she's mine.

72

Eli's POV

"So does everyone have to get dressed up for these interviews?" Raina's mother asked hesitantly as she looked me over. I had brought a black button up and pair of black slacks which I hadn't worn since my parents funeral. I didn't bring a tie because well.. forget that.

Rai didn't seem to mind though, the way she looked at me.. I'd wear this everyday if it meant I'd get that look from her. Man, I can't wait to marry that girl.

"I think so," I answered her mother. She was standing in the kitchen putting away the groceries while I ate the sandwich she got me from Subway. She had texted Rai that she was on her way back and asked each of us what we wanted. I wasn't hungry. I didn't have much of an appetite anymore, I guess finding out your were an accomplice in the murder of the father to the girl you are in love with does that to you. But I didn't want to offend her mother, so I continued to eat while we waited for Rai to get ready.

"Jon just told us we had to look nice, and wear black because that's what his team would be in," I was surprised he was letting me come until he said I wasn't allowed to leave Rai's side.. Obviously. Idiot. I don't leave her anyways.

It was odd to me at first that she was asking me this, but then I remembered Rai and Jon both had been secretive around her about it. Rai had told me it broke her mother's heart to watch Jon fight so I was sure they tread lightly for her sake in a fighting conversation.

She nodded in response and continued to put the bags in the trash.

"Rai tells me you have two siblings you take care of," now it was her turn to ask where others usually tread lightly in my presence.

"Yes ma'm," I said nonchalantly and took another bite.

"That's hard" she said softly in a motherly tone that I hadn't heard in months. "Especially alone," she added quietly, speaking from experience. My chest tightened uncomfortably. I wasn't used to that feeling of compassion or whatever the heck it was, but I felt for her.

"You've done a good job," I tell her honestly and she looks up with a glint of something in her eye. I hope she's not going to cry. Ugh. Why did I even respond? I can barely handle when Rai cries, I have no idea what I would do if her mother cried. Not like I can grab her face and kiss her the way I would with Rai.

I mean.. No.

"They are good kids," she said before she turned the other way to begin cleaning the kitchen and I wondered if she even realized it was a therapeutic gesture. "Good kids with big hearts. They get most of their strength from their father. You would have liked him," she smiled to herself as she grabbed a rag from the sink to wipe the counter tops. I clenched my jaw and wished so badly I had a wall to hit. Her mother's eyes lighting up as she spoke about her husband made me want to throw up. The guilt was getting worse by the second as I watched Mrs. Everett reminisce on the days before Rock planted the bomb under his car.

I pushed the nauseating feeling down and focused on my sandwich. "He was a mixture between the two," she smiled for a moment in her own thoughts. "Level headed with the strength to do what needed to be done no matter what like Jonny, and the type of person everyone was drawn to like Rai," she paused her scrubbing and looked up. "You couldn't exactly tell if it was the way he made you laugh or the way he pushed you to be a better person without even trying that made you want to be around him, but you'd just find yourself making excuses to be near him," she laughed lightly at the thought.

My mind instantly went to Rai. That's exactly how it was with her. The first couple days I knew her I was already making excuses to go see her again, blaming the backpack she left in my car, or having to ask her to come to Lea's party in person for whatever reason. I had told myself it was because I felt bad for what Kaitlyn did and then Rock, but I just couldn't stay away.