This was a bad idea. I was sitting in the lobby waiting for Brandon to show up, my nerves getting the best of me as I bit at my nails - and this was a bad idea. The lobby was surprisingly busy, there must have been some sort of convention I hadn't known about, men and women in business clothing were hurrying back and forth from the hallways of the Palm Woods and from the front doors, phones pressed to ears and rollaway luggage trailing behind them. Bitters sat behind the front desk, dealing with one of the men complaining about his toilet not being fixed yet. He was trying his best to convince the man that it would be taken care of, but the man had still walked away in a fuss.
My eyes got wide when Bitters caught me staring, I quickly shifted them in another direction -in mid bit of my middle finger nail and tried to look anywhere but him, "Elizabeth, you've gotta help me find Buddah Bob!" Bitters was around the front desk and in front of me in no time.
The convention and that man must have been more important than I had originally though, the look of panic of losing him as a resident was etched into his face. I looked to him and lowered my hand from my mouth, "As much as I would love to have something over on you - I can't." I stood up with no real reason.
"Elizabeth, please. If he complains and people start thinking that we don't keep up on maintenance here, business will go down and I'll be fired!"
Begging? Oh he's really desperate if he's begging me. "I honestly can't. I have plans, but for the right price I may know someone…"
"Who can find him and make sure he gets the job done in the next five minutes." Katie popped up next to me, making me nearly jump out of my skin.
"I hate it when you do that!" I laughed.
They had both agreed on a price and Katie was off to work. I sighed and pulled my jacket around myself, crossing my arms over my chest. I wasn't exactly dressed to impress. I thought about it while I was picking out what to wear, but decided I didn't care enough to put forth the effort. So I just picked out a Human Clay T-shirt and a pair of stressed skinny jeans with a pair of high top converse. Nothing that he hasn't already seen.
"Elizabeth," The sound of my name on his voice made my breath catch in my throat. That voice at one time told me everything I wanted to hear; had been my rock that had crumbled beneath me and to my surprise, it hurt to hear. My eyes closed and I bit my bottom lip - and this was a bad idea. But it was too late. I turned to face him and opened my eyes.
I wouldn't have believed it was him if I hadn't known any better. His appearance had nearly completely changed since I moved out here. He had gone from low riding skinny jeans and one size too big t-shirts to looking like he raided Logan's closet. Not to mention his once milk chocolate colored hair was now golden, but still had the surfer length to it. He fixed his bangs to the side of his face, uncovering his crystal blues.
"Brandon?" Confusion read all over my face.
He smiled and began walking over to me. Before his smile would've made me melt like chocolate on a smore, only now it made me want to stop all happiness in his life. He opened his arms and wrapped them around me in an embrace. It was alien to me now; cold and awkward, the only way I knew how to react was to just stand there until he got the message that I was done with it before he started.
He coughed awkwardly as he let me go and took a step back, "How've you been? You look good."
"Did you want to go somewhere to talk or not?" I wasn't in the mood for small talk.
"Uhm yeah, are you hungry?"
"No." Furious. I was furious.
"How about we go for a walk then?" He shoved his hands in the pockets of his pants.
I was willing to do anything that would stop my feet from kicking his ass. "Sure. Let's go."
I led him out of the Palm Woods and down the street. It wasn't until a few more blocks that I was able to keep my pace slower and my anger under control. You agreed to this, face it. "So what are you doing out here?" I asked, looping my thumbs through my front belt loops.
He walked next to me, our feet falling into step with each other. He moved his bangs out of his face again; he never did have a good attitude about changing his hair style. "The company moved my Dad out here. We've been here for a few weeks and I finally got the balls to contact you when I did. I was surprised you even answered me." He forced a laugh.
We turned the corner to get off the main highway sidewalks and more into the living neighborhoods. Houses lined the road on either side of us, each one nothing like the last. Brandon let his hand drag against a chain fence, which was enough of a reason for the family's small yappy dog to run with us on the other side of the fence and bark that it was his house, his yard.
"Are you here for good then?" I kicked a rock a few feet a head of us. I didn't know how I would deal with it if he was. This was uncomfortable enough without having to see him every day until I was able to be out on my own.
"Only a few months, then we're going back. I didn't want to leave though without talking to you -"
"About?" I asked. The small dog had stopped where the fence ended but made sure to let us know if we came back there would be trouble.
Brandon sighed before he said, "About everything. I wanted to apologize to you. I want to make sure we're okay."
I didn't say much to that. I shifted my eyes from him to in front of us. It was what I wanted, but it didn't feel like I wanted. I thought back to when I first responded to his messages and how I snapped at him just earlier when I laid eyes on him. A hand on my wrist lightly stopped me from walking further and turned me around. Brandon looked down at me, "Elizabeth, I'm sorry for everything. For how I treated you, for what I said. I honestly can't give you a good reason for why I did it. I would take it all back if I could."
I blinked a few times, looking up at him, and licked my lips and parted them with a light smack before I spoke, "So you move to town, and ask to meet with me out of the blue, and now I'm just to forgive everything?" My voice broke as I spoke and a lump was forming in my throat. It wasn't fair. He wasn't supposed to have this control over me anymore.
"No, I wasn't expecting you to, but I at least wanted you to hear it and know that I mean it."
I shook my head and looked away from him. The street light above us kicked on and a car passed us on the street. I wasn't even aware of what time it was when we left and had no clue of what time it was now. "I should probably get back…" I said lamely as I slowly moved past him heading back the way we came.
He sighed deeply. "I'll walk you back." It sounded like he had given up for now.
The walk back was quiet the only things being heard were dogs around the neighborhood and cars on the street until we got to the main highway again where people lined the sidewalks talking and laughing feeling the usual moderately priced happiness that came with living in LA. I did my best of keeping my gaze in front of me; making eye contact with the wrong person in LA at night was never a good option for me.
We made it back to the Palm Woods, thankfully. It seemed Katie had been successful in finding Buddah Bob and getting him to fix everything quickly, because the lobby was nearly dead.
"I can walk you to your door if you want?" Brandon suggested as he turned to me.
I took a slow breath in. I wanted this day to be over with already, if I could get through it with the least amount of an argument, that would be wonderful. "Fine," I agreed and we walked over to the elevator.
We stepped inside and rode it up to my floor in silence. When we hit the right floor it stopped heavily with a ding as the doors slowly parted. A short way down the hall, standing in front of my apartment door, was Sawyer with a hand raised looking like he was knocking on the door. He threw a glance our way and did a double take. Every muscle in his face dropped.
Shit.
I had made it a point to not tell him that Brandon was around or that I was talking to him. "Sawyer," I stepped forward as if I were approaching a wild animal, "it's okay."
His eyes flashed of rage and his brow furrowed. Suddenly he was racing down the hallway for the elevator, his legs taking him as fast as he could go. I couldn't get in the elevator quick enough before he got there I was stopped on the outside. The doors closed in front of me and the elevator moving.
SAWYER'S POV
The elevator had only moved a few feet and was in between floors when I reached behind me forcing the emergency stop button down. It halted with a shake, the lights shutting off, and now it was only me and Brandon. I slowly turned on my feet, he was backed against a wall, blinking every few seconds and trying to breathe evenly through his nose. I took the few steps to be standing directly in front of him, only an inch separating the two of us, leaning in to make sure I made my point clear. "I don't know what you're doing here and I don't care. I really only have one thing to say to you. Stay away from her. If I see you near her again, no matter what's going on, I will not hesitate to beat your ass. You will not hurt my LizzyBear again. Do you understand me?"
He kept eye contact and swallowed hard before he nodded a response. He knew me well enough to know that I may have been an easy going guy, but I only let people do so much before I stepped in their way. I stepped away from him and pulled out the emergency stop button, "Good. You're going to leave the Palm Woods and not come back. Don't even try to sneak by me. I have eyes everywhere." The doors opened and I walked off the elevator, not looking back as I headed to the stair well to go back up to Elizabeth's place.
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