The Billionaire’s Burden(40)

Lucy sank down beside me, chewing her lip.

"That's not fair." She said, looking at me, "Why wouldn't he want to show you off to his friends? This is a great time to introduce you to everyone."

I shook my head, leaning my chin onto my palm. It stung, not knowing why he didn't want me around. He had these parties so frequently, why would I be invited?

"Do you think he's doing drugs over there?" I whispered, "Or another girl?"

My roommate twirled the edge of her ponytail, inspecting the broken ends, "If it's anything, it's probably another girl."

It was always another girl.

"I guess that's that, then." I sighed sadly, leaning against the couch, "I shouldn't have gotten involved with the neighbor. Now we’ll have to keep seeing him every day."

Lucy shrugged, "He avoided us for a year, he's graduating soon, he'll be out of our hair soon enough."

"Is this how you felt when you found out Jake cheated on you?" I asked, looking at her.

She paused, going back to inspecting her hair, unwilling to look at me. It hurt me how much it still obviously pained my best friend to think about that moment in her recent past. It was still fresh only a few months later. They'd dated for longer than I'd even known about Eli though.

Suddenly, Lucy thrust the bottle into my hands, "Get your ass over there." She said with a firm nod.

"...what?" I whispered, "But it's girls night, and you bought this wine?" Lucy was never selfless. Not usually, anyways.

"He should have invited you." She said firmly, "Now get over there and give him this bottle of wine and get whatever little tart he's fooling around with out of the picture!"

I wasn't sure whether to laugh at the prospect of barging into Eli's apartment or Lucy's use of the word 'tart.'

I didn't have much time to think about it either, as Lucy stood, pulling me to my feet and shoving me out of the apartment.

"And don't you come back until you've talked to him!" She said, slamming the door and locking it.

She probably just wanted to pick the movie on Netflix.

With a sigh, I walked the whole two feet over to Eli’s apartment.

From where I stood, the music was deafening. I could barely hear myself think, or hear the hesitant knocks that I lay on his wooden door.

I bit my lip, standing awkwardly there as I glanced up and down the hallway.

I'd never been in Eli's apartment, I'd never even knocked on his door before.

When he didn't answer, I gently turned the knob. If he was having a party, he'd probably have it unlocked after all, so people could come and go. That was pretty typical, right? It wasn’t like I could just go back to my own apartment, Lucy wouldn’t let me in until I tried to speak with Eli.

The door opened with ease, swinging open to reveal the dark shadows of his living room.

What kind of party was this supposed to be?

There was no one here that I could see, the lights of his apartment were all off, nothing moved in the shadows.

"...Hello?" I called slowly, stepping inside. I left the front door open behind me, the only light that shone was from the hallway lights.

From inside his bedroom, I heard the whimper of a puppy.

When had Eli gotten a dog? He'd never even mentioned it to me. Where was Eli? Had they run out of ice and gone for more, or maybe the party had moved to another house and he'd forgotten to turn off his music?

Hesitantly, I flipped on a light, looking around the living room.

Everything was immaculate, from the brown sofa to the white walls. Though it was sparse, with little decoration. A huge pile of dirty dishes sat in his sink, though they didn't look old. Perhaps it'd been a dinner party.

Slowly, I closed the door after me, looking for the source of the deafening music. Quickly, I found the stereo player, switching it off just as the dog howled from inside Eli’s closed bedroom door.

I rubbed one of my ears, trying to soothe away the pounding left from the heavy metal. The poor dog was probably even more miserable than I was. I’d never noticed Eli to be so careless, I’d have to talk to him about it later.

The dog whined again, it had gotten stuck in there whenever Eli left.

"I'm coming, boy!" I called to him, setting the bottle of wine down on the pristine counter.

The dog's howls came more frequently now, deep and bellowing. It had to be a mastiff or something, with the huge amount of noise it made. It was a little intimidating.

When I got to the bedroom door, I pushed at it, trying to open it, but it was locked from the other side.

Rapping on the wood, I pressed my ear against it, listening.

I could hear nothing but the startled cries of the huge puppy.

Had something happened to Eli? There was no way he could just be sleeping through the music and the dog howling. Was he hurt?