My Autumn with April

Eight

~April~

What a fucking evening. 

I came home after handling everything with Jonah to Maya and Autumn trying to work out what the fuck even happened. One second Autumn's life was finally looking bright and the next the guy she's falling for is married? This is exactly why men aren't worth it. 20 minutes after I got there, Autumn said she wanted to go home. That she wanted to get the first time in her room over with but Maya refused to let her do it alone like she wanted so the 2 of them had headed off back to the B&B. I'll have to take them a late breakfast tomorrow. Handle questions that Marie and Daphne and everyone else is going to have because I know this is going to mess Autumn up for a few months and she isn't going to want to answer anything. 

I'd changed out of my dress and pulled my hair up before cleaning the mess from tonight's fall out. Only then had I been able to rewind and head back to the dance floor with El. It's hard for me to think that I've been crushing on him since that day down by the harbor. Nearly 14 years have passed since then and still, he's the only guy who made me feel as safe as he did. The beating I received from my dad that night wasn't as bad as it had been because I just kept thinking about Elliott. How he jumped out of the tree and rushed to my side. The way he lied and told me I wasn't bleeding whilst I cried. Then told me a stupid joke so I would stop crying. 

I'd always pictured El saving me from my dad somehow. No one knew about the abuse at home until he got a little too heavy handed the night before I was leaving for uni. When the group came around the next day to say goodbye and I was covered in bruises, I got out of there as quickly as I could. Avoided it being outright spoken about. No one actually ever asked what happened in this house. All they ever saw was my drunk of a father who struggled to put money into the accounts and my mother who had 3 people to feed and no money to do so. 

My dad was a good man when he was sober. Hard working, loving, caring, soft hearted. But loosing his mum and sister in a horrific car wreck on the mainland changed him. He was closer to his family than normal people were. And all of a sudden he was in the world, seemingly alone. The grief got too much and the alcohol dulled the pain. I'm not one to make excuses for my dad. I have barely spoken to him since he put mum in hospital a few months back and finally sobered up in the cells enough to realize the harm he was doing. He's been in rehab since. 

"Hello? Anyone here?" My front door opened as I stared at the Chamomile tea on the table. 

"Just me." I called back and the front door closed. There was only one set of footsteps coming down the hall and I stood up, thinking El would likely want a beer or something to drink tonight now. I pulled one out the fridge, snapping the lid off and almost dropping it when I saw the state of him. "What the fuck?!" Elliott wiped the back of his hand across his bloody nose and snarled at it. 

"Where's Autumn?" 

"Where's Au- Elliott what the fuck happened? You were supposed to put him-" 

"I know. Put him on the boat and leave him. But the asshole just didn't fucking get it. There's not a chance in hell he's coming back here and I needed to make that clear. Fucking married." I grabbed his wrist pulling him across to his usual spot at my kitchen table, grabbing a first aid kit and coming back to him. I set his beer on the table and carefully lowered myself to my knees so I could better see what I was looking at. "How is she?" 

"She threw up a few times. I think she's just shocked. She really liked him." El snarled. "You need to keep you face still." I carefully wiped over the cut on his eyebrow, leaving his bloodied nose to stop before I could tidy it up. 

"I don't like that you know how to do this." 

"First aid?" He nods his head slightly. "I'm a baker. Injuries are part of the job. Gotta know some basics." 

"You and I both know you didn't learn how to clean up blood for work April."  I halted for a second before moving to his nose but before I could, Elliott cupped one side of my face. "I didn't want you to go earlier. I was enjoying dancing with you." 

"Yeah?" 

"Yeah. Do it again." 

"What? Dance with you again?" El nods. "Next wedding." 

"No, I meant now." He moved his hand slightly. Keeping his thumb on my cheek but now his fingers were in my hair and I froze. This wasn't happening. I was making it up. Day dreaming or actually dreaming. I was going to blink any second and he'd have a shark head or something and I'd wake up to google what the hell that meant.  

His green eyes stared down into mine. His eyes have always been that shade of green that makes you feel like you're stood in an evergreen forest in the dead of summer. Laid on the floor staring up at towers of branches blocking out the suffocating sun. Their leaves are filling your lungs with thick, fresh, musky oxygen and you inhale so deep it hurts in the back of your throat but for the you feel so alive in that moment it doesn't matter.  

I wanted to get lost in this forest. Build a tree house amongst the branches and wake up in their green every day for the rest of my life. 

"Hello? Anyone home? El? April? Maya?" Shit. I jumped to my feet, putting space between Elliott and I as casually as I could. Noah and Wes wandered into the kitchen. Noah looked between the two of us and squinted. "Where's Autumn?" 

"Uh- May- Maya took her home." I swallowed hard, grabbing my tea from the counter and taking a big gulp of the liquid that's supposed to calm me down. And fuck me did I need it because I swear, it felt like Elliott was going to do something stupid right then and I know he'd have regretted it in the morning and things would have been awkward. He's just all pent up. I'm not going to embarrass either of us further by acting like what almost happened, almost happened. Because it didn't. "You were supposed to put him on the boat. Not kill him." I grabbed Noah and Wes a beer each, handing them the opener and standing against the counter at the furthest point away from El I possibly could. 

I need a cold shower. 

A cold shower and like 20 minutes alone with my bedside drawer whilst the feeling of his hand is still on my cheek. That's all. I can imagine the fucking rest. Jesus.