Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Phantom of the Opear (though I wish I could)

Chapter 21

Aubrey looked at the rose and smiled a bit. She reached for the rose and took it from Jane's hands and put the bud to her nose and could smell the beautiful perfume from the flower.

"Did you hear what he said?" Jane asked looking at Aubrey.

Aubrey nodded and jumped off the bed. "I'll be right back, I have to talk to him." She shouted behind her back as she went running out of the room. She opened the door and Erik was standing there.

"I knew you would be here." Erik said softly.

Aubrey was still indecisive but took another step closer to him and closed the front door. She loved Jane like a sister, but this conversation was going to be private.

"I'm still mad at you, you know." Aubrey said softly.

Erik sighed. "Yeah I know, but I love you Aubrey. I didn't kiss her. I promise I will never do anything to hurt you every again. I'm sorry about everything, and I wish I could make it up to you, but I'm not sure how."

Aubrey felt a tear slip out of her eye and felt Erik's fingers wipe it from her face. "You really did hurt me."

Erik pulled her into a hug. "I know and you have no idea how sorry I am. Do you forgive me?"

"I want to Erik, but things are going to be different now. I do still love you, but the trust is broken. I'm going to have to learn to trust you again."

"I know Aubrey, I'll be here." Erik said softly.

Aubrey pulled back out of the hug. "Thanks for the flower Erik." She said giving him a watery smile.

Erik grinned at her. "I knew that would win you over. So what about us? Are we still together, or together again?"

Aubrey gave Erik a soft kiss on the lips. "Still together."

"What are you going to do about Harry then?"

"Erik, I do like Harry, you know that, but I love you. I still want Harry in my life even if he is just a friend, are you going to be okay with that, because that's what I want, and if you throw a fit about it, things between us might be messed up."

Aubrey saw some emotion pass through Erik's eyes but before she could figure out what it was he nodded. "Just friends though right? I don't want to share you."

Aubrey let out a small chuckle. "Yes friends only."

"Do you want to get out of here? Take a drive with me maybe?"

Aubrey looked at the closed door of Jane's house and knew Jane wouldn't mind. "Yeah, I'm just going to let Jane know where I'm going, and I have to call my parents." Aubrey said as she turned the nob to the door and walked to Jane's room.

"So what did you say to him?" Jane almost shouted with a smile on her face when Aubrey walked in her room. She was on her bed on her knees almost bouncing from excitement.

"I said we could still be together, but we were going to have to work at it for a while and Harry and I are still going to be friends. Were going to just go and talk for a bit, I'll tell you about it later."

Jane got off the bed and practically danced to Aubrey and hugged her. "I'm glad you made up with Erik. I can tell he does care about you, just look in his eyes when he says he's sorry, you can see the love he has for you in his eyes. I've known Erik for a long time and I have never seen him get involved with someone, or see his eyes come alive like that. Those eyes are always so cold, and I could never understand how beautiful eyes like that could be cold and angry."

Aubrey hugged Jane closer to her. "Thanks Jane, I really appreciate it." Aubrey whispered before she pulled away from her hug.

Jane looked at the rose. "What's with the black ribbon? Doesn't that mean death or something." Aubrey laughed. "Inside joke I guess."

Jane just shook her head. "You two are both weird." Both girls burst out into giggles.

After calling her parents telling her mother that she would be with Erik she walked out to find Erik casually leaning against the wall waiting for her and when she saw him he reached out and grabbed her hand and she interlinked her fingers with his. He walked with her to his car and opened the door for her and Aubrey got in and buckled her seat belt.

"So where are we going?" Aubrey asked him.

"Well I thought we could go to my house for a bit, just sit and relax. I know you are still uneasy about everything, so I thought if we went back to my house we could start over, that's where we started after all."

Aubrey nodded and Erik drove to his house. When he pulled into the driveway Aubrey turned to Erik. "You have a temper you know."

Erik hung his head in shame. "I know. I guess I'm to much like him." Erik spat out.

Aubrey put her hand over his which was on the gear shift. "I think you've just been a loner for too long, you don't really know how to cope with different situations. It's like seeing kids in preschool, no one knows how to act, so they defend themselves."

"Am I really that bad?" Erik choked out.

"Your mood swings are all over the place. Just today you yelled at me, yelled at someone else, pulled me from the car, pushed me into a swing, left me alone in a park, then show up and give me a flower."

"I just don't know what to do, I've been having these weird dreams, as you have, but Phantom Erik, as you call him, keeps telling me that I need to keep you in check."

Anger boiled in Aubrey's blood. Her recent dream was still in her mind. "Erik, I'm not a dog, I'm a human being. Do you want to control me?" She asked in anger.

"No of course not!" Erik said in shock.

"Then forget your dreams. I'm getting afraid to go to sleep for fear that he will hurt me. I know it's silly since it's just in my dreams, but I can't help but feeling afraid. I can't stand up to that man, when I do he manhandles me!" Aubrey shouted.

Erik took his seat belt off and got out of the car opening the door for Aubrey. He gently helped her out of the can and pulled her into a hug. "I'm here for you, and I'm the only Erik you need to worry about okay. Don't be afraid to go to sleep, if Phantom Erik does anything to you again, just close your eyes and remind yourself that your asleep, and just wake yourself up."

"Okay, thanks Erik." Aubrey said softly as she pulled out of their hug. Erik brought her downstairs to the family room and sat next to her on the sofa. He put his arm around her shoulders and Aubrey slid down a bit and laid her head on his chest. Erik started to hum a song that Aubrey didn't recognize and let her eye lids slide shut.

She didn't know how long she had been asleep but she had waken up when she felt cold and realized that Erik was no longer next to her, but she was laying on the couch with a blanket over her. She sat up and looked around the darkening room and still couldn't find Erik. Aubrey pushed off the blanket and got off the couch. Once outside the family room she walked up the stairs and could hear low conversation coming from the room down the hall.

Aubrey had always wondered why Erik had never introduced her to his parents, and why he never really talked about them, and she thought she was going to finally meet his parents. She slowly walked to the end of the hall trying to be quiet. She stood outside the door and pushed it open slowly.

What she saw shocked her. Erik was helping the women she thought was his mother into her bed. Her face was bruised and swollen with gashes in her cheeks and blood dried to her lips. The tips of her fingers were bruised and bloody looking, and her clothes were ripped and torn.

Erik turned towards the door when he heard it opening and he looked at Aubrey. Their eye's met for a second and he dropped his eyes. He finished getting his mother into bed. Aubrey slowly walked into the room and stood near the door, not knowing what to do. His mother didn't notice that there was someone else in the room, she seemed like she could barely move.

Erik turned to someone Aubrey couldn't see standing in what she assumed was a bathroom and pointed at his mother. Erik walked forward and ushered Aubrey out of the room. He brought her back down the hall and sat her down on a couch in the front room. "Was that your mother?" Aubrey asked quietly.

Erik sighed. "Yes, that's my mother Linda."

"What happened to her Erik? She should really be in the hospital." Aubrey said frantically.

"No, we have personal doctors here." He said sternly.

"Well what in the hell happened to her?" Aubrey asked astounded.

Erik put his head in his hands. "My parents are not in a good relationship. That is thanks to dear old dad. I've encouraged my mother to leave him since I found out about the beatings, but she refuses to. She says he doesn't mean too, and she still loves him. I guess he has 'suppressed rage' as my mother says, what it's for I'm not sure, but I have a feeling that she makes a sacrifice for me. I can tell when I look at my father that he hates me, he's ashamed that he sired someone like me. He has never hit me, but he's never around. He's away on work and when he does come home he beats the shit out of mom, and I stay here and take care of her while he's off doing work."

Aubrey had felt the blood drain from her face. She touched his shoulder. "I'm so sorry Erik, I didn't know."

"No one knows, except for out own family and workers."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" She asked helplessly.

Erik just shook his head.

"How often does your dad do that to your mom? She never tries to file charges or anything?"

"Dad comes home from time to time to check up on her, make sure she's doing what she is supposed to do, then leaves. I rarely see him. Mom will never file charges against him."

Aubrey felt a shiver run through her body and Erik took his head off his hands and pull her in a hug. "Your the first person I've ever told this too. You wanted to know why I was a loner before I met you, this is part of the reason. The other part is obviously my face, but I was ashamed to make friends and say 'no you can't come to my house because my dad beats my mom' kids don't really understand that."

Even though she was in Erik's arms she didn't really feel safe her anymore. Would she ever feel safe around Erik's father now? She didn't think so.

"Is your dad here now?" Aubrey whispered in horror.

"No, he left a couple hours ago."

Aubrey felt dread run through her system knowing she was close to Erik's father. If he didn't have any trouble beating his wife then he wouldn't have any problems beating his son's girlfriend.

"Do you want to go?" Erik asked her.

Aubrey nodded her head getting the creeps again. Erik stood up and helped Aubrey to her feet. "I'm sorry you had to see this. I didn't really want to tell you about it, as you can imagine, I feel bad for mom, but she won't let me help her."

Erik walked with her to the car and drove her home. "Do you want to come in for a bit?" Aubrey asked because he wasn't getting out of his seat belt.

"No I should really go home and check on mom."

Aubrey got out of the car and tapped on his window and he rolled it down. She didn't want Erik to go home, what if his father was still there? He might get over the fact that he didn't get enough satisfaction of beating his wife and start beating Erik. She couldn't imagine loosing Erik right after she got him back.

"Please don't leave Erik. I don't want you to go back home. I want you to stay with me." Aubrey whined.

Erik looked at his watch. "Well I guess I could stick around for a bit." He said shutting off his engine and getting out of the car.

Erik and Aubrey walked hand in hand up to her house and when Aubrey opened the door Lacey greeted them and asked if Erik wanted to stay for dinner.

"Mom, we've already eaten, sorry." Aubrey said as she started making her way to her bedroom. "Were going to be studying in my room okay."

Lacey frowned a bit. "Okay, but I'll come and check on you in a bit."

Aubrey rolled her eyes. "Okay mom, whatever you say." And she dragged Erik up the stairs and into her room. Aubrey sat down on her bed the flopped on her back and let out a sigh.

"Nice room." Erik said and Aubrey sat up and looked around and felt a blush coming to her face. She forgot that Erik had never been in her room and the huge poster of Gerard Butler as the Phantom of the Opera hung on one wall and her many art projects of Phantom of the Opera hung around the rest of her room. Art projects like a piece of glass that she had painted black on one end and then painted the full white porcelain mask with the words Phantom of the Opera in shattered pieces, like what was on the movie poster.

Then she looked at the huge golden full length mirror that Aubrey had begged her mother to get her and had it decorated with fake rose buds around the edges.

"Oh, well thanks."

Erik chuckled as he walked towards her bed and sat down next to her. "I can see that you were really obsessed. When I told you about my family history I kind of realize why you were so hurt. I didn't really think that you were obsessed, I thought you just liked the movie and the book. I never knew it was like this."

Aubrey's blush deepened. "Yeah, well know you know."

The phone rang, and it was her personal line, so Aubrey reached across Erik and answered the phone from her bedside table.

"Hello?"

"Hey Aubrey, how did your girlfriend time go with Jane?" Harry asked.

"Oh, hi, it went fine, but I can't really talk now, I'll see you tomorrow at school okay?" Aubrey asked.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow."

Aubrey hung up the phone and turned to Erik.

"Let me guess, Harry?" Erik asked with his eyebrow raised.

Aubrey shrugged. "Yeah."

His jaw tightened. "Well you could have talked to him, you didn't have to blow him off on my account."

"I didn't, I just want to spend time with you." She replied as she snuggled in closer to Erik. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her down on the bed once more. "I wish you didn't have to leave tonight. You could stay here with me. My parents would never know."

Erik chuckled a bit. "What about my car, won't they notice it when they wake up in the morning?"

"Oh, phooey, your just being a spoil sport."

"I just don't want you grounded again."

Aubrey sighed out. "Well I guess your right. But do you really have to go home, I'll be worried about you now."

"I've been there my whole life, I think I'll be okay."

So I promised that I would update again soon! Thank you to all my wonderful readers who did come back and read my last chapter, I have written you all back. Thank you WanderingMimi for adding my story to your favorites *cheers* I will have another chapter up soon, I can usually write a chapter while I'm at work on my half days, so if you have any questions or suggestions please click that little review button!

Desiree'