Nellie sat in the lobby of her apartment building. She did this on occasion when the words she wanted to say struggled to flow through the tips of her fingers and onto paper. So now she sat on a couch with a journal balanced on her knees and her phone on the couch next to her. She scribbled down everything that slipped into the cracks of her mind, the girl simply trying to word her arguments correctly. She dropped her pencil as she rubbed her hands, her knuckles feeling cramped and in pain as she had spent the last three hours on the couch doing the same thing. Now she was getting bored, the idea of writing one more sentence making her eyes burn. Nellie leaned her head over the edge of the couch looking at the man behind the desk as he typed away on his computer.
"Jonathan," she said. The man glanced up at her, not seeming interested in any conversation with the girl as she started to initiate it. He ignored her as she said his name again, the girl frowning to herself as she picked up her journal and her phone. Instead of walking away like he expected her to, she walked right up to the desk and leaned over it. The man let out a sigh as she smiled at him and tapped her fingers on his desktop. "Jonathan," Nellie whispered again.
"Yes, Nellie?" He sighed, caving in to her actions as she placed her chin the palm of her hands.
"I know you don't like me, but I want you to know I think you're a swell guy." She said, her fingers touching little trinkets that littered his desk. He frowned at her as she spoke, the man now feeling guilty that she believed what she did. Truthfully, Nellie didn't care he didn't like her. She wasn't out for the company of a grumpy old man who didn't like her for all the noise complaints she had filed against her. The complaints were always filed against her for the same reason: her music being played too loud. She couldn't help it exactly. It helped her focus on nights where she wanted to work, and it had only been so loud recently due to the fact her headphones were broken.
"What makes you think I hate you?" He said. Nellie only smiled at this, laying her head on the counter as the man sighed again.
"Oh, I don't know. It's more of just an odd thought—that and you don't acknowledge me unless I'm standing right in front of you." Nellie said, the man giving her an uncomfortable glance as the elevator doors opened. Nellie looked over at this, the girl's head perking up at the sight of the tall boy who had asked her for Band-Aids the night before. "Pretty boy!" She said loudly, a smile taking over her features as she saw him. He only glanced at her as he walked towards the doors of the building. "Getting more Band-Aids?" She asked.
"Well, I'm all out of SpongeBob ones, so," he mumbled. Nellie looked down at his knuckles where his Band-Aids from before had been bleed through. She took in a breath, picking up her coat from the couch she had left it on before she put it on. Luke watched her as she did this, the girl picking up her journal and pulling her hair out of the back of her jacket. He furrowed his eyebrows at her as she smiled and gestured for him to walk out.
"Sorry, Jonathan, I have to go. My friend, pretty boy, and I have to go get Band-Aids." Nellie said, Johnathan not bothering to look up from his computer screen as she said it to him.
"That's nice," Johnathan said. Luke looked back at Nellie after she did this, the boy looking at her mostly confused as she stepped out of the building and held the door for him. Luke sighed before he stepped out with her, the girl pulling out car keys from her pocket. Luke shook his head at this, continuing to walk as Nellie glanced over at him. Luke wasn't going to get into the car with Nellie even if it meant he would get to his destination faster. Hell, it could have promised him it saved his soul and he still wouldn't have gotten into the car.
"Where are you going?" Nellie asked, watching Luke as he walked down the street. Luke turned his head to look at the girl who remained frozen in her spot. He frowned as he stopped and looked at the girl, knowing she was going to catch up to him eventually (and he really didn't want it to be by car).
"To the store. I'm not going in a car." He said. Nellie stood up straighter at this, the girl stepping up to him as she shoved her hands into her pockets. He watched her as she stepped up next to him, Nellie looking like she was taking in the scenery of the blue clouded sky drunk with the night that loomed behind it as they took steps down the sidewalk. Luke lifted his head back up after Nellie turned her head towards him, she smiled slightly to herself as she watched the normal scowl cloud his features.
He was truthfully a handsome boy and Nellie realized this. He was tall, at least a foot taller than she was, and he had broad shoulders that made her feel intimated in some ways. He also had blue eyes that Nellie found easy to fall into and a beard that defined his jawline; but to Nellie this was all relative. Luke was closed off and fought for the hell of it. Values were more important to her anyways.
And to Luke, Nellie was a cute girl. She was short with a sweatshirt that was way too big for her small frame that built up to only five feet and four inches. Her hair fell past her shoulders and rested down her back in dark brown strands. She always seemed to smile whenever she spoke to Luke, and many other people he began to notice. She always had a skirt on regardless of the fact the cold nipped at her knees (that had a few too Band-Aids he noticed). She also hummed as she walked with the boy, the girl seeming like she always needed to be doing some sort of action in order to keep herself sane. Nellie glanced back at Luke for a moment as his thought about the girl next to him.
"What's your name?" She asked, looking up at him as they stopped at a corner. After a few moments of looking at the boy she realized she didn't know his name. She had gotten caught up on referring to him as pretty boy that she didn't think to ask of his name. He didn't mind this, he didn't plan on being friends with Nellie. He didn't plan on ever doing much with her.
"Luke." He said, Nellie nodding her head as she heard it. It was vaguely familiar to her and she failed to put her finger on why it was exactly.
"Luke." She said to herself quietly as if she was trying to figure out why she had heard it before. "Is it short for anything?" She asked, looking up at him again as they crossed the street. He shook his head, seeming uninterested in conversation with her.
"No." He mumbled. Nellie gave him a look as he did this. The boy's closed off persona started to get under her skin as she tried to figure out how to get him to talk to her. Maybe he just didn't like her just like Jonathan, that thought bothered her mostly because it made her feel like she was wasting her time. Luke would have told her she was, which is why she didn't ask in the first place. He glanced back at Nellie as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, her other hand holding a journal tightly.
"Why do you seem so angry all time?" Nellie asked, the question falling past her lips without much thought. Luke gave her a look at this, the girl letting a gentle laugh fall past her lips at the look she received. He looked at her as if it a question that invaded his personal space and it truthfully did. Nellie didn't know this, but she wanted to know why the boy was so uptight; it definitely would have avoided a lot of conflict in the future. Luke didn't plan on telling her why exactly, not even a small portion of the truth he could lie about later. He was a closed book, he didn't care if Nellie seemed to enjoy being the opposite of just that.
"You don't know me well enough to know that." He said, the story behind it being more personal than Nellie expected. She figured he had an angry personality, but now he was just an annoying mysterious. She gave him a look at his response, the boy giving her a smirk as he opened the door to the corner store, stepping in after her as she waited for him to join her side again. Nellie mostly followed Luke through the store, the girl looking at all the knock off and generic items they sold inside. He looked at her as she stopped in front of a set of newspapers and magazines. She picked up one off the small stand, the boy looking over her shoulder before she glanced up at him.
"You know this guy?" She asked, pointing to the photo on the cover of the magazine.
"Sort of." Luke mumbled, opening a fridge behind her to grab a carton of milk. "We're acquaintances, I guess." Luke said, brushing past Nellie again as she crinkled her nose at the picture of a boy on the front of the magazine.
"He's a jerk." Nellie said. The boy on the magazine hadn't had a care for any of his actions. He was greedy and unkind and Nellie made a sad face towards the magazine as if she had lost a friend at the sight of the boy. Truthfully, she had lost a lot more.
"Money does that to people." Luke said in response, Nellie making a face that showed she agreed as she stepped back up next to the boy. She let out a sigh as she stared at what he stared at, Luke rolling his eyes slightly before he spoke again. "Something bothering you?" He asked.
"If you count capitalism, then yes." She said telling him half of the truth, making Luke roll his eyes again. She laughed herself as she tried to push the thoughts of the boy on the magazine out of her mind. "Oh c'mon," Nellie said. She followed the tall boy to the counter, grabbing a bag on cookies on her way. "Doesn't capitalism piss you off? It's stupid. Makes people fucking crazy." She said, pressing her fingers to the side of her head before Luke closed his eyes and shook his head at her. In a sense, he got what Nellie was saying to him, but the girl herself sounded crazy as she spoke to him here. He honestly would have given anything to shut her up.
"Yeah, nosy, you're a part of that crazy." He mumbled.
"It's Nellie."
"That's what I said," he told her. The girl gave him another look before he took the bag of cookies out of her hand and put it on the counter with his own stuff. She furrowed her eyebrows at this, having no time to interject before Luke had handed the man behind the register cash. He handed the girl what she had grabbed before he stepped out in front of her, the girl following closely behind him as he stepped out. She opened the bag as she stepped down the stairs to the store, Luke waiting for her at the bottom.
"You didn't have to buy this for me." She said, holding out the bag for the boy to offer him one before he shook his head. "Suit yourself," she mumbled. Luke only glanced at her as she ate one of the small cookies from the bag, the boy nudging her shoulder soon after before she smiled and held it out towards him.
"Wouldn't want you to have given him Monopoly money to make a point." Luke joked, Nellie laughing as she nudged him gently.
"I wouldn't have done that. That's crazy." She said. Luke only shook his head, Nellie sighing as they stepped down the street again, the topic of capitalism still itching to be let out in a lecture. "Capitalism really does suck though. We shouldn't have to pay for necessities, or at least not as much as we do. Money is material that gives us material happiness and false hope. It pulls us in and then keeps up from getting out." She said, playing with the end of her hair as she spoke. When she spoke about it, she stood tall, like she knew what she was talking about (or firmly believed it at least). It was admirable if more people had felt the same way she did, but like Luke said before, she was crazy, too. Especially since she didn't fear sharing her opinion with anyone; she had just met Luke and she was already on rampages.
"What do you consider a necessity?" Luke asked, Nellie tilted her head at this, thinking about the question like no one had ever bothered to ask her about it before.
"Food, shelter, and water." Nellie said, taking another cookie out of the bag before Luke did too. She pouted slightly at the bag before she handed it back to the boy, the girl stuffing her hands back into her sweatshirt's pockets. "Ever notice how people complain about being broke and poor when they simply don't have extra spending money for something like a pair of shoes?" She asked, the boy only seeming to shrug when she said it. He truthfully did notice, he had friends who make comments as such more often than not. Nellie expected this, but she wasn't going to push the boy for his answer, she didn't need it to make her point anyways. "Well that's why. That's why I hate capitalism." Nellie said. "Like, you're not broke," she scoffed. "You just have false ideas. Fucking bastard." She mumbled.
Luke only looked at her with raised eyebrows before he glanced over at him, huffing as she crossed her arms. "Are you done?" He asked.
"I'm never done." She said, the boy giving her another look before she sighed and pouted slightly. "Yeah, okay; you're right. I'm done." She said quietly as they crossed the street, the girl rubbing her arms as they cold poked at her body. She shook as a chill crawled through her, the boy barely noticing as she held the door open for him again. Her teeth chattered slightly as they stepped into the building, Luke already pressing the button to the elevator as Nellie said hello to Jonathan again. Luke watched her as she kindly spoke to the man, who probably talked awfully about her behind her back. The thought itself kind of bothered him, the boy beginning to realize Nellie meant nothing but well even with her crazy thoughts on society. After all, everyone had opinions, at least Nellie's were for good reasons.
"Nellie." Luke said, catching the girl's attention as he held the elevator door for her. She smiled at him as she said goodbye to the man at the desk. She thanked Luke as she stepped in, the boy only nodding as he pressed the button to the floor they were both making their way to. Luke didn't say much to Nellie as they stepped up to their doors again, the girl doing most of the talking before she thanked him for buying her the snack again.
Luke stepped into his apartment before Nellie, the girl shaking her head as she closed the door behind her. She ended up spending the next few hours sleeping and when she woke up again the time on her phone read 2:14 AM. The girl rose at this, stepping out into the hall where she placed something by Luke's door. When she stepped back into her own apartment she got to work and turned her music back up, knowing well that she was doing as she did it. Less than twenty minutes later, it woke up her friend from across the hall and the only thing that simmered his anger for a few seconds was the five dollars laying in front of his door. Much to Nellie's predictions, it didn't take long for the money to become crumpled in the fist he used to bang on her door.
"Nellie," Luke yelled. The girl, glanced towards her door at this, sighing as she stood up from the ground. Luke continued to hit is fist against his door, the boy glaring as Nellie opened the door. He sighed and turned his head away quickly, the boy trying to not to look like he was staring at the girl who only wore a flannel over her underwear. "Lose your skirt, Nellie?"
"Lose your shirt, Luke?" She countered, causing the boy to look down at his chest. "There's nothing sexual about my legs and there's nothing sexual about your chest; are we done?" He gave her an annoyed look at this response, the girl only shrugging her shoulders and smirking as she made a valid point to what they boy had pointed out. "So we're done? Okay." Nellie said, moving to close her door before Luke put his hand out to stop her. She groaned as he did this, the boy glaring at her as she gave him an emotionless expression.
"We're not done actually," he whispered. "Turn your music off. I can't take another two in the morning wake up call from you."
"But it helps me focus and my headphones are broken." She said quietly, rubbing her arms before the boy rolled his eyes. He stepped back from Nellie's door for a moment, pushing his own door open. Nellie watched him through his doorway for a moment before she stepped out of her apartment and into his. She knocked on his door as she stepped in, the boy looking up to give her an angry look as he dug through drawers in his kitchen. "What are you doing?" She asked.
"You need to wear pants in my house," Luke mumbled. Nellie only shook her head as he continued to dig through drawers, slamming each one shut when he came up empty handed. Nellie hopped up into his counter, kicking her feet gently as she began to hum again. She paused in this action for a moment, tilting her head before she looked at Luke.
"But I can be topless? Right?" She asked, pointing to his bare chest before she smiled. He only mumbled something to himself as she sat there, the girl moving her knees to her chest as he opened another drawer. She looked around his place as she did this, the place seeming somewhat similar to her's. Luke's was honestly cleaner, but that's not something Nellie would have admitted. It's not that her's wasn't clean, Luke's just had this kind of pristine organization to it that Nellie couldn't quite put her finger on.
"Here," Luke said. "Take these." The boy grabbed her hand and opened it before dropping the pair of headphones in. Nellie looked down at them as he walked back to his door and gestured for her to leave. She sighed as she swung her feet over the edge of his counter and hopped down, the girl putting her hands out in front of her as she tripped slightly. He flinched slightly at the girl's clumsiness, Nellie smiled slightly at him when she stood up straight again.
"You keep giving me things," she said. Luke rolled his eyes as she stepped back into the hallway, the boy looking at her as she leaned against her door. "It's weird." She said with a smile that showed she wasn't taking it the way she was implying.
"It's only weird if you make it weird." He mumbled, Nellie laughing quietly before she crossed her arms and tilted her head at the boy. He has his hand on the door knob as Nellie glanced at him, a smile still lacing her features as she pulled her phone out of the pocket in her shirt. She plugged in the headphones Luke had given her, the girl putting one in her ear before she pressed play on the screen. Luke heard the music through the headphones and he glared at her as it gently filled his ears, too. "You're a hero to your neighborhood, pretty boy." Nellie said, winking at him as she opened her own door. He only rolled his eyes as she did this, the girl finding some sort of endearment in his façade.
"Go to hell." He mumbled, slamming the door behind him as Nellie laughed at his cold words. None of them seemed to phase her.
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so last night my friend told me that Nellie was annoying and i'm not offended or anything (personally it kind of made me laugh) but it makes me want to know your guy's opinions on her because i love her a lot.
hearing she was annoying because she was overbearing was actually kind of an achievement because then i know to she's flawed and i'm not going to change her because in my eyes she's the perfect character to develop, and even help Luke develop.
enough writers talk though. I know I should have waited to post this but I'm bored and I can't wait—too excited. #noregrets.
also let's talk about my attached gif here.
but Luke was really cute in this like he got her cookies and gave her headphones, even if the headphones thing was to get her to be quiet. #blessed
also maisie has officially titled this ship, calling them Lellie.
i have to go now though. love you all.