Somewhere in Between by Lynnette Brisia

Together."
     
    *LtB*
     
    He slept for five hours before there was a loud knock at his door. With bleary eyes, he searched out the alarm clock in his room. It was just after noon. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he noticed they were swollen. He'd been crying in his sleep, he determined, though he couldn't remember any dreams. He was grateful for that. The waking images were bad enough.
    Pulling himself from his bed, he noticed his clothes were terribly wrinkled since he hadn't bothered to change out of them before crashing. Having no time to change, as the knocking increased, he moved across the room and yanked open his door. Christie stood on the other side. With one hand on her hip, she looked at him with scrutinizing eyes.
    "You were out all night. And those are your clothes from last night" she said simply.
    "And?"
    "Where'd you go?"
    He thought about how to answer. He could easily make something up, knowing how wrapped up in Josh she had been the night before, but Elliot decided to go with as much truth as he could without giving everything away. "I went to Fairview to get Gemma."
    "You didn't get in until this morning. What reason do you have to have been out all night? And with Gemma?" Christie grilled worse than their parents. And there was an underlying tone of something he had never heard before coming from her. It almost sounded mean.
    He was becoming increasingly annoyed. "What does it matter to you?"
    "Josh told me what he told you. About Gemma liking you and how Trisha doesn't even know you exist. He told me he managed to get it through that thick head of yours how pathetic you've been," Christie crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm just wondering what kind of shape you left Gemma in after finding her."
    The implication nearly knocked the life out of him. She couldn't possibly know something horrific had happened, but her words, directed at him as though he was the one to bring the tragedy down upon her, made him want to throw up again. He could feel his skin prickle as though a cold sweat broke out across his forehead. He inhaled heavily, weary of Christie watching his panic attack. "She was fine when I left her," he nearly choked out. While she was okay physically, at least according to North Suburban Hospital, the lie tasted acidic on his tongue because Elliot knew Gemma was about as far from okay as a person could get.
    "I've been trying to call her the last couple hours and her phone goes right to voicemail." Christie's eyes were dark and focused on him, looking to catch him in a lie, their normally light blue nearly non-existent. "And Leigh isn't answering either. Something is fishy here. And I'm willing to bet everything I own that you are the reason." Christie's voice had turned cold. "Why are you such an asshole? Gemma liked you and you throw Trisha in her face! Now, what did you say to her to make her not want to talk to me? What did you do to make Leighanna ignore me? I know you did something, now tell me!"
    "What the fuck is your problem? You rag on me all the goddamn time about Trisha, and guess what? I'm not falling all over myself for her. She hasn't been a thought in my mind since I figured out what a fool I was last night. I know full well that Trisha is not the girl for me, and there are no delusions running through my head to suggest otherwise right now. But none of that matters, do you know why?" he asked, his voice cracking.
    Christie seemed to stumble against the tone of her brother, but the ice didn't leave her voice. "Why?"
    "Because Gemma was fine when I left her. Which was at her house." Images began to flash across his eyes of Gemma crying softly at his leaving. He'd promised he'd talk to her later, and that he'd see her again. But even with those promises, he still felt like he was hurting her because he didn't want to leave her, not like this, but he had to. She needed time with her family, and he knew she wouldn't be able to hide her horror forever, not with how close she was to