Last Man Standing
By Julie Danskin

Author's Note: Heeeeelllooooo! Thanks for reviews, much happiness and joy entered my soul. And stuff. Now more reviews are needed! YAAAAAAYYY! Again, this will be a slightly less uneventful but still quite eventful chapter as those to come. Here we get to meet Adrian's rival, Ellot Kineally. He's a nasty piece of work, as you will discover and have probably guessed from what's been said about him so far, but now you get to make your own judgement! YAAAAY!

What happened in the previous chapter: Liam was happy to see Ellie and his best friend get together, even if he may have been too drunk to remember. Adrian talks to Ellie about these foreign girls that Elliot brought to the party, but she is not very interested. They have a little snogging session before Adrian sees the figure of a woman in the shadows, and somehow feels he has fallen in love with her, but who is she?

Chapter Four - Her

Adrian hastily pulled away from Ellie, who looked at him strangely and said, "Adrian?" in a voice that suggested she didn't understand what she was doing. Adrian quickly remembered his place, and his brain, which told him that he couldn't possibly be in love with this silhouette he had seen.

"What's wrong?" Ellie asked him, concerned. Adrian swallowed and looked at her, feeling his hands shaking and his heart pumping. He willed it desperately to stop, but he didn't know what was happening to him. He didn't have any control over his actions, and this aggravated him greatly. Adrian smiled at her apologetically, before taking her hand and walking with her over to the girl, for reasons which were unknown to him. If he had fallen for a woman, the last thing he would expect himself to do was to walk over to her with his girlfriend. But then, Adrian was not thinking straight.

Thankfully, even though Adrian was anything but grateful for the arrival of Elliot Kineally, a boy the same age as Adrian side-stepped in front of them, blocking their - or rather, Adrian's - path to the mysterious woman.

"Hello, Adrian," Elliot snarled nastily at his rival, before looking to Ellie and smiling warmly, "Ellie."

"Hello, Elliot," Ellie grinned shyly, and Adrian told Elliot with a vicious death glare that all he wanted to do right then was to push him to the ground, punch his head until it opened and the brains spilled out, burn his carcass and throw the ashes into the Thames. And Adrian was not a violent person. Ellie cast a side glance at Adrian and dug her pointy elbow into his ribs so that he squirmed uncomfortably, before understanding what it was she wanted. He swallowed disapprovingly.

"Hullo," he muttered grumpily, and Ellie frowned, but met Elliot's eyes again and smiled. Girls tended to do that when presented with Elliot Kineally, and Adrian resented him greatly. Every girl Adrian had ever shown the remotest of interest in, which was not a very great number, Elliot had had the confidence to show them the error of their ways. Adrian did not know why Elliot hated him so much, nor even the extent of the reason Adrian hated Elliot. All he knew was that it was mutual. Adrian defensively tightened his grip on Ellie's hand. He had obviously gripped too hard, as she elbowed him again and he relented, letting go of her hand altogether and plunging it into his deep pocket.

Elliot tsked and grinned widely at Ellie, who instead linked her arm in through the crook in Adrian's, showing the much better looking Elliot who she was with and that she would remain with him. Adrian felt a great deal of gratitude towards her which only added to the guilt he felt to the woman who was a mere thirty yards from them now.

"So, you two decided to get it together?" Elliot asked, and Adrian rolled his eyes at his opponent's slothfulness. "I mean, I heard your idiot friend Liam hollering it drunkenly, but I wanted to check it out for myself."

"Well you have, so go away," Adrian growled, stepping closer to Elliot, not something he would usually do unless it was his disabled brother being ridiculed. That or Liam, because he was as good as a brother. "And say that again."

"What, that your friend's an idiot?" Elliot sneered. "With pleasure."

Adrian gritted his teeth and stepped right forwards so he was in Elliot's face, staring him down.

"Adrian . . ." Ellie trailed away. Adrian was vaguely aware of her tugging on his arm, but he was too busy concentrating on not ripping Elliot's throat out.

"Excuse me . . ." an unrecognised voice interjected, which interrupted Adrian, who turned his head to see who it was. When he recognised that it was the woman he had seen, his breath caught in his throat and he choked, bent over double and allowed himself to be pushed backwards by Elliot.

He staggered back and stood upright again with the help of Ellie, and realised how inelegant he must seem. Elliot must be loving this, he thought regretfully, before composing himself and clearing his throat. He took a long look at the woman and felt his heart wrenching from its place, struggling desperately to escape his ribcage and enter hers, so that he could have his heart beat in time with hers. Looking at her he forgot about his previous love for Ellie and his hatred for Elliot, and knew that this was the love of his life.

Elliot smiled at Adrian nastily, and flung a protective arm around the young woman, who was nothing more than a girl, probably a year or so younger than Adrian, who was only seventeen. He could not stop looking at her, and she too had her eyes transfixed on him.

"Adrian, old friend, and the beautiful Ellie," Elliot said with great suspense, before signalling to the girl. "Meet Anya. She's from St Petersburg."

Adrian felt as if knowing her name meant that she had just told him she loved him and couldn't live without him.

"Anya . . ." he murmured, playing it over in his head, but obviously he had said it aloud as Elliot was looking at him with an expression of great amusement, while Ellie, however, looked at Adrian with an expression of something quite the opposite. Anya, however, looked at Adrian with great compassion, and his heart melted.

"And your name is?" Elliot enquired on behalf of the Russian, but Adrian had forgotten how to talk.

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A/N: REVIEW PLEASE!