Taken and Misused.

Stephen was making me feel increasingly uncomfortable the further we drove. He didn’t talk, look at me, or anything that would show he acknowledged I was in the car. His dark eyes stayed focused on the road and his lips were set in a frown. I crossed my arms and frowned at him, although it was more of a pout compared to his stare.

“Are you not going to explain what you said earlier?” I asked, referring to the cryptic statement he had made when we had gotten in his car. The rain still hammered the car and Stephen had his windshield wipers on the highest setting.

He didn’t even glance at me when he spoke. “No” he said curtly.

“Why?” I pushed, crossing my arms now.

“I do not have to explain that to you, hopefully nothing like that will have to be discussed with you” he said, his Russian accent making each word short and precise.

“Why should nothing be discussed with me?” I asked, trying to see how far I could get without going too far. I was trying very hard to keep my tone even and calm at this point, his answers were getting on my nerves. They couldn’t even be considered adequate answers.

“Because, you will not be near trouble anymore” he said, his tone never changing from that unemotional tone. I raised an eyebrow, a habit I was getting from Vaughn, and shifted so I was facing the road once more. I knew what trouble he was talking about.

“Trouble as is the type that would include you and Vaughn?” I muttered, watching as we approached my apartment building. I had no clue where his sudden protectiveness and worry over my safety had come from. I had preferred it when he had just snapped at me about wrong dance steps. Now that he was trying to get involved in my personal life he was suddenly a lot more annoying.

“Yes” he said, pulling into the arched drive way that brought us right to the grand entrance of the building. I decided that his answers were worse than Vaughn’s; with Stephen I was finding it rare to get more than two syllables half the time. “We are here” he indicated even though I already knew. He had stopped and was now still staring out the windshield. He had turned off the windshield wipers so they didn’t soak the valet staff.

“What would happen if I didn’t stay away from Vaughn and you?” I asked, not moving to get out of the car yet. Compared to his Russian accent, my French one sounded very pronounced even though it had started to fade due to my extensive study of American TV shows. I didn’t like not being able to pronounce my English words right.

Stephen’s expression changed, suddenly I saw remorse in his eyes but it was gone in the next second, replaced by that empty, emotionless gaze.

Which was now directed at me.

“You life would be on the line” he said, “are you willing to gamble with that Elisabeth?” now he sounded a little angry, but I had no clue why he suddenly cared about me. I also had no clue what this whole ‘your life would be on the line’ was about, was he saying there was a chance I would be killed just be being around Vaughn and him? “I am in a hurry, so if you could please get out I would appreciate it” he said, his curt, angry words making me wonder how he could care about me just a few seconds ago. There was no way; there was probably something on the line for him that I could ruin if I didn’t listen to him.

“Thanks for the ride” I muttered, not as appreciative as it should have been but his last comment had gotten me mad. I closed the door a little too hard and pulled my dance bag out of the backseat, slamming that door as well. It gave me a little satisfaction when I saw Stephen frowning at me after I slammed the doors; he opened the passenger side window and leaned over to it so he could talk to me.

“I really do want you to stay safe, you don’t belong in the world me and Vaughn are in” Stephen said.

“Why don’t you tell me what world that is instead of being all cryptic?” I snapped, getting annoyed with all of these uninformative comments.

“I cannot tell you that Elisabeth” he said, he then closed the window and drove off before I could yell at him further. I muttered a few unladylike words under my breath in French and then walked through the front doors of my apartment building. A quick glance back showed me that the two valet men were staring after me with wide eyes. I guess that was the second time I was dropped off here and the person driving me sped off the moment I was out of the car. I situated my bag on my shoulder and went to the elevators.

“Mademoiselle Elisabeth, what has kept you out so late?” I recognized the nasally voice of the apartment manager, Jonathan. He was an uppity man who had a nose big enough to stick in everyone’s business. But it seemed to be wedged in mine on the order of my step-mother. He also always tried to win me over with his short French vocabulary, his pronunciation was horrible but he never seemed to notice. The most fun I had had with him was when I had spoken only in French to him because he had spewed a lame excuse for a sentence in French. Watching him flounder to understand me had been extremely funny.

“My dance class ran late” I answered curtly, sometimes I felt bad for being mean to him but he always spied on everything I did in the building and always asked me where I had gone during my day. It was hard to be nice to someone like that.

“I never saw you come in last night” he said, trying to act nonchalant.

“You must not have noticed me, possibly your spying skills are waning?” I responded curtly. Having to deal with Stephen and this man in the same day was not going to go well. I turned to face Jonathan with a frown, he stopped too, obviously surprised at my answer. Usually I was more than kind to him, much more gratitude than the man deserved but I had never been a confrontational person.

Until now.

“Because most of the time I swear you have at least three sets of eyes on me, should I find it disturbing or flattering. Because I find it annoying, tell my step-mother I do not need a babysitter” I turned away from Jonathan after my rant and hit the up button on the elevators. When I got in Jonathan was still staring at me in surprise.

I leaned against the wall of the elevator. I had gone through too much today, way too much. Yet I had gotten not one answer, just more hints, more unexplained commands, and more questions. For a moment I just stood there then I went to the control panel and selected my floor, I reached into my dance bag to get my access card out of it I couldn’t find it. I set my bag down and searched for a moment until I had decided I didn’t have it on me, which was odd because I always kept that card in my dance bag because most of the time I always had my dance bag with me. The last time I had ised it was when I had met Aleksander in the elevator but I knew I had slipped into my pocket after I had finished. I just brushed it off as an accident, it was probably still in the pocket of those pants. I stood and typed in the code and then the elevator began to rise. As it slowly ascended the many floors I tried to figure out where I could’ve left my key other than the sweats I had been wearing that day, I really didn’t want to go get another one because I wasn’t a big fan of interacting with the staff here, every time I asked for something I could tell their smiles were fake and it bothered me. I knew two people who were very straightforward with me, one was a stubborn Russian who was even more cryptic than my ballet instructor, the other was a smug American who raced cars and was very dangerous according to the stubborn Russian. So maybe the building staff weren’t that bad.

I’ve been in America for a little over two months and already I was going through stuff like this, I had no clue how to classify it. Drama? Trouble? Both would fit wonderfully, I thought wryly as the elevator doors opened to my floor. I hefted my bag onto my shoulder and pulled my keys out of my sweat pants pocket, the lock clicked and I pushed the door open. There was no welcome when I walked through the doors and I was greeted once more with an empty apartment. Even though Stephen warned me against talking and hanging out with Vaughn I couldn’t get rid of the one person I had right now that actually made me feel like a human being. I could talk to him, he made me laugh, smile, he looked out for me, told me the truth, didn’t judge me. The list kept getting longer as I thought about it. I dropped my duffle bag onto one of the elegant white couches and frowned, realization dawning on me.

Did I love Vaughn?