Chapter 7

She escaped to her room, and spent the whole afternoon curled up on her bed, worrying to death. Worrying about what if Becky found out about her and Steve? What would Becky do? It’d be the end of their friendship. And should she really be risking that? She loved Becky so much!! Becky was probably her only true friend, and if she lost her, she would have lost everybody. Even though she’d loved what she’d done with Steve- no, no- it was wrong. Very wrong. And that’s why she had to force it to the back of her mind, and try to pretend it had never happened.

A silly one-off that could never happen again.

Ever.

Whenever she heard Becky come upstairs to check on her, she pretended to be asleep. She couldn’t deal with being around Becky just now- couldn’t really afford being around anybody. She’d just hid herself away to her room, trying to come to terms with what she’d done.

God, she’d never felt this scared, this all-over-the-place since… well, since she’d seen Paul, really.

She’d kind of forgotten about him with everything that had been going on. How he’d freaked her out last night with those eyes. She let herself think about him for a minute now, and she realised that as weird as he had been, and as overwhelming… this thing with Steve was much worse.

So in a bizarre way, Paul was a nice comforting distraction.

At around 7pm, she eventually ventured downstairs. She was getting hungry, and she couldn’t avoid Becky forever.

She found Becky in the hallway, doing her make-up in the mirror. She had her ‘expensive’ black hipsters on, with a pretty low-cut pink top, and her hair all done up. She definitely looked like she was going out somewhere.

Becky caught sight of her coming down the stairs and looked up at her.

“Liz!! You’re awake! How you feelin’, darlin’?” She asked eagerly.

“Erm… I’m alright,” Elisabeth said, and truthfully, she did feel better.

“Awww, glad hun. You had me worried, then! Dinner’s still in the oven if you want some.”

Elisabeth nodded. “You going out?” She asked.

Becky grinned. “Yeah- it’s Saturday night!! Steve’s coming to pick me up in 2 minutes.”

Elisabeth’s heart almost stopped when Becky said his name. He was coming here again tonight? So soon?!!

God- she never wanted to see him again!

“Dunno if Paul’s coming again tonight,” Becky said, going back to her lipstick. “Kinda hope he isn’t. No offence to Paul, but I kinda want to be alone with my stud muffin!” She laughed to herself.

But Elisabeth felt torn. She couldn’t stay here and chance seeing Steve- she should go. Go where? Upstairs again? Arraghhhh…

“Where you going?” She choked out instead.

“Cinema,” Becky replied, licking her lips, pouting and putting the lipstick away. “Which should be nice.”

Before Elisabeth could reply, there was a knock at the door.

“Ooooh!” Becky cried girlishly, and almost skipped over to the front door and opened it to reveal Steve standing there alone.

Elisabeth froze, and clutched the banister hard.

“Steve- heyyy!” Becky cried.

“Hi gorgeous,” he grinned and leaned over to give her a peck on the cheek. “Missed you this morning.”

“Awww… missed you too, baby!” She laughed back.

Oh my God, he is being so smooth, Elisabeth thought astonished. Like nothing happened!

He glanced up then and saw her standing on the stairs. “Hey Liz,” he grinned at her, and his grin held more for her than just a simple hello.

Whimpering a little, she managed a ‘hello’ back. She couldn’t stop staring at him, at how gorgeous he was, but yet so calm and collected around Becky.

“We best be going. See you later sweetie!” Becky called to her. “You be alright!”

It was more of a request than a question.

Becky grabbed her bag, and went to the door. Steve looked back up at Elisabeth, and then grinned at her all the way until he closed the door behind them.

Elisabeth was left standing there, mortified.

What does he want from me??? She cried in her head.

Appetite lost, she turned, and escaped to the safety of her room again.

She spent the rest of the night reading from her books again, trying to keep her mind busy, keeping it from thinking about Steve. But her books seemed so meaningless and superficial now. Now that she’d actually kissed a guy- she didn’t need those books anymore.

They were worthless.

It was her life that mattered now, not her imaginary life.

As weird as it seemed.

Books weren’t working. And she wasn’t hungry. Maybe she should just go to bed. Get through tomorrow somehow. Monday was work, and she’d be ok again. She’d survive this.

She got ready for bed, and then was just about to get into bed, when she heard a door slam from downstairs.

She froze in her room a minute. Becky was back!

Becky was back… alone…?

She stood still and listened as she heard a lot of shuffling up the stairs, and as it got nearer, some muffled giggling.

Uhoh, she definitely wasn’t alone. And after last night, what did Elisabeth expect?

She heard voices on the landing, Becky giggling away about something and the “shhhh, we’ll wake Liz up!”

The sound of her name seemed to wake her up, and without knowing it, she suddenly found herself tip-toeing to the door, and herself peeping out into the hallway.

Yup- Steve and Becky.

Looking as though they had to hold onto each other to keep themselves up straight.

Becky was giggling away like anything to Steve, who kept grinning at her and eventually leaned down and started kissing her, making Elisabeth feel really strange.

“Mmmm- not here,” Becky mumbled at him, and pushed him off, and giggling, led him over to her door and they nearly fell through it, trying to keep their excited voices down.

Elisabeth guessed they’d had a bit to drink whilst they were out. Becky’s bedroom door closed, and Elisabeth stood there looking at it and sighed. Didn’t even wanna think about what they were gonna get up to.

She came away from the doorway and dejectedly walked over to her bed and crawled inside it, pulling the covers up around her.

She felt really alone. Really, really alone. No-one knew what she was going through, not even Steve. And he didn’t care, ‘cos he was having a good enough time in Becky’s room with Becky.

All the nice things he’d said to her this morning obviously meant nothing if he was still with Becky.

God, he used me, she thought ashamed of herself. For a bit of fun.

At least we didn’t go too far, she thought helpfully to herself.

It’s not totally regrettable.

She cuddled up in her bed and tried to get to sleep. But she found it really hard, because she knew what Becky and Steve were doing across the way.

Just him being in the same house made her feel really uncomfortable. Uncomfortably hot.

She needed to cool down, and also realising she hadn’t washed or anything, she decided on a quick trip to the bathroom.

She got out of bed, tip-toed across her room, out the door, and then over to the bathroom, which was annoyingly next-door to Becky’s room.

She let herself in carefully, and closed the door softly behind her. Then she went over to the sink, and as quietly as she could, proceeded to brush her teeth. She tried to be as quiet as possible, because she didn’t want them knowing she was awake- they thought she was asleep. She finished with her toothbrush, and then ran the taps a bit, so she could sprinkle some nice, cold refreshing water over her face. It felt so nice and cooling. She washed her face thoroughly, and then turned the taps off, and buried herself in a towel, drying it.

It was then she heard the bathroom door click open behind her, and fear shot into her. Instinctively thinking it had to be Becky, she said quickly, “I’ll be done in a minute, hun.”

She felt soooo annoyed with herself that they’d heard her, so she quickly finished off drying her face with her towel, and turned around to go, but was immediately pushed back  against the wall, as she felt arms wrap around her and lips really, really passionately kissing her.

She abruptly screamed in shock in her head, totally taken by surprise. He was here, and he was kissing her again.

And God he was kissing her really strongly- like he was desperate for her or something. And in his taste, a faint scent of alcohol, Elisabeth could sense.

But the danger of it all seemed to grip her heart then, and it began to beat really fast in panic.

She pushed Steve away and looked up at him with big, worried eyes.

“Becky’s in the next room!”

“God- who cares!” he almost snapped at her and pushed his lips back onto her so strongly that her head hit the back of the wall.

Oh- this was too risky! Becky could walk in at any minute. And what was he doing kissing her anyway? Why is this happening?

She promised herself she wouldn’t let it happen again, and now…

“Mmm… Liz… Liz… I missed you,” he mumbled, in between lots of long, deep kisses.

Her whole body felt really really stiff through fear and shock, but she couldn’t stop herself kissing him back. He was too addictive. Plus, when he kissed her like that, and all around her mouth and neck, she didn’t want to let go.

“Ohhh Liz… I really, really need to shag you,” Steve suddenly blurted out, with hands wandering all over her little clothing.

“Nooooo Steve,” she pleaded, panicking. Why did he always want to go further?!!

“Steve- want do you want from me?!” She demanded, pushing him away.

They looked at each other for a minute, Steve looking surprised Elisabeth has asked him a question like that.

“I- I mean, what is all this? Kissing me… and then going off and being with Becky…” Elisabeth looked down.

“Can’t stop thinking about you, Liz. Really can’t,” Steve said to her. “Have to be with you. Wanna shag you here, right now,” he said, and he started kissing her again. Then he began to slide the straps of her vest top down.

Suspended in a kind of ecstacy for a moment, Elisabeth didn’t respond to it and just stood there, letting him do what he wished. Part of her was curious to know what it was like, but most of her was scared and not ready for this kind of advance in their ‘relationship’ yet.

“Steve… no- not now,” she said pushing him away, and she re-adjusted her top.

Steve looked at her really crushed. “Liz- please. Let’s go to your room, then. I really need to-“

“Steve, if you ‘need’ me so much, then… then…”

She thought suddenly. Whatever she said now was going to determine the rest of their relationship.

She could finish it now- forever- tell him she couldn’t be messed around like this, couldn’t do this behind Becky’s back.

Or she could carry on, being with Steve, enjoying what she felt with him, the feeling of being wanted, fancied, needed, as Steve even put it, by a guy. Something she had wanted for so long, and now she had it!

Could she really give it up?!!

“Then what?” Steve asked her.

Elisabeth looked up at him, at how gorgeous he was. T-shirt and boxers was all he had on, Elisabeth saw then, and she felt such a sudden urge for him inside of her.

Countless that he was Becky’s boyfriend, and countless that Becky was sleeping with him.

“Then… you’ll wait until I’m ready to sleep with you,” she uttered.

“Can I keep on seeing you?”

She swallowed hard and shook inside as she said, “yes- don’t stop wanting me.”