e l e v e n || Sharp Punches and Curious Sisters

|1st February 2019|

She's my girl too.

How easy must it have been for Elliot to claim Zephrine his daughter despite not having done anything worth being called father for. Perhaps just as easy as it must have been for him to return into my life after so long and pretend as if nothing has changed in the years he was away.

Calm down Celeste, this is not the time and definitely not the place, said my subconscious to me, but oh boy, there is no way in hell I am listening to it.

Elliot peered at me from under his lashes, seemingly unapologetic of what he just said, and that further boiled my blood. Does he not know how heavy words like those aren't supposed to be used lightly?

It took me less than a millisecond to decide my way of responding to Elliot's statement. And once that millisecond had passed, there was absolutely no space left for argument.

My knuckles met Elliot's perfectly carved cheekbone, which I had a feeling wouldn't be so perfect after a minute or two. "This is for calling her your daughter," my voice came out, seething. His face went flying from being center-positioned to almost falling off the right side of his pivotal bone and onto his shoulder.

Now that's what you call skill, baby.

A sudden hush followed the strike. It seemed as if time had brought everyone around us to a standstill. And Elliot? Well, he was shocked. Okay, talking about understatements, are we? Because I'm pretty sure the blood through his veins has run completely cold. And it has all rights to.

You see, if there were an Olympics for misleading, mismanaging, and misappropriating someone else's property i.e., my heart, then this boy would've already bagged home a dozen gold, silver, and bronze− all three medals.

I lowered my left wrist, the impact of punching his hardly set face only now showing itself. It's okay though, I've got two hands; if the first one's out, the second one comes in.

I raised my right hand now, trying to cause more destruction to his face than my own knuckles, unlike the previous strike. I am in for a roll tonight, dammit, and all credits for that go to the exceptionally stupid Elliot Bryson. "This one's for leaving us when we needed you the most," I spoke, finding it oddly satisfying to watch him cradle his newly punched side of the face between the palm and fingers of his left hand.

RIP to my self-control and it's low-lying nature. It's wartime now (please picture me howling wildly at this point).

My left fist, despite being hurt already, on the front and back, maneuvered its way through the air and towards his jaw for the second time before I could ask it to do otherwise. And well, unlike the previous two strikes which had been done with a comparatively lighter hand, this one wasn't a neat shock for our mister. "Wondering what this one was for?" I breathed out.

Of course, he didn't answer. He was too busy trying to get over the shock of me punching him so hard to do so.

"Well, t'was for mistaking this," I informed him anyway, pointing at my chest where my heart was placed, "to be a rock." I seethed. Then, as an afterthought, I added, "For making me plan your marriage with someone else so you could ask me to teach you how to propose to that someone, whom you fucking don't even know properly. For making me plan your engagement party so you could kiss me later that night. For getting engaged to her but calling my daughter your girl."

I knew I still loved Elliot the same, but I also knew that there was no point in expressing it. Nothing would change. To add on, I had had enough of him and his dumbass doings. About time someone shows him just how sickening this whole ordeal is becoming with every passing day.

I paused to take in a breath.

"Wow, Bryson," I said, raising my hands in the air. "You never fail to make me feel like an utter fool for falling in love with you."

And then, just as soon as I saw the guilt in his eyes, transparent as the air, my shoulders felt light, just like that. It felt nice to have said it out, right in his face, than to store it all inside my system.

I pulled in another breath, the air filling my lungs in ways it hadn't in the past two hours and looked him dead in the eye. "I'm going home to get the money. I won't take long but call me if Zephrine regains her consciousness."

I pushed my way past Elliot to leave when I felt the need to do something rather important. An after-math duty, you may call it.

I waved at the surprised nurse standing close by and said, "His face needs tending to. Please help him."

I walked back to Elliot and lightly tapped his shoulder. He turned around, still not out of the daze of being punched by his ex. "She'll help you with the bruises," I informed him, nodding at the nurse. "Oh, and don't worry, I'll pay for your aid too," I said coolly. Then, with a nonchalant shrug, added, "Although it was you who asked for it all."

~~~

Almost forty minutes later, I returned along with Jael on her electric scooter.

Quickly navigating my way through the hospital after making the necessary payments, I made my way towards Zephrine's room. I peeped through the window to find her still asleep.

Is she fine now?

I turned to look for Elliot, the only person around at the moment who could tell me what had happened while I was away. I hadn't received any calls from him, not that I expected him to call me after being punched publicly, but okay. I found him sitting on the metal benches, his head resting against the wall, eyes closed.

I looked at him, as in really stared at him, the serene look over his band-aided features bringing more peace to my mind than it should have. Yes, I am well aware of the damage I caused to his face just a few minutes ago, but that was only because I wasn't prepared for the not-so-grand confession. And also because I've been wanting to do it for a long time now.

Won't lie, it was the fact that he had called my daughter his daughter that had played a key role in me losing my temperament.

You see, Zephrine isn't actually Elliot's daughter. She's more of the... well, more of the only possible good thing that came from being assaulted at the tender age of eighteen. And at that time, considering my financial crisis, and my mom's deteriorating health, abortion was an option I had just begun giving a thought to.

It was− courtesy of Elliot, his strong belief that I shouldn't ever allow myself to think of Zephrine as something even close to an unfortunate occurrence. Not that I thought of her as anything less than a blessing though, but that was after Elliot had explained to me how she was just about as innocent as I had been that night. He also made me realize how a child could change my life for the better.

So, to stop me from doing anything unfair and unethical, he self-proclaimed himself the father.

Just another one of the many compromises he'd made on his part, in our relationship.

Perhaps, it was the reminder of that broken promise that had irked my conscience too, triggering me enough not to care about the consequences and just keep throwing punch after punch.

"Oh my baby, poor baby..." murmured a worried voice behind me.

I turned around to find Jael staring at the sleeping figure of Zephrine from the viewing glass, uncertainty painting her features pale. Back at home, I didn't even have to tell her twice about the little one's condition for her to quickly pack up a pair of clothes for Zeph, her favorites movies' CDs, a few licorice candies and jelly beans. She even brought her guitar along so she could play for her injured niece.

I walked up to her and placed my hand on her shoulder in order to comfort her. "She's gonna be fine soon, hon."

Jael hmm-ed in response. "Where's this guy who saved you both, anyway? Gotta thank him a bunch, bro," she said, wiping the moisture from her eyes.

I discreetly gulped. I don't think you'll be so thankful to him, Jael, when you find out that he's the same guy who left your sister stranded long ago.

You see, if I am one to punch when reasonably furious, then Jael is on the whole emasculation level. I say this because she never seemed to extend a sympathetic perception towards any man (the only exception being her boyfriend), especially not Elliot. Not that she should even now, but the thing is... the whole Elliot-the ex-meets-Jael-the-t-rex would've been a lot easier and simpler had Jael not been wanting to kill Elliot the day she'd see him, had he not already killed by the million death hexes that she'd sent out as orders to the universe to kill him.

"You're back," announced Elliot from behind me.

Okay, so he's awake already. What a timing, Elliot.

I winced, trying to eradicate the images of how bad this could turn out to be from my brain. Couldn't you wait until I'd try and find a way to introduce you to my sister, Elliot? Now endure everything she does to you.

Unfortunately for me, Jael turned before I was willing to. She looked at him once, and then all over once again. Then she turned to me, and said what I had hoped she wouldn't: "Do I know him...?"

The reason I feared the outbreak of a catastrophe at the hospital is because Jael's memory hasn't ever been an average one. She's always had a peculiar habit of connecting multiple events to a face so it wouldn't be hard for her to recall it all later on. And Elliot's name was sure to bounce off her lips in the most unforgiving manner anytime soon, provided I'd leave them both together for a while, or if Elliot was to tell something like what he had told almost an hour ago.

That boy and just about everything he does and says, will surely be the death of me.

Hence, quickly making up my mind to keep their interactions minimalized, I turned to face Elliot. "El...um, Aric," I breathed out hastily, "This is Jael, my sister. And Jael, this is Aric, the guy who brought us here."

Elliot passed me a cynical look, unable to understand the sudden shift in my choice of addressing him, and also my behavior, seeing as I was supposed to still be angry at him, but I pretended to remain oblivious of it. Jael, on the other hand, was already extending her hand towards him as a token of appreciation for saving her sister and niece, her skepticism washed away clean.

"Oh, Aric," she squeaked, recognizing the true worth of his actions by flashing him a polite smile. "Thank you so much, bro. You don't even know them yet you helped them; it's really nice of you."

I almost scoffed out loud at Jael's statement. You don't even know them, lol. You've been pushed under such a huge rock of incognizance by your very own sister, darling.

Perhaps I had celebrated too early because even before I could stop him, "Well, actually, I know them," said Elliot− rather bravely, might I add.

My eyes quickly moved to look into his, and there was no way I'd mistaken the solemnity in them. The heck did he think of this− a funny business?

Jael, though, always hell-bent over trying to beat me in everything we did together, beat me now too by squinting her eyes in question, while all I had managed to do until the very moment was control the urge to give myself a rather violent facepalm. "How so?"

Give your sister a break, you fool, I snapped mentally.

Elliot wasted no time in replying to her. "Well, she's-"

Oh, shit! Celeste, reply now or watch your sister lose her shit right in front of you, in the middle of a hospital at four in the morning.

So, in order to keep a tragedy from happening, at the end of which only one of the two people before me would be alive, I intervened. "M-marriage planner. He means to say that I'm his marriage planner... and that's how he knows me. He's the client I told you about the other day− Aric Nithercott, the self-absorbed rich guy, remember?" I said urgently, trying my best to sound casual.

Not that you can do anything about it now, but maybe you should've kept the adjective 'self-absorbed' to yourself, spoke up my conscience.

Jael, somehow seemed convinced enough to nod her head in understanding. It surprised me since she had an inbuilt detective and always found out what the matter was with me with just a change in my tone.

"Marriage planner," repeated Elliot in a macho tone. "Ah, yes, yes. I always forget that that's also how I know her," he muttered softly, but I heard it anyway.

I knew instantly that he was mocking me and the way I was trying to balance myself between two wrecked boats. Seeing as he's too eager to be beaten up by a woman for the second time in just one night, perhaps I should've done him a favor and let his true identity out to Jael.

Jael, at this point, however, seemed to have let Elliot's last statement pass unheard. "So how'd you get to know about them?" she questioned him.

Like it has been happening since the beginning of my encounter with Elliot this night, Elliot somehow beat me to this reply too. "She called m−"

I grit my teeth in frustration. "He means to say that he was passing by after visiting his fiancee," I glared at Elliot as I told this. He really should learn to keep his mouth-filter on all the time. "And then he saw us, and helped."

"You were attacked on the main road, then?" queried Jael, evidently taken aback.

I could only grit my teeth harder at this. All because of Elliot Bryson. "No," I started, "No, of course not. I was just carrying Zeph to the main road when I saw him and called out to him."

Jael, finally having something to keep her curiosity at bay for a while, nodded in understanding. "Oh,"

"Yeah," I replied to her. Then I turned to Elliot, and with my gaze steely and voice stiff, I raised a question, "Did the doctor say anything, anyway?"

He nodded. "He said she's fine now, but needs rest. Apparently, she's been hurt pretty badly," replied Elliot. I saw the distress in his eyes as he spoke; I would have to be blind to not see it, but I didn't do anything to erase it.

About time he experiences life as a parent. Maybe then he'd know how difficult it has been for me to take care of everything at home, work, Zeph's school, inside myself− all alone.

"Pretty badly? How bad is it?" asked Jael.

Elliot gulped, and I felt it was an act of nervousness. "I don't think am the right person to tell you that," he replied instead, his eyes now locking with mine.

Ha, finally someone's realized that they shouldn't cross someone else's boundaries against their wish and will.

"Yeah, whatever," I replied coldly. "Sit down, Jael, let's wait for the doc."

Jael complied, and so did Elliot. I was the last one to sit down after sparing Zephrine another glance, really hoping she'd get well soon.

"Hey, you never told me you got to work for such attractive clients," observed Jael, her teasing words somehow lifting my damp mood ever-so-slightly.

I turned to look at her, my eyes narrowed. "Excuse me? I've seen better, to be honest," I lied. I might've gotten clients more attractive than Elliot himself, but I never got attracted to any of them even by any chance.

"Pfft, whatever," she said, lifting her legs and folding them on the metal bench to sit cross-legged. "I think he's attractive enough. How many more days are you gonna work with him anyway? I'll come with you to work." she added, peeping from the corner of her eye at Elliot who sat some twelve-feet across from us, his head resting against the wall and his eyes already closed.

I gulped. I know he's attractive enough.

"He's getting married in two weeks' time, for heaven's sake, Jael," I whispered with a light chuckle, somehow managing to keep the feeling of being bothered away as I said this. How she'd managed to get attracted to someone absolutely not her type is beyond my level of comprehension. "Besides, what about Daniel? Planning to ditch him for someone already engaged?"

My sister gave me a blank look. I've always told her how she looks like a ditto copy of Billie Eilish when she does this, but she's never believed me. "No way, duh. I was checking him out for you, to be honest,"

My heart skipped two whole beats at this. He had been mine. Once. And that was a very long time ago. And I don't think it'll happen again.

I didn't reply to her at this. What would I tell her, anyway? Oh, that's nice but no thanks. I'd like to save myself another heartbreak from the same guy?

No. So I believe it was a wise decision on my part to stay silent.

But as much as I had hoped for Jael to take my silence as a cue for herself to follow, she didn't. Her curiosity only seemed to have intensified about Elliot. "Hey, he got run over by a car or something today? His face looks badly hurt."

I looked at her to find her back to looking at Elliot like there was possibly no tomorrow and that she had to look at him until her subscription to his face would run out.

Go on, explain to your sister just how violent you can get with those fists of yours. Tell her how you should be placed inside a WWE ring and not behind a table at an event-planning firm, that sneaky little voice inside my head told me.

Still, I didn't say anything apart from what she'd enquired. "Nope. I think his fiance did that to him. He had the bruises when I saw him."

In all honestly, I hadn't lied to Jael. I was still his fiancee, because if I am not wrong, he never broke up with me officially (please note that I do not take into consideration the marriage proposals made to other women under this context), nor did he ever tell me to take the initiative and do the same. To add to my 'moment of please-find-the-hidden-truth', he did have the bruises when I had returned from my trip to my apartment.

Jael looked appalled as she, may God bless her vision, somehow shifted her gaze to meet mine, the same one that seemed to have super-glued itself to Elliot's peaceful face. "His fiance hits him, and he's still on for the marriage?"

I shrugged nonchalantly. What a concoction of lies upon lies I have been brewing. I feel like a witch with all my experience already, dammit.

"Isn't his fiance supposed to be the weaker sex and not hit her to-be-husband at, like any cost?" Jael asked me.

"Well, he's gotta be the protector first, if that's the case. Anyway, don't you worry about him-" I rubbed my palm over her thigh at this, trying to sound comforting although all I really wanted was for her to stop making me lie more. "-he does make rather stupid slip-ups at times. In fact, I think he deserves it."

Jael pushed her pouty lips to one side of her mouth, still not convinced. "I think he deserves someone better. Someone who won't mistake him for a punchbag."

I rolled my eyes. Jael seemed to be hell-bent over guilt-tripping me about the beautiful marks that I'd manage to land on Elliot's face tonight. Perhaps the only thing she would never do to dear Daniel (her boyfriend). "I think we should stop talking about him."

Jael nudged me in the ribs, raising her eyebrows suggestively. "Why why?"

I allowed my eyes to get narrowed to slits. "Cause I wanna rest until my daughter wakes up," I said, flicking her on the arm.

"Alright, sleep away, you bag of potato."

A while of silence passed, and my eyes starting shutting on their accord. Elliot had already fallen asleep, and turning to Jael, it seemed she would too, soon. But when our eyes met, stifling a yawn, she held her hand out to me, asking, "Can I borrow your phone? I'll tell Danny I won't be able to make it to school tomorrow."

I pulled the device from my cardigan and handed it over. She unlocked it and quickly opened my call log. She would've called Daniel without further ado had her eyes not spotted something out of the blue. Something she most definitely should've been kept from knowing.

I peeked into the phone to see what had caused her actions to catch a sudden break and when I saw her finger hovering above the name of the person I'd last called, and her gaze puncturing my cranium in a very disturbing manner, I knew I'd made a grave mistake.

Or, as Jael would've liked to put it in her words, an act of debauchery.

"A call to Elliot who at two fifty-seven at midnight?" she cornered me in one-go.

I pushed my lips to one side of my face to drape my apprehension. "Oh, right. Uh, that's to the one sitting right across from us." I informed her, hoping she wouldn't remember his name to be Aric. "The one you were ogling not a while ago," I added, trying to erase the suddenly tense atmosphere around us with some light-hearted teasing.

I knew I shouldn't have spoken up so quickly. Perhaps, taken my own time to try and think of a seemingly genuine reply, but I'd already done the act incorrectly.

And now, no thanks to my impatient nature, all I have is the chance to try and cover myself with heavier duvets of lies.

"I thought you told me his name's Aric and not Elliot...?" she started, her eyebrows quirked. Although her statement would sound like a query to any passerby, I knew better than to consider it one. That look of fury in her eyes would've told me otherwise in case I did mistake myself, anyway.

I swallowed the blob of nervousness that unexpectedly formed in my alimentary canal. Being cornered by someone younger leaves one more speechless than what he/she would've felt if they had been caught by someone older than them.

Why didn't I delete that call log before itself? I asked myself. It was now that I regretted even saving his contact as Elliot in big bold letters on my phone.

"Hmm?" she voiced again, poking her index finger into my knees to keep my attention from flitting between her and my own thoughts again.

I opened my mouth to say something, although I had no clue what I would tell her. No choice but to lie again, no? So, I sighed; rather dramatically, I must say. "Fine, listen up. He looks so much like Elliot to me, so that's why I saved his number as Elliot and not Aric. He reminds me of him."

I had hoped that this much information, bonused with my sensational gestures, would be enough to quieten Jael, but uh-oh, I was so wrong. Her eyes gave away the fact that she hadn't brought even a bit of my tale as she narrowed them to slits. "Wasn't he passing by and you supposedly called out to him?"

I bit my lower lip as I heard her talk. Now, being cornered by Jael was turning me irritated. She didn't have to be so interrogative, for goodness' sake.

"He had gone ahead by the time I realized it was him in the car. So, I called to ask him to come back. Done with your police investigation? Or do you have any more queries?" I whisper-snapped at her, careful not to raise my voice to a frequency that would awaken Elliot.

The last thing I want at the moment is for him to wake up and disagree with me. Jael stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest, looking away from me. "Fine, chill out."

Although the silence indicated that the talk was over, I knew it wasn't. Some other time, Jael was sure to bring it up. But for now, and for the first time in years, God had decided to help me out of this situation.

The doctor stepped out of Zeph's room, a notepad in his hand, efficiently delaying any further arguments between my sister and me. I found it a little unrealistic to see a doctor come out of an ER with a notepad. But it had been almost ten years since I had come to the hospital with any injuries to still remember the mannerisms.

"Zephrine Wilson's family, is it?" he asked us.

Elliot awoke at this with a slight jerk. He and I quickly glanced at each other.

"Yes, it's us," I replied. Honestly, I wasn't just referring to Jael and myself when I replied. I had, for a very curious reason, added Elliot to my list of family. I'm very weird. Yeah, I know.

The doctor, named Harris Sheriff, nodded at me. "Zephrine's fine now, you can go see her," he said, passing me a small smile.

My face molded in a look of gratitude. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"It's my pleasure to be of help," he replied, his smile widening to reveal a set of straight teeth. "Um, by the way, you gotta be careful with her right arm. It's been fractured. It's not something very serious, but care must be taken."

My heart dropped right into my stomach at that. Zeph is right-handed, so life is bound to get hard for her in the coming days.

Be grateful it's just a fracture and not a broken bone, Celeste, my subconscious quietly reprimanded me.

"Thanks for letting us know. Can we see her now?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure," he said, moving aside to let me pass.

But before I could go and see the apple of my eye, I looked at Elliot, subtly sending him a silent signal to remain here itself and not come in at any cost. He seemed to understand my warning, and averted his gaze from me, lowering it to the bleached floors instead.

I ate away my guilt. I knew this was bound to hurt him, but I couldn't help it. He still isn't worthy of meeting the girl whom he proudly proclaimed his so-called daughter.

Jael, on the other hand, appeared to have forgotten what she and I had been talking about not a minute ago. I sighed. For now, I was safe.

I felt a frisson as I opened the wooden door to her room. Perhaps this was God's way of reminding me how important creations like my daughter were not to be taken lightly; not that I ever underestimated her importance in my lifeless life, but still. I peeked inside, and a smile flooded the pinks of my lips as Zephrine weakly waved me a hi. There was nothing I was more grateful for to the Almighty than my girl's well-being.

"Zeph..." I said, quickly covering the distance to her bed. I leaned down to place a peck on her bandaged cheek and looked at her. Jesus Christ, she's fine. "Baby, you're alright."

She smiled. Such a strong young girl. "Mommy, I'm fine... how're you?"

"Just as good as you, my girl," I said, placing another peck over her forehead.

With bandage all around her forehead and cheekbone, her right arm bound by a plaster cast, she looked like a badly injured little girl. However, what surprised me was the aura that she let out, that made her seem least bothered; like she couldn't care about herself being hurt. It seemed as if there lay something beyond her bruises that she saw and wanted.

My keen observations ran astray inside the dimensions of my mind as, just then, Jael stepped in. Well, she didn't just step in, alright, she literally barged in and rushed towards her niece, mushing her frail body under a big bear hug, keeping in mind not to touch her fractured arm.

I watched Zephrine giggle in delight as Jael mumbled "My baby!" into her shoulder and gave her a tickle.

The things we sisters do in hospitals...

Suddenly, Zeph's eyes moved to something behind me, and I could swear that the smile she had given Jael, or even me for that matter, was nothing in comparison to the one that immediately lit her face. It was one of those pleasantly surprised smiles, ones that surely left jealousy burning inside my gut because it wasn't me who had put it up there. Still, trying to be fair about the whole ordeal, I turned around to see the reason behind her smile, only to have Jael take up all of the one-eighty degrees of my vision as she stood right in front of me, her face turned towards the door as well.

My daughter's greetings towards the new person drew my attention back to her face. "Hey!" she squeaked gleefully, "You're here!"

Okay, I'm really curious who this person is, now.

I quickly turned around again and pushed Jael out of my sight, but it all seemed to happen too late, because much before I could see the person, I heard his voice; soft, yet clear. "Yeah well, couldn't keep away from you, you know?"

When I finally did manage to look at the person who seemed capable of making my daughter smile brighter than I myself could, I should've known better than to be surprised.

Zephrine let out a merry chuckle at that, "Aww, Aric... you're so nice!"

###

okay... so I don't even know where and how to start apologizing to you all for disappearing and not updating for a year-and-half now, but hey, I am FINALLY done with school and thanks to quarantine, have a good amount of time to continue with these darlings. so I promise you to try and finish this book before September hits the calendars.

anyways, any thoughts on how many more chapters this book's gonna have?

do vote, comment, and share!
stay home, eat well, stay safe. :)

xxRubaxx