Page 99 of Beyond The Break

“You can try,” Gabriel’s voice sounds from behind me, “But I can promise you won’t be getting out anytime soon.”

Her eyes go round as she watches him approach with her boss by his side.

“Stephanie,” she gasps, “I-I can explain.”

Stephanie holds up her hand, palm facing Meghan, and silences her instantly. “You are fired, effective immediately, and I can assure you no other paper will hire you if I have anything to do with it.”

She turns around and walks off, leaving a wailing Meghan in the hands of the police who escort her to their cruiser.

Gabriel and I watch them drive off with her, still screaming and crying in the back seat while her mascara drips down her face.

“That was one obsessed girl you had there,” Gabriel says, turning to face me as he eyes my bleeding lip.

I wipe away the blood with my sleeve before I smile at him and then wince from the sting. My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I tap my headphones twice to answer the call.

“Hello?”

“It’s Colton. Eliana left with a massive purple suitcase. I tried to stop her, but a black cab came, and she ran out of the house while I was looking out of the window.”

I callher number for the eighth time since Colton called me, but she isn’t answering and it’s causing my anxiety to spike to a new extreme.

“Do you think she’s gone?” I ask as Gabriel weaves through traffic on the way to the airport.

His knuckles are white as he grips the steering wheel. “No. Keep calling her.”

I try her number again, but this time it goes straight to voicemail.

She turned her phone off?

I’m certain I’m going to be sick any second but when I see a black cab pulled over a few cars ahead, my heart lurches in my chest. I watch as a girl with brown hair hunches over the side of the car puking.

“It’s her,” I say, struggling to get air into my lungs, “It’s Eliana. Pull over.”

I’m unbuckling my seatbelt and jumping out of the passenger’s side before the car comes to a full stop, feeling a sting in my leg as I run towards her just as she pukes again, some of itlanding on my shoe, but I don’t care. I pull her into my arms and hold her trembling body.

“I don’t feel so good,” she mumbles.

“Shhh, it’s okay, sunshine.” I say, rubbing her back.

I watch as the cab driver pulls her suitcase and duffel bag out of the trunk sliding it towards Gabriel as he accepts a hundred-dollar bill from him. He jumps back into his cab and drives off, leaving us alone with her.

“How is she?” Gabriel asks, keeping a safe distance as he eyes the puke on the floor and my shoes.

“Extremely hung over,” she mutters, pulling away from me, “and car sick.”

He runs his hands through his brown hair, messing up the perfectly slicked back strands. “I’ll be in the car.” He grabs her bags, putting them into his G Wagon before he returns to the driver’s side, the car’s engine rumbling to life.

She looks up at me with her sad green eyes, her lip trembling slightly.

“Were you really going to leave me just like that? No goodbye or explanation?” I can’t hold the bite from my voice.

When I saw the ticket on her desk a part of me had hoped she wouldn’t follow through, or at least that she would talk to me about it before she did, maybe even ask me to go with her. But she had tried to leave without any sort of goodbye, as if I didn’t matter to her, as if she hadn’t told me she loves me.

“Griffin,” she whispers, a tear falling down her cheek. “It’s complicated. There are things about me that I haven’t told you.”

“So, tell me.”

A bitter laugh escapes her. “It’s not that easy?—"

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