Harrison Avenue // H.S.

(Ano)the(r) Thing About Elle

She catches me when I'm four feet from her, her eyes tilting up to look at me as the plastic cup is still pressed to her lips and then she smiles. The smile is enough to make me stop in my tracks entirely because Elle may tolerate me but she never smiles when she sees me coming, never gives any sign that she might enjoy my presence, and it feels so out of place that I'm beginning to wonder if I actually did drink some of the alcohol that is pumping through this house.

"Hi, Matty," she says, patting the spot on the bench next to her. "Might as well sit since you found me."

"Um," my eyes go wide as I cough slightly, moving my hands from my pockets. From what she's just said it sounds like she's caught on to my made up game of hide and seek, but if that is the case I probably shouldn't be surprised. You can never give too much credit to Elle for how smart she is. "Okay. I wasn't looking for you though," I try to turn her off from what she probably already knows. "Just happened to see you on my walk around the house."

"You do a walk around the house?" she raises her eyebrows at me as I sit down next to her. I should know better than to try and lie to her.

"Yes," I nod my head. "You know, just to check what is happening. I like to do my rounds."

"Always the social one you are, Matt," she laughs again, taking a long gulp from whatever is in her cup.

"I try," I say quietly, adjusting myself on the bench so I'm in the same position as her. My feet on the paint chipped railing, my neck against the back of the bench, slumped and close to Elle in a way that feels unfamiliar and strange but also right.

"You don't have to try," she says this like I have no idea what I'm talking about, and I probably don't. "That's just who you are, Matt. You're the social one, the one that likes to talk to people about their boring as shit lives, but you actually care about them... like in a genuine way."

I can't tell if what she is trying to say is a compliment or an insult. It's not always an easy task to decipher with Elle because so much of what she says, the tone she uses, sounds like she's trying to knock you down a peg. That might even be her intention in some ways but if you listen closely, if you take her words for more than the surface level sometimes unfriendly phrases, there's always something bigger underneath.

The thing about Elle is she likes to be alone so I think she sometimes lashes out at people because of that, but I've been stubborn enough to not let that push me away. She just has a tough exterior.

Because with what she's just said could be taken as a slight, that I'm over invested in people's boring as shit lives and it's like she's saying what I do isn't worth it. That's only the first layer of it though... because she's saying I'm the social one, that I'm the one who genuinely cares, that I'm the one that listens. Those are all compliments in my head, even if she doesn't view them as hallmark attributes... and if I am the social one, then she's the one for something else.

It's warm outside but I know that it won't stick around for much longer because we're at the beginning of Fall and before any of us are really prepared for it, it's going to be snow season. Right now though, the tail end of summer weather is still in the air. It makes everything feel a little nicer, a little more enjoyable and honestly if Elle let me I'd probably just sit here with her the rest of the nigh. We wouldn't even need to talk.

"Are you going to add this to your list?" I hear Elle ask and my head quickly turns to her.

"What?" I don't understand what she means and my confusion pushes down any worry that she can maybe read my mind now, that she knows I take at least five minutes out of every night that I'm here to check on her.