𝘚𝘖𝘕𝘋𝘌𝘙 ⁽ʲ ᵐᵒˡⁱⁿᵃ⁾

𝘚𝘌𝘝𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘌𝘌𝘕

thank you so much leoskata for this amazing picture of elise that i put above,, I'm literally in love

The next day at school went by without so much as a glance from Julie.

Elise was growing sick of this separation. She still had so many things to tell her, she needed Julie to hug her and tell her everything was going to be okay. Or to do the same for the other girl.

Right now, they needed each other.

She let her board roll into a bush at the front of Julie's yard and shoved her hands deep into the pockets of her darkly colored jacket. Hiding behind her hood, she advanced toward the house. Maybe it was a little risky to be sneaking around like this while the earth still glowed a dim orange, and maybe she hadn't yet let herself think about how dark it would be on her way back home, but Elise was never quite good at sitting around and thinking. If she sat and pondered it for too long, she may have chickened out - which was another thing she would never be caught dead doing.

And maybe she was being irrational, but Elise liked to think it was just part of her sparkle.

She was under Julie's window in a matter of moments. She hadn't thought through this part yet, but it was surprisingly easy. She stepped on a few dislodged bricks that brought her high enough to firmly grab hold of the tree that hung above her, and she tried her best to remain as silent and sly as possible with a bulky bag on her back and almost no tree-climbing experience. She had the worst fear of heights when she was younger, and while it eventually withered away into silent discomfort, she never had the opportunity after that. She used to watch from the ground as her sister tried to beat her own time to the top of the tree in their front yard, if only Carrie could see her now. Elise laughed at the thought.

If only it was her now-irrational fear of the dark that had righted itself, she felt that was more societally accepted. If anything, her current phobias had only grown. Maybe she needed therapy. No, she definitely needed therapy. Luke was right: she definitely had the daddy issues. But she would save that thought for later.

She was level with Julie's window now, deciding it would be an invasion of privacy to look through. Even if to see if her dad was in there, or if she was even on the other side to open up for her. She swallowed thickly before softly tapping four times on the glass. She pulled her hand away and used it to secure her presence in the tree. There wasn't so much as the sound of shuffling feet from the other side of the glass, but after an anxiety-inducing, stale moment, the sound of a latch coming undone made her jump slightly.

She smiled up slightly when Julie's face came into view. The girl's mouth fell open and her eyebrows furrowed at the sight in front of her, and for a second she was frozen in disbelief, before something in her brain snapped and she reached to help the other inside.

Elise laughed quietly as she stumbled, though Julie did not seem at all amused. She didn't want to admit to herself that she was not in a good headspace, she knew she was being dramatic and reckless - maybe this was a way of self-sabotaging. Was she really afraid of being caught? In her eyes, that was what made it fun.

"Are you insane?" Julie whisper-shouted, hastily shutting the window and throwing her arms up in animation. Elise only smiled, shrugging her shoulders. Julie was cute when she was mad.

"Don't worry, Jules. If he catches me - which he won't - I'll just sell him something about home issues. Which wouldn't exactly be a lie, now would it?" Julie just stared at her with a blank face, before her eyes flicked away as if she were trying to keep a smile off her face. Which soon proved to be a futile effort.