Saving Elliot ✓

Chapter Three

a/n : dedicated to artmesia cause she's genuinely lovely and cause this girl is as much of a crazy Lana del rey and ed sheeran fanatic as I am.

"ARE YOU ENJOYING THE free space?" Tam asked.

"I don't know," I said, "it feels weird, it's too quiet without them."

"I bet," Dane said, her voice sounded muffled like she was in the middle of eating something. "Sixteen years with five boys had to be so noisy." My suspicion was validated when I heard her swallow her food on the other end of the phone, "See this is why I like being an only child, no noisy siblings. It's a good life."

Being the only girl out of my five older brothers meant that life in the Jensen house was not only difficult but chaotic. Over the years each of the boys had gradually moved out.

Nick, my oldest brother at twenty-six lived in London with his girlfriend of three years. He worked as a journalist, a job he'd been eying since he was seventeen and a job he finally bagged after two years in a crappy marketing agency.

Carlisle, my second eldest brother at twenty-four had moved to Sheffield with his boyfriend of six years, where he worked as a History teacher at a local private school.

Harry, my third eldest brother at twenty-one, was living somewhere in France. He'd dropped out of university last year, a decision that almost gave my mother a heart attack, and decided to travel across Europe instead.

And then finally, there were my twin brothers, Macaulay and Arthur. At eighteen, they were the last of the boys to leave the house. Three weeks ago, when the twins were set to leave for the University of Michigan in the States, Mum had spent almost half-an-hour hugging the boys and blubbering about how much she would miss them. Mac had tried to comfort her but Arthur had been desperate to pry himself away from her vice-like hug because people in the airport were staring at them. I knew the only reason the twins had chosen Michigan was because they, apparently, had it on good authority that the girls there were, and I quote, "filthier than the sewers". I suspected this was bullshit. The girls weren't dirty and my brothers just wanted to get out of England, far enough that Mum couldn't catch wind of the stupid things they would get up to.

I didn't want to but Mum forced me to hug them goodbye when I was content with a punch in the shoulder. I did make them promise to bring me back something from the states.

It was a muddled mixture of relief and anxiety to live in such a vacant house.

"Really?" Tam said, "I would've thought you loved having the house to yourself."

I was in my room, sat cross-legged on my bed as I surfed the internet on my laptop and talked to Dane and Tam on my mobile. I'd changed out of my school uniform about an hour ago. I'd bunched my hair up into a high bun and slipped into some leggings, and one of my many too-big hoodies that had once belonged to one of my older brothers. I probably looked like something that had fallen off the back of a lorry but I couldn't care less.

"No...I..." I paused, "I think I might miss them? Oh God. It's barely been a month and I already miss Mac and Arthur. God help me."

Dane made a fake gagging noise, "God help you indeed."

"Dane don't act like you don't miss them," Tam said, I could hear the all-knowing smile in her voice.

"Yeah," I grinned, "especially Mac."

"Pft. I have no idea what you're talking about."

"How about the fact you and Mac totally made out before he left for uni?" Tam said, "Don't try to deny it, we all saw you. You looked so love sick it was almost disgusting."