Somewhere in Between (8 page)

Elliot's breath caught and he almost choked in shock. He knew she'd tell her mom because more than anything, Gemma needed that female in her life. He didn't expect Leighanna to hear though. But the biggest shocker of all was hearing that Gemma was going to tell her father. He knew that was not going to be easy for her, and he almost volunteered to be there for her, but worried his presence would make her clam up. "Are you going to be okay?"

"No, but there's no way out of it." She sighed into the receiver, closing her eyes. "I'm so scared he's going to hate me, or look at me differently. I mean I
lied
to everyone, and look at what happened! What if he thinks I deserved it? What if he thinks I'm responsible?"

"Gemma, stop. Your father is never going to look at you differently. He could never hate you. And it doesn't matter that you lied. What those guys did to you…please, you got to know you didn't deserve it. Any of it." He felt tears in his eyes again. "Your father is going to love you no matter what. And I know for a fact that Leighanna won't be the only one out for blood because of this."

"Maybe."

"No maybes. Gemma, there are so many people who love you and want to protect you. And we are going to do whatever it takes to help you. Okay?" He was getting desperate now, his fear pulsing through his veins again.

"I guess," she was non-committal still because she felt the truth every time she moved and there was no way anyone could still love her. "I'm going to try to get some rest before my dad gets home. I'll call you later to let you know how it went."

"Okay, sweetheart," Elliot murmured. "Oh wait," he said remembering, "Could you have Leighanna call or text Christie so she leaves me alone? She seems to think something happened that somehow affects her and that's why Leighanna won't answer her."

"Ever the drama queen," Gemma sighed, grateful to learn that Christie was still in the dark for now. "I'll tell her. Talk to you soon."

"Okay," Elliot ended the call, watching the picture of Gemma disappear from his phone's screen.

*LtB*

Her father arrived home just after six pm with his briefcase filled with the details of his firm’s expansion. It was a big step for the law firm of Comry, Grady, and Sween. Gone were the days of pro-bono cases just to get their name out. They were now contenders when it came to garnering clients for the firm and Gemma’s dad’s arrival in the early spring to Colorado
and
Denver had been a big part of the why. Everyone was excited to move into a new building to showcase just how worthwhile they were becoming in the corporate market.

Andrew Grady walked into his house with a smile on face and an intended kiss for his three favorite women. Of course, the last kiss was always for his baby girl, Gemma. But the smile soon faded and the kisses never happened as he peered over the faces of those three women. He spied Gemma sitting on the couch, a heavy quilt draped about her trembling form, her beautiful face marred by bruises and cuts, while his wife and stepdaughter flanked her.

"What's going on?" he asked, setting the briefcase down, and tossing his suit jacket on the hook on the wall by the front door. There was a feeling of unease in the room, a sense of foreboding that couldn't be crushed. "Someone wanna tell me what's going on here?"

Swallowing thickly, Caroline stood and moved to her husband. "Andrew, I think you're gonna want to sit down for this."

Doing as he was told, Andrew sat down on the plush chair across from the sofa, but rather than rest back, as he would after a long day, he stayed alert, his elbows resting on his knees, with his hands gripped together. "I'm sitting."

*LtB*

Elliot was pacing his room watching the clock. He'd talked to his dad for almost two hours, trying to relay the night, trying to rid himself of the demons that didn't want to leave. To say his father was shocked and horrified would be an understatement. The look on Dalton Wade's face after he learned that three men had brutally raped and beat Gemma Grady was one of absolute agony. He now understood why Elliot was upset, why he felt withdrawn and angry, even at his own sister. Needless to say, while Elliot was not punished for yelling at Christie, he was told never to act out that way again. Dalton also made a promise to keep Elliot's story between the two of them until further notice.

After speaking to his father, after
crying
to his father about what had happened to his best friend, he retreated to his room.

Once back in his room, Elliot was relieved to receive a call from Gemma, especially after learning that she was okay for the most part. But then finding out that she was going to be talking to her father, put him on edge again. Now he was just waiting for her phone call to let him know everything was as okay as it could be.

After watching the sun set, Elliot heard his mother call him for dinner. He then heard his father tell his mother to let him come down when he was ready. Truthfully, Elliot didn't think he could eat. His stomach was still in knots and the images in his mind wouldn’t let his stomach settle long enough to unravel.

So he waited the day away.

And he paced.

It was just after eight-thirty when his phone lit up finally. Rushing to his desk, Elliot grabbed the phone anxious to hear from Gemma. But he was disappointed to see it was just Josh. He really didn't want to talk to his friend because he didn't know if Josh was calling to bitch at him too or if he was calling as a friend. But wanting to get it over with and free up the line just in case, he answered. "Hello?"

"Hey man, what are you doing?" Josh asked.

He thought for a moment about his answer. "Just watching television. You?"

"Nothing," Josh responded. "Hey, did you see Gemma last night?"

"Yeah," Elliot responded slowly. "Why, what's up?"

"It's nothing. Just Christie called me and said you guys were having a fight and that she can't get a hold of Gemma. She said she can't reach Leighanna either." Josh sounded exasperated. "Honestly, I just wanted to call to see why she's having a shit fit."

Elliot laughed. "She always does think she's so important that people have to stop everything for her."

"Yeah she does," Josh agreed, but then quickly added, "But don't tell her I said that."

"I won't. But I'll tell you the same thing I told her, when I saw Gemma last night, she was…okay. And I left her at her house." It was mostly the truth. It was Gemma's decision to tell their friends or not what had happened to her.

"Cool," Josh trailed off. "Listen, I just want to give you a heads up, the way Christie was talking, she's pissed. She hasn't talked like that in a long time, not since there terrible twosome were a constant. Haven't seen her with them, but then again, I'm not around her twenty-four seven now, you know?"

“Ugh! Seriously?" Elliot moaned at the thought of what his friend was implying.

"Tell me about it," Josh agreed. "Well, like I said, just wanted to give you a heads up. She was a bitch to me back then, so I'm sure living with her wasn't all that great either."

"You got that right. Alright, man, thanks for the warning. I'll talk to you tomorrow then." With that, they disconnected.

Sitting on his bed, Elliot closed his eyes and released a breath. He was so glad that conversation went quick and well. He did not want to be in a fight with everyone. But then again, he hated the warning. Things were already bad enough, he didn't need more headache in the form of Christie and her friends. Just then his phone buzzed. Opening his eyes, he saw Gemma's smiling face gazing up at him from his phone. Quickly swiping his finger across the screen, he answered. "Hi."

"Hi," she breathed.

He didn't know what to say. He could ask how the talk went, but from the sounds of her breathing, the tone of her voice, he could deduce that while it had gone well, it had been horrible for her. "How do you… are you okay?"

Gemma sniffled. "It was horrible. He cried, Elliot. My dad
cried
. I've never seen my dad cry before. I didn't know he could," she whispered sadly. "My mom helped me tell him, and halfway through, he stood up, left the room and when he returned, he had his guns and just started loading them. He wanted a description so he could go kill them. If mom hadn't stopped him, told him to think about what he was trying to do, he probably would have."

While Gemma cried into his ear, Elliot felt his heart rate pick up. He wanted to help Andrew Grady. But he wouldn't tell Gemma that. "Shh, shh, shh. It's okay," he tried to sooth. But she only cried harder. Through her sobs, she tried telling him that her father wasn't mad at her, that he was so sad for her, and that they would do whatever it took to get the guys off the street. "See, I told you he wouldn't hate you."

"I just, can't be sure, you know? None of this would have happened if I'd just been honest."

Shaking his head even though she couldn't see, Elliot pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sweetheart, please stop blaming yourself. This is
their
fault. Not yours. You telling a lie will never justify their actions." Listening to her sniffle through the receiver was breaking his heart. "I'd give anything to be there with you right now, holding you." It wasn't meant to come out, but it was how he felt.

"I wish you could too," Gemma whispered through her sobs. For as much as men terrified her, she wanted Elliot with her, keeping her feeling safe. With a heavy sigh, Gemma calmed a little. "I won't be at school for a couple of days; my parents are going to say it's the flu, and I do feel a little sick. But Dr. Lindley told me that was something I could possibly expect with the um, that morning after pill thing." She was embarrassed by that admission. Here she was, some plain regular girl who had never even
kissed
a boy before last night, let alone had sex, and all of a sudden she had to take a pill that would stop an unwanted pregnancy because of…. Her heart began to race, began to push blood to her brain so that the memories would come back at her, but she pushed them down. Instead she focused on something else.

"Leigh won't be in tomorrow either. She's already told Trent she's got a small cold or something. Says it was from how late she was out with him." She had expected her sister to divulge the truth to her boyfriend, so when Leigh said Trent only needed to know that she wouldn't be in, Gemma felt relieved. "Everyone is going tomorrow. Dad is taking a half day. I told him that you were going to take me and he seems okay with that. You should have seen his face knowing it was you who found me."

Elliot couldn't imagine what Gemma’s dad was feeling; knowing what was done to your only child-by blood, at least-and then finding out her pathetic excuse for a friend was the one to pick her up. He just hoped Andrew Grady didn't hate him for having his little girl put in a horrible situation because of stupidity. "So I can drop by still after school?" He wanted to be there for her so badly, because he needed to tell his story too.

"Yeah. We can all go together then." Gemma picked at the lint on her sleeve. She was in Elliot's shirt again. He couldn't be there with her, but his shirt made her feel better. It was going to be a rough night.

"Did um, did Leigh ever talk to Christie?" Elliot asked after the a few moments. He had avoided dinner, and hadn't bothered to venture to find out if Christie was over her tantrum.

"I think so," Gemma replied. "Leigh was texting earlier, but she didn't have the usual smile like she gets when it's Trent." She remembered how serious her sister had looked, phone in hand, fingers flying over the screen. Leigh had told Gemma that as far as Trent knew, they were both sick though Gemma managed to get the worst of it so they were staying home. She knew it would help keep him away since the last thing the football player wanted was to catch a cold and be out of the game. Gemma was so thankful. Then she mentioned talking to Christie and after some time, Leigh was back at her phone. "Is Christie still hounding you?"

"Haven't seen her since this morning's attack." At Gemma's intake of breath, Elliot forgot he never went into details, just asked to have Leigh talk to his sister. So he gave a brief rundown of what had happened. "I ended up having to talk to my dad earlier." If she asked, he'd tell her, otherwise he'd wait till another time.

"I can't believe she would say those things to you," Gemma began. "I mean yeah, I get it to a degree since whatever, but she was being mean, not helpful." She didn't understand what had propelled Christie to speak to Elliot that way. Yes, she hated his obsession with Trisha Scott, and yes, Christie knew Gemma like Elliot and it made her miserable to see him pine for someone else, but how was yelling at him helping the cause? And why was Christie acting like Elliot actually
hurt
her? "I'm sorry she did that."

"It's all right. I'm over it."

"What did your dad say?"

This was the moment he'd been dreading, because his dad really didn't say anything about his fight with Christie. He'd just asked what happened and the floodgates had opened. "He um, well, he was very understanding." He'd start there.

"At her or toward you?"

"Me," he hedged, his voice low.

Several minutes passed, as Elliot's words hung in the air, like a confirmation slowly falling into place. Until finally, Gemma spoke, "He knows, doesn't he?"