You deserve to be treated so much better El, I didn't want to hurt you."
"You have no right to tell me how I should be treated," she said in a strangled voice. "Not when you're the person whose broken me to pieces," she added, and his face whitened as if she had no clue what those words had done to his heart.
The corner of her mouth twitched upward with satisfaction, knowing she was the one who was breaking Mike Wheeler from the inside out. She braced herself knowing what she was going to say next would be his undoing. "You have no idea how much you've crushed me, you may have loved me all those years ago, but you must certainly don't now. When you truly love someone, it's painful to imagine anyone else claiming my body the way you once did. I'd never thought these words would leave my mouth, yet, I'd rather fall in love with an ordinary man all over again then be with you. The boy whose saved me from my inner demons, who taught me what love was and helped me into the woman I am today. I'm grateful for that Mike, but this Mike standing in front of me? I don't know this man at all. He isn't my husband."
"You need to let me go!" She gripped his shirt as he leaned over her on the stairs and tried to shake him, tears falling from her eyes.
He touched her cheek, running his thumb over her tear stained lips. "I can't."
She knew what she had to do. Turning her whole body away from Mike, she swiped her tears with the pad of her thumb and hoisted herself off the stairs and towards the front door. All of a sudden, she felt tired and trained, there wasn't enough fire in her anymore to keep the argument from going. Her slippers seemed to be the only thing that caught her attention as she fully stared down at them before saying, "How could I ever look at you the same knowing you let some stranger touch you?" she whispered.
Mike looked lost for words as his mouth opened a few times, only to close again.
"Sometimes, love just isn't enough"
DUN DUN DUN
Hope you guys enjoyed it! Each chapter is supposed to be short, only a few remaining after this! Can I please get to six reviews for the next chapter my lovelies? Comment on what you liked the most and why?
L xo
