Eleanor was finally getting to enjoy her day off from school. Her throat was no longer hurting and she caught up on all her missed sleep.
Cartoons on the TV were the only thing breaking the silence in the empty house. A stupid joke causes the girl to softly chuckle when she's cut off by her phone. In a matter of seconds her phone was blowing up with notifications.
Panic takes over her body when she reads that her school was in lockdown. She couldn't help but think of the worst possible scenarios. The girl had dealt with anxiety disorder her whole life and the idea of her brother in a dangerous situation triggered everything inside of her.
She had no text or calls from Jacob. She quickly found his contact in her phone and called him. Her anxiety rose as Jake's voicemail played in her ears. If her brother turned out to be okay, she was gonna kill him for not calling her.
Ellie calls him a few more times but she has no luck.
Maybe dad knows what's going on? Ellie thought to herself.
Her fingers quickly tap on his contact. In two rings she hears her dad's voice on the other end.
"Hey honey. Is everything okay?" He asks.
"Everyone is saying the school is on lockdown and Jake won't answer his phone. Has he called you? What's going on? Is there a shooter? Do you know whats going on?!" Ellie quickly asks him. Tears threaten to spill out of her eyes. The girl was officially freaked out.
"Woah, woah, woah," Andy starts, "Nelly everything's fine. There's no shooter and Jake called before his phone died."
Ellie could finally take a breath. She was still overwhelmed and processing everything.
"Take 10 good deep breaths and drink some water." Andy calmly tells his daughter through the phone. He could hear her shaky breathing through the phone.
"Okay." Ellie does what her father said.
Andy stays on the line waiting for her to finish what he said to do. When he hears her drink some water he starts to talk again.
"I can't talk about it right now, but you and Jake are safe." Andy sees Duff wave him over. As much as he would love to drop everything to hug his family right now, he has to do his job.
"I have to get back to work but I love you very much. Text me if you need anything and I'll be home later tonight." He says lovingly.
"Okay. Love you too. Bye." Ellie ends the call.
The house was completely silent as Ellie placed her phone on the coffee table. She plops herself on the couch and sighs loudly. No longer enjoying the silence, Ellie turns the TV back on and tries to focus on the cartoon.
---
The sound of the front door opening causes Ellie to jump up. As soon as she sees Jacob, she attacks him in a hug. The girl hadn't even noticed Jacobs' friend Derek standing in the room. She let go of Jacob and smacked his chest.
"That's for not having your phone charged." Ellie smacks him again, "And that's for calling dad before calling me." Ellie goes to hit him one last time.
"Ow! Jesus. Alright! You made your point Donkey Kong!" Jacob says catching her hand before impact.
Ellie finally acknowledges Derek and sends him a small smile.
"Hi Derek." Ellie says kindly.
"Hey, how are you feeling? Jacob told me you were sick today." Derek asks.
"I'm actually feeling a lot better." Ellie continues, "So why was the school on lockdown?"
Jacob and Derek send each other a look. Ellie notices this and furrows her eyebrows at them.
"Uh I guess they found Ben Rifkin dead this morning... people are saying he was murdered." Derek sadly says.
Ellie takes in Dereks words. She's frozen.
Sure, Ellie hated Ben for what had happened, but she would never want something like this to happen to him.
Her thoughts are interrupted as Jacob takes a step towards her.
"Are you okay?" Jake asks.
"Y-Yeah. Just wasn't expecting that." Ellie starts backing up towards the stairs, "I'm gonna go check my school email. Don't want to be far behind."
She immediately books it up the stairs to go to her room. She shuts her door quickly as a few tears roll down her cheeks. The girl sits down on the edge of her bed and starts to drown in thought.
Ellie honestly felt guilty. After her incident with Ben, all she would do is wish for something bad to happen to him. It's not like she actually thought anything would happen to him.
She hears Jacob and Derek playing video games in Jake's room. The boys didn't seem really affected by their fellow classmates' death and Ellie didn't blame them.
Ben Rifkin wasn't a good guy. He had bullied all three of them on several occasions. Jacob would tell Ellie all the things he wished would happen to Ben. He would talk about beating the shit out of Ben and giving him what he deserved.
Jacob had always had a small violent streak in him. When Jake was younger, he had a harder time controlling his anger. He would push and hit other kids that made him upset. As he got older, his violent side became less physical and more internal. Instead of hurting Ben, he would just think horrible thoughts.
Ellie gets up from her bed and sits down at her desk. She opens up the notebook that sits in front of her. Her therapist had given her a journal last year to use when she was upset. Ellie begins to spill her emotions on the empty page.
--
Soft music was playing in Ellies headphones as she doodled in her journal. She had lost track of time as it was now dark outside.
Noises in the hallway grab her attention causing her to take her earbuds out. She was hoping that her mom had made dinner because she was starving.
She hears her parents tell Derek that his parents were here to pick him up. Right as she opens her door, Derek is walking towards the stairs. The boy sends her a concerned look as he passes by. Ellie shrugs it off and goes to Jacobs room.
As soon as she walks in she gives her parents a hug. The hug was very much needed after the days events. Her dad gives her one last squeeze and kisses her head before she sits down next to her brother.
Jacob and Ellie sit close together as their dad starts to talk.
"We wanted to talk to you both for a second." Andy starts.
"Sure." Jacob says.
"We just wanted to see how you guys were doing, how you're feeling about what happened to Ben." Laurie continues.
Eleanor stayed silent. She didn't know what she was feeling.
"I'm fine. We're both fine. I mean, yeah, it's weird. But it's not like we were close friends or anything." Jacob speaks up for the both of them. He knew something was bothering his sister and didn't want her to get upset.
"Well, still, it must be scary, knowing someone that got murdered. Someone your age." Andy comments.
"I guess. I mean, yeah, a little bit." Jake mumbles.
"Sweetheart, you're awfully quiet. I know you and Ben had some classes together. Are you doing okay?" Andy asks Ellie. He knew there was something up with his daughter.
"Yeah. We had English and History together. We barely knew each other though." She wasn't completely lying.
"Was he nice?" Laurie asks.
Eleanor shrugged as Jacob spoke, "He was alright."
"Just alright?" Andy questioned the boy.
"Well, I don't wanna be mean or anything, but he was kind of full of himself, you know?" Jacob continued, "Like, he thought he was really cool."
"Was he?" Laurie asks.
"To some people, yeah. Girls were into him." Jake says.
Andy looks at his daughter, but she had her eyes on the floor.
"Well, we just want you to know we're here for you, okay?" Andy says genuinely.
"Whatever you're feeling, you can tell us." Laurie adds in.
"We kinda just did." Jacob says with a smirk.
Eleanor lifts her head and sends a soft smile.
"We love you both so much." Andy says looking between his two children. He just hoped that the two were truly doing okay.
"Love you too." The twins say at the same time.
Laurie and Andy stand up to leave the room.
"Dinner in thirty minutes." Laurie says as they leave.
As soon as their parents were gone, Jacob turned his body towards Ellie. Jacob saw his sister holding back the tears that were pooling in her eyes. He didn't know what was truly bothering his sister, but whatever it was he knew she was hurting.
Jacob held his sister in his arms as she broke down. Eleanor felt bad for keeping secrets from her brother, but little did she know that he had some secrets of his own.