A life less ordinary ||~~Elax/Elmax~~||

The Storm part 1

"So, El, excited for your first sleepover?" asked Karen.

"Yes, it'll be fun, Max said I can choose a film to watch and we can eat whatever we want and stay up late" replied El happily.

"That'll make a nice change, not having to watch Star Wars again" said Karen laughing.

El just smiled and nodded, secretly thinking that she liked Star Wars, a lot.

As El turned to leave Karen's smile turned into a slight frown and a sigh, as she watched her load her bag into the car, she never laughs, I wonder if she will ever really open up to me...to anyone other than Mike.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Karen dropped El at Max's house, "I'll pick you up tomorrow, ok? Be good!" she added with a wink.

El just frowned, sarcasm, innuendo, and double meanings were completely lost on her. "What's wrong?" asked Max as they went inside.

"I'm always good...does she think I'm not good sometimes?" she asked seriously.

Max just laughed, "El, she's joking, she knows we'll be good, but she's saying it's ok if we're a bit silly because we're always good."

"Oh" El frowned, annoyed at herself for not understanding straight away.

Max looked at her expression and thoughtfully said "you must get really frustrated with yourself for not understanding," to which El nodded yes. "You shouldn't, people are weird, the way people speak to each other is weird too, even normal people misunderstand what other are saying...shit, I didn't mean it like that!" she said quickly, seeing El's face fall at her words. "I meant...I...crap..." she said, holding her face in her hands.

Hearing a strange noise she looked up, El was desperately trying to suppress her laughter and pointing at her. "Oh you bitch...you were tricking me!" she said incredulously, before cracking up herself. They laughed for a few minutes, before Max said "I've never heard you laugh before."

"I never have, not like that" El replied, looking down.

"You should do it more, plus smile more, you have a nice smile" stated Max.

This made El smile but also her face felt hot and she looked down, not knowing that she was blushing too. "Thank you" she managed.

"Right, enough of this sappy shit" said Max, realizing that she too was blushing uncharacteristically, "you need to choose a film, and if you don't like any of them then we still have time to go into town to hire one...although looking at the sky right now we might want to give that a miss if we can help it."

"What's wrong with the sky?" asked El as it was sunny when Karen had dropped her off.

"See over there" Max said, getting close to El and pointing off into the distance, "see those dark gray clouds?" El nodded yes, "well they look like they're headed this way, and it's been really hot and sticky the past few days so I'm think we might have a storm tonight."

"What's a storm?" asked El.

"Oh, um, it's like when it rains, a lot, and it can be really windy, and there can be thunder and lightning" Max explained. El nodded like she wasn't entirely sure what Max meant, but it stirred up some uncomfortable feelings so she tried to forget it. "Well, we might find out later, anyways come up to my room and we can set up your bed and stuff."

El followed Max up to her room, she had only been in it a few times before. It was very different to her own room, El was pretty girly and liked dresses and the colour pink, and her room was decorated softly, reflecting this. Max's room was much darker and bolder with posters on the wall, her wardrobe consisted mainly of jeans and hoodies, and she had a few skateboards scattered around, plus it was a complete mess. It was like an extension of Max herself and El felt very comfortable in it.

"Let's clear you a space" said Max as she literally pushed a load of stuff into one corner making El giggle. "Right, bung your stuff down and choose a film...I'm in the mood for action, but don't let that influence your choice" she said winking.

Ha, anything but action then she thought, chuckling to herself. "How about this one?" she said, holding up The Shining, "it looks...interesting."

"Oh...I've not seen it, that's one of Billy's" said Max nervously.

"Billy...your new brother?" asked El.

"Yeah, he's still moving in, mom and my new step-dad are getting the last of their stuff this weekend" she replied.

"What's he like?"

"I don't know to be honest, I've only met him a few times, he...seems ok" Max said looking down.

"Max?" said El softly, taking her hand.

"I've not heard good things...just a couple of rumours...I don't know."

"If...if anything bad ever happened, you can tell me" said El tentatively.

Max smiled at her gesture, "thanks, that mean a lot."

"I mean it, promise me" insisted El.

"I promise" said Max, "anyway, moving on, film time, The Shining...it's meant to be a bit scary, rated R, you ok with that?" El just shrugged. "Guess we'll find out then" said Max chuckling.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~*