Page 10 of Willows and Waterlilies

“Kelly, enough!” Elijah says angrily, now getting to his feet to try and shield me from this humiliation, but it’s much too late.

“Ellie, please, I had no idea…” Jonathan starts to grovel which is enough to have the tears falling in streams down my face.

“Don’t you even dare speak to this poor girl, you worthless piece of shit!” Elijah snaps, pointing his finger at Jonathan’s face.

“Don’t you speak to my husband like that!” Kelly shouts. “You caused this, you and Mother both did with your meddling!”

“Kelly, please, let’s go, this was a mistake, a huge mistake, I swear,” Jonathan flusters with his hands clinging onto his wife. “Shewas a mistake!”

“Excuse me,” I whimper before taking flight and leaving behind the dozens of eyes that are all on me, all judging me for something I didn’t even know I was a part of.

Elijah

“Fuck!” I curse to myself as I grab my coat and run after Ellie. By the time I’m out on the street, she’s already rummaging around for her phone, probably to get the Carter brothers to come down here and kick my ass. Not that I don’t deserve it. Jonathan got one thing right this evening; this was ahugemistake.

“Ellie!” I shout as she pulls out her phone from her bag. She looks up at me with wet, puffy eyes and a tremble in her hand.

“Don’t come near me!” she snaps as she begins backing away.

“Ellie, I’m so incredibly sorry, please!” I beg as I grab hold of her hand to try to get her to look at me, to see how sorry I really am.

“Why would you do that to me?” she whimpers. “Why would you throw me under the bus like that? Have I not been through enough today?”

“I didn’t know what else to do! Kelly wouldn’t believe me when I told her, and my mother was worried. She begged me to do whatever I could to make Kelly believe me, to show her what a cheating scumbag her husband is!”

“You used me!” she screams.

“I…know,” I admit with guilt spreading all over my body. “And if I could take it back, I would.”

“All that crap about liking me, feeling bad for me, wanting to see me again, it was all bullshit!”

“No, not now, not after talking with you,” I plead with her to understand, even though I know it’s a fruitless exercise. I wouldn’t trust me, why should she?

“Oh, please,” she scoffs, “you are just as bad as he is!”

“No, I’m not,” I tell her through clenched teeth, though not because I am angry with her, but because I’m angry with myself. She’s right, and deep down, I know that. I’ve become what I swore I never would be – a cheat.

“No, you’re not,” she says with so much rage swimming around her eyes, I almost jump back in anticipation of another slap around my face. “You’re worse!”

“Ellie, please don’t say that,” I whisper but can already see the solid wall of anger that has been put up around her.

“I’m going to call my cousins, so I suggest you fuck off before they get here,” she says, sounding eerily calm. “Thanks for finally getting it through to me; nice men don’t exist.”

“Ellie…” I begin but she cuts me off with a push, so I finally let go of her.

“Go!” she shouts, causing a few by-passers to begin staring at us.

With one last glare, she turns around and begins to walk away. Although I so dearly want to chase after her, I let her go. I really am an asshole, and she doesn’t deserve another one.

Chapter 4

Ellie

Six months later

Step one, find my dominant eye; that’s easy at least. Always been my right eye, always. As a kid, I had a lazy left eye that I had to cover with a patch. Sure, I received the odd pirate joke, but otherwise, I think I was lucky with the kids I went to school with. It helped that my attractive, beefy, older cousins used to pick me up, donning their private school blazers and charming smiles. The girls gushed, even if they were far too young to understand why; they just knew these boys were something special. The boys, on the otherhand, either looked up to them in awe, or they were simply too afraid to try anything. My left eye eventually corrected itself, and my right eye was stronger for having had to work for them both.

Step two, stance. Feet shoulder width apart, pointing toward my target. Said target alternates between Ryan, my first kiss who ended up porking my best friend; Blake, the guy who dumped me last year; Jonathan, the adulterer, and Elijah Woods, who was perhaps the worst one of the bunch.Shake it off, Ellie, shake it off and aim.

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