Wrong Number

Chapter 13

She starts with a small breathy laugh that moves into a more obvious one and then she stops with wide eyes.

"Oh my god, you're serious." She mutters. I nod. "Ellie, do you know how ridiculous that sounds?" My mind does something that I can only describe as a million exclamation points. If only she could see in my brain. See everything I've been thinking since our coffee with Kail. She has no idea.

"I know that! Why do you think I'm freaking out?" I rush. "There's no way Penelope. You're messing with me surely." She stands now too.

"I wish I was! But listen, just- listen," I put a hand out to still her. She drops her hands to her sides motioning me to continue. "The boy I'm talking, his names Luke-" "There's lots of Lukes in the world El, not all of them are rockstars," she cuts in.

"Okay but not all Luke's tell you they're in a band with three of their friends named Michael, Calum, and Ashton," I counter. That catches her attention. I nod.

"Yeah. And he's from Australia and I swear the more I hear his voice in interviews and songs the more I'm certain that it's him." She looks around the room, her eyes swarming with thoughts I'm sure are very similar to my own. She bites her lip and shakes her head. "Of course you'd get into a thing with someone famous."

"It's not a thing. We're friends," I correct her. "Whatever you are what does he think about all this?" Haley asks still a little distracted with this new information.

I gnaw on my bottom lip, looking down at my bare feet. "El," she says firmly. I scratch the back of my head nervously, looking to the other side of the room. "He doesn't know," I mumble. "He what?" She turns her ear to my voice. "He doesn't know I know."

"Penelope!" She gapes. "I'm gonna tell him! I just, I need time to process. It's a lot okay!" I defend. "It's been two days! I just processed it in a matter of minutes," she retorts. "I don't know what to say to him!" I cry out, dropping back down on the couch.

Haley sighs, sitting back down as well. She grabs a pillow and places it on her lap, patting it to signal me over. I rest my aching head on the pillow as her fingers begin soothing through my hair.

"What if he gets mad? What if he doesn't want to talk to me anymore?" I utter quiet and solemn. It was, if not the entire reason, then a major part of the reason that I've been keeping my distance a bit. I know we've never actually met before but I've grown quite fond of him and okay maybe also slightly attached.

I can barely remember the days I didn't wake to a call from him or went to send him a message whenever something - good, bad, or funny, happened in my life. It's just...it's not a fun thing to think about.

"Oh Ellie, he's not going to be angry and I doubt he'll stop talking to you, he only calls any chance he gets," Haley says lightly through a sympathetic smile. "You two are as attached at the hip as two people away from each other can be." It gets a small chuckle from me. It was sort of true.

"Attached at the phone," I breathe, thinking about how Luke would probably find the saying funny. "Exactly," Haley hums.

"Just think about it okay?" She says hushed. I agree with a hum. Sean comes home then and I dread having to go through it all again. He gasps. "Lap pillow is out. What's wrong?" Haley shushes him. "Just come cuddle."

Annoying as they are, it was times like this that reminded me why I kept them around.

-

I fall asleep at some point during Sean's catch up on things. They both assumed I was asleep before Haley started but I got the first bit of it. When I wake my head doesn't hurt anymore and my chest feels lighter but not fully. I know why there's still the small heaviness and I know what I have to do.