Aloura West | ✓

Chapter Twelve

Elias didn't reply to Aloura, and she couldn't help the sadness that bubbled in her stomach. She stubbornly, however, refused to admit it was disappointment she was feeling. Instead, she pinned it on anxiety. They were after all sat Criss crossed at the top of a twenty-story building, barely feet apart. She didn't even know the guy. Plus, he seemed to have a staring problem. It was only a matter of time before her introverted self-felt out of place.

Aloura had gone back to aiding his wounds after a moment of silence, and Elias continued to watch her delicate hands holding his rough ones gently. It almost made losing another fight worth it. He'd get hurt a hundred times if the scene before him was one that he could watch every time. "You need to start being careful. Did you get in a bar fight?" Aloura asked after she'd finished sterilising down his hands.

"I don't do bar fights sweetheart."

Aloura felt her stomach do a cartwheel and knock the air out her lungs in the process.

"Then why're you always injured?" Aloura questioned after her stomach settled.

Elias stared at her for a moment, before replying. "I'm a boxer" he didn't feel bad for lying, because he technically was. Except he had no say in it. And it was illegal boxing. Not that she needed to know anyway. I don't owe her anything for helping me. We're basically strangers.

Aloura held his gaze, as if assessing his words before nodding her head. "They don't have a medic for after?" she furrowed her eyebrows.

"No" but even if they did, I'd much rather have you do it.

"I can um bandage you up after again" she started, "only if you want." She added, in case he'd feel too pressured to decline her offer.

"Sure" Elias nodded a ghost of a smile tugging at his lips, he was thankful but unable to express how grateful he was to the younger girl.

"When's your next fight?"

"Tomorrow."

Aloura wanted to ask why it was so soon, he wouldn't even be healed from today's injuries. Instead, she nodded and pursed her lips together. Suddenly realising she was practically interrogating him. "you have-" she started, before she slowed her words down as she watched Elias' movements, "a cut on your cheek." Elias lifted his now bandaged hands to her lips. He ran his thumb over her cut and scrunched his eyebrows. He reached to the last disinfected wipe in the miniature box.

"What happened?" he asked, as he softly cleaned the dried blood from her bottom lip. Aloura didn't reply, instead focussed on her breathing. The fact he was that close to her, while speaking to her so softly, made her heart flip a million times in her chest. She resisted the urge to press a hand on her chest to calm it down.

"I have a bad habit of biting my lip." She lied, "and my nails." She held up her freshly bitten nails as if to prove to him what she was saying.

Elias seemed hesitant but he nodded as he finished cleaning her lip. "Bella-"

"Aloura" she cut him off.

"Hmm?" his eyes found hers.

"My names Aloura, not Bella."

"Aloura" he repeated, as if testing her name out for himself. Aloura almost passed out in his arms from the feeling she got from the sound of his voice uttering her name. "That's a beautiful name."

"Thanks, I- my parents, uh. They gave it me."

Elias' lips tugged up into a small smile at the sight of the stuttering girl before him, "weird" he joked, "my parents gave me mine too."

Aloura giggled softly, "that really is weird." She moved her gaze to the box before frowning. "You wasted a disinfectant on my lips."

"I didn't waste it if it was used for its purpose." He furrowed his eyebrows.

'It's a waste if it's used on me' Aloura wanted to argue. "But it was just my lip. I could have cleaned up your cheek!"

Elias didn't reply again. Just watched the weirdly attractive when angry girl that sat before him. He admired her eyes. He didn't have a favourite colour, but he knew he'd forever imagine her eyes when asked. "How old are you?" he questioned her after moments of silence had passed between them.

"Almost twenty" Aloura muttered. Unsure on why she said almost twenty, rather than nineteen. Maybe it was her bid to assure Elias she was old enough for him, or whatever he wanted to do to her. Nonetheless, she'd failed.

"You're a kid." He grinned playfully. Aloura shot him a glare.

"No, I'm not!" she whined, and Elias laughed in response. "Really I'm not!" she groaned after Elias silently shot her a look of disbelief.

"See you even act like a kid" he teased, finding humour in bothering the poor teenager.

"You're just a grandpa" Aloura huffed, unsure where her playful personality was coming from. Not even Kaden had managed to bring this side of her out of its shell.

"I'm not old!" Elias shot her a glare of his own. "I'm twenty-three."

"You're not even a grandpa" Aloura giggled, "you're a walking corpse."

Elias scowled in response, before Aloura cut him off again, a questioning look sketched in her face. "Did you just finish college?' Elias sighed sadly in response; his demeanour suddenly serious.

"No." he muttered bluntly, unwilling to offer an explanation. Aloura nodded, before Elias continued. "I never got the chance to go."

Aloura's eyes widened, she had never envisioned him as one to struggle; the first time she'd met him he was fitted into a tailored suit, with his black hair slicked back. In other terms- he looked rich. "Oh."

Elias muttered a small 'yeah' before redirecting the attention on her. "What about you?"

"I was set back a little." Aloura mumbled adverting her attention to her crossed legs, "but in a couple of years, ask me again!"

Elias' lips tugged at her sudden enthusiasm, or maybe it was the fact she'd indirectly assured him he'd earned a place in her life- even if it was for a couple of years. "What do you want to study?"

"Medicine" she grinned. "What about you?"

"I've never thought about going to college." Elias told her honestly. he was too busy stuck in the real world to have time to indulge in fairy tales.

'Well, think about it now." She grinned. He frowned a little thinking about his dream life. One where his mother wasn't sick, and Kalian wasn't miles away with a family they barely knew. But he couldn't envision a life lived for himself; but merely existing to assist the lives of others. "I'm not sure" he spoke after a moment. Sightly upset he didn't have a life plan besides surviving.

"That's okay. In a few years I'll ask you if you went to college" Aloura smiled at him reassuringly, adamant that both would one day live the life they'd dreamed.

Elias watched Aloura in return and nodded. Thanking her with his eyes with the words that felt too heavy on his tongue to speak.