Looking Up

-----Steve's POV

My mind drowns out the various sounds of the city as it runs at a mile a minute. How could I let this happen? I'm such an idiot. As soon as I get by a couple of slow cars, I start to speed, hoping Elle is still at the apartment by the time I get there. Once I park my truck, I make a mad dash towards the building. I ignore the elevator and climb the stairs faster than I thought was possible. I hear our front door slam just before I get out of the stair well. As I approach the door, I can hear her crying and my heart slowly breaks.

"Elle?" I lightly tap on the door. I didn't want to barge in and give her any more stress; the last thing I want is a screaming match. "Can I come in?" There's no answer though and her sobs get a bit lighter as George starts to growl at the door. "Please, talk to me Ellie."

"There's nothing to talk about! I don't want to hear anymore lies," she yells through the door. I rest my forehead and hands against the door and sigh deeply. I can feel my throat start to ache and tighten once again.

"Nothing happened between-"

"I don't want to hear it Steve!" she yells again but even louder which sends a chill down my body. "I-i-it's over Steve," she says while trying to hold back a sob. I hear her throw something against the wall and then a shattering sound.

"NO!" Elle screams and I hear her fall to the floor. That's it. I wasn't going to wait any longer- screw staying outside. I shove open the door and see Elle kneeling on the floor surrounded by glass, sobbing, and holding a broken picture frame holding a photo her father. Ignoring everything else, she starts scrambling for the pieces of glass on the floor- some pieces cut her hand and I see some blood.

"Elle stop!" I yell and run over to her in five long strides.

"I can fix this, I can. I can fix this," she says to herself through weeps as she winces from the pain.

I kneel down in front of her on top of the glass but I ignore the soreness. I grab her wrists and try to shake the glass from her hands as she murmurs 'no' repeatedly through her tears. I try to wrap my arms around her but she starts to fight back pushing and shoving me away as she screams, "Get off! You're a liar!"

"Elle please stop," I whisper and I try to get her to calm down; her small hands keep pushing against my solid body, but she's failing to move me away.

"You lied and I can't hear any more lies!" she yells but gradually starts to slow down her punches and her sadness takes over her entire body. She drops her arms and allows me to hold her tightly to my chest. I stroke her hair as she weeps into my shoulder; my heart breaks with every sob she makes- I couldn't help but feel completely responsible for all of her pain- I know I am to blame. My throat starts to tighten again and I feel my eyes begin to form tears.

"I can't do this anymore Steve. There's just too much pain and I can't bare it all," she cries into my t-shirt. "I can't hear anymore lies and I need to leave- this hurts too much." Elle tries to get out of my arms weakly.

"You're not going anywhere Elle, you can't," my voice starts to shake.

"We can't be together anymore, not after what you did," she stumbles over her words trying her hardest to fight back tears.

"Bambi I-"

"Stop calling me that," she says and I can hear the disgust in her voice- she attempts to push away again but I bring her even closer.

"Ji-Jill kept calling me, yes- but I never answered I swear. I never expected for her to even be at the party- she just wanted to get on your nerves and break us up. I don't know why she'd still want to be with me but-"

"You don't know why?" she asks finally looking up at with me. "What do you mean you don't know why she'd want to be with you? Isn't it obvious?" I want to say something but I can't find my voice as she continues on. "She loves you for your job, your status, and of course your money," Elle shakes her head and sighs, "Jill's got the long legs and gorgeous everything- she'll be the perfect trophy wife."

"No that's no-"

"Save it for some other girl Steve. I can't listen to this right now," she wipes tears from her face, "I saw the photo Claude posted- you were in the back and two blondes were hanging all over you. If that's how you wanna live fine- but leave me out of it Steve. Don't drag me on," her voice starts to quake.

"Elle stop please, I don't want Jill or anyone else. I swear to you, nothing happened. Nothing happened at all- I would never hurt you, and I'm sitting here killing myself over the fact that I led you to believe I did," I pause trying to compose myself, "I don't want anyone else but you, Ellie. You need to believe me because without you, I can't do anything. I know I've been distant lately but it's only because I can't get my goddamn confidence back and it's so fucking frustrating. But I know I can't use that as an excuse- I know I shouldn't have treated you like that and I-I'm so sorry. Just please don't leave, I know I don't deserve you but please stay with me Elle." I pull her to my chest and I feel a couple tears soak into my t-shirt. I wipe the moisture from my eyes and we sit in silence together for a few minutes.

"You better be telling the truth, because I love you too much to get over you," she whispers.

A smile spreads across my face and I place her jaw line in my hands, "I promise, Elle. Besides, I think the guys would murder me in my sleep if they found out I was ever lying to you."She lets out a small laugh and I wipe the tears from underneath her red, puffy eyes. I see her wince in pain and the visual of her grabbing the large sharp pieces glass from the floor flashes into my mind. I reach for her hands and she resists showing me at first but eventually gives in. Elle slowly opens up her fists and my heart sinks immediately. I see that her hands are engraved with cuts and scratches; some of her blood trickles from a few cuts still.

I shift my legs, crouch beside her, scoop her up in my arms and carry her into the bathroom. Her cheery light blue skirt was now stained with her blood and her tights are ripped in multiple places. Once we get to the bathroom, I set her on the counter, reach for a towel, and soak it in warm water.

"Steve, you don't hav-"

"Stop, yes I do. This is my fault," I say looking up and making eye contact with her, "let me do this Elle," I add trying to keep my voice strong but I know she can hear how weak I feel right now. I pick up her limp hands and dab at her scratches, trying to clean the dried and wet blood. I see some small pieces of glass still stuck in her fingers, so I reach in the medicine cabinet next to her and grab some peroxide and tweezers. For a while, we sit in silence as I tend to her tender hands- I knew she could sense how low I was feeling. Every whimper she let out whenever I took a piece glass and cleaned her cuts with peroxide just made my heart twist and rip.

"Thank you," she whispers.

"It's the very least I can do for you Elle."

"It's not like you made me pick up the glass St-"

"No, but if I just wasn't such a goddamn jerk to you th-this would've never happened," I grit my teeth and try to calm myself down, "I'm sorry Elle. You didn't deserve it at all and you deserve so much better." My voice starts to break and I look back up at her red, sad face, "I completely understand if you leave me- in fact, I think you-"

Elle suddenly wraps her arms around my neck and I bury my face in her neck as she rests her head against the side of mine. I feel a tear run down my face and I hear a quiet sob escape her lips. Without realizing it, I start to whisper, "I'm sorry" in between deep breaths.

"Steve, I can't imagine being with anyone else. You're my rock," she sighs wiping the moisture away from her cheek and sniffles. A smile spreads across my face as soon as she sits back and dabs a tear off my face.

"You're my rock too Elle. The only reason why I haven't lost my shit yet completely is because of you. I mean yeah, it looks pretty bad, but I haven't given up hope all together. I know before I had been staying out late, mainly just taking walks and long drives around the city, but I was just trying to get it all together. I'm sorry I didn't let you in- it was so dumb of me not too and it won't happen again. I just can't lose you because coming home to you makes all the difference in the world Elle, you give me the confidence to keep going," I ramble softly while holding her face.

She smiles and presses her lips against mine, "I'll never stop believing in you." I kiss her harder and when she pulls away she looks down towards the floor and suddenly lets out a yelp. "You're bleeding!"

I switch my focus to my knees and see a few pieces of glass sticking out. "I guess I must've kneeled down onto them before," I take out a piece out of my shin and cringe. Elle hops down from the counter and tends to my knees and legs like I did for her hands. Even though the glass and cuts were painful, I couldn't help but smile- there was no place I would rather be than here with Elle.

Once she finishes cleaning me up, we take a quick shower together, and get into sweatpants and t-shirts. Although it was creeping past 11pm, we stayed up and watched movies together in the living room. I wait until she dozes off to start thinking about getting some sleep. I periodically watch her gradually fall deeper and deeper into a slumber. Suddenly my phone starts to rattle on the glass coffee table and I slowly reach for it, trying not to disturb Elle.

"Hey G," I whisper.

"Hey man, how's everything with Elle?" he asks in a hurry.

"It's actually really good- I mean a lot happened but we talked it out and I think everything is settled."

"Good, good. I was really worried about her," G says and then takes a pause after realizing he had excluded me, "well you know, both of you guys. She just talked to me about it before and she see-" he starts to ramble quickly.

"It's fine," I chuckle softly, cutting him off, "I know what you meant,"

"Alrighty- I would just hate to see her leave too man- well we all would I think, she's gotten so close to all of us," he says and I can hear him smiling through the phone. I grin, look down at Elle, and stroke her stray golden brown pieces of hair laying on her face while Claude tells me about everything else that happened at the party.

"G, thanks for looking after her for me, it means a lot," I add.

"No problem Masey," he says before hanging up the phone.

I gently lift up Elle a bit so I can place my phone back on the coffee table. Once I lay us back down, she stirs around a bit and ends up laying more on top of me and buries her head in my chest. Between the loud snoring from George and the relaxing heavy breathing from Elle, I knew in that moment that this was definitely where I was supposed to be.

Notes

Hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed the chapter; it mostly dialogue, but it needed to happen! Tell me how you feel about how everything worked out with them- I love your feedback! I'm starting the next chapter tonight so expect an update soon- more drama and other things coming their way.Thanks for sticking to the story, you guys are awesome! Don't forget to comment and subscribe! (At the Flyer's Wives Carnival I actually got to meet Steve- he was honestly so sweet and nice!)

If you guys are looking for another story to love, please check out "Could He Really be Prince Charming," and "Hockey Hearts" by Bookworm93- they're both amazing!!