The Girl Who Feared Men (SAMPLE)

Chapter 26: How to Play Hard to Get

Tv show: This is us, Shameless

Songs:

Delicate- Taylor Swift

Nowhere Fast-Eminem ft Kelani

Kygo- Stranger things ft OneRepublic

--

Chase

"What are you doing here?" Ellie narrows her eyes at me. Her black hair is tied back in a messy ponytail. She's wearing checkered pajama pants and a long sleeve pajama top. Her hand is on the door to her house and she's sagged against the frame of her doorway. I'm surprised by her appearance because I didn't expect her to open the door.

I've been here four times before to give her homework and ask if I was tutoring her. When she didn't open the door the first three times...I got worried. I thought maybe something horrible happened to her. She stopped coming to school and I haven't seen her in a few days. So relief fills my lungs when I see her alive and seemingly okay.

"You're here," I blurt out.

She looks at me like I'm crazy and it makes me feel stupid. "Well yeah...this is my home after all."

I shake my head, retracing in my steps. "I know. It's just, I haven't seen you in a while."

Her eyes flit down to the ground and she bows her head. I take it she doesn't want to give me an explanation so I don't plan on forcing one out of her. Her eyes drift back up to the large white box I'm holding in my hands- the reason why I'm here. Katie got worried when Ellie stopped showing up for tutoring and when I told her Ellie hadn't been coming to classes either, Katie's concern tripled. Ellie nods to it. "What's that?"

"Katie told Jean you were sick because she hadn't seen you in a while and Jean told Uncle Fred- the guy who forgot to get the cake for Katie's birthday party- his daughter owns the bakery on fifth street. Anyways, they made this and gave it to me to give to you."

The corners of Ellie's eyes crinkle and she lets out a small laugh, "They made me something?" I show her the white box and I watch her open the flaps and peek inside. A smile never leaves her face.

"It's a cake," I say as she stares are the decadent chocolate and vanilla swirl cake. Chocolate syrup and strawberries decorate the exterior of the cake.

She sticks out her bottom lip and pouts but from the way her eyes light up, I can tell she's not upset. "They shouldn't have done all of this, I'm fine."

I can't even explain the relief I feel when I hear her say that. Katie and I were 24 hours away from filing a missing person's report.

But I wasn't going to let her know that. "Pfft.That's what I told them," I lie. "I don't know, I guess they really liked you because they wouldn't have gone through this much trouble for just anybody. This was also a thank you for making her birthday so fun, the kids really liked you." Ellie looks at me with an expression so full of gratitude, I almost think she's going to cry. While holding the box with care, she smiles at me once again. I clench my jaw when I notice that It's the same smile she had at Katie's birthday party and embarrassment makes me look down momentarily.

Wait, what the hell am I embarrassed for? This is Ellie, the girl that makes stupid jokes and laughs at them when no one else does, the girl that is so insanely bad at math she needs a calculator to solve a simple question like two plus two because she wants to make sure mathematicians didn't change the answer. The girl that attacks people when they sneak up on her.

Oh yeah, and she's afraid of the entire male population.

I know all these things, so why can't I just get that stupid smile out of my head...