Fuck, This Girl... Ch. 09

Jason looked at the previous Prep School employee no longer seeing him in an aura of red and anger, but simply as an object keeping him from reaching his goal. He needed to be moved. Marcus pushed Jason again not expecting retaliation quite as quickly as he received it. The young man landed another blow to the jaw, this time knocking Marcus off his feet and onto the grass.

Jason could hear Elisa's cries distantly as he reached into his jacket wrapping his fingers around the cold metal of the pistol he'd taken from his dad's safe at the family house. Without hesitation he pulled the gun from his jacket, aimed at Marcus, and fired. "I suggest you stay down." Elisa screamed like a wild banshee her eyes welling up with tears. Marcus groaned on the ground, trying to push through the pain of a gunshot wound to the hand, but grateful for Jason's lack of aim. He had to get up and get to Jason, because now the lunatic was turning the gun on Ellie.

"Jason, what are you doing?" She whimpered as her ex turned the silver weapon on her.

"What am I doing? What are you doing? Here? With him! How could you do this to me? To us?!"

"There is no us! We broke up—"

"NO!" Just then Marcus pushed himself off the ground and tackled Jason from behind causing the gun to fly from his hand.

"Ellie! Go in the house! Call the police!" He shouted, but he took his eyes off his attacker for too long. Jason elbowed Marcus in the face forcing his release long enough to reach for the gun. "Ellie run!" It all seemed to be happening in slow motion. Marcus watched as Jason fired two shots at his ex-girlfriend, the first missing by a few inches. "Elle!" He screamed as the second shot made contact.

Ellie could hear someone shouting her name. She could hear the sirens and she knew Jason's shot had hit the target. Her head was burning like someone had seared through her flesh and bone with a hot tire iron. But she didn't care about any of it. She could hear Marcus calling her, demanding for her to open her eyes. She wanted to so badly. She wanted nothing more than to see her man gazing down at her with pure love, but she couldn't get her eyes open. She wanted to tell someone to stop the burning in her skull, but when she tried to say his name, to tell him that she could hear him, she couldn't find her voice. She couldn't find herself. Everything was dark, and she felt so cold...

3 weeks later...

"Elisa? Elisa, honey? Hey! She's moving!" Mrs. Winston called out to the nurses in the hall of Grand Mercy Hospital. Elisa's nurse rushed in and began checking vitals as the young girl stirred from her sleep. With a dramatic gasp as if she had been suffocating in her coma, Elisa bolted upright in the hospital bed without realizing the immediate consequences.

"Oh my, sweetheart relax. If the bullet didn't kill you, jumping up like that just might." The nurse gently pushed on Elisa's shoulders causing her to lie back down.

"Where am I? Where's Marcus?" She questioned, her heart beating out of her chest.

"Honey, relax. You were shot in the head not too long ago. Let the nurse look at you and then we'll answer all your questions, alright?" Mrs. Winston told her daughter calmly trying to make the job of explaining all that she'd missed in 3 weeks sound easy. Ellie relaxed just slightly, allowing the nurse to examine her.

"Your vitals look good. It looks like you could use some new bandages on that wound, but I'm going to go get your doctor for that. I'm sure she wants to take a look at it anyway. No major movements until the doctor comes in, alright?"

The nurse took her leave allowing Ellie and her mother a few moments alone. "What happened?" Mrs. Winston didn't say anything, just stared at her daughter in awe. "Mom?"

Imogen shook her head in an effort to regain focus. "I'm sorry honey. It's just been a while since I've seen you up, eyes open, talking." She stood from her chair and crossed the room quickly engulfing her daughter in her embrace. "I thought I'd lost you, Ellie. God I thought I'd lost you. I've never been so petrified."

Elisa returned the hug, almost having forgotten what it felt like. "Where's daddy?"

Her mother pulled back and planted a kiss on her daughter's forehead careful not to touch the bandages. "Your father and I haven't really been seeing eye to eye. We decided it's best we not be here at the same time."

"Oh." There was a light tapping at the door before the doctor poked her head in.

"Knock, knock," she said with a smile. "Well hello, Miss Winston."

"Hi," both Ellie and her mother chimed in at the same time.

"My name is Dr. Ames, good to officially meet you sweetie." The young doctor extended a perfectly manicured hand out to her patient and Ellie took it comparing her own undone nails.

"Nice to meet you too."

"So the nurse checked all your vitals and you're looking very good, all things considering. You woke up a bit sooner than we were expecting, but that just means I've got a fighter on my hands, huh?"

Elisa chuckled lightly realizing how dry her throat was. "Can I have some water?"

"Sure honey," Imogen turned to the small rolling tray on the side of the bed pouring the water from the blue plastic pitcher into a small paper cup. "Here, sweetheart," she handed her the cup while the doctor took a moment to scan her chart.

"Okay, so everything seems to be healing up well, but with a head injury we'll definitely need to hold you here for at least another few weeks. You were lucky that the bullet fragmented upon contact with your skull. The shot was fired far enough to avoid being a fatal wound, but it could still cause some other problems, so we'll be checking on you frequently."

"Okay," she nodded taking a sip from her cup.

"We'll also need to take a little blood to run some tests to check the welfare of the baby."

Elisa's eyes grew wide as the water sprayed from her mouth. "WHAT?" Dr. Ames and Imogen managed to step back quick enough to avoid most the mist . "What baby?!"

The doctor looked at Imogen, then back at her daughter that was the spitting image of her. "I'm sorry, I thought..."

"Could you give us a few minutes?" Mrs. Winston asked looking toward the door. Dr. Ames nodded and took her leave allowing the two ladies time to talk.

Elisa let her head fall into her hands. "What the hell is happening to my life?"

"You didn't know you were pregnant?"

Ellie lifted her head to give her a look that spoke volumes of how doltish she found her question. "Did you know I was pregnant? That something you and dad saw coming out of my unsuitable choice in men?"

Imogen tipped her head giving her daughter that look that all mothers develop in their children's toddlerhood and master during adolescence. "Regardless of the ordeal you've just experienced, let me remind you that I am your mother and you will watch where you throw that sarcasm, young lady."

Ellie sighed, "I'm sorry. I just... did she say, did she say how far along?"

"Well you've been out for about 3 weeks so, 8 weeks now..."

"I'm two months pregnant? Holy shit."

"Language." Mrs. Winston smiled at her daughter acknowledging the characteristically improperly timed joke.

"Ugh, mom what am I gonna do? What are we gonna do? Oh God, does Marcus even know? Where is he?"

"Honey maybe you should just focus on getting better first. We'll cross that bridge when we get there, okay?"

"'Cross that bridge when we get there?' I think we're there right now mom. I'm having his baby for goodness sake!"

"I just think that you have more immediate things to focus on than—"

"What is more immediate than my relationship? Why are you avoiding my question?" Just then the door creaked open halting the argument.

"I'm sorry, am I interrupting?" The gorgeous brunette from the magazines poked her head into the tiny hospital room.

"Melanie, I was wondering if we'd see you again. Please come in," Imogen spoke as if she and the Hollywood starlet were old friends. Elisa found herself becoming increasingly uncomfortable— something was truly wrong.

"Melanie?"

"Hey sweetie, how are you feeling?" She stepped all the way into the room now looking flawless as ever. Her stone gray washed jeans were ripped expertly at the knees and hugged her butt tight enough to draw attention without making her look slutty. She wore a tight white baby tee with a black cardigan hanging open over it falling down to her knees with a light flight jacket over that. To top off her ensemble her dark brown hair was crowned with a black beanie with the word "Dope" written in large gold letters across the front. Ellie couldn't help but admire her sense of style for a second before her sense kicked back in.

"Not that I'm not happy to see you, Melanie, but why are you here? Where is my boyfriend?"

Melanie tried to speak but found herself at a loss for words, a rarity with her charismatic personality. "I guess now's as good a time as any, huh?" She looked at Imogen who nodded sadly as if they were about to announce her grandmother's death.

"What does that mean? Can somebody tell me something?"

"Ellie, Marcus is... well he," Melanie shook her head realizing this was even harder than she'd thought it would be. No matter how many times she had run this scenario in her head in the past two weeks, it hadn't made breaking this news any easier.

"Is he, is he dead?"

"Oh no, nothing like that. He just..." Melanie reached inside her jacket to the hidden pocket pulling out a white envelope. "Maybe I should just let you read it." Ellie reached her hand out for the envelope wondering what exactly she would find written there for her that her boyfriend's best friend and even her own mother were afraid to tell her. She opened the envelope and unfolded the piece of paper that would rip her heart out.

"Elle,

By the time you read this, I'll be gone. I can't even begin to explain everything you've meant to me over the past year. I don't care what people think they know about us. When I'm with you, I'm a better man and I will always love you for that. You showed me what it felt like to love someone so much, that nothing else matters more than their happiness. Than their safety. That's why I can't stay here with you anymore. My decisions in the past year have done nothing but ruin your life or put your future in jeopardy, and I hate that for all the good you've brought me, I've brought negativity back on you tenfold.

This is why I have to leave. I know it hurts finding this out from a piece of paper, but I knew that if I stayed, if I waited to tell you face to face, I wouldn't go. I wouldn't have been able to do what's right, to do what's best for you. Don't ever think I'm doing this out of regret, because I could never regret all that we shared. Ellie I love you more than anything, but I can barely live with myself knowing that my decisions this year almost cost you your life. I won't put your life in danger again. I can't. I really hope that you know how much I care about you, and that you were and will always be my first love.

I love you so much Elle,

Marcus

Elisa looked up from the letter, eyes filled with tears. "He left? How could he, why would he just? This can't be happening!"

"I know this is a lot to take in, honey—"

"A lot to take in?!" Elisa interrupted her mother, the tears rolling from her eyes like water over a broken dam. "I'm pregnant with his baby! How can he just leave?!"

"I think he really believed he was protecting you," Melanie interjected trying to make a case for her friend in his absence, but she knew she didn't have a leg to stand on. She had made it perfectly clear to Marcus how idiotic she believed his plan to be.

"You know where he is! He wouldn't just disappear! He wouldn't do this! Tell me where he is! Call him and tell him to get his ass back here right now!" Elisa screamed her vision completely blurred by the salty water droplets that coated her long eyelashes.

"I wish I did, but he wouldn't tell me either. I tried to talk him into staying and when I thought I had, we went to sleep and when I woke up in the morning he was gone and I had a letter pretty similar to the one you just read." Melanie felt so horrible having to be the bearer of bad news like this. She felt her temper flaring toward her supposed best friend that had left her all alone to do his dirty work. She made a mental note to kill him when she finally tracked him down.

Ellie threw the paper and the envelope on the ground furious with the man that just continued to play with her heart. "Elisa, please—" Imogen tried to calm her daughter foreseeing a huge fit about to take place.

"I'm so sick of these fucking games! I'm so sick of him! I hate him! I hate him! FUCK HIM!" She screamed letting the tears flow.

Melanie wasn't sure what to do. She couldn't imagine how alone and abandoned the poor girl must have been feeling. It may have been a simple matter for Marcus to walk away from his responsibilities, but Melanie wasn't able to turn her back on people as easily. Marcus had been like her brother for almost her entire life and now that she was carrying his baby, Ellie was family too. "Hey," Melanie stood and walked over to the side of the hospital bed taking the soon-to-be-mother's hand. "Marcus would be here if he knew what was going on. But just because he's not, it doesn't mean you're alone. Marcus has been like my brother, and that makes that little baby you're carrying in there family. And that makes you family." Melanie put a finger under Ellie's chin lifting those exotic hazel-green eyes to meet her own chocolate brown ones. "And family takes care of family. Marcus is a grown man and he made the decision to leave, but you can either look at that as a tribulation, or an opportunity. Just know, you aren't alone."