They Can't Protect Me From Loving You

“If you’d just like to enter your pin.” Eloise said sombrely to the customer in front of her. She lifted her head so that her gaze was away from the card machine and smiled broadly as she saw Brian walk into the store and walked silently over to the counter.

He silently rested against the counter as she finished serving the teenager, greeting Eloise with a simple “Hey.” Eloise returned his smile as she waited for the receipt to print, watching as the customer did a double take, her eyeliner rimmed eyes widening at the realisation of Synyster Gates stood in front of her.

“Thank you, and you’re receipt is in the bag.” Eloise said passing her the bag of clothes she’d just bought. As she walked out of the store she turned in time to see Brian lean over the counter and place his lips on Eloise’s.

“Hey, you’re early.” Eloise said as she took some returned items from the rail under the counter.

“I can go again if you’d like?” Brian replied as she walked around the counter.

“No, no, no, I’m not complaining, you’re going to be leaving me soon enough as it is and it’s only ten minutes before I can get some lunch.” She replied moving to his side and taking hold of his hand.

“Here, hold these.” She said passing him the returned items.

They walked around the store hand in hand as she put the items back to their correct places and tidied the other racks, putting clothes back in size order. In just over an hour the guys would be leaving to head up to Oakland where they were playing a show. They’d been touring for two weeks so far, just local shows that meant they didn’t have to spend too much time away from home. This time they were only spending one night away from home, but all too soon they would be leaving to go further afield and would be gone for three months. That wasn’t until after Christmas though.

“Go on, go have your lunch.” Billie’s voice came from behind them.

“Thanks Billie.” Eloise smiled as she turned around, dragging Brian by the hand to grab her purse from behind the counter.

“So, where are you taking me?” she asked as they walked through the mall towards the food court.

“Dairy queen?” Brian offered. Eloise looked up at him with an enthusiastic smile and nod.

After lunch, Brian slowly walked Eloise back to the store. As they walked into the store Eloise led them over towards the office so that they could say good bye to each other. Once through the door she pulled Brian into a fretful kiss, their tongue’s battling against each other. With a deep sigh, Brian pulled away from the kiss and rested his forehead against hers.

“Do you think Billie would mind if we used his desk?” he asked, breathless from the kiss. Eloise smiled as she gazed into his eyes.

“I don’t think he’d be too pleased.” She replied, pecking his lips.

“I’m going to miss you.” she said in a hushed voice, playing with odd strands of his hair.

He chuckled as he kissed her again. “Baby, I’m going to be gone less than a day.” Eloise pouted.

“I can still miss you can’t I?” she replied looking up at him with woeful eyes. Brian gave out another low chuckle before placing his lips against hers in another soft kiss.

“I’ll miss you too baby, tonight when I’ve got no one to hold, in a big empty hotel bed.” he whispered, running the tip of his nose up and down her jaw line. Eloise sighed contently as his fingers ran circles on the small of her back.

“At least it’s only one night.” He said quietly. “One night.”

Eloise sighed again as she pulled away from him and looked up into his dark, chocolate brown eyes. She smiled as she took his hand and led him back out to the front of the store.

“Bye baby, I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.” Brian said leaning down to kiss her again.

“Have a good show, love you.” Eloise replied.

“Love you too.” they shared another brief kiss before Eloise watched Brian walk out of the store.

****

“So what film are we watching first?” Val asked as she slumped down into the sofa, grabbing her large bucket of toffee popcorn.

“I vote The Day After Tomorrow.” Leana yelled.

“Shaun of the Dead!” Eloise countered.

“Final Destination two!” Gena yelled through a mouthful of popcorn.

“I’m with Lea.” Lacey yelled from the kitchen.

“Only cos you like Jake Gyllenhaal!” Gena yelled back with a laugh.

“Let’s start with Jake and work our way through.” Val offered a compromise that held everyone’s agreement.

Eloise curled up on the sofa and pulled the blanket around her body as she settled down for a night of movies, junk food and Margaritas. Concentration on the movies soon faltered due to the amount of tequila Lacey actually put in the Margaritas. The girls were soon giggling as they threw popcorn at each other as they talked about how they would survive a Zombie attack.

“I’d gather up all my shoes and slam the heels into their head.” Gena announced.

“Nah, you’d have to get too close, you’d need something that you could use form a long range.” Eloise stated.

“Like a golf club!” Leana offered just as David smashed the window of the Winchester with the trash can.

“That might be good, but probably too blunt, an axe or something would probably be your best bet, unless you’ve got a gun and a shit load of bullets.” Val said, seriously thinking over the theatrics of the idea.

“Blades don’t need reloading!” Gena mused as she munched another handful of popcorn, not taking her eyes of the screen.

“Good point.” Eloise said as she returned her gaze onto the screen just as Queen came blaring out of the pub’s juke box and the five girls began to sing along.

“Yeah Boy!” Leana yelled randomly as the song finished.

“Lace! Is there any Margaritas left?” Val asked staring into the bottom of her empty glass with a pout.

“Um, we should have enough stuff to make one more large jug.” She replied getting up and picking up the empty jug off the coffee table and wandered into the kitchen.

Once the seventh jug of margaritas was empty it wasn’t long after that the girls were all close to passing out on the sofas whilst they attempted to watch Final Destination Two. As Eloise dozed in and out of consciousness she became aware of her cell phone beeping at her. Opening her eyes as wide as they would allow her she smiled as she saw she had a message off Brian.

“Hey beautiful, how’s your night going? Not looking forward to spending the night without you xx”

“Missing you, I’m hammered on Lacey’s Margarita’s, Love you xx”

“Love you too, I’ll be home soon xx” he replied. Eloise smiled hazily as her eyelid fought to close again, winning easily.

She woke up the following morning with a pounding headache. She fought to keep her eyes from opening as she could feel the sun streaming through onto her face. With a loud, annoyed groan she stretched her limbs and opened her eyes. Looking around the room she saw Val and Gena curled up on the sofa opposite her but there was no sign of Lacey and Leana.

With another groan she pushed herself into a seating position and ran her fingers through her hair and down her tired face. She realised that it was her full bladder that had woken her, ready to burst, so she slowly stood and climbed the stairs to the bathroom. She took some Advil she found in the bathroom cabinet and went to make her way back down to the sofa. She stopped as she passed the door of the spare room, noticing that it had been left ajar.

“Comfier than the sofa.” She mumbled quietly to herself as she stepped forward and pushed the door further open only to find Lacey passed out on the one side of the bed. Eloise shrugged her shoulders and stepped further into the room before collapsing next to Lacey.

“Johnny?” Lacey mumbled.

“No honey, we’re at Leana’s remember?” Eloise said as Lacey peered at her through one eye. She mumbled an incoherent reply before turning her head to try and get more sleep.

It was the smell of cooking Bacon wafting up the brought both Eloise and Lacey back to the land of the living apparently two hours later. They both turned to face each other and smiled. The Advil had worked so Eloise’s head was clear.

“My head hurts!” Lacey complained as she sat up in bed.

“There’s Advil in the bathroom.” Eloise replied as she got out of bed and stretched. Eloise made her way down stairs while Lacey stopped off in the bathroom to take some Advil.
Leana was in the kitchen in front of the stove grilling bacon whilst scrambling some eggs.

“Morning” Eloise cheered as she took a seat next to Val at the kitchen table.

“Someone’s cheery this morning.” Gena said as she sipped her coffee.

“Yeah aren’t you hung over?” Val asked rubbing her temples.

“I was about three hours ago when I first woke up. But I’ve taken Advil.” She replied as Lacey joined them. Leana served up breakfast before the girls took it in turns to shower and change. Each of the girls offered to give Eloise a lift home but she insisted that it was only a few blocks and she’d enjoy the walk.

Eloise started the slow walk home she placed her earphones into her ears and searched her ipod for a song she wanted to hear. She settled for Helena by MCR and quietly sang along to herself.

She was less than a block away from her house as she had a strange feeling. The kind of feeling you get when you think someone is following you or watching you. to Eloise it was irrational. She had no idea where this feeling had come from but it was there none the less. She slowly took her nano out of her pocket and turned the volume down before placing it back into her pocket and, as casually as she could she glanced over her shoulder. There were two people behind her. One was a woman, at least in her fifties, walking her poodle. The other a younger man, probably in his mid to late twenties, wearing a dark grey suit. She quickly and calmly turned to look over her other shoulder to see a tall, slim, muscular guy get out of a metallic blue BMW that had just pulled up about a hundred yards behind her.
She couldn’t help a double take as she was sure that she recognised the man that was now walking along the opposite sidewalk. She was sure she’d seen him before somewhere but couldn’t figure it out.

“Stop being paranoid!” she mumbled inaudibly to herself as she looked up to see her house come into view. She wasn’t happy though until she was safely inside her house, curled up on the sofa with Pinkly.

As she lay on the sofa, waiting for Brian to return, she couldn’t help her mind wander, trying to figure out where she knew that guy from. She knew she recognised him from somewhere.