Come Back to Me

Chapter 14

It has been two weeks since my fight with Paul and everything has just gone down hill since that night. He still takes me to therapy when he can and helps while we're there, we stay away from our relationship like I had asked but outside of that he barely even looks at me. Andrew on the other hand has been trying to make the most of showing me things that have happened in the outside world. To be honest it wasn't much but his endless ideas kept my mind off of things even if they weren't completely new to me.

The only really good news though is that Eleanor is coming to stay for a week with us. Apparently there was a holiday in South Africa so they had school off for a few days and then she just requested the rest. Although I still don't remember her, all that I've learned through therapy got me very interested in meeting her.

I'm home alone waiting for Andrew to come back from the store when I hear a knock on the door. Did Andrew forget his key? Seems like something he would do. I go to the door and open it to find a girl standing there with bags in her hands. She drops her suitcases as soon as she sees me and squeals, "Ashley!"

"Eleanor!" I exclaim back.

She looks shocked at my outburst, "you remember?"

"Pictures... sorry no."

She looks disappointed for a second but a smile quickly reappears on her face. "Right! Don't be sorry." She drops her hands to her sides and just stares at me for a second. "Can I hug you? Is that okay?"

I laugh and open my arms to her, "of course!"

She quickly envelopes me in a tight and warm hug and somehow it just feels very comforting. "Good. I wasn't sure if that was weird or not." She says with a carefree tone and so much enthusiasm that it doesn't even sound strange. Maybe that's Paul's problem... he tries too hard to make a good impression.

"Not weird at all. Paul knows so much and has told me so much about you I feel like I know you already..." I trail off as I realize what I just said but Eleanor breezes right past my inconsiderate comment.

"He better know me well, with all the time he spent in our dorm room." She picks up her bags again and walks into the room. "Seriously it was almost like I had two roommates." I laugh awkwardly at her  comment. "where should I put my bags?"

"You'll be staying with me in my room. Andrew set up a air mattress." I reply and lead her to the room. 

Eleanor turns to me after putting her bags. "So how are you?"

"good." I say with a small smile.

"Really?" she asks giving me a skeptical look. 

I laugh "Well I mean as good as I can be within the circumstances."

"That's a little more reasonable." she teases as she flops onto her air mattress. "I am so tired!" she groans. "The flight was so long and there was a baby who definitely didn't like flying behind me on the plane."

"Sounds terrible." I sympathize. "I've never been on a plane." Eleanor gives me a look. "What?"

"You've been on a plane before."

"What?"  I say again.

"We spent a summer together in Ireland." 

"Oh..." I look away. 

"I have pictures... you wanna see them?" I nod and we spend the next hour or so looking at pictures from all of our adventures on Eleanor's computer. My eyes tear up a little bit but I'm able to brush them away before she notices. 

"I come bearing food and bad news!" Andrew announces, barging into the apartment with Paul behind him. 

"Whats the bad news?" I ask with a laugh. 

"I have to leave to go to work. Paul will be taking my place."

"So you had bad and good news." Eleanor clarifies. 

"No." His answer earns him a punch in the arm from Paul but he just laughs it off. 

"Oh yea you're right just good news." Eleanor corrects herself this time. 

"Ha. Ha. Ha." Andrew monotonously laughs. "And I thought having you here was going to be fun."

"It will be." She responds smugly. I can tell having Andrew and Eleanor together was going to be an exciting time. 

"Anyways... let's go eat." Paul says and makes his way to the kitchen and we all follow his command.

"So how was your flight?" Paul asks as we sit down and start grabbing food.

"terrible. Crying babies... many hours..." This is all Eleanor says in explanation this time, but Paul and Andrew seem to understand.  "But despite that I am so glad I'm here." she exclaims. "I missed all of you so much." She pauses and looks at me. "Especially you Ashley."

I only smile in response before turning back to my food awkwardly. I want to say it back to her but how am I supposed to miss someone I never even remember meeting? 

*Authors Note*

Sorry this so short and so long after my last update. School has kept me extremely busy lately but next week is finals and then I will be completely free. So I will hopefully be posting a lot more often. Eleanor is a really fun character and I thought we needed some comic relief so some fun adventures with her will be happening. Hope you enjoy!