A New York City Dream ~ Elizabeth Olsen

Students & Sisters

"It was good, listened to some music and avoided being screeched at by some random person. A normal day." I throw a smile her way but focus on a tiny boy trying to climb up onto one of the benches opposite of us. His mother helps him out and he sits wiggling his feet around and smiles as he notices I'm watching him. I smile back and wink. I love kids ugh.

"That sounds about right. How's it feel being back here?" She shifts her legs a little towards me.

"It feels like home actually. I always sat in the park in my downtime, or if I needed to be outside of my dorm. I people watched a lot here, in this exact spot actually. Perfect view of the Arch. What about you? It's been much longer for you." I state not thinking much about it.

"Are you calling me old?" Her tone is playful. I give her a "really?" Look and she smiles before continuing. "It feels weird. It feels like it's changed, but I can't figure out why. The flowers are so colorful though, it's the perfect time of year for this." Her eyes scan the flowers littered around the park and she catches the little boy trying to get my attention. She nudges me and nods her head towards him. I smile and wave at him. He makes a silly face so I make one back. His giggles echo in our area and his mother notices what's going on. She smiles kindly at me and I give her a polite nod. Somewhere in all of this interaction, I rested my arm across Lizzie's crossed legs, my forearm resting comfortably on her knee. Her attention is on it, but I don't realize it at first. I turn my attention back to her and notice.

"Oh sorry," I take my arm back, "didn't realize I did that." I blush. That's embarrassing. It's not my fault touch is my love language.

"It's okay Y/N, we're friends." That causes me to look back at her. She smirks, "Don't act so surprised, I think it's safe to say our past few days warrant more than a stranger's title."

"I'm sorry but you do realize you just confirmed that one of my favorite actresses is now my friend. That's a little much to take in I'll have you know." She giggles and shakes her head.

"I believe you said celebrity crush if we are being honest." Her smirk grows. Oh, she's getting too much of a kick out of this.

"Haha you are so funny, I'm dying really. Your humor is too much for me." I roll my eyes. She laughs at my sarcasm and looks back at me through her sunglasses. Ugh, I wish they would just vanish.

"I know I'm hilarious. Anyway, let's play a game." She quirks an eyebrow in question.

"Okay, what game do you have in mind?" I return her quirked eyebrow mocking her. If she can tease me I'll do it right back. Don't mess with me, Miss Olsen.

She rolled her eyes, "I call it What's Their Story? Because one person will pick a person and ask the other person, what's their story. Then you have to make one up. Make sense?" She explains. This sounds fun.

"Makes perfect sense. I'll go first." My eyes scan the area and I see a man with dress pants on, a striped dress shirt with a bow tie, and some glasses. He's holding a few books in one hand and holds a messenger bag on the other shoulder. "That one, over there" and point him out.

She thinks for a moment, observing him. "He's definitely a communications student who just got out of class. He tends to be late to class but still passes all his classes with no problem because he studies as a hobby. But, he is secretly a party animal and smokes weed every day." I nod along agreeing.

"Makes perfect sense. I can see it. Who do I have?" I look around as she finds the next person.

"The woman over there, with the pigeons." I laugh and nod.

I go on and on about how the woman is an artist and uses her time feeding the pigeons as inspiration for her pieces that she sells on eBay because her day job of being a plumber is just shitty. Which makes her laugh because of course being a plumber would be shitty, literally. We continued our game and it became more and more outrageous.

"-and he goes to strip clubs on Tuesday nights because that's when his wife thinks he has book club" she giggles out laughing at her creation. I just smile at her as she loses herself in a fit of giggles. She's so beautiful. Her hands cover her mouth to try and censor her laugh and I notice there isn't a ring on her finger. Weird.

"This was fun, but I don't think my creative juices are flowing anymore after that one." I sigh and shake my head at our goofy stories.

She smiles at me before turning her attention to the bench in front of us. The little boy is no longer there, he was replaced with a little old lady enjoying some time in the sun. We sit in our comfortable silence taking in our surroundings. I rest my arm on the back of the bench and stretch out my limbs. Sitting this long usually makes me antsy.

"I don't want to go through another dinner getting pestered about Robbie" she states quietly, almost like she doesn't want me to hear it.

"If it's something you don't want to talk about then they should probably leave it alone," I add-in.

"Yeah, but they care. They're my sisters, my protectors. They just want to make sure I'm okay." She pulls at her fingers and I frown.

"But if it's making you anxious, then it probably isn't making anything better," I state calmly.

She looks over at me, trying to figure out how I knew how she felt. My eyes flicker down to her fingers and she clasps her hands together realizing. "Maybe I'll just get a hotel for the night, have a little me time." She states plainly. I take a breath. I kind of want to invite her to my place. But that's crazy talk. She can afford a hotel and wants a hotel room. But should she be alone when she's hurting?

"Um, yeah that might be a good idea or uh, maybe, if you'd like, you know, so you aren't all by yourself, you could maybe crash at my place, or like don't because maybe you want to be alone, you know what never mind that was dumb of course a hotel room would make more sense." I ramble out like an idiot. I should have just kept my mouth shut. I stare down at my shuffling feet and wait for her rejection.

"Are you done? The rambling is cute but unnecessary, princess. But do you mean that? Would you let me stay?" She questions softly.

My head shoots up, wait she's considering it?! What the hell.

"Of course mean it. But, I would understand if I'm overstepping or you are not comfortable with it." I state making sure she doesn't feel pressured or anything. "My door would always be open to you," I add-in.

She studies me as I fiddle with my fingers and shift awkwardly. She smiles a fuzzy smile. "I think that's a great plan. Although a hotel room would be nice, I don't want to be alone." her gaze drops to her lap at admitting how she feels.

"I mean, my place is no five-star hotel, it's small, but it might be a nice escape. You seem to like those." I softly tease her.

She smiles and nods, "Thank you, you're sweet."

"It's no problem at all Elizabeth Chase" I tease. She scrunches her eyebrows cutely.

"I don't think anyone calls me that." She states, tilting her head in thought.

"I like it, but if you don't, then I will never say it again."

"It's okay, it's not horrible." She decides. I look at my watch and notice it's dinner time. I stand up and offer my hand to her.

"It's time for some food Miss Olsen, lets head to Queens." She takes my hand and stands situating her clothing that bunched up from sitting for so long.

"Queens?" She asks.

"That's where my secret base of operations is Miss Olsen, we must head there now for some sustenance," I say in a British accent and bump her hip as we walk towards the subway.

"You are an absolute dork" she smiles shaking her head. I shrug and we continue our journey to Queens. I can't believe she agreed to this. The questioning from her sisters about her engagement problems must be stressing her out more than she's letting on. She takes her phone out sending a few texts to let people know she's safe and with a friend, which makes me smile. We continue our game from earlier on the subway ride back and giggle the entire journey back to my building. This girl is something special.

______________________________________________________________________________________
A/N Another Chapter. Once I think of an idea I have to put it down. Hope it's okay despite my lack of editing skills. :)

Edited 5/19