Top Bunk

DAY 19

⌚ 6:00 AM ON THE DOT

El barely hears the horn - she almost wakes up on her own accord. Funny, even Grace is silent this morning, just purring as she sleeps. El stretches and gets out of bed. As she slips into her flip-flops, her eyes wander to the sight of Grace knocked-out on top bunk. Hair in her mouth, eyes pried open slightly, chest heaving up and down, arm thrown carelessly off the side of her mattress. El marvels at how someone can be both stupid-looking and elegant simultaneously. While sleeping. In a skimpy nightgown.

Meanwhile, El probably resembles a rabid, muddy poodle. On stilts.

El would go on deprecating herself, but Grace rolling off top bunk interrupts this. El has never moved so quickly. She thrusts her arms out and fortunately, Grace lands in them with ease. Startled with the sudden weight in her arms, El falls over onto her bed, nearly letting Grace's head hit against the edge of the top bunk.

At their impact, Grace yelps. Her eyes pop open and land on El's. The latter is currently perched on top of Grace, hands on either side of her. "What just happened?" Grace asks, wide awake.

"You," El says breathlessly, getting off Grace, "fell off the bunk." Why is her chest thudding so violently? It's not like Grace hasn't fallen off the bunk before.

"Was I crying?" Grace picks a lock of hair from her mouth.

"No," El replies. Weird. She usually would be crying in her sleep and thrashing around before falling. Today, she just...rolled off.

"Hm." Grace's eyebrows knit, just as confused as El."Well." She sits up. "Sorry about that." She smooths her nightgown and rises.

"Don't worry about it," El says.

Grace is halfway to the bathroom when she pauses and tells El, "Thanks."

El lets herself smile. "I'm used to it."

She thinks Grace meant to scowl at her, but there's a smile tugging on her lips, too. "Don't even talk about that."

⌚ 7:00 AM ON THE DOT

They're about to head out for breakfast when El's phone rings. Without thinking - stupidly - El answers the call.

"Hello?" she says into the phone.

"Elizabeth." Her mother's voice. She doesn't sound like she's been crying, just that she's tired.

Grace peers at her curiously. El probably has the most comical expression on her face. She waves toward the door, letting Grace know that she'll catch up. Grace nods in understanding and shuts the door behind her.

"I have to go, mom." El tries to sound gentle, she really does. "I'm late for breakfast."

"Just a minute, Eliz - "

"El," she huffs into the phone.

"El," her mother begs. "Give me one minute. Please."

It would be a better option to hang up. That won't stop her mother from calling again, though. El won't win either way. So she listens. "One minute."

"Thank you," El's mother replies. The static that El hears means she's taken a deep breath. "I called you yesterday."

"I know." El finds it increasingly difficult to stay calm.

"Why didn't you answer?"

"What's up with you and Lionel?" El asks suddenly, tired of the questions at her when her mother really needed to answer to her.

"L-lionel?" A stutter.

"He talked to me two days ago. You called him?"

"Yes," El's mother replies. She realizes she's trapped, El can tell through her fuzzy voice. "I called him."