THE LOVELY BONES, daryl dixon

xviii. gunshot wounds

>>>

"What have you got there, Eleanor?" Luke called out eagerly, his thin, yet excited arms hoisting up his slimy, moss infested fishnet, "I seem to have caught some creatures that rather resemble Vincenzo, don't you think?"

"I found two frogs!" the younger sister shrieked out, chirping happily as she held her fishnet up, "Stop calling me Eleanor, it's Ellie!"

"Well, seeing as I'm older, I can do whatever I want!" Luke grinned at the girl, to which she rolled her eyes, though his emboldened stance had her almost cackling.

The teenage girl stood with her arms folded over her chest as she pouted, glancing up at her older brother with feigned doe eyes that she had mastered. There had been almost five years between the two of them, but it still often left Luke with the authority — something Ellie despised for the entirety of her life. Though, Ellie had been the one to be blessed with the attitude and the guts for being the boss, and Luke certainly knew it.

"That's not fair," Ellie pouted, sinking down next to the river as she folded her legs to match her folded arms, "Hey, I heard there were new brothers moving in down the road."

Luke scoffed loudly, internally threatened at the notion of new "men" living in their town, and joined his sister at the side of the water, the two dangling their feet in the cool stream. "I heard. They look like trouble — the Dixon's."

"I wonder if they're looking for girlfriends," Ellie muttered anxiously, a blush creeping onto her glowing, pubescent face.

Luke scoffed once again, and punched his sister in the arm with all his strength. An overprotective convulsion — am urge had come over him at the thought of his sister dating, and hissed,"They're older than you. Hell, they're older than me. No boyfriends."

Ellie rolled her aqua eyes and buried her head deep into the caves of her knees that were now tucked up to her chest, "Well, I want boyfriends."

"You're what those people call desperate, Eleanor," Luke teased proudly, although internally had had wanted to protect his sister from the harsh reality of the world. She may have been young, but Luke was a young adult. Ellie hadn't known the pain of the world as Luke had.

Ellie scowled, and pinched her brother mercilessly, despite his slight groans, and smirked tauntingly, "Maybe they're more up your street, you know, because—"

"I'm not gay, Eleanor!" Luke gasped, suddenly thumping her ribs to halt her in her teasing, ensuring she had truly stopped. It hadn't been that Luke had been repulsed by the notion of being gay, it was his simple internal battle of sexuality being a spectrum. Bisexuality was a term he had been afraid of, and certainly kept it to himself. He quickly huffed, "I have a girlfriend."

"Charlotte is really not that much of an achievement," Ellie cackled, releasing the frogs back into the water below her as her reflection bounced beautifully against the ripples of water, "Charlotte is my friend and she's, literally, been with everybody. And she's fifteen!"

Luke groaned loudly as he punched the bridge of his nose, entirely aware of the fabrication of his successful relationship. Tauntingly, his lips curved into a smirk as he stated, "Hey, you can't talk about me being with your friend. Remember, when James came over and you were totally drooling over him with Charlotte," Luke teased his sister, changing the subject from his love life.

"That was, like, ages ago! Besides, I'm surprised you didn't drool all over him. You know because—" Ellie begun, her face curling up into a great smirk as she stared at him.