Desolation (New Rochelle Mafia #1)

4. CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 4

ELODIE

T his type of work usually gives me way too much time to think about things. Today is no different. I find myself going back to the interaction with Drake. God dammit, I never thought in a million years the object of my girlish fantasies all these years would actually approach me offering friendship. Nothing good can ever come of that. The last thing Drake needs is some panic attack having, neurotic friend dragging him down. Let alone anything else. I’m definitely not anyone’s girlfriend material.

Wait, girlfriend? Where did that even come from? He literally just asked to be my friend and I’m sitting here rolling silverware and trying to list the ways I’d be a shitty girlfriend in my head. I really have lost my mind. Slamming the silverware into the tub, I sigh and move to wiping counters.

Reba looks at me with an eyebrow raised and I shake my head at her. Not now. I’m a hundred percent sure she is not going to let this go though.

The front door bell rings and Drake walks back in. What the hell?

“I want to apologize to you,” he says, walking up to the counter.

“Apologize to me?” I squeak out. Clearing my throat, I take a step back. This is when he’s going to retract what he said. I knew it was too good to be true.

“I didn’t mean to upset or startle you earlier. Which I clearly did. But I was serious Elodie, I do want to be your friend, in whatever way you’ll let me,” he says.

Oh. Can I? Should I? Just take something for yourself for once, El. Just once in your miserable life.

“Just don’t expect too much from me, okay?” I ask.

He nods, and a smile spreads across his face like a ray of sunshine. I am so fucked. He writes his number down on a napkin, hands it to me and then leaves again.

Reba calls my name. I knew she wasn’t going to let this go.

“Elodie, you know who that is right?” she asks, concern etched into her features.

“Yeah, we used to go to school together. But he decided he all of a sudden wants to be friends with me. That’s weird right? It’s not just me?” I ask .

“Well, you do need friends, I just want to make sure you understand that he isn’t just a regular guy,” she says, grabbing my hands in hers and squeezing them. “His family is very prominent and important, if you catch my meaning. Very family oriented,“ she says, emphasizing the word family.

“I know,” I whisper. “He’s been away at college for a while now so it isn’t like I’ll see him often. I’ll just play along a little and then after a while I’m sure he’ll forget all about me. No harm, no foul,” I say with a shrug. Reba doesn’t look convinced.

“We’ll see, I guess. But I have a feeling you may be wrong about that Sweet Pea,” she says, letting go of my hands. “Just be careful.”

Nodding, I go back to wrapping silverware, thinking about the interaction with Drake. I just don’t understand why he’s suddenly so interested in being my friend and it makes me feel panicky.

Why does a mafia boss’ son want to be friends with a girl like me? There are other girls who are much prettier, more social, and they all throw themselves at him every day. I can’t imagine college is much different for him than high school was. He could literally be friends with anyone he wants to or date anyone he wants to. Besides, don’t mafia families do arranged marriages and stuff? Maybe that’s it; maybe he is rebelling against an arranged marriage?

Ugh, I can sit here all day coming up with scenarios in my head, but at the end of the day, I will never know the real reason, and I don’t know if I trust what he says. Sitting here overthinking it all night isn’t going to help either. I’ve kept my head down and been careful about not trusting people my whole life. My parents were the first people to teach me that particular lesson.

If your own parents are cruel to you and use you for their own benefit, abuse you at a moment’s notice, and generally just don’t take care of you, how can you trust anyone else? The only people who even have a scrap of trust from me are Ms. Bates and Reba. But I even keep them at arm’s length. No one can ever find out what really happens to me at home.

No one. Ever.

Shuddering, I look over to see Dominic walk through the door. Fuck. Looking at Reba in alarm I see her frowning.

Putting my hands on the counter, I paste a small smile to my face and ask how I can help him.

He smiles that creepy ass smile at me. Every time I run into him at my parents, he smiles like that. Like he knows something I don’t.

“Well hello Princess. I was hoping I would catch you here,” he says.

Throwing up in my mouth a little bit, I look at him in confusion.

“I just came from your house and your parents told me you have graduation coming up soon. Thought I’d see if you want to go do something after? To celebrate of course,” he asks.

The slimy look on his face tells me that the “something” doesn’t actually mean a celebration. In fact, it’s probably not going to be something I like at all.

“No thanks. I actually already have plans with Reba after. We are going to do some shopping before I’m off to college. I still have a lot of things to get,” I say, hands shaking. Reba looks at me with a brow up and I very discreetly shake my head at her.

“Why are you going off so early? Isn’t it a few months until college starts? Why are you going anyway? You have your job here and a place. You don’t need to go off to college and get all high and mighty. I could take care of you even. You can be my woman and you’ll never want for anything,” he says.

Where the hell did that come from? First Drake and now this. I feel like I’m living in the Twilight Zone. Dominic has always watched me, but has never actually spoken to me like this before.

“Relationships aren’t something I’m interested in. I’m going to college and I’m getting the hell away from this shithole,” I say vehemently.

He smirks, “We shall see,” he says in a sing-song voice. Putting his hands in his pockets he walks out the door whistling and looking like the cat that ate the canary.

Breath whooshing out of me, I slide down the counter to my knees, shaking all over. Reba rushes over and wraps her arms around me.

“Has he ever talked to you like that before? I don’t like this at all, Elodie. This is bad,” she says.

Shaking my head I tell her, “I have no idea where that came from. When he comes and sees my parents, he usually just stares at me and smirks but never says anything. So, I have no idea what that was actually about.”

“Hmm,” she says. We sit there for a few minutes to get our bearings. Standing and dusting herself off Reba says, “Let’s get this place cleaned up and get out of here before anyone else shows up.”

Yeah, I agree. It’s been a night for sure. Nodding, I get to work.

After we get everything cleaned up, Reba and I both head to the restroom to change after the shift. “Do you want a ride home?” she asks.

Do I? I am feeling a little anxious tonight, after Drake and Dominic’s visits. “Yeah, actually I do. Thanks,” I say .

Reba nods as if it’s a given. It’s not often that I take a ride from her, so I know it makes her happy when I do because she won’t have to worry about me walking home in this neighborhood by myself.

We climb into the car and Reba shoots off a text to someone. Hmm, does she have a secret boyfriend? “Texting a boyfriend, Reba?” I ask with a giggle.

“Ha! I wish. Just sending a friend a message about something we have going on tomorrow,” she says with a laugh.

I guess it never occurred to me that Reba may have a life outside of work. Sighing, I silently berate myself, just because I have tunnel vision doesn’t mean other people do too. I only want one thing, to get away from this place as fast as I can. Others will stay here forever. Reba is one of those people. She is content here.

Reba pulls up a few houses down from mine. The few times I’ve let her take me home, I never let her park in front of the house. It’s better if I can just sneak past my parents. If they hear a car they instantly think it may be Dominic. More than a few times I’ve gotten a beating because I made noise coming home and they were disappointed that it was me and not their dealer.

I’m exhausted. It’s been a long day with way more social interaction than I am used to and I have no spoons left for the day. Telling Reba goodbye and thank you, I open the car door and close it quietly behind me, just in case. Walking up to the house, I notice that the living room lights are on. Stopping, I take a minute to try to decide what to do. I still have homework that needs to be done and it’s already almost ten .

Hands shaking and heart racing, I decide that I need to just go in. Hopefully I can just head up to my room with little arguing. Turning the knob quietly, I step inside.

Peering around the corner of the hallway I see my parents both sitting in the living room looking pissed off. Fuck. I wonder if Dominic told them what happened at the diner. I’m eighteen though and I can make my own choices. I certainly would never make a choice to date Dominic and it’s absurd if they think I will.

My palms instantly get sweaty. This isn’t going to be good. Heart in my throat I step around the corner into the living room.

“So, you turned down a perfectly good date?” my mom immediately asks with a sneer on her face. “You aren’t going to get a better offer than that, Elodie.”

Swallowing hard, I say, “I don’t have time to date. I’m going to college and I’ll be too busy with that to even think about dating. Besides, a drug dealer is not on my list of appropriate boyfriends, even if I was looking.”

It doesn’t matter what I say, when they are like this, I already know what’s going to happen. So, I just speak my truth. They are judge, jury, and executioner. And I am always found guilty.

My father grunts, “You won’t get a better offer than this. We need you to do this. If you don’t there will be consequences.”

What the hell does he mean they need it and what consequences?

“I’m an adult, you can’t force me to do this. I’ll be out of here and no longer your problem or your punching bag in a few weeks. I’m definitely not going to do anything to make your habit worse either,” I say quietly but clearly .

“You will do this. You have no choice Elodie. And I’m about to show you just how much of a choice you don’t have,” my dad says with a twisted smile.

“I won’t do that,” I yell. Taking a deep breath, I try to calm myself. It won’t do me any good if I yell at them. It only makes things worse when I try to stand up for myself. But this is my escape from here we are talking about. I can’t make myself stay calm.

Dad’s on his feet in an instant and backhands me so hard I fall to my knees, blood dripping from my mouth. “You will go out with him, girl, and that’s that.”

Standing, I wipe my mouth, blood smearing across my hands. “No.”

Again, he back hands me, and the next thing I know, my mother walks over and straddles me, punching me over and over and shrieking at me at the top of her lungs. “You. Will. Go. On. The. Date. Period. We need this and Dominic has made promises if we make it happen.”

Shaking my head in disbelief, my mother grabs me by the hair and holds me while my father continues to beat me, spit flying as he yells. They must not have gotten their fix today. It’s always bad like this when they are withdrawing. My father’s blows slow down as he tires himself out. My mom is still yelling, but I tune it out. I have learned to just shut down when this is happening. It’s almost as if I’m floating over the top of my own body, watching as the people who should love me the most, show me how much they hate me.

They eventually tire themselves out, as they always do. I don’t think I can stand up. I’m pretty sure I have a concussion, my face feels like it’s cracked open, and my nose is definitely broken, which means I’m going to have to call in sick to school for a few days until I can cover the bruises with makeup and the swelling goes down.

Crying, bloody, and hurting, I try to crawl towards the stairs. I just need to get to my room and lock the door. Eventually they will pass out and I can get myself cleaned up after that. Reaching the foot of the stairs, I fumble around for my backpack and pull it towards me. Still on my hands and knees, I crawl slowly up the stairs.

When I finally make it to my room at the end of the hall, I see my door is standing wide open and the room is trashed. Great, they planned this and wanted to make sure it was worse when I got up here after my beating. Groaning, I sit up against the wall to try to catch my breath. There is no way I’m going to be able to clean that up tonight.

Getting back to my hands and knees, I continue crawling my way into my room. Reaching behind me for the door, I close it and stop to reach up to lock it. Sitting back against it, I sob. Hard. Desolate, hollow sounding sobs wrack my body. I’m in so much pain that each hitch of my breath sends lightning shooting through my body, but I can’t seem to stop.

Why? Why are they like this? Why couldn’t I have parents that love me? Wrapping my arms around my knees, I gently lay my face on my arms, head tilted to the side. The sobs finally subside and I just sit there staring at the wall until I eventually pass out from the pain.