"Thank you." Jess suddenly whispered in Elijah's ear as the two were sitting, wrapped up in each other's arms on the black matted couch. They had spent the evening watching The Conjuring whilst Kylie had spent the night at her mothers' home.

They shared what Kylie had dubbed a sociopathic obsession for horror movies. They knew they wouldn't be watching any for the next few months as Kylie had made it crystal clear that she loathed them and that they could watch them over her dead body.

"Thank you for what?" Elijah replied, his eyes refusing to avert themselves from the image on the television screen.

"For being you?"

The corners of his mouth swiftly slid upwards accompanied with miniature creases forming around his eyes.

"Cheesy much, Jess?" He chuckled in response.

"I mean for trying with Kylie, stupid. I know she's not your favourite person, but I like that you're making a real effort with her. For me. It means a lot." She grinned deeply, the freckles across her cheek and on the bridge of her nose moving in synchrony as her facial muscles flexed.

Elijah had always called the freckles painted across Jess's face his 'angel kisses' and constantly likened them with constellations in the night sky.

He'd even used the cheesy line when he proposed to her of how he'd wanted to spend the remainder of his life tracing and counting the constellations on her face and across her body.

"I love you, Jess. There's absolutely nothing I wouldn't do for you. You know that, don't you?" He cupped her face gently as he stroked her cheek.

Jess closed her eyes to the feel of his touch. Nothing could ever compare to being touched by the person who acknowledges your flaws and loves you regardless, the person who loves your soul no matter how big or small your sins may be and the one who undresses your mind before they undress you.

Jess had found that person a long time ago in Elijah.

"Shall I show you just how much you mean to me upstairs, in our bed?" Elijah interrupted Jess's thoughts as he had already begun caressing his lips against hers. The kisses swiftly increasing in urgency.

"About that...remember what we talked about a couple weeks back?" Jess gradually pulled herself away from his lips. Reluctantly. Very reluctantly.

"What?" His breath becoming increasingly jagged as his lips begun moving down her neck, lower and lower until they nearly reached her breast in her low-cut night shirt.

"About remaining celibate until we get married?" She pulled up her shirt quickly and moved back slightly, finally gaining Elijah's attention.

"Wait, you were actually serious about that?" He moved himself back; clearly alarmed and slightly disappointed by her decision.

Jess shrugged lightly, "I want to wait for our wedding night."

"But what's the point in that? We're not even virgins, we've had sex with each other...on multiple occasions."

Elijah had known that Jess wanted a traditional Christian wedding. He'd remembered her explaining that although she hadn't followed many of the Christian values, she wanted to remain  a "virgin" until marriage, whatever that meant to Jess.

Elijah struggled to understand Jess's viewpoint completely, but he was well-aware that Jess had never been one to want sex very regularly in the first place. When they had first lost their virginities to each other, they had sex nearly every day, but that gradually came to a halt. And now, Elijah would be lucky to even get it once a week. It had now become a prize for him, for good behaviour, Jess had told him once.

"Please Elijah. This is what I want. Please?"

"Okay." He responded grumpily, slumping back down on the couch, placing one arm over Jess's shoulder and turning the volume up.

                                                        *  *  *  *  *

The following afternoon after Jess had long since collected Kylie from her mothers' house, the three and Pattie were ready to begin looking at some wedding venues.

"I've already booked two viewings for today. Jessica, I know you were considering a Church wedding but I think a hall like this one would be more grand. I mean, more people can be invited, isn't that what we want, dear?" Pattie rambled on, as she drove them to the first venue.

"I think a Church wedding would be nice. It's traditional, like Jess." Kylie grinned at Jess, giving her hand a tight squeeze, before jumping out of the back-seat of the car.

"Well, of course it's up to Jessica. But being from a family like ours does mean we have a reputation to upkeep. I wouldn't expect someone of your calibre to understand." Pattie sneered.

"I mean, what is it that you work as again, Kylie?" Pattie mockingly questioned, tilting her head to the side as if in deep thought.

Unemployed. Kylie was unemployed and it was well-known by Pattie that Kylie had basically lived her life skimping off her usually quite rich boyfriends.

It was common knowledge to most in their hometown that Kylie had failed her A levels and had never even attended University. Of course, Pattie and most had little idea of the true reason behind Kylie's failure. The reason had been attributed to her promiscuous behaviour.

"Sorry, but what is it that Cody does? You know, when he's not doing me." Kylie smirked back at Pattie, shutting her up in one instant.

Cody was Jessica's younger brother. Unlike the remainder of his family, he loathed their families lifestyle and was constantly AWOL.

He had been absolutely mesmerised by Kylie as a teenager and pretty much only returned back to his hometown when he caught wind of Kylie returning.

Kylie never failed to flaunt the fact that Cody spent more time with her, albeit inside her, rather than with his own mother.

"Erm...I think we should, maybe go inside?" Elijah choked out, trying to subdue the laughter that was ready to emerge whilst Jess pretended to not have heard the whole conversation whilst strolling towards the entrance.

Pattie painted a fake smile onto her face; the kind that stretched from cheek to cheek and made your jaw ache, "Yes, let's make our way inside."

"Oh my golly gosh. Is this the bride-to-be?" A stocky woman aged around fourty rushed towards the four of them, her hands clasped together in awe.

"You, my love, are absolutely stunning! I've not seen a couple as perfect for each other as you two since Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis!" Jess beamed with pride in response; nobody had ever referred to her and Elijah as being completely and utterly perfect for each other.

But her smile diminished completely when the woman strolled past both Jess and Pattie absent-mindedly, straight to Kylie and Elijah.

She had already seized Kylie's hand and was looking back and forth between the two of them lovingly.

"Actually..." Kylie began, a hint of a smirk emerging upon her face.

"This is Jessica. My daughter, the bride-to-be. I'm her mother and I booked this viewing." Pattie trotted over to the hostess for the viewing, pushing her harshly away from the two.

"I have a right mind to cancel this viewing right this moment and give your manager a call and have you fired!" Pattie yelled at the rather alarmed looking hostess.

"Oh I'm so sorry! Ma'am, I can assure you it was an honest mistake."

"It's fine, don't worry. You couldn't have known. And you're right, Kylie is stunning." Jess smiled gently at Kylie.

"Jessica, you're too kind for your own good sweetheart. These people need to be put into their place. We're leaving!" She placed her hands on Jess's shoulders, trying to lead her to the exit.

"No, we're not." She twirled her body around, facing the hostess again. "Shall we get started?" She smiled lightly at the venue hostess, before grasping Elijah's hand in her own.

The fake smile re-emerged onto Pattie's face as she was forced to follow her daughter's lead.

"...your guests will be surrounded by the most elegant beauty from the very moment they enter this hall. We can seat up to one hundred and twenty-five people for a reception, and there will be easy access to the bar and the dining room for later." The hostess wittered on.

"This seems perfect. What do you think?" Kylie turned to face Elijah and Jess, beaming up at them.

"I'm happy with whatever you pick, Jess." Elijah mumbled, starting to get peckish.

"It's a bit small, don't you think Jessica? We probably won't be able to fit all of my work colleagues in." Pattie answered for Jessica.

Jessica rolled her eyes and faced the hostess, "I like it a lot; but I think I want to see the other venues first."

"Of course, of course! There's absolutely no rush." The hostess beamed, before showing them the lawn which would be available to the guests.

                                              *  *  *  *  *

When the three returned home from the venue viewings, Jess and Elijah decided to retire to bed early whilst Kylie had other plans.

Once in her room, Kylie opened her fake Michael Kors bag exposing the two one litre Smirnoff Vodka bottles she'd managed to buy during the day whilst the others had been busy.

Not worrying about glasses, she took a quick swig directly from the large bottle.

"Fucking gross." She mumbled to herself, feeling her throat burning in response to the colourless liquid. She was looking for a quick fix; the kind that would make her forget about what her mother had told her the night before, so she didn't bother mixing the vodka with a soda as she would usually do.

She undressed quickly and pulled a baggy night shirt over her body, which fell just below her ass. She'd reserved this particular night shirt for nights when she wanted to stay at home, get as shit-faced as possible and let the miseries of her life dissipate.

Entering her ensuite bathroom, she gazed at the mask of make-up covering her face in her reflection.

She begun peeling off the false eyelashes that she'd become accustomed to wearing every day. She grabbed her Simple cleanser, squirted it onto a cotton pad and wiping off the thick winged liner she used to shape her eyes.

Next, she wiped at the contour powder along her nose and at the base of her cheek bones, exposing her insecurities.

Finally, she'd removed the last layers of the Kylie that everyone knew; the Kylie she had spent years creating. The old Kylie, the insecure Kylie, the scared Kylie stared back at her. A ghost of her former self.

Empty. As Empty as death. That's the only thing she saw every night she removed her make-up. How empty she'd become.

Her tanned skin the only thing that remained fixed. Her nose slightly larger, her lips slightly smaller and her eyes less defined and subsequently smaller. The rosiness of her cheeks and around her nose accentuated.

She was still beautiful but not that sultry kind of beautiful, the one that was always associated with sin. More natural, more innocent; almost like how ones' beauty diminishes slightly in death.

Turning on her heel, she grabbed the bottle by its neck and hopped along down the stairs, taking a couple more swigs from the bottle; the poison already highly concentrated in her veins.

She sat down on the black matted couch, already becoming unstable on her feet. She glanced up at the ceiling.

"Hey dad." She started, still looking up at the ceiling, almost as though she expected a response directly from this inanimate object.

"I just wanted to say thank you. I've never thanked you for being such a good fucking dad to me and Jax." She cocked her head to the side, giggling as though she'd said the funniest thing.

"Now maybe you don't know just what I'm thanking you for, because of course, there's just so much to be thankful for.

"So first, let's start with the fact that you've shaped me into who I am today, I'm what people call a slut and that's because of you. Because you fucked mum up so bad that the only advice she could give to her ten-year-old daughter was to use her body to get far in life. You did that dad so I thank you." The tears had already begun to roll as she rocked herself forward and backward on the couch, her body beginning to shake.

Her hand was shaking to such an extent that the bottle fell to the floor with a loud crash, the poisonous contents spilling out of the bottle and the glass shattering. She fell down to the floor, and without thinking tried to clean up the shards of glass by picking them up and moving them into the corner, pricking her fingers repeatedly as she did so, but enjoying the sight of her blood beginning to spill and her hands becoming coated in red.

"Do you wanna know a secret? Do you wanna know about how your thirteen-year-old daughter let an old creepy bailiff touch her to save your ass? I let him touch me in places that no thirteen-year-old should ever be touched. I did it for you, dad.

"Does it hurt to know that? I hope it does, I hope you feel just a little, just a tiny bit of the pain that I felt when he was touching me." She sat on the floor and used the sleeves of her night shirt to mop up the tears that were spilling.

"Do you even care dad? Did you ever care?" She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping the tears would stop spilling. But when she failed and she was still spurting out like a water fountain, she gave up.

"Why don't you ever fucking answer me?" She let herself drop onto the hard floor next to the broken vodka bottle as she began sobbing hysterically, hugging herself and rocking back and forth.

"Kylie? What are you doing down here?"

________________________________________

Authors Note: Thank you for reading! I hope you guys enjoyed.

I hope you will enjoy it regardless and look forward to slightly happier chapters soon :D

Let me know what you think of the main characters so far, and what you think is going to happen? I love to hear your guys predictions! And vote if you like x

** CHAPTER 6 IS PRIVATE DUE TO MILD SEXUAL CONTENT, YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO FOLLOW ME IN ORDER TO VIEW THIS CHAPTER**