She's Too Naive

Chapter 18

"I hate him," Lynn muttered. Ara and I shared a knowing glance.

"You don't mean that," I said pointedly. "You love Lee." She sighed loudly, slumping against the counter. Lynn had shown up while Ara and I were working, looking for someone to vent to. Apparently the fight Lee and Lynn had was a lot bigger than any of us had assumed. Apparently, Lee had decided he would be applying to a different college than what they originally planned. A college Lynn wouldn't be going to. It was unfair of her to expect Lee to do what she wanted, but it was also unfair of Lee to ditch their original plans after it had all been figured out.

"You're right, I love him too much," Lynn said sadly. Her eyes were puffy from crying so much, and she was obviously very scared of losing Lee since she was wearing a pair of his shorts and one of his shirts.

"You guys will figure it out. You always do." Ara patted her shoulder comfortingly.

"Yeah, you've been together for too long than to let something this stupid come between you two," I added. Ara nodded in agreement, offering her a warm smile.

"Ellie and I will buy you a milkshake to help you feel better." Ara said.

"Thanks guys," Lynn sniffled, wiping at her now dry eyes.

We quickly made her favorite milkshake- cookies and creme- and she gave us a soft smile before leaving. She said she wanted to just stay in and watch Netflix all day, doing her best to ignore Lee. I couldn't say I agreed with her tactic of avoidance, but she knew Lee better than we did.

☾

I was just heading to my car after closing the shop with Ara when I got a phone call. we ended up closing the shop late that night, since we had a lot of cleaning up to do after the busy day. Digging through my pockets to get my phone and my keys, I frowned when I saw it said Lee was calling. Was Lynn still not talking to him?

"Hello?" I asked curiously as I unlocked my jeep. There was a lot of muffled sounds in the background, but nobody was talking on the phone. "Lee? Are you there?" I questioned as I settled behind the wheel. I didn't turn the key as I waited for him to respond. Just as I was about to hang up, I heard Lee's voice.

"Ellie?" Lee groaned and I immediately became concerned.

"What's going on?" I fired off quickly, glancing around as if he were nearby. I was starting to panic when I didn't hear him respond again for a few moments.

"You need to come pick me up. I'm at the beach." his voice was slurred and my eyes closed momentarily as I understood what was going on. He had done this once before when his dad had gotten upset with him over a bad grade in math. He had begged me to not tell Lynn about it when I picked him up. Lee was always like an older brother to me, and there were some things he would rather have me see than his girlfriend.

I started up my jeep, pulling back onto the street as I started driving to the beach. I kept the phone to my ear as I drove, afraid of hanging up and not being able to get ahold of him again.

"I'll be right there okay?" I tried to sound reassuring, not quite knowing how he was feeling at the moment.

As soon as I parked in the lot, I knew exactly where he would be. There was a bonfire party happening down on the sand with a bunch of the vacationers crowded across the shoreline. Some were running around and laughing while some sat around the fire.

I didn't miss the numerous coolers scattered around.

I jumped out of my jeep, double checking I had locked it before I started my way down the path towards the fire.

"Okay, where are you Lee? I'm here," A few people looked at me curiously as I pushed them and out of my way. I heard some muffled conversations again through the speaker, but no response. I was on my own.  I sighed in aggravation and hung up the phone as I wondered where he could be. I assumed he would try and get away from the main group of people, so I started my search away from the bonfire.

"Hey! Are you Ellie?" Someone called. I turned towards the voice, and my whole body went lax with relief as I spotted Lee on the san. A few people were sitting with him, talking to him with slightly concerned faces. One guy was standing, with his arm raised and I assumed that's who had called my name. I went over to Lee, ignoring the group of people with him as they shifted out of the way.

"Lee? it's Ellie i'm going to take you home," I said gently, unsure of how much he had to drink. He just stared back at me with sad eyes and nodded. Lee never got crazy when he drank, he usually was just sad and disoriented. But the sadness probably came from the reason why he drank.

"Thank you for making sure he stayed out of trouble," I said to the group as I slipped my arm across Lee's waist as he stood shakily.

"it's no problem. We tried calling this other girl- Lynn- in his contacts since it was in his recents, but she didn't pick up and he finally was lucid enough to tell us to call you," The guy who had called me over said. At that moment I was furious at Lynn. Was is that hard for her to pick up his call? Although, Lee would have been more upset with her if she had come.

Lee stumbled the first few steps he took, forcing me to strain to keep him upright. The guy I had just talked to was nice enough to assist me with Lee and get him into my jeep, but I had no clue how I was supposed to get him into his house on my own.

Lee ended up falling asleep the whole drive to his house. Unfortunately, he lived outside of town so the trip took twice as long than just going back to my pace.

"I swear to god if you're parents are here," I grumbled right before I pulled into his driveway. I heaved a huge sigh of relief seeing the vacant building. His parents tended to work very late at night, as the both had third shift. I shook Lee hard, and thankfully he stirred awake and appeared more sober.

"El?" He groaned, pressing his forehead to the window.

"You're such an idiot," I scolded him harshly as I opened his door. He unbuckled his own seatbelt and climbed out, but still leaned on me heavily as we walked up the front steps. I dug around into his pocket until I pulled out his set of keys, and then let out an annoyed sigh when I realized we would have to discreetly get his car sometime tomorrow.

It took a lot of fumbling, but I finally managed to get Lee in bed. I yanked off his shoes, but he hardly seemed bothered as he rolled over and fell into a fit of snores.

I went to the bathroom and searched for some Advil, placing them and a glass of water next to his bed. Then, I dragged his garbage can from the other side of the room and positioned it conveniently nearby.

He was going to have a rough morning.

I double checked the lock on the front door before climbing into my jeep and resting my forehead against the steering wheel with a sigh. I should have told Lynn about what had happened, but telling her would probably put a bigger crack in the already fragile situation. There was nothing worse than being stuck in between two friends.  

awww a little more insight on Lee and Ellie's relationship. This is another more of a filler chapter with just some building of the friendships. Thank you for reading WE REACHED 1K READS WAHOOO!! Keep voting and leave comments! I'll keep updating when I can :)