Page 95 of Hitting the Goal Line
I’m close to the end. I can almost see the light.
As soon as Elijah came home, I was going to do it. I was going to leave and never look back.
But when he walked through the door, all of that went out the window.
I’m sitting on the couch, as he walks into his apartment, his weekend bag in his hand and a smile on his face.
Lately, he has been wearing a stoic expression, not a single smile in sight. Seeing him sporting one now, has all the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.
“How was your trip?” I ask, trying to act as calm and collected as I can.
“It was fine,” he says, putting his duffle down and coming over to me and placing a kiss against my lips.
I want to pull away as his lips meet mine, but I don’t.
“That’s good,” I say, when I pull away from him, giving him the best smile that I can. “I was wonder––” I start to say but he cuts me off.
“Let’s take a trip,” he says, out of nowhere.
“What?” I ask, looking over at him with what I’m sure is a confused expression.
He wants to take a trip? I’m here trying to break up with him and he announces that he wants to take a trip?
“Let’s take a trip,” he says again, as if his words make perfect sense. “Let’s go somewhere, you and me. Let’s take the next few days off and go somewhere.” Elijah gives me the smile that I first fell for and starts leaning in, his mouth barely brushing the skin against my neck.
A shiver runs through my body, but it’s not a good shiver like he thinks it is.
“I-I don’t think that would be a good idea,” I stutter out, trying my hardest to keep my composure and do what has to be done, because if I don’t, he is going to get his way, and I will forever be stuck in this endless cycle.
“It’s a great idea,” he says, his lips finally meeting my skin and all I want to do is jerk away from him, but it feels as if I’m paralyzed.
My head is swimming with thoughts of what he could do if I tell him no.
“Wh-where would we g-go?” I ask, trying to keep the shakiness in my voice at bay, but failing and Elijah is taking notice. I can see it in his face when he pulls away from me, but he doesn’t call me out on it.
“Anywhere you want to go,” he says, his voice not matching the hardness of his face again.
“Anywhere I want to go,” I repeat with so much fear running through me.
He’s giving me the option but the only place I want to go is anywhere he isn’t.
“Yeah, anywhere,” he says, taking my hand in his and holding it in a tight grip. “We haven’t done a trip just the two of us. Let’s go somewhere for a few days and clear our heads and come back better than ever.”
His grip tightens even more, all the while he gives me a knowing look. One that tells me that he knows what I was about to say and there is no way in hell that he is letting me go that easily.
He must have noticed. He must have noticed that most of my stuff isn’t here anymore and put it together that I want to leave. He must think that going on a trip is going to help things, but that thought process couldn’t be further from the truth.
“I have work,” I say, trying to find any excuse to get out of this other than telling him that I don’t want to go anywhere with him.
Even when he has hurt me, I can’t find it in me to hurt him back.
“Screw work,” he says, almost forcefully. Like the decision has already been made and I have no say in it. “Let’s just go,Sophia. You and me. I’ll make it the best trip ever. Just pick the place.”
Pick the place.
Anywhere I want to go, he will take me.
If I do this, if I go on this trip with him, that will be it. One trip and as soon as we are back home, it’s done between. I can give him this.
