Fat Girls Return

29. Disaster Area

I had wanted to say more but I kept my promise, only adding a sympathetic 'I'm sorry, Elle' before I let her continue.

When she told me about the car ride with Blake, I practically had to cover my mouth with both hands to keep from saying anything. My eyes were widening with every word until I was sure they'd pop out of my head. Those same eyes narrowed to thin little slits when Peter showed up in the story again, begging for her forgiveness. Elle apologized for losing my clutch but I swatted the air like there was a fly near my face and scoffed – like I cared about that right now.

My brain didn't even know how to react when she got to the part where her brother showed up out of nowhere after two years. She told me that she and Ryker had fought and that she'd ran away from him but she didn't go into the details.

When she was finally done telling me everything that had happened, she sighed, "Okay, go ahead and ask your questions."

I hadn't even waited for her to finish before I'd asked about the one thing that was confusing me the most, "Why did Ryker come back?"

Elle let out a big breath. "He said that he found mom and that she wanted to see me."

My jaw dropped, "Wait, he found your mom?"

Elle nodded, not meeting my gaze.

"Did he say if she'd explained why she left?"

Elle pursed her lips before shaking her head 'no.'

My shoulders slumped as I realized she didn't want to talk about it anymore. I bottled up the rest of my questions and crawled over to her, gently pulling her off the bean bag chair so she would snuggle on the floor with me.

The tears had started a while later as we processed everything and decided to eat our feelings. The past hour is a bit of a blur but this chocolate ice cream is delicious. And so is the shirtless hottie on my parents' 52-inch flat screen TV right now.

I giggle, wiping the tears and snot off of my face with the back of my left hand. Elle turns to crook an eyebrow at me, her red eyes staring at mine with a look of confusion.

"Why are you laughing? He just told Bethany that he doesn't love her anymore! I don't know why he did it shirtless," she glances back at the now paused screen, "But I'm not gonna complain." She looks the actor up and down before shoving a giant spoonful of ice cream in her mouth, chocolate dripping down her chin.

This makes me laugh harder as she squints warily at me.

"Ellie," I smile, still giggling. "Imagine if he could see us right now," I say, pointing at the TV.

Elle looks at the shirtless actor again before looking down at herself, chocolate-chin and all. She meets my eyes and the giggling starts all over again.

The front door opens, any remaining laughter dying in our throats as we look at each other with wide eyes. We cringe, scanning the disaster area previously known as my living room. My mom is going to kill us.

Two half-eaten bowls of soup are on the coffee table – we'd quickly decided that chocolate ice cream sounded a whole lot better than the leftover broccoli and cheese soup from Panera – partially covered by the mountain of used tissues spilling off to litter the floor. Food wrappers are scattered throughout the foyer, leaving a trail that my mom quickly follows to find us.

She gasps as her eyes scan the room. "Rosemary Pearl Everly!" She sputters, marching over to the window seat so she can throw the curtains open.

"Ah!" Elle cries, throwing her arms up to shield her face. "Mrs. Everly, it burns!"