Once, on a cold night

9: A surpise visit

The next day, something happened that wasn't supposed to happen. 3:30 rolled around and Elle didn't call. 4:00 came and went...and still, the girl didn't call. 4:30 passed to 5:00 and 5:00 passed to 6:00.. and still, the girl didn't call. Nor would she answer if anybody tried to call her. It worried Ezra..just a little. He waited, he had even gone out and walked for a bit to pass the time, he had even then just never got the call. Eventually, after hours of being out, he never got anything. He came back to his house and even then..nothing.

After it was starting to get late..Ezra ended up calling her. Maybe she was just unexpectedly busy, but he didn't know and he was getting worried..but it was nothing. She didn't answer. Maybe she didn't want to talk to him anymore..Ezra knew he shouldn't have gotten his hopes up. She was too good to be true, wasn't she? Although after a while, he was not really feeling great. Maybe he was just thinking things when he thought that she actually liked him.

But suddenly, he got a call. Ezra scrambled to get his phone and quickly answered the call. It was Elle.

"Hey-" He then suddenly realized there was crying on the other side of the phone, and instantly snapped. "Kid, what's happening? Why're you crying?" And with a window open, he could hear those exact cries in the distance.

"Where are you? Did somebody hurt you?"
He was quick to go to questions as he didn't get a response, quickly opening his door and standing in front of it, looking around just to make sure she wasn't around.

"I-I don't know...where I am..." She finally stammered and sniffled. "The cab would only bring me this far." She turned around and saw off in the distance, the alley. She walked briskly to it.

Elle was dropped off just a little ways off from the alley that Ezra first met her in. She looked around frantically, her mind racing a mile a minute. She couldn't think straight. The photoshoot had gone bad...really bad. By the time she was out, all she could think about was Ezra. He would be able to listen to her, comfort her..

"What do you mean, kid? Are you by yourself in the city?" He asked her. He didn't know what was going on, and it was worrying him sick. She didn't call nor pick up his call all day, and now she was calling him in the midst of what seemed to be a breakdown.

"N-No, I just-.." She was still wearing the outfit from the shoot which was a short black dress and heels. "Everything went wrong today. Luke was..." She hiccuped and turned around, finally seeing him in his doorway. his back to turned to where she was, so he hadn't seen her in that very moment in time.

"Luke? What the f*** did he do to you?" He asked with a sternness to his voice, looking down at his phone, realizing she had just hung up before hearing the quick clicking of heels upon the pavement approaching behind him.

His eyes widened as he shoved his phone in his pocket. It was Elle. As she got closer, it would be easy to see that she was quite disheveled. Her hair was down and lost most of its shape, her makeup was running down her face. But most noticeable was the red welt on the side of her face.

"Elle? What are you doing here!"
Ezra asked, it was insanely unsafe for her to have gone all this way alone, especially looking like that. 

Elle lost all ability to speak. One look at Ezra's concerned face sent her over the edge. She broke and began to sob. Large tears fell down her red face. "I-I didn't know where else to go..." she sputtered and buried her face in her hands.

"Hey, what happened? Speak to me, kid." He asked as he looked over at her with all the concern in the world in his eyes.

"I can't do this anymore, I can't..I can't deal with him." Her voice was muffled against her hands. "I just wanted to call you and everything went wrong. The shoot went hours over and-..and-" She let out a few more cries before she looked up at him.