Broken But Mending; Scott McCall [1] ✔

0.70 In Which Her Brain Is Flooding With Phenethylamine

"Well, Ellie has one," Allie smirked, watching as a faint tinge of pink flooded her cousins cheek.

"You have one?" Kate asked, and Ellie nodded, "Well, you should kind of have a million." She turned to her other niece, "And what about you?"

"Oh, no," the shook her head, "I mean, there's a guy that I kind of like..."

"Please, Allison," Ellie scoffed, "You have at least three guys." Her cousin gave her a look of disbelief, "There's Stiles, for one. And that guy, Matt, from photography, and Isaac Lahey, he's on the lacrosse team."

"What?!" the taller girl's jaw dropped, "But- but I've never even spoken to Matt! Or Isaac!"

"So?"

"So..." she floundered as Kate watched in amusement, "So... just so! Do you need some help unpacking?"

"Subject change," Ellie sang, but reached out to grab a duffel bag nonetheless. Honestly, what was it with this family and duffel bags?

"No!" Kate grabbed her wrist tightly before she could touch it, making her wince in pain. "Not that one!" Kate's grip loosened, and Ellie pulled her arm back to her chest, frowning. "See, you turn out beautiful and I end up with this kung fu death grip." The trio laughed, "Sorry, sweetie, I didn't mean to be so rough."

Ellie waved her off, moving to another bag that filled with toiletries and handed it to her aunt. "Uh, do you want this is the bathroom?"

"No," Kate shook her head, "No, I'll put it with the other bag."

"Hey," Ellie called, "Is everything okay with your car?"

"Uh, yeah," the older woman said uncertainly, "I just need a jump start, that's all."

"A jump start?"

The teenagers left to get ready after that, and Ellie pulled her cousin aside to whisper frantically, "Allie, something fishy is going on."

"What?"

 "Last night, Uncle Chris said Kate had a flat tire," she explained, "But Kate just said she needed a jump start."

"That's weird," Allison agreed, "I wonder why they would lie?"

"I don't know," Ellie bit her lip, "But I have a super bad feeling."

➴

School that day was kind of boring, but Ellie didn't really notice. She was studying with Scott after, something she felt was totally innocent, but when she told Lydia, the strawberry blonde gave her a very coy smirk. "Scott's coming over?"

"We're just studying?" the shorter girl (Ellie was 5'2 and Lydia was 5'3) shrugged, ignoring her cousin's suggestive nudge. The trio started to make their way up the stairs.

"Just studying never ends with just studying," Lydia said, scoffing, "It's like... getting into a hot tub. Somebody eventually cops a feel."

"So what are you saying?" Ellie frowned.

"We're just saying..." Allison cocked her head to the side, "Make sure he covers up."

Lydia caught sight of her friend's confused frown, and smacked her lightly on the arm. "Hello," she laughed, "We're talking about a condom."

"Are you kidding?" the other girl's fixed her with serious stares, "After one date?"

"Don't be a total prude," the strawberry blonde advised, "Give him a little taste. Lord knows the boy needs one."

"How- How much is a little taste?" Ellie asked. Allison laughed, so she swung her head around to face her, voice defensive as she said, "Hey, I haven't done this in a while!"