❝In which two people call up a helpline in order to find someone just as broken as they are. ❞
"Does...does it bother you that my dad's in prison for murder?"
"Well, judging by the fact that I moved away from America to get away from the memory of a...
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Isabella and Elliot sat together in the kitchen, leaving the living room free for the DJ to set up all of his equipment. The conversation was filled with a light and airy atmosphere, Isabella sitting in a bar chair next to the kitchen counter and Elliot leaning against the wall facing her in the middle of reciting a prank that he and his friends had pulled on their teacher sometime during last term. And Isabella was laughing along so much that she ended up snorting, not quite believing that she could fall any deeper than she already was. But he proved her wrong with every word that left his lips. She couldn't quite remember the last time that she had laughed this hard. It was at this point that she supposed that she was pretty close to Elliot now, so much that he deserved to know what had been on her mind. And what had been bothering her for quite some time now.
"Elliot...I...there's something I need to tell you." Isabella started after Elliot had finished off a tale on how he had serenaded a school assembly with No Diggity from the back of the hall. She kept her eyes averted to the floor, flush rising to her cheeks and keeping her gaze fixated on her feet as they swung back and forth anxiously. She never really had been the best at expressing her emotions, much less feelings such as this. With Clark, it had been different. He had confessed to her first. And then she didn't have to worry about saying it back, because he was smart like that and he had already known. So there was no embarrassment there at all. But now...now she was going to be the first to break this little bubble of friendship. And she couldn't guarantee that he would be there to catch her when the bubble popped.
Elliot nodded, walking forward so he was a little closer to her and leaning against the counter in front of her. The other guests wouldn't be arriving for another few minutes and, for that, he was entirely grateful. He had a good idea of what Isabella was about to say and, in all honesty, he felt an immense relief that she had decided to take the lead in this for he, ever the socially awkward teenager, could never imagine speaking of his growing feelings for Isabella. And it wasn't as if it wasn't obvious that Isabella liked him in that way. He was good at reading those sorts of signs, being in a relationship for two years kind of did that to a person. He was just waiting for her to say it so that he wouldn't have to.
Because he was a mess when it came to expressing his emotions. He would probably end up offending her more than flattering her. Because there was certainly something here, something more than he could put into words. It was in the way he longed for her to be around. And how proud he felt when he was able to make her laugh. And how he had to stop for a moment to appreciate how beautiful her smile was. And he couldn't mess that up. Not with his clumsy arrangement of words. So it was far safer for Isabella to express herself so that he could return his feelings, ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after.
But he had overestimated Isabella's confidence.
She took one look at his eager expression and immediately backed off out of fear of rejection. She didn't like the idea of falling and she was too scared to take the risk, even though she was so desperate to fly that her wings were beginning to ache.
"I...um...a group who supports a gun free America emailed me to say they liked my blog." Isabella suddenly felt the need to hit herself in the head with a frying pan. Could she be any more awkward? Why the hell was she such a coward?
Elliot's smile dropped slightly, but covered it up just as quickly as it had come. He too was feeling a similar desire to hit his head with something. For, now that Isabella had backed away from the confession, he was at a loss. It left him wondering whether she really liked him at all, and if the signs were just something that he had created to get his hopes up. But, nevertheless, he put a keen smile on his face and turned back to the matter at hand. "Oh, really? That's awesome Isabella! What did they say?"
