*Edited*
I tossed Elijah the keys that I had, uh, borrowed for his car and we climbed from my window into his bedroom so my mother wouldn't see us. I'd yelled to her that I was going out to study at the library, even though I never studied, so I was lucky she bought the excuse.
Elijah brought me out into the hall where we passed by his father's empty room. When we reached Uriah's room, I paused. Elijah gave me a look and I sighed. Uriah must've heard us outside his door because the next thing I knew, the door was swept open and Uriah was standing there.
He surprised me by giving me a dazzling smile, displaying his dimples. I felt my legs go weak, remembering how much that smile used to affect me. Elijah possessively laid a hand on my shoulder and tried to turn my body around.
"Where are you guys going?" Uriah asked, leaning against the doorframe.
"Nowhere," Elijah responded, curtly.
Uriah knew his brother was lying, but just smiled and shrugged. "Okay, have fun," he said, giving me one last look as he shut the door.
Elijah quickly forced me down the stairs. Once we reached the bottom, he turned to me as his eyes darkened.
"What was that all about?" He hissed.
"What was what all about?"
He rolled his eyes and backed me up against the wall. I gulped when he placed his hands on the wall on either side of my body and leaned close to my face, trapping me.
"You still like him, don't you?" He growled.
I laid my hands flat against his chest, but didn't try to move him. Instead, I gripped his shirt tightly in my fists as I forced my eyes to his and held his gaze steadily.
"No," I said, honestly. "Even while we had been dating, you had been lurking at the back of my mind."
Elijah smirked and before I knew what was happening, he had scooped me in his arms and strode out the front door with me giggling like an idiot. He swiftly opened his car door with one hand that had been parked in my driveway, and gently placed me inside before shutting the door and getting in the driver's seat.
As he was buckling himself in, I couldn't help but stare. He really was too hot for his own good. Even though he had an ego the size of an elephant, it could never really outweigh just how attractive he was.
"Ronnie, keep staring at me like that and you'll make me want to do things to you that I've never done before," he said, turning on the ignition.
My cheeks flamed in embarrassment at being caught staring. I tried to play it off by saying, "Pfft. I wasn't staring, don't flatter yourself."
"Mhm," he mumbled, backing out of my driveway.
"Where are we going anyway?" I asked, picking at my nails.
"To see my mother."
I froze. He has never said anything about his mother before and now we were going to see her? I'd never even asked Uriah about his adoptive mother before. I figured it was best if I didn't intrude on their personal information.
"Uh," I said, awkwardly, "Where does she live?"
He nervously tapped his fingers on the steering wheel as he drove in the darkness and bit his lip before answering.
"In my old town. I haven't spoken or even visited her since my father, Uriah, and I moved away, leaving her our house when they...divorced."
Oh. I didn't even know what to say. I couldn't empathize with him; I had two parents who loved each other.
"I'm so sorry, Elijah," I said, sincerely.
"I hate when people apologize for things they had no control over. It's not your fault they got divorced," he responded.
Oops, look like I struck a nerve. "Oh, I-"
"It's my fault they got divorced."
Now I really had no idea what to say. I sat there in utter silence as Elijah drove, looking straight ahead.
He broke the silence by saying, "Since you're probably dying to know and are too afraid to ask about what happened; I'll just tell you."
"Oh, okay."
He took a deep breath. "When my parents decided to adopt Uriah, I had been completely against the idea. I enjoyed being the only child so when Uriah came along, my parents paid more attention to him. I was jealous."
I sat there, not saying anything. I just listened.
"So, I ran away when I was ten years old. I knew I'd get attention if I ran away, but I didn't realize that I'd actually been tearing my family apart. My mother said that she would put Uriah up for adoption if I came home. At that point, she was so desperate for me to come back that she'd say anything."
"Wow."
He nodded. "That's not all. My father flipped shit when he heard what she had said about putting Uriah up for adoption. She hadn't meant it literally since she just wanted me to come home, but the deed was done. My father lashed out in anger, destroying a vase and they could never reestablish their relationship. My mother was torn about leaving her husband and children, but she did it without a second thought."
"Oh my gosh."
He pulled up into a driveway of a modest, one-story brick house and shut off the car before turning to me.
"I've never forgiven myself and I've never apologized to my mother. I have no idea what she's been doing this past year. My father has to work longer hours now since we only have a single income coming in. But, he has never looked at another woman in a romantic aspect. I think he's...nevermind, let's go."
Then Elijah hopped out of his car and determinedly walked up the driveway with me on his heels. He knocked on the door with purpose and stood back to wait. I grabbed his hand, folding his fingers in mine to offer him any type of strength I had. He looked down at me in surprise before giving me a slight smile.
We both looked up when the door opened. I gawked when I saw who was standing in the doorway.
I had expected Elijah's mother to look like him with dark hair and green eyes, but that wasn't who was standing in front of us right now.
No, there was a man with short, blonde hair and brown eyes standing there. He narrowed his eyes on us and was about to say something when a feminine voice asked in the background, "Honey? Who's there?"
Without turning around, he answered, "Two kids."
A dainty hand with nails painted red landed on the man's bicep as she carefully moved him out of the way. I looked up at Elijah as he tightened his hand around mine. A muscle in his jaw popped and I knew he hadn't been expecting this strange man to be here.
"Mom? Who is he?" Elijah said.
The woman's bright, green eyes widened in recognition. She reached out to her son who took a step back. A look of hurt flashed across her similar features as she dropped her arms. Then she realized what he had asked.
"Oh, this is...Joshua Pratt, my fiancé."
"Your fiancé?" Elijah said, incredulously. "Dad hasn't even dated another woman."
This wasn't going well. Elijah had came here to apologize, not argue. And there was nothing I could do, but just stand there.
Elijah's mother sighed. "Eli, your father and I got divorced a year ago-"
"So it only took you a year to find this man and agree to marry him? What the hell?"
His mother visibly flinched. Her fiancé wrapped an arm around her shoulders, tucking her affectionately to his side.
"I'm-"
"No. Just forget I even came here," Elijah said, abruptly turning around and dragging me back to his car. Once we were inside he said, "I'd been holding on to my own hope that my parents would get back together. I know my father is still in love with her. How am I going to tell him she's getting married to another man?"
I placed my hand on his arm as he drove away, leaving his mother gaping from the doorway. "I don't know," I said, "but you should know more than anyone else that it isn't easy to get rid of someone you love. Your father needs to talk some sense into your mother."
"Yes, yes he does. I just hope it isn't too late."