Chapter Thirty-Three

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A/N I'm back! Hope you're all doing well. The spaces between each line break are really big for some reason because Wattpad hates me, I apologise!

Hope you all enjoy this chapter. Cover pic is the actress that inspires Elise, Synnove Macody Lund, however feel free to imagine her looking however you would like.


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"I shan't do it."


"Elise, cmon. Cmon."


"Emma, no."


"Why not?"


"Because," the woman said angrily, "I refuse to look like a fool!"


"It's literally just an outfit! It's 2016, live a little! Please, for me?" I pouted up at the woman from the bed and she stilled, glaring at me.


"Don't you pull that face at me, Slater."


"Please, Elise!" I batted my eyelashes and stood up, trotting over to her. It took all of five seconds for her resolve to crumble as she playfully swatted me away and returned to the vanity where she was taking off her makeup.


"Fine, fine!" said the woman, "But I'm only dressing up for the party, not anything before that."


"Perfect!" I responded jubilantly, and that was how we found ourselves, four months later, standing in the middle of the street at around six o'clock in the evening on the 31st of October. Elise was dressed in a charcoal pantsuit and heels and I wore a pinstriped suit with a blood-red bowtie, slicked-back hair and a painted moustache. Without Elise dressed in her matching outfit, we made a rather odd pair, as it looked a little like I hadn't dressed up at all - like this was a normal Monday outfit for me; however, Isla made up for Elise's lack of enthusiasm as she bounded about with her similarly oddly dressed school friends. We were supposed to be the Addams family, or at least, three of them; however Elise wouldn't get dressed until the party later and Isla's wig was too itchy and my bowtie kept falling off, so now Wednesday Addams was a blonde and Gomez Addams had no bow tie and Morticia Addams was an uptight, snobbish aristocrat. In hindsight, Elise fit the part rather well.


"Hello, Miss Brown!" said a little boy by the name of Charlie Green. He was beaming up at me with a bag full of sweets and eyes full of childish wonder.


"Hello, Charlie!" I said happily, my arm wrapped absentmindedly around my girlfriend's waist, "You do make a rather dashing spiderman, I must say!"


"What are you supposed to be?" the boy asked bluntly with a wrinkled nose.


"Something a little before your time, I think," said Elise gently, softly, and the boy just gave a simple giggle before turning to look for his parents.


"Sparrow, hello," I said awkwardly, watching the middle-aged father of Charlie appeared, shaking his hand stiffly. He was one of the older dads and was as unpleasant as his name was odd, and since the news of Elise and I's relationship had spread through the village the only contact I had had with the man was the scathing articles he wrote in the freelance village newspaper about us. 


Elise was going to have a field day with this.

A sluggish, grey eyebrow dipped into a barely concealed frown as he retracted his hand as if I had burnt it. "Hullo, Elizabeth. Ms. Hart." Sparrow Green nodded uncomfortably at the both of us and Elise, unfortunately, thrived under his disapproving gaze.

"Mr Green, what an absolute pleasure!" said Elise, aiming a predatory, Cheshire cat grin at him as he curled his lip, eyes flickering between us and our entwined arms.


"How are you, Sparrow?" I questioned.


"Just fine, Elizabeth," he spat, glancing at Elise. The hatred on his face as he glared was so genuine, so pure and so unadulterated it almost seemed to shine through his eyes as I watched his chest fall and rise rapidly beneath the fitted tweed blazer he wore. Elise stood smug and proud, matching his gaze with equal ferocity, a battle between the only two adults boring enough not to dress up on Halloween, "I see you are both enjoying one another's filthy company."


Ah. There it was.


"Filthy?" Elise let out a mocking laugh, her impenetrable eyes and inscrutable countenance giving little away as Sparrow looked if I was not mistaken, a little nervous. His son had run away to go and stand with his mother, Mrs. Green, and now Sparrow Green was alone, helpless, and very much in danger, "Oh Mr. Green, how naive you are! Insinuating that I am the dirty one, how funny that is! Was it not you that booked a room in the Bed and Breakfast last month? Was it -"


"Silence, woman!" Hissed the man angrily, foaming at the mouth. The wind around us was cold and harsh, rather like the way he spat out his words, and he was turning a worrying shade of purple.


"Was it not," Elise continued, "You, Mr. Green, who hired the company of a female worker on the said night? A woman that was not Mrs. Green, your wife?"


"You bastard!" he sneered, stepping forward so that he could attempt to intimidate Elise further. Unfortunately, this only gave Elise the upper hand, for she was taller than Sparrow by at least an inch and looked down on him imperiously.


"What was it she specialised in again, dear?" Elise turned to me with glittering eyes; she was in her element.


"Don't involve me." I rolled my eyes, knowing the blonde was perfectly in control.


"Yes, that was it! She specialised in humiliation and faecal play, didn't she Sparrow?"


"Ew, gross." I murmured, wrinkling my nose as I kept an eye on Isla who was chatting to little Charlie Green and his rather feeble mother, Dorothy.


"You'll pay for this," sneered the man, "Just you wait."


"I'll be waiting!" responded Elise happily, successfully getting in the last word as he turned and stormed away.


"Mummy, mummy, look!" Isla ran over and her slim frame was immediately scooped up into Elise's arms, "I got a cupcake from Mrs. Green!"


"Oh wow," I laughed, "Dorothy always takes things one step too far, doesn't she?"


"I imagine it was some sort of unspoken competition with the neighbours," Elise said wryly before turning her attention back to her daughter, "That looks lovely, dear. Give it to Em and she'll look after it for you, I don't want you eating any of your treats or you'll have a sugar rush."


"But it's chocolate, Mummy!" insisted the little girl.


"No, Isla, you shan't change my mind," Elise responded in a gentle tone.


"But Mummy," Isla pouted, looking up at her Mother with eyes brimming with tears.


"She's learnt that from you," Elise glared at me, but Isla had won her over regardless and the cupcake was devoured in a matter of seconds as Elise lowered the young girl to the ground, "You're looking after her when her tummy starts hurting."


"I didn't even do anything!" I exclaimed, bursting out into laughter as we each took one of Isla's hands and swung her between us.


"You existed," drawled Elise, but she was smiling deep down. Very deep down. It was a far cry from four months ago when I had been struck down by that car - but we never found who did it, so we eventually forgot about it and moved on with our lives, and the police report was buried, and Elise's Mother left me alone, and I realised I was actually really rather happy; really rather content.


Later that night was when the real fun began. Elise and I agreed to split up so that she could go home and get ready, and I could drop Isla off at the babysitter's. I arrived at the party sooner than I thought I would, so I decided to go in and acquaint myself before Elise turned up. Rita never knew how to throw a quiet affair, so it was no surprise that before I even exited my car I could hear the roaring thump of music. The party was in full swing, cheers emptying themselves into the dark, cold, speckled air as I headed up a damp stone path. It was just as well Rita was on the outskirts of the quiet town for when the door swung open, I was hit with a shocking wall of sound. Then again, most of the adults in the village were at this party tonight so there was no one really to complain.


"Emma!" Squealed a drunken Rita, "I mean, er, Elizabeth," she snorted and stumbled forwards, wrapping an arm around me as Timmy appeared in the doorway dressed as Peppa Pig (Which was, quite simply, as horrific as it sounded).


"God Timmy you look awful!" I snorted, looking at his white trousers, blue vest and terrifying pig hat.


"What? I'm Daddy Pig!"


"Timmy, I swear to God," drawled Rita, who had decided on a witch outfit, "If you say that one more time I'm divorcing you!"


"Oh, shut up!" Timmy roared with laughter, letting out a deep and tremulous belly chuckle before slinging his arm around Rita to take her in, "Y'know," he began, grinning at me as Rita's eyes rolled back, "The first time I saw her drunk, I knew I was gonna marry her."


"Ah, young love," I snorted, "Now go and sober her up, the party has barely started yet!" I followed them inside with a soft smile on my face and entered the crowded house, where floating rounds of beer and wine permeated the groups of chatting adults. A skeleton waddled up to me, and after the removal of a mask, I saw that it was one of my coworkers at the school.


"Elizabeth! Hullo!"


"Johnty, how lovely to see you!" I lied, smiling awkwardly at the toadyish man. He had always had an odd little soft spot for me, one that I certainly did not return, and the smell of Stella Artois on his hot breath wafting towards me made me want to retch - I was far too sober for this. "Sorry to arrive and then run away, but I was just wondering if you could point me in the direction of some alcohol?"


"Why, but of course!" Simpered the man, his moustache wriggling on his sweaty upper lip like a fat caterpillar, his bald head glistening under the soft yellow glow of the light above, "Go through to the kitchen, Rita was on the bar a moment ago."


"Probably not anymore," I snorted under my breath thinking back to the state Rita was in as I made my way through the dense crowd, greeting people as I went. That was the problem with a small town like this. You never really met anyone new. My dentist was here, my coworkers, the nurse who took my blood, the parents of my pupils. It was simultaneously both overwhelming and comforting all at once. 


I had just cracked open a beer in the kitchen when everything seemed to still slightly. The music was still blaring but screamed conversations attempting to beat the decibel of the music died down until there was a silence evident despite the reverberating pulsation of 'My Way' by Calvin Harris bouncing off the walls. Elise had arrived, and she looked absolutely incredible.

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