You Never Knew Me (Never 1)

“You’re not helping Lija, I think she needs to blow off some steam in another way,” Ivy says, as she grabs my hands and leads me out of the mansion.

I’m following her, letting her lead me to god knows where. I just don’t have the capacity to care right now, I’m so angry I want to scream.

The guys are following us and I want them to go away, well mainly Noah, I don’t want him to think less of me.

She leads us into the fitness centre and I’m soon standing before a punching bag with wraps around my hands. I wanted to feel the bite, but they refused to let me punch bare.

I let all my anger out. I punch, kick and scream until I’m so tired I’m just falling to the floor.

“She’s had enough,” says Amias and I think he’s growling as Elijah scoops me up into his arms and for some reason, takes me to Ivy’s quarters.

He lays me on her bed and places her blanket over me, I can see them all retreat to the far side of the room, but I don’t have the energy to try and listen to their conversation. Instead I can feel my eyes begin to droop and I welcome sleep.

“Elliott, why do you have to go again. Devon will let you stay here if I ask him to,” I say, wrapping my arms around his waist and trying to keep him from leaving.

“I’ve got to go, pipsqueak, I’m going to make this a better place to live. Just you wait, we’ll never be burgled and you’ll no longer have to look at things mum and dad can’t afford to buy. If you want something I’ll get it for you, I just need to prove myself first.”

“Why do you need to prove yourself? I can see how great you are and if they can’t, then they’re not really your friends. Not like the boys, they will look after us,” I say.

I don’t really understand what he’s trying to say, Devon and the others wouldn’t let anything happen to us, Devon is scary when he’s mad and no one ever wants to be on the receiving end. As long as he’s around nothing bad will happen.

I wake up suddenly, jolting upright and taking in the darkened room. I look to my left and barely stifle a scream when I see a body lying next to mine, I take in a few deep breaths just to regain control and I realise it’s Ivy asleep beside me. I guess I’m having my first sleepover and I didn’t even get to experience it whilst being awake.

I really didn’t see me and Ivy ever becoming friends, but it wouldn’t be a bad thing to have another girl to chat with and maybe she could help me with my guy dilemma. Although she may not be the best bet, seeing as they’re her friends and I would be mortified if she told them how I was feeling. Not that I can work that out myself at the moment.

I lie back down and curl up, and I can’t help but hope that I don’t dream this time. Even though it felt like a memory, surely it wouldn’t hold any real significance.

By the time five am rolls around, I’ve had a terrible night’s sleep. Every time I fell asleep, a dream of Elliott would have me shooting up out of bed. I nearly woke Ivy up with the last one, so I think I’ll just go for a run. I’ve already got the new key to my room although it makes me wonder if the assistant head knows where I slept, seeing as I don’t have a mattress to sleep on right now.

I’m coming up short though, as I get close to my door and see that it’s ajar and light is spilling out into the unlit hallway. Seriously, didn’t they do enough damage already?

I approach slowly and push the door open even wider to find Noah and Elijah covered in baby blue paint as they redo my walls. Damn my heart is skipping a beat again, why are they doing this, although the more pressing question really should be, how did they get in here?

I clear my throat and Elijah drops his brush into the tin sending paint splattering over the top, he’s looking at me all sheepishly and how can I not smile at him.

“What are you guys doing?” I ask, even though the answer itself is pretty obvious.

“You shouldn’t have that on your walls, so I wanted to get rid of it. Lija felt the same way, so he came too.” Other than the slight blush on his cheeks, you’d never know his words affected him

and my chest tightens as an influx of emotions hit me like a tidal wave.

“Okay before I decide whether or not to hug you, firstly how did you get into my room? And secondly why do you guys call him Lija?” I place my hands on my hips and lightly tap my foot, but I can’t keep the slight smile from gracing my lips.

“He won’t let anyone call him Eli and he didn’t approve of Jah, so Ivy started calling him Lija and it just stuck. As for your room, ask him? He’s the one who picked the lock,” says Noah as he gets back to painting, clearly done with this conversation.

I look to him and he smiles roguishly as he saunters towards me, I give him the middle finger and he bows over with laughter before stopping to stand just before me.

“My cousin used to hang with this gang down in London and whenever she and my aunt came to visit, she’d show me a few things. Lock picking, hot wiring cars, that sort of thing.” The look on his face shows how fond he is of the memories, he’s more of a rebel than I would have thought. “I thought she was a goddess until she got arrested for dealing and mother dearest banned me from seeing her again. Apparently, she was a bad influence.” He rolls his eyes and his smile has a sad quality to it, there must be more to it than that, surely.

Small world that he said London, but it’s a big place, and probably nowhere near where we used to live. He still has the roguish smile on his face, but his eyes are soft. I walk closer to him before changing direction at the last second and wrapping my arms around Noah.

He freezes and drops the paintbrush on the floor, before turning around and wrapping his arms around me.

“Thank you, I know the assistant head said she’d get someone in to sort this mess out but I don’t think she really cares. And you had no reason to do this for me, but you have anyway.” I pull back slightly to look at him and he’s smiling softly at me.

“I have plenty of reasons my Leighbear,” he says as we stand looking at one another, until Elijah clears his throat.

Noah pulls away and looks down at the floor, it’s almost as if I make him uncomfortable but he’s okay when it’s just us. He even talks more when it’s just the two of us.