The Third Word

Chapter 71

"It's nothing." I repeated," I'll get going." I got on my feet but he suddenly grabbed my wrist," If you want to be a part of the investigation, you must not hide  anything." He said, giving me a soft frown. His hands were really warm, so much that I wanted to hold his hand tighter.

"I...uh-" I flinched nervously. 

"Sorry," he said as he let go of my hand,"Edwin Miler has been troubling you, hasn't he?" He guessed since he did see everything on the stage.

"Yes," I sat down again because it was weird looking at him while standing," He abducted me one-"

"What?" He interrupted without letting me finish," And you're telling me now?"

"It's just my personal matter and I didn't want to bother you with it."

"You have no idea how big of a clue this could be." He buried his head between his hands. I didn't like it whenever he reacted like that, as if he thought I was one dumb girl who was getting on his nerves because I was dumb.

He asked me to tell him everything and so I did, even about Edwin sneaking into my room and asking me to be his prom date.

"I'll have to tell this to dad." he said as he stood up and walked over to the landline.

"You mean, Mr. Cooper." I looked back and saw the same woman from the kitchen, Elijah's mother. She looked young for her age and she was breathtakingly beautiful, just like her son. I doubted she had any make-up on and yet, she looked like someone I would probably see on a TV show and talk about her beauty the whole day.

"You should've knocked." Elijah spoke and I realized I had been looking at her in awe and she too was looking at me and it was really awkward.

"Hello." I said politely," I'm Gwen Smith."

"And you should've asked me before bringing someone home." She complained to Elijah, literally ignoring my words. She seemed to not like my presence in her house so I pursed my lips awkwardly and kept my mouth shut. 

"I don't need to ask  you before bringing my girlfriend home." Elijah said and shocked both me and his mom. I didn't expect him to lie to her. What was wrong in just saying 'friend'?

But his statement was justified when I noticed a change in the way his mom looked at me. Unlike her sharp expressions and hostile treatment a few seconds ago, she gave me a warm, welcomed smile,"Nice to meet you, Gwen." She said,"I'm sorry for my rude behavior earlier."

"It's alright," I smiled," I'll be on my way then..."

"Where to? I baked cake for us. You should stay." She insisted.

I looked back at Elijah who was busy punching in the number, apparently calling Mr. Cooper. He got me into an awkward mess and didn't even care to help me out, but I guessed it was better than being kicked out of the house by his mom disrespectfully.

"I actually have plans of a movie marathon with my parents, so I need to go back home and do the preparations." I made an excuse.

"Oh why? Aren't you and Elijah going to the Prom?" She questioned with her eyebrows furrowed and the moment she said 'Prom', Elijah spoke," No."

"What do you mean by 'No'?" She questioned him as he lowered the phone from his ear and put it down.

"We're not that close yet." He said, folding his arms and leaning on the table beside him.

"Right, you must be finding it hard to move on from that girl." She muttered," Not that you should care of the past and I like Gwen better."

"She's getting late." he said and I hastily nodded in agreement. 

"I'll come some other time." I said, but I had definitely decided to never visit his house on weekends.

His mom gave me a hug and told me she was thankful that I was with Elijah. She probably thought I was helping her son from moving on from Stace, but she had no idea how mature he was for his age. He'd already moved on and was more interested in ghosts than humans.

Elijah came to see me out and tell me something but since his mom was there too, he just asked me to see his texts later before I finally left their house. It wasn't a really bad experience, but lying to his mom seemed more scarier than lying to my own parents, and remembering about those two innocent humans at home, I hurried back. 

Dedicated to jojoligma