pieces of you |t.h. au|

xiii.

Updates: Tuesdays and Fridays

WC: 2.8k

Friends are supposed to be by your side forever, at least, they should be.

a/n: There is some ASL (American sign language) in this chapter, when they are signing something the words they sign with be enclosed in '' instead of the regular quotation("") marks used for speech

"Hey Harrison, yeah, we'll be back in fifteen minutes. Okay, love you, bye." SJ talked on the phone as they flew down the freeway. Ellie however, was curled up in the passenger seat, still trying to convince herself that she was fine.

She didn't feel fine.

"El, wanna stop at Dr. Mike's?" SJ offered sensing Ellie's bad mood.

Ellie didn't give any indication verbally what she wanted to do but she nodded, very slowly. Stopping at Dr. Mike's gave her more before she had to face Tom and Harrison, more time to craft a persona that was perfectly fine, and quite relieved.

SJ pulled off the ever-slowing freeway and onto the off ramp that led to a town that neighbored Jefferson Valley. The trees became thicker the father they pulled off the busy interstate, it started to look more like home.

"El, whats up? You look worse than you did going to the doctors." Worry laced SJ's voice as she flicked her eyes over to her friend still curled up in the fetal position.

Ellie signed 'fuck you', which caused SJ to raise her eye brows and roller her eyes before signing 'fuck you' right back.

'I'm not talking to you'

"El, I can't communicate via sign language while I'm driving. You have a voice, use it."

Ellie rolled her eyes but complied. "I'm not talking to you."

"If you won't tell me what's up then I might as well call your boyfriend and make you talk to him first." SJ threatened as they drove past a sign that read Welcome to Jefferson Valley, Home of Aunt May's Bakery.

"Oh, fuck off then." Ellie said as she kept her eyes glued on something off in the distance.

SJ clicked a button on the dash, "Call Tom." She spoke.

"Calling Tom Holland." An electronic female voice responded.

Ellie sat up quickly in her chair and clicked the cancel button before the first ring cold even complete. "So, you going to talk to me then?" SJ questioned.

"What the hell do you want to know?" Ellie finally spat as they pulled into the parking lot of Dr. Mike's.

"Why the hell are you still in such as crappy mood? The doctor says that you're fine yet you're acting like he just said that you had some terminal disease.

Ellie let SJ's question hang up in the air for a minute while they walked into the ice cream parlor. The frigid air hit their skin the second they stepped through the glass doors; goosebumps raised on their skin like mountains as they stepped to the counter. Dr. Mike smiled at them from the counter as they stood at the back of the line.

"So, are you going to answer my question or are you going to make me call Tom again?" SJ inquired as Ellie shifted her weight between her left and right legs.

"I think they are wrong." Ellie admitted as she looked down at her nails as she picked at the edges.

"Who?"

"The doctors."

"They're doctors, they looked at your scans and didn't see anything. Just focus on the good El, you're okay." SJ said as the took a step up the line.