Little brat

9. What did you expect, Elena?

When Stefan left, the three teenagers fell crying into me and almost threw me to the ground. I knew they were trying to be grateful but that was just too much affection. I pushed them off and gave them all a good glance over, to see if anything was out of the ordinary. They seemed okay. Except for Cherise's mascara, it was smeared all over her face and it didn't look pretty. 

I subtly turned her away from the mirror as I spoke.
"Let's get you out of here.'' And as on cue, Marcus opened a door on the other side of the room. The three of them walked out behind me, scared as if they would walk into a trap. As I'd suspected, Marcus followed us to the front gate and opened it.

Even though Laurence, Cherise and Joyce had just been traumatized for probably the rest of their lives, I envied them. They were walking out of here, unlike me.
They were free. The gate closed again as I waved goodbye to my friends. I hoped I'd see them soon. Then I could explain all of this and tell them I had absolutely nothing to do with their 'kidnapping'.

''Where's Kyle?'' I asked. I'd sort of expected him to come in to the interrogation room with me. But he'd left me and our friends cold and dry.
"He was smarter than you. He knew it wasn't his place to go against Stefan.'' Marcus dryly answered.
''Does it really make you feel better? To constantly humiliate and belittle me?"
I'd had enough of his comments and constant ignoring. This was my breaking point, even though I had no clue why it was that last sentence that tipped me over.
But I'd had it with him.
''You're being a complete jackass. And you're doing it on purpose, which makes it even worse!'' Keep your voice down, Elena. Try not to shout, try not to shout. If you shout, you care. If you shout, you are angry. I didn't want to show him all that. Not yet.

"What did you expect, Elena?'' Marcus had stopped walking, which with him, was a good sign. If he stood still, he was ready for a conversation. So I stopped next to him but we didn't face each other. That would be too intimate, too much feelings going on.

"Can't we at least try?'' It was late and I was tired. The night was cold and dark, something I hadn't prepared for in my sudden outburst to rescue Laurence. I shivered in my hoodie, the wind creeping under it, touching my skin. That same wind blew Marcus's hair from the left to the right.

"You're staring.'' He was looking at me now. I hadn't even registered what he'd said because I suddenly felt it again. Every positive feeling I had ever had for Marcus came rushing back in as we looked each other in the eyes. He was so handsome, more handsome than he'd ever been. His jawline was more outspoken, his hair a little longer and a wild stubble covered his chin and cheeks. How much I wanted to touch ...

''Don't.'' Marcus grabbed my hand before it could reach his face. He held my hand and didn't let go. I could see it in his eyes, he was having the same struggle as me. To not just take him there and then and forget about everything else, just for a while. To pretend for a second that everything was as it used to be. All sunshine and rainbows.

''Marcus! Where are you? I'm freezing here!'' Of course, Rachel had to ruin the moment. We both retreated our hands and looked at the bitch standing in a little bubble of light a couple of feet further. She couldn't see us, it was pitch dark. But unfortunately for me, we could see her. It wasn't a pretty sight. Marcus moved to obey Rachel but I held him back.
"So, what now?'' I asked. I had to know. I couldn't keep this on any longer. It was making us both miserable.
"I don't know.'' The look on his face showed me he was battling with different emotions. I could see he was mad for letting his guard down, tired from the long night, relieved we'd finally spoken in a normal way, annoyed we didn't get any further than this, annoyed he'd let it get this far and most of all: confused.

''Time heals all'' was the saying. Well, I hoped it did.

I quickly fell asleep that night. It was the first night I'd actually slept well since being back. It was ended way too soon, when Stefan woke me up at seven a.m. by throwing my backpack in my face.

 "Thought you wanted to go back to school?''
Even though I couldn't see him (there was a backpack blocking my view) I knew he was smirking.
''Not cool.'' Was all I said.
After I'd heard him leave, I felt a spark of joy rushing through me. The foresight of going back to school and somehow a normal routine made me happy. Never thought I'd miss it that much. So, an hour later, Kyle and I arrive at school.
The first person I saw, was David. I was both happy and afraid to talk to him seeing how we left things.
''Have you spoken to David since-, you know?'' I asked as we got out of the car.
Kyle took his things out, sighed and stopped midway locking the car.
''About that.'' He straightened up and placed his elbow against the roof.
"One of the boss's rules is that you're not allowed to see my nephew anymore.'' Kyle scratched his head, he was obviously not very comfortable doing this.
''So?'' I asked, not at all surprised by this.
Mario must have tattletaled on me, even though he'd promised not to. Fuck him.
''I sort of promised to make sure you followed his rules.'' He said, not looking at me.
And that's when it hit me: he wanted to keep that promise. And here I was thinking that Kyle, my best friend, my appointed bodyguard would be to my advantage. How on earth had he shifted his loyalty so quick from me to my stupid brother? In one day? Something was definitely off but I first needed to deal with this newfound piece of information.

"I can't believe you.'' I hit his car with my flat hand because I honestly didn't want to damage it but I did want Kyle to worry about his little precious baby.
"What else?'' We started walking towards the school building. He had about five minutes or so to explain all of Stefan's stupid rules. I intended on breaking all of them.
"Always come home straight after, always with me.'' Kyle started.
"No friends. No boys in general. No time off from the gang to do homework. No lunches outside of school. No-"
I stopped him. ''Fine, I get it. No nothing.'' We'd reached the building and normally, Kyle and I didn't have first period together so I'd assumed he'd go to the left whereas I had to go right, but he followed me to the right and walked straight into my first class: math.
"Don't tell me he made you change your subjects?'' I asked in disbelief.
Kyle shrugged as if it were nothing but this was completely insane.
''We're together in every class, except for home ec because I couldn't transfer there anymore.''

I groaned internally. During the class, I had a hard time paying attention. I was having so many different thoughts that it made my head explode. How serious would Kyle take this babysitting thing? I'd hoped that at least at school I could just be myself and hang around with David and the others. Kyle used to be our friend. He could just continue like that and let me be at school, couldn't he?