21 Heart of Glass

Elle entered the bathroom, there were two or three other ladies, but other than that it was empty. Elle was thankful for the peace and quite. She wanted to let out her feelings, but she had no one to complain to. So Elle did what she knew best; she pulled out her phone and opened her story.

Once she had posted the update Elle turned and looked at herself in the mirror. She touched up her makeup and noticed that her eyes were ever so slightly red. She frowned at her reflection. The girl in the mirror was plainly unhappy. And while Elle was unhappy, she was determined to hide it away in her story. As she looked in the mirror and altered her smile until she was satisfied; too big and it would be obviously false, too small and no one would notice the smile at all. Elle had spent the last year finding the perfect balance.

Once she had stored her emotions away, and reassumed the smile on her face she went back out to join the party.

She walked around the room slowly, occasionally greeting other guests that she recognized. She spoke to a few members of the industry, and a few of her father's friends. Elle's cheeks began to hurt from the stiffness with which she held the smile on her face.

As she was looking for a quite corner to hide in again she spotted Abby who had finally shown up. Abby had her dark hair up in a fancy bun, and she was wearing the short sleeveless purple dress they had bought together the previous week.

Abby stood with a gentleman that Elle couldn't identify at first, but as she eagerly approached her friend Elle realized she was speaking to Jacob.

"You're finally here." Elle said with a smirk as she approached them.

Abby's eyes lit up as she saw her friend. "You look great today!" She exclaimed as she took in Elle's outfit.

Jacob cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Ah, Elle this is Jacob." Abby said suddenly finding her manners.

"I know." Elle said bitterly.

"Are you two already acquainted?" Abby asked confused.

"We live together." Elle said blatantly. Another person may have misunderstood her words, but Abby's eyes widened with understanding.

Her words may have been misleading, but Elle had picked them carefully. She didn't want to acknowledge Jacob as her family. Not to his face at the very least.

Abby stood awkwardly for a moment, unsure of what to do. Elle took her hand and pulled her away. "Excuse us Jacob."

"What's wrong?" Abby asked as her friend pulled her away. "You seem upset."

"It's nothing." Elle lied. "I'm just a little tired." She didn't mean for things to go this way, but recently she found herself lying more and more often.

Meanwhile, Adam had been speaking to Mr. Carter when he felt his phone buzz. He excused himself and went aside to check his phone.

He had thought it would be an email, or a message from David. Instead he saw that he received a notification that Elle's story had been updated. She hadn't updated her story for many days now, this was the first time Adam received the notification.

He looked around the room and spotted Elle not too far from him. She was standing with another girl, and although she was chatting with a smile on her face it was a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

Adam recalled how she unhappily walked away from her father earlier. He opened the update, and found his suspicions confirmed.

Elle had only written two brief sentences.

"Even such simple insults make my heart tighten in my chest. It's as if I have a heart of glass about to break."

Adam frowned as he read. Elle had a seemingly normal life, and yet she wrote such heavy hearted words. It was natural to assume that a story was just a story, but it appeared that things weren't as simple as that. As Adam looked back up at Elle he wondered, exactly how much of the story was true?