Free and Captured ~Eric love story

Chapter thirty- missed this

Entering the hall I instantly feel like this is a bad idea. It's loud and crammed full of people, I mean it's always like this but today is worse than others because today the rankings come out and everyone wants to know who gets cut. I feel my breathing grow heavy and my head foggy at the thought of having to go into the crowd. As Eric takes a step forward I quickly cling to his arm with both hands, pulling him back to me. He looked down at me as I hid my body behind him.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asks.

I shake my head "I can't do this. I can't."

He sighs and takes me to a corner away from all the noise. "Mer look at me," he says gently, but when I don't listen he grabs my chin between his thumb and pointer finger and makes me look at him.

"You can do this," he says firmly.

"You won't leave my side right," I ask softly looking at him through my eyelashes

He smiles a little, "I wouldn't dream of it. Ok?"

I nod yes and he nods and then starts to direct me towards the table my friends are sitting at, keeping his hand on the small of my back, pushing me along. As I look around I feel millions of eyes follow me, I hear people start to whisper about how close Eric is standing to me. I squeezed my eyes shut wishing away all the people and their rumours, I don't need people thinking I slept my way to the top and I don't want to ruin Eric's reputation.

Suddenly we stop and I see that we're at the table already. All of my friends are talking together and not paying attention to anything so they don't see me right away. Not until Eric clears his throat and they all stop talking and slowly look at him. For a second it's quiet and then Cassy is the first to jump up and squeal.

"NO WAY!" she says, crushing me in a hug. "I missed you!" she says into my shoulder as she hugs me tighter.

I squeezed her back "I missed you too"

"We missed your love," Cole says, engulfing me in a hug when Cassy finally lets go.

I smile at the sound of his accent, I miss his soothing voice. Noah, Jace, and Sawyer tackle me into a group hug. "We missed you so much!" Sawyer yells

I cough "ok guys let's not crush the soul out of my body," I say patting them on the back. Even Sierra flashes me a kind smile and welcomes me back.

"Ok, ok come sit down, we have loads to fill you in on!" Cassy says excitedly. They all return to their seats but before I join them I turn around to look at Eric.

"Thank you," I say softly

"For what?" he asks tilting his head confused

"For not giving up on me and helping me get back into the world

He chuckles "Of course princess" He leans down and kisses my forehead. I feel my cheeks heat up and timidly smile. He laughs again "I'll see you later be back at the apartment by the normal curfew, everyone else might have a break but your training begins again, I might not be there but here is a key for my apartment and just hop into bed, I'm sure I'll be there soon after, ok?" he asks as he presses the cold metal of the key into my palm. I nod at him and he nods before walking off toward his friends.

"Mer!" Cassy yells at me and I spin around shoving the key into my pocket. "What in the world was that!" she exclaimed with a checking smile.

I laughed and shushed her as I slid into the seat beside her "Nothing, I'll talk to you later" I whispered to her. "Now, what have I missed?"

I'm quickly engulfed in the conversation as my friends fill me in on all that has happened, and I smile to myself, I missed this.

Eric's POV:

I walk over to my friends who are all sitting at a table together, I flop down beside Ty and Xander and smack my head onto the table.

"I'm in desperate need of a party" I groan into the table and then look up at my friends

"Aw what's wrong Eric, do you feel your masculinity declining as you become pussy whipped over an initiate?" Xander says with a fake pout.

I glare at him "First of all; shut up, and second of all; I will hurt you" I grumble.

Just then the three girls show up and Rachel smacks Xander in the back of the head. "There you go Eric," Rachel says sitting between me and her boyfriend.

"Thank you, Rach," I said, planting a kiss on her cheek. Cause her to laugh.

"I hate you all," Xander grumbles

"You love us," Rachel says, kissing him on the lips quickly, but before she can pull away Xander grabs her face and they start a full make-out session.

"Ew, guys come on!" Tyler says standing up and pushing them apart by sitting between them. "We are throwing a party!"

"Where?" Myles asks

"I was hoping for your place.." I say looking at him with puppy-dog eyes

"Nooo! You guys never clean up after yourselves."

"We promise we will! You have the biggest place though!"

"no ! Eric you do!" he points accusingly

"Ya but Mer is there."

He sighs "Fine! But you have to clean up the next day!"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!" Ty says jumping up and down, "I'm going to go start setting up"

"I swear he is a little fruity," Andrew says with a chuckle

We all laugh and then, Xander, Andrew, and Myle start talking about random things. Well, the three girls talk about what to wear tonight.

I mainly sit and listen enjoying this time of simplicity

I missed this...