- Ellery Cohen -
I heaved in a deep breath, feeling a push on my lungs, but I didn't say anything. I couldn't tell what I was feeling, but I felt jittery, or whatever that meant.
I wanted to meet these people, but I was scared. I didn't have mommy to meet these people, just like she left me to meet Miles, and that was beyond scary. I hated not having her here with me.
Miles unbuckled my seat belt, as he pulled me out of what he called a car seat. It was very snug around me, which I wasn't used too. The one mommy had never had me secured and I hated sitting in it because there could be ants or just stuff peeling off of it.
I never complained once though. I got what I was given and that was all. There was no need to complain about it.
"Ready, Ells?" Miles questioned me, as he picked me up then put me on the ground so he could shut the door. I didn't say anything, but I had left my Teddy Bear in the car. I think he'll be safer in there, and I should probably do this by myself.
"Mhm" I hummed as Miles grabbed my hand and we started to walk. He was talking to Mark, while I just swung our hands back and forth, like I used too, before mommy would get angry and tell me to stop.
I waited for Miles to tell me to stop, but when I slowed our hands, he just continued to swing them like I never slowed them. I smiled at this, because mommy hated whatever I loved doing. Miles hasn't hated a single thing about me.
"Good evening! Do either of you have a reservation?" a nice lady spoke, as she looked at Miles and Mark before down at something. It was too high up for me to see over and look at what she could see. "Uhm, yes. It's for the University of Michigan Ice Hockey Team"
At this, the lady seemed to find whatever she was looking for and then directed us to this long table. I stopped walking as all the people turned to look at us. I didn't like this one bit. I pulled, hard, on Miles' long jacket that he had told me was his travel jacket, while Mark had bought me a black puffer, whatever that was.
But that wasn't important. What was important was to get Miles' attention. I tugged harder, again, and he stopped walking to look down at me. "Ells, what's up?" he questioned. His voice wasn't as light as last night, but it was much better than mommy's voice when she spoke to me.
"N-no" was all I could get out. It didn't look like he understood what I was trying to say, so I tried to gesture to the people at the table without pointing. If there was one manner that mommy taught me, it was to not point at people. It was rude.
"We're just going on a walk" Miles spoke to the people at the table, who still hadn't taken their eyes off of us. I could feel the tears brimming in my eyes. I don't know why I was crying, all that I didn't want to go to those people.
Some of them were familiar, but mommy's male friends were familiar and they still did what she did to me. They hurt me more than mommy did because they never drank as much as the colored stuff mommy did.
The Good Stuff she would tell me before she gulped an entire bottle. Before you knew it, it was then thrown at me, while I had to run and grab another one and another one and another one, until my sore body collapsed and let her hurt me.
"What's wrong Ells?" Miles had told me that it had started snowing earlier today, so the stuff falling from the sky, the snow, was getting in both Miles's and my hair. I smiled as I reached up to brush some out of Miles's hair, making him smile.
I was glad for the distraction, but I knew he wanted me to say something. To respond to his question. I went to start, but stopped, knowing my stutter would come out. Miles just nodded, so I told him.
He deserved to know, as he had taken me in. "Mommy always-s had-d male-e fr-riends over-r and, and, the-ey hurt me-e like her-r" the tears had started to run down my cheeks, as I felt a chill run up my back.
I didn't like the way they made me feel. "Well Ells, these people are my friends, and they wouldn't hurt a fly" I had no idea what a fly was, but if they wouldn't hurt that, then they wouldn't hurt me, surely.
"They-y wont-t hurt me-e?" I questioned. I just had to be sure. "No, they wouldn't dare land a hand on you, with you being mine" that made me feel better.
I wrapped my arms tightly around his neck and stuffed my nose in his jacket, smelling the familiar scent of Miles. I loved how he always smelt fresh, unlike mommy who I wouldn't dare give a hug like this too.
"You ready to head in?" he questioned. I hadn't noticed that we had walked down somewhere, and that Miles had stopped to check that I wanted to go back in. Mommy never cared whether I wanted to do something or not.
I just nodded, wiping my tears on his jacket, which didn't seem to bother Miles, as he seemed to rush towards the doors to keep us in the warmth.
"We're back" I looked up to see everyone smiling at me and Miles, who bounced me a little, just like he did this morning to wake me up, but this time, it made me giggle a little. "Say hi" Miles looked at me, as I looked at him.
I just did what I did to Miles, and waved at them all, as they all awed at me, before I turned quickly to Miles to bury my head in his jacket again. "She's shy" I heard him say as he walked somewhere and sat down, me still bundled up to him.
"Hey cutie" I felt a hand run up and down my back lightly, making me relax a little, as a soft voice spoke to me. I could hear Miles talking to someone else. When wasn't he talking to someone? So, I lifted me head and looked to where I heard the voice come from. He looked really nice, so I waved at him, which he smiled at, before I rested my head on Mile's shoulder, still looking at this person.
"What's your name?" he took my wave as my own hello, which it was. "El-lery" he didn't comment on my name, rather relaxing as well. Was he scared I wouldn't talk to him? "My names Rutger" that didn't sound like a name too me, but what did I know?
I nodded along, content with the fact that he wasn't forcing me to talk. "Have you ever seen ice hockey before?" I just shook my head. I had no idea what ice hockey was, all I knew was that Miles played it, and I think Rutger does know.
"Hey, sweetheart, what do you want for dinner?" Miles asked right as Rutger had to turn and look at something himself. Miles handed me something which a bunch of letters and numbers but I couldn't read a thing. I started to breathe hard, not knowing which was which and what everything meant.
"Hey, hey, hey, calm down. What's wrong?" Miles was quick to whisper in my ear, taking the thing that had like a lot of numbers and letters. Too many. "I-I cant-t read-d" I admitted as I chewed on my fingers, avoiding Miles' gaze.
"I'll pick out something for you. What do you like?" what did I like? I liked what we had last night, but I didn't really want that. So, I just shrugged my shoulders, hoping Miles could just pick something for me.
"Ok. How about chicken nuggets?" I had never had those, so I just nodded my head. They sounded good. He then spoke to this man behind, while I just continued to try make sense of that thing that I was handed before it was taken away from me.
"So Miles, we are all here now" uh oh, that didn't sound good. "Well, everyone, this little girl here is Ellery" oh, so they were all talking about me. I shyly waved at all the eyes that were on me, before turning around and hiding my face in Miles's chest.
"Your turn" I heard Miles say, as he coaxed me out of his chest. I thought he was meaning for me to go, but as soon as I had half turned around, someone spoke.
"I'm Ethan" then there was "I'm Mackie" then I knew Mark, "I'm Cole" and the list kept going and going, till it reached Miles and me.
So, the people I knew on the team were Miles, Mark, Rutger, Ethan, Mackie, Cole, Owen, Thomas, Mathew, Carson, Luke, Jacob, Adam, Dylan, Nolan, Luca, Frank, Brandon, Eric and Jay. I was surprised I remembered all those names, but I was told I didn't have to.
But it was nice that they all knew my name, so I think it would be nice if I knew at least some of their names.
"So, everyone pumped for the game on Saturday?" an older guy entered the area we were seated in, but didn't sit down like we were. "That's Coach Kennedy. He coaches us" I didn't know what Miles meant by coached, but I just assumed he like looked after them like Miles did for me.
There was a chorus of 'yes' and 'totally pumped' but I could see some of them didn't really mean it. I didn't know why. They had a different emotion to everyone else, but I didn't know what.
I didn't get much time to think or question it, because the guy Miles called 'Coach Kennedy' left the room and everyone resumed their conversations, as the food was delivered. I was given my 'chicken nuggets' while everyone had much larger meals.
They looked so much more complicated than my own.
"Here Ells" Miles broke one of my chicken nuggets in half and blew on. I still couldn't get over how I was no eating my third meal even though I wasn't hungry. I hadn't been hungry since dinner last night.
I then took it from his hand, and bit into it, realizing how much better this was then a moldy sandwich that had just butter that was off by a couple of months. What was a month? "Thankyou" I whispered in his ear, after I had finished chewing and he had started on his own dinner.
"Your welcome, baby" I loved Miles's names for me. He made me feel special; not in a creepy way like mommy's friends did or the way mommy made me feel like she just called me that in public so she was like everyone else's mommy's.
I felt special and wanted around Miles and these people.
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After I had had about what Miles said was half of my diner, I was beyond stuffed. I was eating way too much, so surely he was going to stop soon. That's what I remember mommy doing.
"Hey Ells, I just need to go to the bathroom. Do you need to go?" Miles had finally finished his dinner, and had now bent forward a little to speak in my ear quietly. I shook my head, so he lifted me up, as he got up and then placed me in this big chair by myself. I didn't get a chance to say anything, as he had already sped off into the direction of the bathrooms.
"Do you want to sit and watch a movie with me?" Nolan, who was sat beside Miles and I, asked, as I continued to look down where Miles had walked. I was getting tired, so I guess I could sit with him for a little while. Miles said they wouldn't hurt me, not if I was his.
I didn't know what he meant by 'his' but I knew I was safe with him, and so he knew these people better than I did, so I just nodded. I had no clue what a movie was.
Nolan gently picked me up and sat me so that my back was resting against his front, while he pulled out this rectangle thing and pressed a few buttons. Before I knew it, something was playing in front of me.
I was so entranced by it that I didn't even notice the chair beside me become occupied by Miles or that he was talking to Nolan and Rutger about me.
The girl in the middle was so pretty; she had a long blue dress on, her skin was darker but her hair was similar to mine. I loved whatever this movie thing was.
"Ells, do you want to get some ice-cream?" Miles startled me a little, making me turn away from watching my movie. I just nodded my head before I rubbed my eyes. I was getting tired, which meant I could be cranky, but if they were taking me to get this ice-cream, I had to be awake and not cranky.
Miles had given me three meals after all, and he was about to give me a fourth. I was sure I was going to burst. "I'll take her" Rutger than picked me up, and put me on his hip, as he started to walk out of wherever we were sitting.
I was too tired to care that Miles wasn't the one carrying me, but I knew Rutger just a little less than I knew Miles. I didn't really know much about Miles anyways. I knew that Rutger was on the same team as Miles, which meant he wouldn't hurt me.
I just hoped that the rest of them were the same.
Miles walked away with a few of them, as I rested my head on Rutgers's shoulder, just like I always did with Miles. "Aww, so cute" I think his name was Ethan, came and pinched my cheeks lightly, making me smile as he smiled.
"Isn't she just?" Rutger than used his fingers to tickle my stomach. I had found out that that was Miles had used to wake me up this morning. Miles had started to teach me stuff when I looked confused, which was almost all the time.
He just didn't understand how confused I was when he handed me that thing with all those numbers and letters.
"I think they're stealing my baby!" I heard Miles exclaim, as Rutger took off jogging, running away from everyone as they all started laughing, making me giggle as well. I think I was starting to like these people.
Rutger soon stopped short in front of everyone, as he then stopped walking waiting for everyone to catch up to us. "How was that?" he asked, making me nod my head really fast. I really liked it.
It was so much fun. Much more fun than I had ever had when I was with mommy. I hope I don't cry like I did last night because I couldn't call her. I had mentioned her much to Miles and Mark, but I thought about her less today than I did yesterday. I was too occupied with these people now.
I hope mommy would understand that I had made new friends. That I preferred staying with them and Miles over her, because they didn't hurt me. Maybe I could call and tell her that tonight before I go to bed.
"Come here, Munchkin" I was then taken out of Rutgers's arms and we walked wherever we were going. I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open, so I just rested them for a little.
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thoughts on the longer chapter? took forever to write so I hope it is alright. almost two chapters in one. lmk