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.

shaking arms to hold

if all the tough facade she had shown him

all by herself now. Everyone had left for real. She

went to L City was to visit her

a few nice meals with them. But none of that ever happened. What was

assumed that they went out for some groceries. She wanted to surprise them and didn't call. But when

All of them just looked at her with sad

didn't care about the way they looked at her. However, she started to panic after she didn't hear anything about

tried to avoid talking about them at first. She tried

her grandparents had passed away and it

caught a cold in their lives, but this sickness caught on them all of a sudden.

tell Ellie. They said that they might fight it through and they didn't want to

the story, she didn't believe

J City. She didn't believe that any sickness could just take their

had known, she would not agree

she mourned until she decided to return

and saw her sitting on the bed, holding her knees, her head buried between them and crying out

He wondered why it was so hard for her to accept that they had spent

breakfast platter on the

him, surprised, "Why are you still

eyes were red and swollen, but she

Francis sighed, "Did you forget what I told you last night? No matter what

at him with a blank expression.

didn't know if she

tempting when he told

over

didn't know what to

huge traumatic mark on her.

was different. She didn't hate the idea

realized it, but she was happy

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