Housemates

Chapter 19

It was hot carrying boxes around in the sun. After a few trips outside, Ellie was starting to feel unpleasantly sticky.

She was feeling sticky, and she was starting to realize Mia was still watching her.

Ellie was hot, and flushed, and probably a little bit shiny too, and Mia was looking at her every time they passed each other, the way Mia always did. Noticing Ellie, aware of Ellie, just like normal, but this time while Ellie was carrying boxes. In the sun. Getting sweaty.

Ellie had been a little bit annoyed when she first realized. It had bothered her, but not very much. Not as much as it probably ought to have.

She was a little surprised by that. Being looked at, while grotty, that seemed like something she ought to care about.

But apparently not. Not when it was Mia.

Ellie just didn’t care.

She was actually quite surprised by that.

She spent another couple of trips thinking it over, and decided she liked how the rules for Mia were different. She didn’t know why, but she liked it. She liked how Mia’s stare didn’t annoy her, when anyone else’s would have, and she especially liked that she wasn’t even deciding that on purpose.

The not on purpose seemed like quite an important thing.

She was getting used to Mia’s constant half-attention, she supposed. She was becoming accustomed to it, and starting not to notice. In a way it was quite flattering, having Mia always watching.

It ought to be a little scary, but it wasn’t.

Maybe because Mia just seemed to like Ellie. To like watching her. She watched Ellie go past, with sweat on her arms, watched her put cartons down, with a bit of a shove because she was tired, then stand there and yank at her hair and put her hairtie back in, roughly.

Mia watched all that, and seemed to like it.

And Ellie was actually quite pleased.

At the end of her next trip out to the ute, because Mia was standing nearby, Ellie pulled up her singlet up and wiped her face. Because she knew Mia would look.

Mia looked.

Ellie watched her, and took a moment longer than she needed to putting the singlet back down. And Mia kept staring while Ellie’s stomach was bare. Apparently Mia was into tummies, Ellie thought. That was good to know.

Or maybe, she thought, Mia was into sweatiness, and doing stuff, and she was into old clothes. It could be that as well. She was starting to think that with Mia, it could be anything.

Ellie suddenly wasn’t sure.

It still seemed a little odd that Mia had asked Ellie to help, of all the people in the world. Ellie didn’t mind, but she also didn’t quite understand. It was as if Mia didn’t realize they could just go for a drink, or sit on Ellie’s couch and talk, or whatever else Mia might want to do.

Or perhaps Mia did realize, and just didn’t like doing that kind of thing. Perhaps she’d rather have a particular task they’d planned around, so she had something to do. It seemed almost possible, Ellie thought. It would save Mia being forced to make conversation, like she would have to at a bar, and suddenly that seemed almost possible, since Mia really didn’t seem to like making conversation.

As if Mia had worked out a way to do things with people without ever having to make small-talk, Ellie thought.

She almost wondered if it was true.