A Love Trap

"Ellie! Stop... talking... like that!" he spluttered.

Francis might have been with a lot of women, but he took nobody seriously. Those women knew it and they didn't mind.

But Ellie was different. He never thought of treating her badly.

He could not fathom why she had to hurt herself like that.

He was really upset. Not because of what she thought about him, but because of how she saw herself.

The worst part of it was that she called him "Mr. Francis." The fact that she called him "Mr. Francis"

hurt him the most.

Ellie closed her eyes and pursed her lips. She didn't say anything.

Francis grabbed both her shoulders and forced her to look at him. "Ellie, please tell me you're joking." He looked at her, his eyes firm with pleading and frustration. "Please tell me you didn't mean any of what you just said."

Francis' eyes spoke sincerely to Ellie.

She couldn't take another look at him. She needed strength to say what she was about to say, "No, I meant everything I said."

Francis could see right through her lie. He shouted, "Look me in the eye and tell me again! You didn't mean any of that, right?"

Ellie looked into his eyes, her visage as fierce as the crunching in her chest. "I meant it. I meant every bit of it. You may leave Mr. Francis."

Ellie pointed to the door gesturing for Francis to leave.

"Fine!" Francis clenched his jaw and gnashed his teeth in anger.

He let go of her and turned around to leave.

The thud that came from the shutting door made Ellie flinch. As the door closed, the room fell into silence.

Ellie could only look at the direction where he had gone.

to hold herself. Her

tough facade she had shown him earlier had started

had left for real. She was really all alone.

L City was to visit her grandparents.

have a few nice meals with them. But none of that ever happened. What was waiting for her was the news she never

she arrived. She assumed that they went out for some groceries. She wanted to surprise them and didn't call. But when it was getting dark, and they were still not home, she

never really got an answer. All of them just looked at

after she didn't hear anything about her grandparents for the whole day. She went to the neighbors and

about them at first. She tried to ask

her grandparents had passed away and it had already been

but this sickness caught on them all of a sudden. With their

they might fight it through and they didn't want to make her worry.

she didn't believe

grandparents were fine during their last visit to J City. She didn't believe that

she had known, she would not

until she decided to return

to Ellie's house and saw her sitting on the bed, holding her knees,

really bad. He wondered why it was so hard for her to accept that they

something first." He places a breakfast

surprised,

red and swollen, but she couldn't keep her

last night? No matter what

at him with

if she

told her

over Ellie.

didn't know what to do.

traumatic mark on her. She

was different. She didn't hate the idea of

was happy when he was

she felt lost. She wasn't sure about what she was feeling, but she knew that she cared about