Dependent on You

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Third Person

After returning home Adrian scampered up the staircase to her room and did just as Elliot told her to, opening her window seat window so he could enter as he pleased. However she didn't stay up there, she went right back down the stairs and to the kitchen where she found her mother preparing lunch. Walking around the island, Adrian began opening cupboards and pulling out ingredients she would need to make chocolate chip cookies. They were her favorite with extra chocolate chips and she hoped Elliot would like them as well. She wanted him to forgive her.

His opinion mattered to her so so much because he mattered to her. Maybe making him cookies would make it so he wasn't mad at her anymore. But she remembered what he said and how he said it. He wasn't just mad, he said the p-word. She could still hear it in her head, the low hissed purr of his raspy voice. Though he was mad at her, his voice was still hauntingly beautiful. It was a voice that made her feel everything at once, a voice she could never forget even if she wanted to. Not when the very essence of it was like a control switch that he could flick on and off when it came to her bodies not so subtle reactions.

"What are you making, love?" Her mother queried, eying Adrian's ingredients over her shoulder as she continued chopping vegetables.

Adrian shrugged, placing a big porcelain bowl in front of her so she could mix all the ingredients in it. "Chocolate chip cookies." She replied softly as she began pouring flour into a measuring cup. She knew the recipe by heart. She used to make them all the time with her mother but now that she was old enough she could make them by herself. Except she always added more chocolate chips than the recipe called for, and she always used dark chocolate because she preferred it over milk chocolate. Hopefully, Elliot wouldn't mind, they were cookies after all.

"You've always had a sweet tooth just like your father." She laughs quietly. "But you know the rule, no eating cookies until after dinner."

Adrian huffs, when the cookies were done she'd just have to sneak them into her room. She was sure Elliot didn't wait until after dinner to eat cookies. In fact, she bet he ate them whenever he wanted. He always did whatever he wanted. "That's a dumb rule." She mutters to herself, mixing the flour with the sugar. Waiting until after dinner only made her crave the cookies, she thought about them literally all day until the very moment she could eat one. Why did she have to wait until the end of the day to satisfy her sweet tooth when she could just satisfy it in the middle of the day? It was pointless.

Her mother clucks her tongue. "What was that?"

Adrian sighs, knowing her mother heard her. "I'll wait until after dinner mama." But that didn't mean she couldn't sneak some for Elliot. She was making them for him anyway, so technically she wouldn't be breaking any rules. Not today at least. But even as she thought it, she knew she would be doing quite the contrary. Elliot in her room was breaking a rule, him kissing her was breaking a rule, skipping school was breaking a rule. She had already broken so many rules, and yet she knew she wouldn't eat a cookie before dinner. Not that it would make a difference if she did.

*

Sitting on her Persian rug, her back propped up against her bed frame, Adrian read her newest book her mom recently picked up for her at the bookstore. Beside her, a fluorescent yellow highlighter and black pen sat. She would grab them every so often to mark a quote she saw and liked. This way she could always remember her favorite parts so when she went back to them later on she'd get the same nostalgic feeling. With her knees scrunched up, her book sitting on her thighs, she underlined a sentence. Smiling as she did, loving the way the words mended together in her head, like poetry.