Thick and Thin

It was the day before the rehearsal and I felt that time was moving way too fast. Eli and I were still keeping our distance from each other. Occasionally we would say something but other than that I tried avoiding him as much as I possibly could.

Sara and I along with Adam and Eli were standing in the middle of a pavilion where the reception was going to be held. It was huge. They added on canopies for later in the night or in case it rained, and a dance floor and already had some of the lights set up. They showed us where they were going to set the dinner tables and the buffet and have everything brought out to each table. They were serving grilled chicken breast or tilapia, along with mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, and for dessert vanilla or chocolate cupcakes.

There was going to be an open bar also, which cost Audra and Sara's mom a fortune. Since Sara's mom had spent half on the wedding Audra wanted to contribute also and spent the other half.

The sun was starting to set as Adam and Sara went through the rehearsal dinner menu, which will be a four course meal; Soup or salad, steak or chicken with potatoes and green beans, then some salad again or soup, and then dessert which will be chocolate cake or lemon meringue.

After they had that all situated, we all went to the air port to welcome our families. Luckily they were all on the same flight. I ran up to my mom and hugged her tight.

"Oh!! Florida!" She shrieked. I pulled away and rolled my eyes. "Time to tan this pale ass of mine."

Audra ran up to Adam and Sara, both hugging them and smiling at my moms comment. "We gave her a few drinks to calm her down," She whispered to me and I laughed. "I'm Audra, by the way."

"Alex, it's great to finally meet you," I said, holding my hand out to shake hers. She shook her head and pulled me into a hug.

"I think she may have had a few drinks herself," Adam commented. "OW!" He shouted. When I pulled from Audra I saw a man a little taller than Adam rubbing his knuckles against Adams scalp.

"Drew," Audra warned. He let go of Adam and gave him a hug.

"Where's Bianca?" Adam asked searching the crowd. Drew's smile faded.

"She couldn't make it. She's taking extra classes in the summer for her school resume."

I saw Eli walking ahead of us to greet a couple which I was guessing was his parents. My mom looked and saw Eli then gasped and looked at me with her mouth wide open.

"He's here?" She asked. I nodded. "Oh. He's so handsome," She said, walking towards him.

"Mom," I tried stopping her, but there was nothing I could do.

"Hey Eli," My mom smiled and pulled him in a hug. To my surprise he didn't even object but accepted it warmly.

"Hey Miss Tubbs. This is Bull Frog and CeCe, my parents." They hugged and said their nice to meet you's before his parents turned to me.

"You must be the Alex he rambles about," his mom said warmly and pulled me into a hug.

"He's told us a lot about you," His dad smiled, patting my back. His voice was deep and raspy.

"Good things, hopefully," I said nervously. They nodded and went to talk more to their son.

"Well, Audra, Sharon and I are all staying in the same hotel. We found a great suite with a good deal since there are three of us. Drew is just going to stay with Eli and Adam," My mom smiled. I was happy they all had become friends.

Once everyone got acquainted, the parents all left for their hotels and said good bye to all of us. We headed back to our apartments with the addition of Drew. He was very loud but really funny. They started to get ready for their bachelor party as Sara and I got ready for the bachelorette party.

She said she didn't want to do much, so I planned a night at a karaoke bar right down the road and asked our moms to join. Adam had promised he wouldn't allow strippers if Sara agreed on no male strippers. I was slightly disappointed. I didn't find male strippers sexy in any way, I just thought it would be a great laugh.

All the ladies met up at the bar, my mom already drinking some kind of cocktail. Sara and I settled with a strawberry margarita, Eli's mom and Audra sipped on red wine.

We were all laughing hysterically as my mom and Sara's mom attempted to sing "Crying" by Aerosmith.

"Alright we have a bride to be out there, let's get her ass up here with the maid of honor!!!" Sara's mom shouted in the microphone. The crowd roared and cheered for us to get up there. I was already feeling a slight buzz so I was ready to go.

As soon as we got up there, they had chose a song for us to sing. Of course it was "Like a virgin" by Madonna. We laughed as we messed up the words and the crowd was cheering and clapping.

By the end of the night, my stomach ached from laughing so hard. We had to pretty much carry Sara to a cab because she could barely walk. Our mom's were dropped off at the hotel they were staying at and we were dropped off at our apartment. After I paid the driver, I carried Sara into the elevator, stumbling a little myself, and fumbled for my keys.

"Need help?" Someone asked, making me jump and drop my keys.

"Jesus, Eli. What are you doing here?"

He was leaning against the railing with his hands in his jean pockets. He was wearing a black jacket with the sleeves rolled up and a white shirt underneath with white sneakers. He gave a sideways smile.

"I was locked out of the hotel."

"And you couldn't ask the secretary for another key?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I didn't want to be bored." Sara started to groan.

"Eli? Hi Eli!" She waved. I laughed and picked the key up. Eli walked over and picked Sara up like a baby. When I opened the door, I let him go in first and he set her down on her bed in her room. I grabbed the aspirin I had on my nightstand and a bottle of water and set it next to her bed. Eli left the room so I could get her dressed in her pajamas.

"She has never been that drunk," I muttered, closing the door behind. He was sitting on the couch, eyes on the TV and petting Meike. "Why aren't you at the bachelor party?" I asked, wondering if I asked it already.

"I don't know," he shrugged. "Everyone was pretty much gone and I didn't feel like drinking." I nodded and opened a bottle of strawberry wine and poured just a little in a glass. I took it and sat on the other sofa that was unoccupied and set my feet on the coffee table.

We watched Family Guy, occasionally laughing at certain parts. Neither of us talked for a whole episode. My eyes started to feel a little heavy, so I decided to get up and take a quick shower.

"You can stay here, I guess," I said, scratching the back of my neck. I was still confused why he just didn't go back to the hotel. Maybe he really didn't want to be alone, I wondered. He nodded and drank his water and fixed his eyes back on the TV.

I felt a lot better after my shower, washing the sweat and the alcohol sweat off of me. I dried my hair with the towel and put on a pair of leggings and a purple t-shirt. When I opened the door, not to my surprise, Eli was still there. He had taken his jacket and shoes off, his hair messy. My face still felt hot from the shower so I turned the ceiling fan on.

"Have you seen this?" he asked as I sat down at my previous spot. I shook my head. "It's hilarious," he smiled. I nodded.

We didn't talk for that episode either, but that was fine by me. I was still weary about him, but Sara made me realize how I really feel about this guy. Just sitting in silence wasn't awkward, it wasn't uncomfortable, it wasn't strange, it just felt right. I would steal glances every now and then, secretly just wanting to see his smile. I looked at the clock and it read midnight. He looked over at me and smiled.

"If you want to go to bed, go ahead," he said softly. I shook my head and kept watching TV. My cell phone started to ring, but it wasn't my personal phone, it was my work phone. I hurried up to answer it.

"You okay?" I asked quickly.

"No," the girl on the other end spoke. "No i'm not. They let him go, he's going to come after me." She started frantically screaming other words I couldn't understand. I took a deep breath to try and take some of this is.

"Honey, breathe. It's going to be ok. He doesn't know where you live now, the prison is in California right?"

"Yeah," She sniffed on the other end.

"That's across the country. Did you talk to your mom about this?" I could hear her start to cry again.

"He made contact with her..."

"Call your aunt, tell her to pick you up. Pack your bags and do not tell your mom where you are going, ok? Don't worry about the police, I'll take care of that. I'll call you in an hour to make sure you're safe, ok?"

"Ok, i'll call her now," She hung up the phone and I grabbed my car keys.

"Come on," I called to Eli. His face looked confused, slightly scared.

"What's going on?"

"Just get in the car, we're going to the police real quick."

"I'll drive then, you've had some drinks. It's not very smart to be driving there intoxicated."

I rolled my eyes and handed him the keys, feeling his hand brush my causing me to blush. We hurried down the stairs and we drove to the police station.

"I need to talk to someone about a child molester that was released in California," I spoke as soon as I walked into the station.

"And you are?" The secretary asked.

"I'm Alexis Tubbs, i'm a counselor over at Cindy's Counseling. One of my patients was raped by this man and she just called to tell me he made contact with her mom and was on his way there." My chest was heaving and I forgot to breathe. The secretary nodded and paged an officer.

"I'm Officer Johnson, what's the trouble?" He asked concerned. I told him what I had told the secretary.

"I already told her to call her aunt and not tell her mom where she was going just in case. I just wanted her to be safe and to let you guys know. She's so scared." I could feel tears starting to escape for this girl. I was scared too. The officer nodded and put his hand on my shoulder.

"I'll have someone patrolling that area. I'll need the her number so I can get ahold of her aunt, also we'll have the aunts home patrolled just to be safe. This man isn't aloud within so many feet around kids since he's registered, chances are he'll be booted out of here anyway. Just for now, we need to keep her safe, as for the other kids."

I nodded and told him thank you, I went ahead and called her on the spot and handed the officer the phone. She gave him all the information and said she was in her aunts car going to the next town over. He paged officers to go patrol the area. He handed me the phone and put his hand on my shoulder again.

"You did a good thing. Let us know if anything else comes up." I nodded and Eli and I left the station.

We sat in my car in the parking lot for a good ten minutes, staring off into space and not saying anything. My hands were still trembling.

"You're amazing," he finally spoke. I turned to face him. "I mean, you handled that so well. I would've fallen apart."

"They teach you how to remain calm in these situations. What helps is you stay calm during, and freak out after when they don't see or hear you," I smiled a shaky smile. Tears were still escaping from my eyes. She was safe now, I reminded myself. It would be days before he even reached here.

Eli started up the car and we headed back to the apartment. He unlocked the door and lead me in. I laid down on the couch and let out a loud sigh.

"The guys are probably back," Eli announced, drumming his hands on his legs. "I think i'm going to go ahead and take off."

"Are you sure?" I asked sitting up. I cleared my throat. Don't sound too sad, I said to myself sarcastically. "I mean, it's late. You can crash on the couch." I stood up to go to the linen closet to grab an extra blanket and pillow. When I came back into the living room he wore nothing but his boxers.

Hot damn.

"Here," I said shyly, handing him the blanket and pillow. I cleared my throat again. "Good night, then." I turned and headed to my room. Before closing the door, I turned and saw him look over at me on the couch and smirk.