ELLIS
"I'll sleep on the floor, you can have the bed," Ellis offered with a pillow tucked under his arm.
Since the moment he'd encountered Violet, normalcy went out the window. He was going to strange locations and meeting odd people. Violet was still a mystery to him as well. He knew exactly four things about her: she had a sweet tooth, she skateboarded, she obsessed over Joey Long, and she was engaged.
Violet rummaged through her bag for something to change into. "That's stupid. This bed is big enough; we can share it. We'll just face our backs to each other."
"You're completely comfortable sharing a bed with some random guy you just met?" he asked.
"Totally, I do this all the time, sometimes with multiple strangers. Orgies are my thing," she said sarcastically. Her eyes softened. "No—for reasons I can't really explain—I'm comfortable with you, Ellis."
Their eyes connected again. It made Ellis's palms start to sweat. Violet's lips curled into a tiny, sweet smile and then she looked away.
She stood in front of the mirror on the wall and began to remove the distracting accessories from her lavender hair. Her fingers carefully worked it into a bun atop her head. Ellis had to help her walk to the bathroom, where she could change.
He waited at the edge of the bed nervously.
What's wrong with me? Why am I nervous about sleeping beside some girl that looks like she covered herself in glue and fell into a box of candy?
Violet began to sing in the bathroom. Her voice sounded so melodic. She was singing "Linger" by the Cranberries.
Now Ellis knew five things about Violet.
He scrambled through the pile of their belongings on the floor to unzip his suitcase. Tucked away by tacky orange beach shorts and an electric razor was a small ukulele in a black cloth case. Most of the girls he knew seemed to prefer guys who played guitar, so he kept his ukulele addiction hidden. Ellis was sure that Violet probably thought he was such a readable person. It was his turn to shock her.
Ellis stepped close to the bathroom door and began to strum the ukulele's four strings in time with Violet's song. It took a moment for Violet to register that he was actually playing an instrument. Once she did, her voice got louder.
When she reached the chorus, the two of them sang it together.
He pressed his back against the door frame and marveled over how well their voices blended. Her soft, buttery vocal lifts complemented his smoky, rich tenor. Their harmonizing was perfect.
The song reached the final chord and all fell into silence.
The door cracked open and Violet poked out her head to look at Ellis with the biggest grin on her face he'd seen yet.
"You sing and you play," she said, holding back some of her enthusiasm.
Ellis felt a little cocky. He pretended to lift an imaginary collar and raised one of his brows. "See, I can be mysterious too."
Violet kept the door open just enough for her face to show and not much else. "Is this how you seduce girls? With your pro ukulele skills?"
Ellis shook his head.
"Seeing as I've only played for one girl—my mom—I'm going to have to say no," he said as he went back over to his open suitcase and placed the ukulele back where it belonged.
"So. . ." Violet sucked in a breath and held it for a beat."Technically, I'm the only girl you've played for?"
Ellis thought on it for a second and then agreed. "Yeah, I guess so."
Violet threw the door open and lifted her hood overhead. Ellis had expected to see a girl standing in either an over-sized tee, or a tank and boy-short undies. Those choices were the typical nightwear girls liked to wear around boys. Instead, Ellis found himself staring at a giant koala.
Violet's lavender hair rolled out of the hood of the costume.
"Ellis. . . you're totally into me, aren't you?" she asked.
All Ellis could see and think about in absolute horror was, "What the hell is that?"
Violet looked down to see if maybe there was a stain or a bug on her. She seemed to finally realize Ellis was referring to her pajama attire choices. "What? It's called a koala onesie."
He needed a minute to even figure out what exactly a "koala onesie"was. "Okay, if there was even a single cell inside me that was into you, it died when I saw your onesie."
"Come on, you know you like it!" Violet threw out her arms to try and climb onto Ellis's back, even though her cast made that a difficult task.
Ellis tried to pry her off him, but the more she behaved like a koala, the more he found himself laughing. "Get off me!"
"Can't, I'm a koala, all I do is climb things," Violet huffed while she tried to grab onto his shoulder.
"Oh yeah? You're about to regret this," Ellis warned her. He then reached his arms behind himself to hold Violet securely on his back and began to spin her around. He felt her legs do their best to hold on to his waist, and her arms wrapped around his neck.
She laughed hard with each movement, and he ended the spin by dropping her onto the bed and tumbling down with her.
Both of them lay on their backs and sputtered out a few laughs while they tried to catch their breath.
Ellis couldn't think of the last time he'd actually had fun spending time with a girl. He'd always just spent time with girls he wanted to hook up with. Even the few female friends he'd made back home, he'd never had as much fun with as he had with Violet in the span of a single day.
Is this what it was supposed to feel like to connect with another person?
He made a mental note to text "Gwen" and apologize. He would not be meeting up with her again.
Ellis thought of how Violet had laid down rules in order for them to survive the road trip. One of the rules was "no touching."
Well, whoops on that one.
"We broke two of your rules, you know. No questions and no touching," Ellis reminded her.
Violet sighed hard. "Yeah, we did."
She rolled against his side until her back faced him. Her cast dangled off the side of the bed and she hugged a pillow under her neck. She looked adorable all curled up in her little koala pajamas.
"We should try to sleep—have to be up bright and early. There are a lot of Joey Long stops we need to make in Alabama," she murmured tiredly.
Ellis turned until his back was pressed against hers. He stared at the picture hung above the headboard. It was horrible art of a Persian cat, titled "Mr. Muzzles." Clearly the cat lady at the front desk must have commissioned this piece of fine art to be placed in every room.
"Ellis?" Violet's voice was gentle.
"Violet?" he answered back without movement.
"Is it weird that I'm glad you ran me off the road?" she asked.
"Yes, it's completely weird," he responded. Ellis didn't want to tell her that he was glad he had run her off the road too. "But I don't hate your company," he finished and found himself surprised by how embarrassed he felt to admit that.
Violet was silent. Maybe what he'd said had affected her. Did she think he liked her? He was ready to throw out a defensive reply if she even hinted at anything like that.
A loud snore escaped Violet.
She wasn't a graceful sleeper at all. Her small koala-dressed leg occasionally kicked Ellis in her sleep,and the back of her head kept bumping his. These actions foreshadowed that he wouldn't sleep a wink all night.
Ellis tried to drown out the sounds with a pillow over his head. It helped a little with the noise, but not with Violet tossing in her sleep. She kept turning until eventually she rolled her face against the back of his neck and her arm draped over him. Her cast swung over the side of his leg and boxed him in.
At least in this position she didn't snore anymore.
Despite her bizarre habits and behaviors, Ellis didn't feel like pushing her off him. It was strange. He knew five things about Violet, and in those few moments between being awake and asleep, he felt five things weren't enough.
He wanted to know more.
Important Note:
• This story has migrated to Radish where it will continue, to read more download the Radish Fiction App (it's free!) from the App Store or Google Play and search for "The Violet Addiction" •