Defeated, But Not Destroyed

It was 9 o'clock, and Rian just couldn't sleep. For one thing, her earlier conversation with Amber had been anything but pleasant, and she was still a little upset about it.

~Flashback~
"What do you mean you can't come?" Amber's angry voice cut through phone, making Rian flinch.
"I said I can't, Orlando and I made plans, and I can't break them." She lied, feeling terrible about it.
"Yeah sure," Amber scoffed, and Rian could picture her clenching her fists over the phone. "More like he got mad and decided that once again you're under house arrest."
Rian winced, "Please, Amber, just let it go...I'll make it out some other time."
"Yeah, sure." Amber's voice was hard. "I'll see you when hell freezes over and Orlando decides to get a new punching bag." The conversation ended with a click and Rian was left alone again.

~~~~~~~
She had just gotten engrossed in a cheesy Disney movie on TV, when the doorbell rang. 'Who can that be?' She wondered, standing to answer the door, rejectedly deciding it would be Orlando wanting his keys.
"They're on the tabl-" She stopped, looking up to find, not Orlando, but Elijah Wood. "Oh!" Her voice unmasking the surprise at seeing her boyfriend's best friend at the door. "Umm, Orli's not here, Elijah...He went out with the boys."
"I know," Elijah stepped inside and brushed her cheek gently with the back of his hand. Rian leaned into the touch, not able to remember the last time Orlando had touched her that gently. "I wanted to come sometime when *he* wasn't around."
Dread tugging at her heart, Rian motioned to the white leather couch, sitting down and waiting for him to join her. He sat down, turning to face her gravely.
"I want to know something, Rian. I want to know where that bruise came from-" She opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off with a wave of his hand. "The truth, Rian, for god's sake. And I want to know why there's a matching bruise on the other side today."
Her eyes filled with tears and she looked away, down at her hands as she struggled to think up a plausible lie. But Elijah placed a hand under her chin and forced her to look up at him, a move Orlando executed perfectly when he was looking for the truth, but Elijah did it with a gentleness that Orlando just did not possess.
"Please, Elijah, I can't..." She begged, tears spilling over her flawless, though battered, cheeks.
That was all Elijah needed to hear. "God damnit, I'll kill the little bastard!" He muttered, then seeing the young woman flinch, pulled her into him, against his chest.
"Please, please don't say anything," She pleaded, pulling away and taking his hands desperately. "He'll kill me, he really will...You need to go. If Orlando finds you here-"
"I'll go," He stood up, his bright blue eyes blazing with anger. "But you're calling me the minute he falls asleep. You do not deserve this, Rian. You're leaving him."
As he drove out of the driveway and down the street, Rian felt a sense of fear waver in her heart. This meeting wasn't going to change anything, and she knew that Orlando would find out about this and then she'd be in trouble. As she was putting the popcorn bowl into the sink, she heard the door slam and a voice growl behind her,
"Who the fuck was that?"