more character development, less action (more like no action). 'nuff said.
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It didn't take long for me to find Ellie. As soon as I burst out the front doors, the familiar sound of someone struggling up a rope graced my ears. I looked to the right and saw Ellie clinging onto a thick cord of rope, which my father and I had hung up on the edge of the treehouse he got me thirteen years ago, when I was four.
My father thought it would be funny to buy a four-year-old a decked out treehouse and force the kid to shimmy up a rope just to enter the glorious wooden shack in the big oak tree. I hadn't seen the humor in that until Mckenzie grew old enough to chase Jay and me around, but was still too young to attempt the climb.
I felt a sudden wave of nostalgia wash over me, bringing in an onslaught of beautiful memories about my cookie-cutter childhood with my cookie-cutter parents who didn't travel the world more than they stayed at home. As the sudden feelings wormed into my heart, squeezing it gently, I watched as Ellie tried and failed to make it two feet above the ground on the rope.
When I realized she was struggling more than my four-year-old self had, a smile stretched across my face and the nostalgic feelings left as suddenly as they came. I strode over to her until I was just three feet away from her awkward position on the rope.
"Need a hand?" I asked, my voice slicing through the relatively quiet front yard. The music thumping in my house was muffled out here, and my voice startled not only myself, but Ellie too.
She let out a little squeak, like a mouse, and jumped. My eyes widened and I lunged forward to catch her as she lost her hold on the rope and fell. Right into my arms. I couldn't help but feel relieved it was Ellie I caught instead of Delilah, or else I would've had to deal with another round of Delilah professing her "undying love" to me.
"Thanks- why are you smiling?"
Ellie's voice broke me out of my little thought and I blinked at her. Her large brown eyes peered into mine, as if trying to suck the soul out of me. I blinked again and my little smile, on instinct, turned into the charming one I used more often.
"No reason. Why were you on the rope? Or, better question: how long did you struggle before I came here and saved your ass from a fall?" I joked, setting her down. She remained close to me, and reached out a hand to tug on the rope hanging limply next to her.
A small blush formed on her cheeks and she grumbled shyly, "It wouldn't have been a big fall, anyway."
I laughed and agreed, "Yeah, probably not." I glanced up at the treehouse then returned my gaze to her, this time with an eyebrow raised.
"So. You gonna tell me what you were doing here, or not?" I asked, and even I could feel the small smirk on my face.
If it was even possible, her cheeks reddened even more and she cast a bashful look to the ground, which was cluttered with autumn leaves. "Or not." she muttered.
The silence lasted only two seconds before an idea popped into my mind. I had never been comfortable under awkward silences, so it had become second nature for me to come up with a way to avoid them or break them.
"Tell you what," I said brightly, my sudden voice jerking Ellie's head up to face me. "Let's play a game."
"A... a game?" she stuttered, eyes wide, and bit on my tongue to keep the laughter in. It was like she half expected me to transform into the creepy nutcracker thing from Saw. And although that would certainly be funny, it was physically impossible, so she'd have to hold that thought.
"Yes. A game. If I help you up the tree, you'll have to tell me why you ran out on me." I beamed, proud of my spontaneous idea. I wasn't the spontaneous one in our group. Mckenzie definitely wasn't, either. Jay? Maybe. But the queen of impromptu (if not irresponsible) trips to Mexico, spontaneous hair color changes, and random declarations of love (sound familiar yet?) - that was Delilah's job. Maybe she was rubbing off on me after all these years.
"Um..." Ellie started to hesitate and I turned on my smile - the charming one - until it was up to its highest level. Ellie even blinked and flushed when she saw my grin.
Wiggling my brows at her, I cajoled her to face the rope. "Come on. The treehouse's amazing. I used to want to live in there, instead of in my own home."
Ellie let out a little laugh at that and relief washed through me. I didn't like that she felt uncomfortable here. I wanted her to want to stay, or else I would've felt like I'd failed in helping her have fun.
She gripped the rope with both hands and tilted her head back to smile at me. "Okay, fine. But you have to help me and promise you won't make fun of my skills."
Grinning back at her, I bent so my eyes were level with her brown ones and placed both hands on her waist. "I promise. It's not like you have any skills to make fun of, anyway."
She laughed - finally - and before she could turn to slap my arm, which she looked like she was about to do, I lifted her up the ground and urged her to climb. Following my order, her hands snaked up the rope and I continued lifting her until her hands had no more rope to reach for, and were instead latched onto the edge of the treehouse's mini porch thing.
I kept my arms hovering in the air where she was as she heaved herself up the porch, in case she fell again. This time, the drop wouldn't be so pathetic. After she had situated herself to one side of the porch, I jumped up on the rope and climbed the last few feet up, swinging myself onto the porch easily.
"Show off." she muttered, but her smile remained.
I winked at her and watched in amusement as her cheeks reddened once again. Then, I motioned grandly to the doorless door. "Behold, the great Knights' Mansion. Part two."
Ellie crawled into the treehouse, evidently slightly afraid to stand up. Not that I blamed her. The treehouse was fifteen feet above the ground and wasn't in its best state. The years had definitely weathered it, and I ignored the creaking noises the floorboards made when I ducked into the treehouse after her.
The treehouse wasn't very grand, but in my opinion, it was pretty amazing. A smattering of multicolored bean bags lay on the floor, sitting on layers of overlapping sheepskin and cowhide rugs. There was also a mini Turkish rug from when we went to Turkey five winters ago on a rare family trip. The walls were decorated with fairy-lights, strung across the room in an aesthetically messy manner, courtesy of Mckenzie and Delilah when they were thirteen and in their Tumblr phases.
It wasn't magnificent, but it was childhood. I turned on the lights and watched as the warm yellow glow of the lights washed Ellie's face with wonder. Under the hazy golden light, her brown eyes turned a rufescent honey color, and I didn't realize I was staring until she looked at me, and her rosy cheeks - you guessed it - reddened even more.
I smiled at her and collapsed backwards into the white beanbag chair (my designated beanbag chair), which had accumulated a thin layer of dust because the last time I came up here was eight months ago, when Jay, Mckenzie, Delilah and I all gathered up here with mugs of cider and hot chocolate and played board games on Christmas Eve.
"We used to pretend we were the kids from Kids Next Door when we were younger." I didn't think I had to elaborate on who "we" were.
Ellie gave me a blank look, and I wondered if I really did have to elaborate, after all. "What's Kids Next Door?" she asked, and although that wasn't the question I was expecting, I still wasn't expecting it at all.
I widened my eyes and tried (not very hard, I would admit) to keep the incredulity out of my voice. "You don't know Kids Next Door? The TV show?"
She shook her head, completely lost.
"Cartoon Network?"
Another head shake.
I stared at her and she stared at me. Suddenly, I threw my hands up dramatically and cried, "Wow. I can't believe this. I cannot believe this!"
Ellie laughed uncertainly as she watched me with wide, deer-caught-in-the-headlight eyes.
Realizing she was the type of shy person who didn't like sudden loud declarations, I toned down the theatrics a notch or two and instead sighed heavily. "Where do you live? Under a rock?"
She flinched, which I totally didn't expect, but covered it up with a shrug and a casual laugh which I easily saw through. The way she avoided my stare indicated that she knew I caught her weird reaction to my words.
"You okay? Living under a rock is a figure of speech, you know," I joked, chuckling gently so she didn't freak out again. I felt a little put off. It usually didn't take me long to warm up to a person and get them talking like we were long lost friends. Ellie was definitely a challenge.
She shrugged again and said dismissively, "Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry. Don't mind me, I'm just a bit nervous."
Trying again to ease her, I gave her my nicest smile - one that had been compared to a golden retriever puppy's smile before - and said airily, "Well, don't be. It's just me."
Ellie opened her mouth to say something but stopped herself and instead looked at the carpeted floor. I could see the smile she was trying but failing to bite back, and I felt another small surge of relief and victory. It was like taking two steps forwards and one step back. It felt that way with Ellie. At times she seemed totally at ease, but then she'd suddenly shut down, leaving me feeling like I'd said or done something wrong.
Eyes still lingering on the rugs, she stepped towards a pink beanbag chair in the corner - Delilah's designated chair - before gingerly lowering herself onto the chair. She made herself comfortable, but didn't stop shifting until I realized she was trying to buy herself time.
I chuckled. "You don't have to keep moving. It's a beanbag chair. It'll mold itself without your help."
Ellie laughed lightly and stopped moving, clasping her hands in front on her lap. She looked up at me through her dark lashes. "I guess."
"So I've done my part of the deal. Now it's your turn." I said lightly, gesturing at her to speak. "Why did you run from me?"
Ellie tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear and shrugged. "I don't know. I needed some air, I guess."
I nodded, "I thought so. The beer was a little stronger than most. But you made it seem like it was something else."
She looked away, and I fought the urge to groan. Two steps forward, one step back. But maybe she just didn't want to talk to me. Maybe she was trying to find a nice way to let me down easily. I frowned at that thought. Why wouldn't she want to be my friend? I had so much to offer. I could probably score a five star review on Yelp for my friendship services.
Hmm... that was actually not a bad idea...
I snapped out of it when I heard her soft voice and realized she was talking. "It was probably just the beer. I'm a bit of lightweight," she was saying, "But thanks for coming out for me." She blushed at that but lifted her eyes up to meet mine, giving me a genuine smile. She had a pretty smile. I wondered why so many people overlooked her.
It was embarrassing how relieved I felt when she said the problem wasn't me. Before I could bask in my relief, Ellie shifted in her seat, but this time it wasn't to delay an awkward conversation. I glanced over to see her perched at the edge of her beanbag, gaze trailing along the walls.
I had neglected to mention that the walls were completely covered by pictures - photographed and crudely drawn with crayons alike. She ran her gaze over the biggest picture tacked up on the cork board wall. It was about two feet long and twice as wide, and the construction paper looked like an explosion of colors.
Trying to see the drawing through a stranger's eyes, I saw four stick figures floating in the middle of the page, because we had decided, when we drew that picture, that a ground wasn't necessary. Each stickmen were a different color and symbolized a different person. On the farthest left was a pink stickman.
It was Delilah, and her hair looked nonexistent, but if you looked closely, you could see a smear of white. Clearly, white crayon doesn't work really well on white paper. Delilah had on a plain pink dress, although somehow, the dress was see-through so the world could see her stickman body through that useless piece of pink triangle. She also had a baby blue cape tacked onto her shoulders - yet another failed triangle sticking out awkwardly on the side.
My eyes shifted over to Mckenzie, following Delilah's cape, which had embedded itself into Mckenzie's purple body. I remembered them fighting with each other about that breach of drawing space, but they had made up after a minute when they both started making fun of my stickman's inadequate clothes. Or lack thereof. I'll get there soon. Mckenzie's stickman was purple and wore a purple triangle dress, similar to that of Delilah's, but she had been practical enough, even as a seven-year-old, to make sure her body parts weren't blatantly displayed across the "dress". She even had the decency to add shoes on her stickman, although they looked more like raisins than shoes. Mckenzie didn't have a cape, but a golden crown. Typical Mckenzie. She had always been "Daddy's Little Princess", until "Daddy" forgot he had a kingdom here.
Cracking my jaw, I studied the next stickman in line. It was me. I remember I hadn't even been trying. Jay hadn't been either. We wanted to play basketball, but the girls insisted this was more important than training for the little league's first game of the season. We, being suckers for our favorite girls in the world, even as children, had relented and was thus dragged into the creation of this "family portrait", as Mckenzie had so proudly put it.
Now, even though I gave a half-assed job on this family portrait, it was still better, if I did say so myself, than Delilah and Mckenzie's. I was still a stickman, sure, but I had evolved. Yes. I had grown five blue fingers, and even an angle-shaped nose on my face, while the girls forgot about the fingers and only had beady eyes and parabolas for smiles on their faces. I even styled my hair. Not really. It was black and messy atop my uneven blue head, looking more like a jagged cloud instead of hair, but I did a pretty decent job for not caring at all when I drew this.
However, I had to tone down the arrogance for a little bit because I had forgotten clothes. Or maybe I had left it buck-naked on purpose? Yes, that was it. We had been drawing ourselves as superheroes (our favorite make-believe game of all time back then) and in my stickman, I was supposedly wearing a spandex superhero suit. Ah, yes. That explained the cape attached to my nonexistent shoulders (the arms started from the neck, so naturally, there was no room nor need for shoulders).
I had managed to respect the privacy and drawing space of Jay with my cape, and it stopped right before it reached his (fingerless!) hand. If my drawing was half-assed, Jay's was just- not assed. He didn't put any thought into drawing this, and the viewer could obviously see that, by the way he had just drawn a generic stick figure with no face, clothes, or hair - nothing. At least he had the decency to use a color. Green.
Jay had been too upset to embellish his stickman. I remembered looking out the treehouse to see the others guys from the little league team shooting hoops on our front yard court. Jay had been a little obsessed with basketball, even now. But now, thinking back, I found myself smiling at how he had dropped his desires just to hang out with the girls.
We were like the Fantastic Four. Except for the relationship dramas. We were unbreakable as a team, and even since day one. I smiled when I saw the words "Fantastic Four" written faintly in pencil at the top of the paper, above our heads, in girly, curlicue handwriting.
Jay and I had been comic book buffs when we were kids, dragging Mckenzie and Delilah into the fandom shortly after becoming friends. There had just been an announcement of the Fantastic Four movie coming out in a year, and we had been ecstatic. Fanatic.
"When was this?" someone said softly from behind my shoulder. I jumped, remembering that I wasn't alone, and I had been neglecting Ellie this whole time while in my daze.
Blinking quickly, I turned and flashed her an apologetic smile, hoping she hadn't said something else before this. She didn't look offended, so I was guessing she had not.
She was still looking at the family portrait, and my smile morphed into a wistful one subconsciously. I looked back at it. "Ten years ago. Jay and I were seven, Mckenzie and Delilah were six."
Ellie stepped a little closer and peered over my shoulder to study the picture. There were other things on the portrait other than us four - like flying bear cubs (Mckenzie's favorite animal), unnaturally large tacos (Jay's favorite food), tiny pink and purple fairies who were drawn more delicately and elaborately than the stick figures (Delilah's six-year-old obsession), and etc.
"You guys are very close, huh?" Ellie said, her breath tickling my neck.
I nodded, trailing a finger along one of Jay's surprisingly artistically drawn taco-giraffe hybrids (at the time, he thought giraffes were the funniest things on Earth). "We're best friends. Most people don't include their little sisters when they say 'best friends', but that's just how we are."
Ellie didn't speak, and when I glanced back, she had a smile on her face, her eyes telling me to go on. Two steps forward.
So I went on. I talked about how it started with just Jay and me, and Mckenzie and me, but when Delilah moved in a few blocks down the neighborhood, it became Mckenzie and Delilah, Jay and me, and Mckenzie and me. One day, the girls finally climbed up the treehouse. That was when we had accepted them into our exclusive "best friend group", and thus, the Fantastic Four Next Door (because we weren't quite on the superhero level... oh, the irony) was born.
I laughed at one memory of Delilah struggling to climb up the rope. Mckenzie had finally reached it and the three of us were sitting at the edge of the porch, both teasing and encouraging her.
"You kind of reminded me of her," I said, sliding a look at Ellie, who pursed her lips just a bit before smiling and nodding.
"I can't imagine her being as pathetic, though," Ellie joked.
Grinning, I admitted teasingly, "Okay, she got farther than you did, and she did get up herself, without any support asides from moral support."
Ellie's smile twisted for a bit before stretching back into a smile. But I had seen the way her eyes darkened and her jaw clenched, and my eyebrows drew together.
"What's wrong?" I asked, stepping away from the drawing and turning to face her fully.
She let out a heavy sigh and looked away, out the doorless door. The party was still raging on, and I knew Mckenzie would get an ulcer if I stayed away any longer. But I dismissed the thought. Ellie was upset right now, and Mckenzie had everything under control, as always. I should be thinking about Ellie.
Said girl had started rubbing at her elbow with her other hand in irritation.
"Ellie," I said, a little louder this time.
She looked at me and sighed again. "I'm sorry. Nothing's wrong. I just... I thought- never mind. It's stupid. Sorry for being such a downer tonight." she rambled, her eyes meeting mine before flickering away again. Her elbow rub continued.
I grabbed her hand and gently pulled it away from her elbow. "Hey, tell me." With one finger on her chin, I tilted her head up so we were looking at each other in the eyes. "And you're not being a downer. I was talking too much anyway. I didn't think about how bored you'd be with my trip down memory lane, and I'm sorry. Tell me what you were going to say, please."
We stared at each other for a good two seconds before Ellie's face flamed again and she shook my hand away. Her hand went to her elbow again. "No, it's not you. I just... I thought when you invited me here and didn't disinvite me after those girls walked away... I thought you wanted to, I don't know..."
Was I breaking out in cold sweat? I could deal with business meetings with the board of directors of my father's company while he was away. I could deal with Mckenzie and Delilah's temper tantrums when somehow, their period cycles had managed to synchronize. Hell, I could deal with waking up one morning and finding out I could fly, but I could never and had never been able to properly deal with a girl telling me her feelings for me.
Which was definitely where this was headed, as far as I knew.
At my lack of words, I had expected Ellie to stop stalking and jump down the tree house, even risk breaking her skinny legs, just to get away from this awkward situation. But, I had to give it to her, the girl had guts when it came to these things.
I heard her audibly inhale before letting her words tumble out. "I thought you wanted to hang out with me, or something. You know? I don't know. It's stupid. I didn't think. I just- okay. I should... I should go."
I managed to snap myself out of my daze and grab her arm before she could leap out the doorless door. So maybe those weren't exactly the words I thought she was going to say, and I felt bad, but, I couldn't help but let out a little sigh of relief. She just wanted to hang out with me. She didn't have feelings for me, or anything. Right? Seemed like it.
I mean, I wouldn't mind if she did, I'd just feel weird because that's just how I'd always felt when girls showed interest in me. It had been quite a nightmare when Chloe admitted her feelings to me. To be honest, I had thought we were just friends. Just. I shuddered. I didn't need a repeat of what happened with Chloe with Ellie this time.
Ellie froze and looked back at me, her big brown eyes wild and flustered.
"Wait, don't go." I forced out. I cleared my throat and kept talking as relief continued to pour into my system. "I am spending time with you, aren't I?"
I wasn't sure what I expected this time (everything seemed to be a surprise - good or bad - with Ellie Jacobs), but I didn't think she'd take two steps back. Hell, even three. "Yeah, okay. Never mind. Forget I said anything." she said dismissively and turned away again.
Before she pulled herself away, I saw the red in her cheeks and my short-lived relief vanished completely. A heavy weight sunk to my stomach and I cleared my throat when I found it dry. "Um... do you like me? Or something?" I asked tentatively. As soon as I said the words I wanted to snatch them back. How come I could control the wind but not the words carried by the wind?
A better question was: how was my brain capable of coming up with such a dumbass question?
Ellie's head whirled around so fast I thought she would get whiplash. Her eyes blazed with embarrassment and I even detected a hint of anger. Fine. Maybe more than just a hint. Her face was completely red at this point, and her jaw had dropped open. My heart dropped right with her jaw.
Okay, maybe I hadn't handled that the best way I could, but considering my history of awkward moments with girls confessing their affection towards me, this wasn't that bad. I mean, at least I cut through the chase? Got straight to the point? Did veracity not deserve a good ten out of ten these days?
Judging by the look of horror on Ellie's face, I could tell right now that she would most definitely not give my performance a ten out of ten.
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just uploaded this onto wattpad while waiting for my luggage in the helsinki airport (on vacation). if this isn't dedication, idk what is. JK I'M SORRY ONCE AGAIN FOR THE ONE MONTH LONG WAIT but........ hopefully some ellie / carter action makes up for it? if you're a shipper?
doing this for camp nanowrimo, so we'll see how this goes~
xx