Chapter Eighteen

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Cover pic is Elise.

--

"You bought me daffodils." I smiled sadly as I stared at the crumpled yellow flowers that had been dropped on the floor as Elise had run in.

"Yes. I'll get them for you. Where do you keep your vase?"

"Uhh... I don't own one?"

"You don't own a vase?" Elise looked shocked, and I bit back a laugh despite myself.

"No. No one tends to buy me flowers, y'know. And I don't have the spare money to spend it on them myself, so... no vase." I shrugged.

"Sorry. I didn't mean it like that." Elise looked sheepish.

"No worries," I grinned, "I know you didn't." closing my eyes as Elise wandered around my kitchen, looking for a suitable glass to house the flowers, I bit back a sigh. This wasn't how I intended this evening to go. It was a Friday night, I had wanted to do something productive, whether that was work or partying.

Elise returned to sit beside me. I was sat on the sofa, wrapped in in a blanket and now Elise's arms, filled with slightly drunken sadness and regret. She was forcing me to drink water, to reduce any possible hangover tomorrow, and she opened a window to let fresh air circulate as it had began to get slightly stuffy. Everything suddenly began to become slightly blurry, and before I knew it, I was asleep. When I awoke, I glanced at the clock and realised I had been asleep for around an hour. A slight burning smell filled the open plan living room and I padded into the kitchen, frowning as I greeted the sight before me. A pot was sat on the stove, the lid on but steam pouring out from the sides, wafting around the kitchen. Elise was glaring at a chopping board, where a large stalk of mutilated broccoli stared back at the blonde who held a knife in her hand and didn't look afraid to use it.

"Um... mind if I take over?" I smiled softly, noting she had cleaned up the glass on the floor.

"You're awake!" Elise glanced up in surprise, "You might want to, uh, restart. It was supposed to be..." Elise trailed off and snuck a peek at the open cookbook of mine beside her, "Creamy broccoli gnocchi. But I gave up on the broccoli part."

"So you tried to make creamy broccoli gnocchi... without one of the key ingredients?"

"Yes!" Elise huffed, "And it would have been very good had you not interrupted me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have very important things to do." I watched Elise stride past with a fond smile on my face as she defiantly plopped herself down on my sofa and switched on the TV, settling in to watch a re-run of 'The Goldberg's'.

I managed to salvage most of what she had made, chopping the mashed up broccoli and shoving it all in the pot to cook.

"Smells delicious." Elise announced, arriving in the kitchen as I served the meal in two bowls, leaving some for me to have as leftovers tomorrow.

"Yes. It's my favourite dish. Mushy broccoli."

"Shut up," Elise rolled her eyes and grinned, "At least I tried."

"That's what she said." I smirked.

"Speaking from experience?" Elise bit back, and I sat back with my mouth wide open, hand over my heart.

"Elise Elderflower, how dare you!" I gasped, watching her giggle. "By the way," I paused, "What's your middle name? I'm curious."

"I don't have one." Elise responded, and it didn't take a genius to figure out she was lying.

"I'm sure it's not that bad."

"It is."

"What do I have to do to get you to tell me?"

"There's nothing you can do." she responded, finishing her meal. I took the plates and began to wash them in the sinks.

"Nothing?" I questioned, drying them and placing my hands on my hips, turning to face her.

Elise recognised the mischievous look in my eye. "Whatever you're planning, it won't work."

"I really think you should tell me." I muttered, moving slowly towards her.

"Emma." Elise warned as I placed my hands on her hips, pouting.

"What? I'm not doing anything." I responded, leaning forwards to place a serious of slow, deep kisses from her collarbone, up to her neck, then behind her ear. "Nothing at all." I whispered, gently pushing her until her back lined up against the wall. I pressed my leg in between her thighs and watched in delight as she writhed under my touch.

"Emma." she groaned, her head falling back to knock on the wood as I continued stroking her neck with my tongue, grinning as she began to shake. She was so turned on, just by this, after such a long build up, the faintest of pressure from my thigh was enough to bring her close to a climax. But every time I felt her reach her peak, I pulled my leg away.

"Are you gonna tell me now?" I questioned, pulling away for the third time as she hit the wall behind her in frustration.

"Fine!" Elise panted, her chest rising and falling, "It's..." Elise closed her eyes and took a breath, "Elise Gertrude Mary Dolag Sophia Jaqueline Elderflower."

"Fuck off! No it's not!" my mouth fell open in delight. It had to be the worst bunch of middle names I had ever encountered in my entire life, save maybe for 'Sophia' which was a name I had always liked. But Gertrude? Dolag? What the hell was that!?

"Now. Where were we?" Elise pulled me towards her with a surprising strength and began to kiss me ferociously, before I pulled away once more.

"Sorry. Not tonight." I said sheepishly, thinking back to my conversation with Rachel.

"Right. Of course." Elise rolled her eyes. "Sorry. I got ahead of myself. I keep forgetting you're... well, my student." She sighed, "I'm taking a shower. A long, cold one." Elise huffed and turned on her heels, disappearing upstairs as I finally stepped back and let out a breath I hadn't realised I was holding. She always seemed to suck the breath out of me, leaving me struggling to obtain any oxygen in her wake.

When Elise returned twenty minutes later, she appeared to have raided my wardrobe as she descended the stairs. She was more muscular and taller, than me, so the jeans she had found stopped just above her ankles and hugged her butt like they had been spray painted on her. The black button up shirt she wore was actually part of my Starbuck's uniform, but I decided not to mention that, as it did look quite good on her. There was gap between the buttons around her boobs, as hers were apparently bigger than mine, and it took a significant amount of my willpower not to stare.

Of course she would choose the most professional outfit I owned and make it look casual.

"Can we go out?" I questioned from where I was stood, unloading the dishwasher.

"Sure." Elise shrugged.

"I don't know where, though. Any suggestions that don't involve food?"

"The cinema?"

"Good idea!" I grinned and ran towards her, enthusiastically high fiving the blonde as she rolled her eyes and inspected a pair of my ankle boots from where they sat on the shoe rack. "You're gonna take my shoes, too, I see?"

"Indeed I am." Elise responded with a smile, deeming they were sufficient enough for her and slipping them on.

"Back in a sec." I ran upstairs and had a minor panic as my eyes darted around the room, looking for something to wear to what felt rather like an impromptu date. I settled on a dark green, short skirt and long sleeved, black, sheer turtleneck. Attempting to compose myself in the mirror, I realised I was still ever so slightly tipsy as I struggled to locate the light switch and plunge myself into darkness once more.

"Took your time." Elise muttered, glancing up from her phone. She looked slightly surprised as I walked down the stairs, and smiled as I began to pull on a different pair of heeled ankle boots, determined to be the same height as her. "You look lovely."

"Thank you," I smiled, "So do you."

"I'm driving, by the way." Elise added.

"Why?" I pouted, staring longingly at the drivers side of the gorgeous Bentley.

"Because you're a terrible driver and you know it. Get in." I huffed petulantly but did as the blonde said. She quickly put in the address of a cinema that wasn't our local one to avoid Hallway House students and sped off, the 20 minute journey passing in what felt like mere seconds.

"What do you want to watch?" I questioned, looking up at the board that displayed all the movies for December.

"It appears from the way you seemed to lit up when you read the words 'Indiana Jones' that I already know what we're going to be seeing tonight." Elise responded with a laugh.

"Fine. What a shame." I grinned and bounded up to one of the counters, "Can we get two tickets to the next screening of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?"

"Sorry. All sold out until tomorrow." the worker replied, "The only movie we actually have tickets available for in the next three hours is Mamma Mia."

"Oh, no tha-"

"We'll take them." Elise responded with a smile, paying for the tickets and two large buckets of popcorn before I could weakly protest. I had wanted to pay, at least for the popcorn, but Elise wanted her own large bucket so she didn't have to share, so I 'let' her pay for that, too.

"I don't wanna see Mamma Mia." I complained as we headed into the Cinema.

"You don't even know what it's about." Elise laughed.

"Don't want to know." I responded with a grin. "Hey! You don't even know what it's about, either!"

"No, I don't," Elise giggled, "But I'm being open minded. You should try looking outside your scope of vision for once, Em."

"Whatever." I responded, ignoring the way her nickname for me made my stomach flip.

It turned out, I was wrong. I don't think Elise even realised how good the movie was going to be. I wasn't exactly a die hard ABBA fan, and neither was Elise, but as soon as we wandered out of the movie theatre we appeared to know 'Chiquitita' off by heart. Elise wouldn't stop muttering the tune to 'Does your mother know?' just to embarrass me as we left the cinema and I downloaded the album on my phone, using an old apple music gift card that I had actually thought was expired. The whole journey home, we belted the lyrics to every song - or at least, the chorus to every song, as we didn't know them very well yet.

We hadn't been at home for more than five minutes when Elise forced us to go out yet again, this time because she was aghast at the lack of wine in the fridge.

"So..." I said as Elise slipped into the drivers seat once more and we pulled out of the street, "Gertrude, huh?"

"We are never to speak of this again." Elise leant forward and turned the radio up as loud as possible. Calmly, I leant forward and turned it down again.

"Can I call you Gertie?"

"Can I crash this car right now?" Elise responded with gritted teeth.

"What about... Gert? Like Bert?"

"How about I push you out of this moving vehicle?"

"So aggressive, Mrs Elderflower," I tutted, "Makes sense your middle name is GertRUDE."

"How mature." Elise responded, but I could see the flickers of a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

"What about Dolag? I'll call you Dolag."

"If you call me Dolag I will rip your head off and feed it to a homeless puppy."

"That's... mildly terrifying." I giggled, "What kinda name is that, anyways?"

"It's the female version of Donald, but a lot less common. My parents are Scottish, and for some reason, they thought it was a good idea." Elise sighed and switched the radio off as I leant back in my seat. Her parents. I had forgot about them.

"Did you know your dad was going to be there?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Did you know we would meet?"

"Yes."

"Then why did you-"

"God, what is this, Twenty One Questions?" Elise's knuckles tightened on the steering wheel and I sighed.

"I'm sorry. I am. I don't mean to pry, but do you not think had the roles been reversed you would feel a little confused right now? I met your dad and you didn't even tell me that was who he was until afterwards."

"No, I'm sorry." Elise sighed, "I just get touchy when my parents are involved."

"It's fine." the conversation ended as she parked the Bentley and we entered the same convenience store as last time. Elise muttered something about how she felt like she lived at 'these places' now, then took it upon herself to restart the conversation.

"I don't know why I invited you, but I will admit a small part of me wanted you to meet my dad. Not because of the whole, meet the parents thing, as that would be... I don't know. But I just wanted you to see part of my world, I think. That side of me. I guessed if it scared you off or made you even more suspiciously 'into me' I would know your feelings weren't genuine. But you didn't run away, and you didn't push me. Yet... I still don't know where we stand. You're making me very confused, Emma, I don't know if you know that," Elise huffed, "This is all your fault."

"What cereal do you want?"

"Hmm? Oh, Golden Nuggets." Elise pointed a slender finger at a small blue box with a large cartoon of a blonde 'miner' and what appeared to be a donkey.

"That's a kids cereal."

"So? Indulge me." Elise smirked and chucked the box in my basket.

"So the ball, and your father, was a test?" I questioned, watching Elise inspect the wine section as if we hadn't just been here not long ago.

"I can't really answer your questions when I don't have the answers myself." Elise responded with a sigh, picking out a bottle of red wine and placing it in the basket.

"Fair enough.You have his eyes, y'know? Alastair. Your dad."

"So I've been told." Elise responded, and there was a slight fondness in her eyes as she spoke of the man.

"I... I hope you don't mind me asking, but... your dad seemed to be alone most of the night."

"My mother is dead, if that's what you're wondering." said Elise nonchalantly, and I surprised even myself as I managed to keep a straight face and resist the urge to let me mouth fall open.

"I'm sorry. I won't pry anymore."

"Then don't." Elise's voice had a slightly colder edge to it as we paid and left. When we got home, Elise told me for the second time to sit at the kitchen table. She poured us both a glass of wine and sat opposite me. I noted my glass was almost half as empty as hers, but before I complained I remembered I had just gone a bit mental with the vodka, so I didn't blame her.

"So... Normally I wouldn't push you, Emma, but being perfectly honest with you, you called me when I was in the middle of dinner with my husband and I left immediately to see if you were alright. I do feel I am owed some sort of explanation, although I don't want you to feel obliged to do so. Just, please be honest with me."

"I-I'm not quite sure how to describe it," I admitted, "Nothing in particular happened to make me feel... that way. I just feel extremely out of my depth. Nothing tastes, smells, or looks right and I feel unable to think or process anything that's going on. So much of the time I just don't have the energy or the desire to do anything. I used to love cooking, cooking for others, cooking for myself. But so often now, the joy is taken out of it completely by the fact that I get bored within minutes and everything tastes the same. I have no energy to go to Basketball training anymore, and my coach is disappointed in me, and everyone is disappointed in me, yet at the same time I just can't bring myself to care. The feeling of loneliness is so overwhelming, too. It constantly surrounds me, and I can't do anything about it because no one is a permanent fixture in my life. Everyone just leaves eventually."

"Oh, Emma." Elise sighed and stood up, rounding the table to take me into her arms and squeeze me into a hug that felt like warmth, kindness, trust and care.

Later that night, after we binge watched the first season of a new TV show called 'Merlin' - Katie McGrath is gorgeous, by the way - I leant over to say goodnight to Elise, pressing a quick kiss on her lips. She smiled in surprise, but shook her head.

"I'm not letting you drive back after having a few glasses of wine." I frowned.

"That wasn't what I was going to say." Elise laughed, "I was going to say, I'm not sleeping in your awful guest room again so please get me some pyjamas, I'm coming upstairs with you."

"Right." I said, pretending I was fine as I led her upstairs, although I was in fact, utterly paralysed. I knew all she wanted to do was sleep, and not sleep with me, just in the same bed as me, but that fact alone was enough to terrify the shit out of me, and I didn't even know why.

--

As I walked into Emma's bedroom, I found myself frowning slightly as I took in how impersonal it was. Often with teenagers, they would have random, mismatched furniture, unframed postures stuck haphazardly on the walls, clothes chucked everywhere and the distinct smell of sweat in the air. But, in a supposed tribute to Emma having had to mature far too young, the room was sparsely yet tastefully decorated. A large, oak, king-sized bed took up most of the room, with a matching dressing table and lamp on either side. The only other furniture was a small, oak wardrobe. A door let to the bathroom, but that was it. No paintings, despite how I knew she loved them, no pictures or decorations of any kind, much like the rest of her house. It was a house, not a home, because I supposed she didn't have the time nor the money to invest in something so trivial and superficial.

Emma handed me a baggy Blondie t-shirt and a pair of decidedly small Harry Potter shorts. I looked at the items of clothing with a wrinkled nose, but Emma just laughed and said that it was all she had, unless I wanted to sleep naked. I blushed profusely, as did she, apparently not having meant to say it aloud. Emma then dug out a tank top and some black shorts, but did not make any move to go and get dressed in the bathroom. I watched in surprise as she turned her back to me and without any hesitation, began to undress, even going so far as to unclip her bra and pull it off. Having showered with the brunette, you would think I was used to it by now, but I knew there was no getting used to the girl. She was full of surprises, a total enigma. A puzzle I knew I didn't deserve but yearned to figure out.

Now feeling like I had something to prove, I began to unbutton my black shirt. It was very soft, and I had been surprised, yet impressed by it when I spotted it in her wardrobe. The shirt fell to the floor. Let's see how Emma liked it when I gave her something to stare back at. I stripped quickly, but when I looked over, much to my chagrin, Emma's back was to mine as the brunette pulled on her clothes. She was completely oblivious to my state of undress. The petulant child expression of mine resurfaced as I wanted to cross my arms and stamp my feet in full tantrum mode until the girl paid attention to me. The realisation of this made my stomach turn violently. I wasn't one to seek attention - my very presence demanded it! However, I liked to think I wasn't thinking clearly enough to consider my dignity, so took my time pulling off my jeans, waiting for her to turn around. As the black denim fell to the floor, Emma did turn, her expression one of complete surprise as she took in the dark red, lacy lingerie I wore. Then her eyes darkened slightly, and she stalked towards me. A hand lazily stroked my abdomen as she walked past.

"Don't forget to fold your clothes." Emma drawled before disappearing into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. Now I really wanted to throw a fit. I folded her clothes as angrily as I could, hoping they were

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