-noah-
We were in Nampa, Idaho, it was about 9 AM, and I was tired. All I had done on this road trip was drive, and kiss a pretty girl, and frankly I just wanted to sleep.
Ellen had other ideas though.
"Today we're going to get as many things on my bucket list done as we can," she announced loudly as she tied her hair up into a ponytail.
"Why?" I wondered. "We're only in Idaho, we've still got the rest of the country to make it through."
Ellen shrugged. "We're in Nampa, for one thing. That's one of the biggest cities in this darn state. I'm hoping to get sixteen and three done."
I looked at the fridge, where Ellen had tacked her list up with bird magnets. Number three was jump into a pool fully clothed and sixteen was eat raw potatoes (preferably in Idaho).
I glanced up from the paper. "Why... why would we jump into a pool fully clothed? Why?"
Ellen whipped around so that her back was to the mirror and she was looking me dead in the eye.
"Noah Allen Reynolds. I have explained this to you about fifty fucking times. It's to make memories. Get that through your oddly rectangular head already."
A bit offended, I raised an eyebrow at her. "Wow. Tone down the sass, first of all, and I believe you've explained it to me once. Twice at the most."
Ellen sighed. "Whatever. Fifty, two, it's basically the same. So let's hit a coffee shop and see where it goes from there, okay?"
I rolled my eyes. 'You know, sometimes your spontaneity gets in the way."
She winked at me and went to go change out of her pajamas.
I sat down on the couch and unlocked my phone. To my surprise, I had one new text- from Kate. As in, my ex-girlfriend Kate. I hadn't spoken to her- in person, calls, or texts- in years.
Kate: hey, i heard you went out of town with ellen wilson?? haha
She did that all the time when we were dating- add "haha" to the end of a text. Every. Single. Time. It's like she used it as a form of punctuation or something; it annoyed me to no end.
Noah: you still have my number?
Kate: yeah. but where are you? just wonderin haha
Noah: I'm somewhere in idaho right now. moving to maine.
"How do I look, my good sir?"
I looked up from my phone to see Ellen standing there, looking mighty average as always. She was wearing a shirt that said "the earth without art is just eh" and some skinny jeans and black converse. Her hair was woven into some intricate braid that would take me at least twenty minutes to do, and string bracelets decorated her wrists. Sitting daintily on her middle finger was a gold ring with a bow in the center.
"You look great," I replied, straight faced.
She raised an eyebrow at me. "What's wrong?"
I sighed. There was no use hiding it from her; Ellen could always tell when I was upset.
"Just... Kate texted me. About you."
Ellen's face moved from confusion to realization to disgust.
"What, today? That bitch still has your number? And what did she say about me?"
"Nothing really, she just mentioned you," I shrugged. "But it's still strange."
"No kidding," Ellen mumbled. Then, straightening up, she added, "Whatever. Let's just go to this coffee shop, get a couple things knocked off the bucket list, and then get the hell out of Idaho."
I nodded and hopped into the driver's seat, setting my GPS for directions to the nearest Starbucks. In reality, I hated Starbucks, but Ellen just couldn't get enough. For her I'd drink ten caramel mocha lattes, or whatever they're called.
I set off down the crowded street, carefully maneuvering Jamie so that I wouldn't hit anything. It had taken me weeks to get used to driving such a big vehicle, but Ellen purchased it about a month before we left so that I could have some practice. I was getting pretty good, but I would feel terrible if I dented or scratched it or something.
"Do you think they'd pour my starbucks into this?" Ellen asked, looking curiously at a purple mug.
I sighed. "El, I don't understand your mug fetish, and I don't think that the people at Starbucks will either."
She shrugged. "It doesn't matter if they understand it, it's just important that they support it. Like you and this whole damn trip."
"Oh, it's not just this trip," I chuckled. "I don't understand half of the things you say and do."
Ellen laughed. "Yeah? Why's that?"
"Well, you skipped up to my grade, graduated early with five AP classes, you write in a journal every day, and that makes you pretty darn literate. For another thing, you just have all these cute- ahem, I mean weird- habits, and sometimes they bewilder me but mostly I think they're just these special idiosyncrasies that make you you. But it's okay that I don't understand all this stuff, because you're my best friend and I know what you mean anyway."
Ellen raised her eyebrows, her plump pink lips parted slightly. I immediately got insecure- had I said too much?- but then Ellen smiled and relief washed over me like a welcome summer rain.
"Wow," she murmured. "You're amazing."
I was about to reply, but the monotonous voice of the GPS cut in.
"Arriving at destination."
Indeed, there was a starbucks right in front of us, standing high and mighty like a castle. Ellen squealed and jumped out of Jamie, and I quickly followed after locking everything up.
We waited in line for about five minutes, which was far too long for mediocre coffee if you ask me. When we finally got to the front of the line, Ellen was almost giddy with excitement. She turned to the guy working- a twenty-something dude with messy blonde hair- and took a deep breath.
"Hi, uh, I'll have a salted caramel mocha please? And can you make it in this mug?"
Ellen held out her purple mug and flashed the cashier a dazzling smile. He smirked, his eyes sliding up and down her slender frame.
I coughed loudly a few times and Ellen elbowed me in the ribs. "I'll have a peppermint hot chocolate," I grumbled. "No mug preference."
"Can I get a name for the order?"
I squinted at his name tag. His name was Craig, which sounded like a douchey name to me.
"I'm Valerie and this is Cole," Ellen said quickly. I opened my mouth, about to interject, but Ellen flashed me one of her signature shut up, I know what I'm doing looks.
The guy turned around, but not before flashing a wink to Ellen that was definitely not necessary.
"Well, how's that for customer service?" she giggled, poking my stomach.
I shoved her lightly. "That dude's a pig. Don't pay attention to him."
She furrowed her eyebrows and tilted her head to the left, but remained silent.
"So our names are Valerie and Cole now?" I asked her with a raised eyebrow. She blushed pink and intently studied her shoes.
"Number thirty-eight on the bucket list," she mumbled. Suddenly, a loud fight broke out from behind us. To our surprise, it was an elderly couple arguing about a pool.
"I'm telling you, Jim, we're both too old to use that pool anymore!" an old lady with short hair and glasses shrieked.
Jim shook a meaty finger at her. "Now, don't be like that."
Ellen's eyes were wide and they had a dangerous glint in them that made me nervous.
"Ellen, I'm warning you now-"
She cut me off by spinning around and giving the elderlies a dazzling smile- the same one that she had used on Craig just moments ago.
"Hi, I'm Ellen. I couldn't help but overhear that you had a pool?"
I cringed.
The couple looked taken aback, not that that was surprising. "Yes, we do," answered the woman.
"Allow me to buy you a coffee," Ellen said.
And that's how I found myself unhappily squished into a table with my amazing best friend and two old people who smelled of body odor and mothballs. Ellen was talking with them animatedly, using her hands and lots of sound effects. I had to hand it to her though- it was working. Whatever she was trying to do, it was winning the couple over.
I was trying not to listen, I hadn't spoken the whole time since Ellen introduced herself. It was one of those things where you just let it happen and see where it takes you- there was a lot of that with Ellen.
"All right, it's settled then!" Ellen chirped happily. "We'll head over there now."
"Sounds great," the woman, whose name I learned was Joan, replied. "It's good that the darned thing gets one more use at least."
Ellen pulled me to my feet. "See you soon!"
She breezed out the door and I trotted along behind her like some lost and lovesick puppy. "Ellen?" I called. "El!"
Once we got into Jamie and shut the door safely behind us, Ellen grasped my shoulders excitedly. "This is going to be great," she whispered. "We got so many bucket list things done just now- we're about to do two or three more. Follow that white Prius right there, hurry."
I shook my head and started Jamie up, then followed the Prius out of the parking lot.
"So let me get this straight," I said with a tinge of uneasiness. "You bought the strangers behind us coffee, because it's a bucket list item. Okay, fair enough. And then you somehow got them to let us use their pool?"
"Yeah," Ellen said with a chuckle. "I'm good, aren't I?"
I couldn't help but laugh. My life back in Oregon was so mundane and ordinary, the same thing every day with just a minor disruption now and then. This, though, was new and exciting, a different surprise with each passing hour. It was great.
With a little difficulty due to losing the Prius so many times, I eventually stumbled upon a great brick house nestled in a little cul-de-sac. The Prius eased to a stop, and so did I.
"The pool's out back," Joan called with a wave of her stubby arm. "You kids have fun."
Ellen squealed and rushed through the back gate to where a pool lay. It had a slide on one side and a diving board on the other.
"Oh, my god," Ellen said with glee. "I'm so frickin' excited for this."
I allowed myself a tiny smile. It could be sort of fun. "Me too," I said softly.
Ellen rushed over to a little porch area on the deck of the pool. "Oh, a radio!" she cried. "That's perfect!" She twisted some knobs until a decent station came on. The song playing was Tell Her You Love Her, by Echosmith.
"Ready?" Ellen called. I bit my lip and nodded. We both removed our shoes and set them by the radio.
"Here we go... three, two, one!"
We both took a running start from the side of the pool and then jumped. Ellen tucked her knees up to her chest and let out a tiny scream, I stayed straight and tried to refrain from making any high-pitched noises.
It took a moment, but the water soon hugged my body and slipped under my clothes. My shirt was riding up, so I slipped it off and pushed off the bottom to break the surface.
Ellen surfaced a moment later than I did, already smiling. "Oh my god!" she yelled. "It's so cold!"
I laughed and tried not to look at her soaked clothes clinging to her body. She sidled right up next to me and whispered, "Wanna know what number twelve is?"
I gulped and replied, "Sure."
"Skinny dipping."
I blinked. Skinny dipping? That definitely wasn't there last time I saw the list, but I knew for sure I was not about to object.
Instead of replying with words, I just slipped my pants off and then, hesitantly, the rest. Ellen did the same and sunk under the water so that she was only visible from the shoulders up.
"This is weird," Ellen giggled. "I like it."
I blushed furiously, though I don't know why. We stayed like that, nude and silent, for about five minutes. Then I took my boxers from the side and pulled them back on with great difficulty.
"Already?" Ellen whined. "That wasn't much of a memory."
"Deal with it," I teased as I tugged the rest of my clothes into place.
Ellen got dressed a few minutes later, and then tapped me on the shoulder. "We're supposed to leave when we're done with the pool, but I have an idea. Stay here."
"No, El-" I started to object, but she had already stealthily dashed inside of the house. I moaned and closed my eyes. This was getting to be a bit too much.
Moments later, she reemerged with two brownish objects in her hands.
"Is that poop?" I asked incredulously, squinting as she came closer and closer.
"No! Noah, these are potatoes," she replied in a hushed voice.
"I wouldn't put it past you," I mumbled as I grabbed a potato from her. I knew what she wanted us to do- she had been talking about eating raw potatoes since we crossed the border.
"Ick, this is nasty," Ellen muttered as she extracted the potato from her mouth. I tasted it too, and pulled a face- it was exactly what you think a potato would taste like, and then a little bit worse.
"You know what? Noah, I'd eat ten potatoes here and now, just because I love doing things with you," Ellen declared.
"Me too," I replied. On the outside, I looked confident and cocky as always, but on the inside I was quivering from her use of the l-word. It usually didn't get to me, but Ellen had been acting strangely affectionate toward me lately, and I wasn't sure what to make of it.
The song by Echosmith was still blaring from the speakers.
"When she says she needs you, tell her you need her too. You'll tell her clearly, speak while your heart wants to. Tell her she's lovely, always tell her the truth. When she says she loves you, tell her you love her too."
And then, I did.
(A/N) somewhat edited
whoooo go Noah you get those ladies
anyway, I put a video of Echosmith's "Tell Her You Love Her" to the side. It's definitely one of my favorite songs so go listen and then be happy, and then tell all your girlfriends and boyfriends how much you love them. Unless you don't love them. There's also a photo of Ellen's outfit so yeah I hope you enjoyed!