14
It
was a slow day for Kelly’s. Slower then
normal in Katie’s opinion. She picked up the empty plates off the counter
and turned to go into the kitchen, but stopped at the chime of the bell that
signaled the arrival of customers. She turned to see a man in his late
twenties, early thirties and a woman in her midtwenties standing in middle of
the room.
“May
I help you?” Katie asked, putting the plates back on the table.
“Yes,”
the girl with shoulder length brown hair and warm brown eyes stepped
forward. “My fiancée and I are looking
for a room.”
“Well…we
have one vacant now. Do you want to
take a look?”
We’d
love to,” The girl smiled.
Smiling
back, Katie looked at the boyfriend and shivered. His face was void of all emotion, otherwise he was quite
handsome.
“Follow
me,” Katie beckoned. Just as the
threesome disappeared up the stairs, Elizabeth, Lucky, Nikolas and Gia entered,
giddy from their rehearsal.
“Tell
me more! Tell me more!” Gia twirled
around, singing her line.
“Gia,
I didn’t know that you could sing so well,” Elizabeth laughed, letting Lucky
lead her to the nearest table, just as Carly entered looking for Bobbie. Her
eyes widened as she spotted Elizabeth laughing at a joke Lucky had told. With a cruel smirk in her eyes, she
approached the table.
“Why
look what the wind blew in,” she stood behind Lucky, her arms crossed.
Elizabeth
rolled her eyes. One would think that
Carly would be over the thing with Jason by now. But obviously she wasn’t.
“What do you want Carly?”
“I
heard that you were back in town. What
happened? Jason deserted you for a real
woman?”
“That’s
enough Carly,” Lucky got to his feet.
“If you don’t have anything nice to say to Elizabeth, you can head right
out that door.”
Carly
opened her mouth to answer but stopped in midsentence as Katie came down with the couple interested in the
room. “I can’t believe this.”
“I hope you enjoy the room,” Katie handed them
both a key and waved to her friends.
“I’ll be right there guys!” She called before disappearing into the
kitchen.
Elizabeth
turned to see what Carly was glaring at now and gasped. Robin and Jason stood hand in hand. She wasn’t really surprised at the fact that
they were there. Rather, it was the fact that they were there so
soon. Emily had said that they were due
in the next morning, so Elizabeth was planning to work on her defenses all that
day so when she did come face to face with Jason, she’d be ready. But now…her defenses were barely standing
and Jason, a day early was just twelve feet away. She was a breakdown waiting to happen.
She
looked away from Jason and into a pair
of concerned blue eyes as her left hand was tightly encased in Lucky’s. It was evident that he was worried about
her.
“Are
you ok?” he asked.
“Stay
with me,” Elizabeth squeezed his hand, finding herself in need of his strength
and support.
“Always,” He smiled, pulling her upon her feet. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Saint
Robin has returned to grace us lowly peasants with her presence,” Carly
approached the couple.
“Hello
Carly. How are you?” Robin forced
herself to be civil. She wasn’t going
to stoop to Carly’s level. Not anymore. She had Jason and Carly didn’t and that’s
what mattered.
“Carly,
don’t start,” Jason warned. “We had a long flight and we’re not in the mood
for this.”
“Well
then do what you do best Jason. Leave,”
Elizabeth stood behind Carly, clinging to Lucky’s hand.
“Elizabeth,”
Jason blinked surprise.
“What? Surprised to see me? Did you expect me to still be in Italy on
the streets, crying over you? Sorry to
disappoint you.”
“But
how…”
“Lucky
got me home. Fortunately he gave me his
cell phone number before I left. He
still cared about me, despite everything and helped me get home.”
“Oh,”
Jason looked even more surprised and turned to Lucky. “Thank…”
“Don’t
you dare thank him Jason!” Elizabeth’s temper flared. “It’s not him you owe anything to, it’s me! I deserve and explanation! It’s bad
enough that you were too much of a coward to tell me in person that you were
leaving, but you took everything with you, leaving me with not one red cent to
get back home on! Like I said, if it
wasn’t for Lucky, I don’t know where I’d be right now!”
“Elizabeth, that was my fault. My rent was late and
Jason wanted to help…” Robin began
“Robin,
I really don’t care what you have to say.
Everyone may think your word is gold, but I’m not one of them. If you want this poor excuse of a man, by
all means take him. I’m not stopping
you. I just have one more thing to say
to Mr. Morgan,” Elizabeth walked up closer to Jason and slapped him so hard that even Nikolas winced. “Go to hell and stay there.”
Katie
came back out holding a notepad,
noticing the standoff. “Hey
Elizabeth. I see you met your new
neighbors,” Katie smiled, unaware of the tension.
“What
did you say?” Elizabeth looked at her friend in disbelief.
“Jason
and Robin here are your new neighbors,” Katie frowned. By the look on Elizabeth’s face, she had
said something horribly wrong. “What’s
going on?”
“Katie,
meet the man who left Liz high and dry in Italy. Jason Morgan and his fiancée Robin Scorpio,” Nikolas introduced.
“Oh
no. Liz, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“That’s
ok Katie. There’s no way you could’ve
known. Lucky, will you help me pack?”
“…Sure,”
Lucky glared once again at Jason and followed Elizabeth up to her room.
“Well,
that was interesting,” Carly grinned.
“Shut
up Carly,” both Nikolas and Robin snapped in unison.
~*~
One
hour later, Elizabeth had all her things packed and ready to go. She looked at the room she had called home
for six months and tears came to her eyes.
She had thought this was home.
That finally she had found a place to be safe. A place to hide from the real world when she needed to. Ten Jason comes and blew her back out into
the open once again. Now she was back
to square one…almost. Where was she
going to stay?
“Elizabeth?”
Lucky placed steady hands on her slumped shoulders. “Are you ok sweetie?”
“I
have nowhere to go Lucky. I can’t stay
here and going back to Gram’s is not an
option. You remember how oppressive
that house was. I may not be a
teenager anymore, but I’m sure her rules still apply. What am I going to do?” She turned around just to be enfolded in Lucky’s arms, held close to his
warm and steady body.
“I’ll
tell you what you’re going to do. You
are coming to live with me.”
Elizabeth
frowned and pulled away, looking at Lucky as if he’s lost his mind. “Lucky, you’re forgetting something. You live with Nikolas and he barely
tolerates me as it is. How do you think
he’s going to take t he news of me moving in?”
“Leave
Nikolas to me. I know just how to push
his buttons to get him to say yes.”
Frowning,
she leaned back into his arms.
“Ok. Fine, talk to Nikolas. But I’m sure he’s going to say no.”
“Don’t
be so negative,” he kissed her nose before
heading downstairs to talk to his
brother.
Nikolas
and Gia were setting at the far table, watching Katie serve Jason and Robin as
they waited for Lucky’s return.
“The
nerve of them,” Lucky growled, taking a seat across from the couple.
“You
really hate Jason don’t you?” Gia looked at Lucky.
“With
good reason,” Nikolas nodded. “So are
we ready to get out of here?”
“Almost. I have to talk to you about something
first.”
Nikolas
frowned. “He did not have a good feeling about this. “What about.”
“Elizabeth’s
moving in with us,” Lucky grinned.
“What!”
both Gia and Nikolas exclaimed.
“Lucky, there’s no room.”
“Of
course there is. She’ll bunk with me.”
Nikolas
frowned. “Lucky…is that such a good
idea? You two have just gotten back
together and with…”
“It’s
a great idea! Just like old times,
minus the brainwashing.”
“I
don’t know,” Nikolas looked at Gia.
“What do you think?”
“It’ll
make your brother happy. I don’t
care. I have nothing against Elizabeth,
just as long as she treats my friend right.”
“Hmmm. Ok.
Fine. But if it looks like she’s
joining the Borg club again, she’s out.”
“Thanks
Nikolas,” Lucky grinned, getting to his feet.
“I’ll go up and tell her right now.”
Nikolas
watched Lucky disappear up the stairs to Elizabeth’s room with troubled
eyes. “I hope this is a good idea.”
“It
is,” Gia smiled encouragely. “You’ll
see.”