Chapter 9

Third person p.o.v

Ezra’s eyes swirled with adoration as he gazed at the raven haired beauty, A warm smile gracing his features as he supported his weight in the doorway. He scrunched his brows thoughtfully, peering at her sleeping form curled up tightly on the bed. 'keeps her walls up even when she sleeps..' he thought to himself.

What was he going to do? Every time he touched her, her body held tension. He could sense her unease. It seemed like every time she made progress he ruined it. When she had ran out of the kitchen a few hours earlier it made his heart seize with pain. He could see the pain in her eyes when he'd asked about yesterday, she looked like she was going to be sick. He sighed in frustration, closing the door gently. Hell, with what she’s been through, he didn't blame her, but this connection that pulled at his chest, that clawed at his heart wouldn't let him ignore it. He couldn’t stand to watch her in agony anymore. He’d felt it for so many years, and she didn’t deserve to go through it alone anymore.

He was going to help her through this, even if she fought him the whole damn way.

His eyes were determined as he picked up the phone to call a certain

red-headed best friend of his.

His fingers drummed against the table. the ring of his cell phone buzzing through his ears. He listened intently as the ringing halted. His ears perked at the muffled shouting from the other line. “Eli, you ok man?” Ezra questioned slowly. He flinched back as one more yell screeched through his phone speaker. “Hey, Ez..Sorry about that,” he breathed out thickly. “Uh, its fine Eli. But, you good man?” He asked. “Yeah.. I’m fine. Just Amelia being Amelia.” He sighed in frustration. He rolled his eyes, cocking his brow with a shake of his head. Amelia is Elliot’s soulmate. To Ezra’s recollection she, Elliot, Myles and himself had been together for as long as he could recall. Ezra and Elliot had been together since they were in diapers. Elliot's parents were quite close to his grandmother, who he had lived with since he was a wee little thing. His mother had died during childbirth, his father "couldn’t stand to look at the thing that took away his beloved" so he'd left his newly born child with his wife’s mother. Thus Ezra had never actually met his parents, but him and Elliot had been pretty much inseparable. When the two boys started pre-school is when they met Myles and Amelia. To Ezra’s surprise they were actually related, which was hard for Ezra's little mind to comprehend, due to the drastic differences in personalities of the duo, but cousins they were. Amelia sure made an impression, dragging poor Myles by the ear their way. When she had finally stopped her assault on Myles ear, she had him in front of Ezra and Elliot. Amelia had then boldly declared that they were going to be her friends, and of course Elliot being who he is, immediately agreed. So that's what happened, well kinda; it was mostly years of Ezra and Myles being drug around by the two trouble making extroverts, trying to keep them from getting arrested. In his mind though, that was just fate doing its job. Because low and behold when Elliot turned 12, he, after a few days, figured out that he and Amelia were soulmates. “Ezra!?” Elliot's loud voice sounded through the line, snapping Ezra out of his reminiscing. “Oh, sorry...” An amused scoff came from his friend. “Were you daydreaming about her again~” Ezra’s brow ticked up imagining the look that went with his friend's mocking tone. “No, actually. Oh and about that imightofkindafoundherandnowshesinmyhouse.”

“What the hell did you just say?” Elliot asked in confusion. Ezra took a long, deep breath. “I said,.. I might of.. kinda found her, rescued her and now she's in my house…”

There was a heavy silence for a minute. “OH MY GOD! EZRA! TELL ME RIGHT NOW THAT I'M NOT HEARING THINGS!”

Ezra winced, pulling the phone away from his ear as his best friend shrieked. “Uh.. your not hearing things?” He thanked god that he had pulled the phone away from his face because somehow the howling of his friend got even louder. “Be quiet please! I swear! you're gonna to wake her from all the way upstairs if you don't stop hollerin like a hyena,” Ezra scolded, Elliot's banter calmed immediately, knowing from experience not to test Ezra’s limits. “So you really found her.. after all these years,” Elliot muttered in disbelief.

“Congratulations, dude!” He bellowed. A chuckle escaped Ezra’s lips. “Thank you, Eli.” His ears perked slightly at the light noise from upstairs

“So when do i get to meet her.” Elliots question broke the silence, capturing his attention again. “Uh well, that's the problem.. she’s really iffy with people.. so I don’t know, I don't want to make her uncomfortable.”

“Ah, I see. Well bro, it's pretty expected with all she's probably been through.. I mean I think I'd be pretty scared of a big bad baker to if I was her..” Ezra sighed and chuckled, “really elliot, I'm not scary.. am I?"

Elliot chuckled. "Well that depends who you ask I guess. You can be a big ole teddy bear but yeah you can be pretty scary.. I know that from personal experience." Elliot whispered shudder over the line getting a very unimpressed look from ezra.

"Thanks.. cause that was really reassuring…" ezra sighed. " But seriously man, It’s frustrating and makes me feel helpless. I mean, I’m not frustrated with her.. it's just I want so bad to love her and to help her but i can only help so much when she doesn't want it.” He exclaimed, his fingers knitted through his hair in frustration. Elliot took a deep breath. “Well, bro.. I don’t know what to tell you, but all I can say is, give her time.” Ezra sucked in a long breath, taking in his words. “Yeah.. thanks dude.” Just then something thumped against the floor from upstairs. Making the ceiling rattle. Concern raced through his veins making his skin rise with goosebumps. “Elliot, I need to go!. Bye!.” He hung up not giving him a chance to reply. He darted upstairs, his belly churning with anxiety. His foot caught on a stair making him lose his balance before quickly catching the rail. 'why do I have so many stairs!' he didn't give himself any more time to ponder before he bounded up the rest of the stairs.