gone ✧*｡ luke a.u.

37: september 21 2011

ELLIE

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21ST, 2011

"All done," Ellie said, stepping away from Ro. There was still some blue dye on her hands that had failed to wash off before she had blowdried Roman's hair, trapped beneath her nails and in the creases of her skin. She grabbed the soap.

Ro stared at himself in the bathroom mirror, then looked to Ellie. "Whoa," he said. "We look awesome."

Dan started laughing, covering his face. He was the only one out of the three of them who had opted to keep his own
hair colour, sitting on the edge of the bathtub, which was filled with more watery blue dye. "Ro, the school is gonna kill you."

Ro just shrugged. "Who are they gonna tell? Mum won't pick up if they call. Neither will Dad. All they can do is tell me off."

"True," Dan said, glancing at Ellie. She just shrugged and looked back at her own reflection.

She quite liked the new colour they had chosen. It was a dark, navy blue, that seemed almost black unless it was caught in certain lights. It was even flattering on Ro; it brought out the blue in his eyes.

"Can we start Operation Onion now that Operation Cheesecake is over?" Ro asked, sighing heavily. "Please?"

Their self-titled Operation Cheesecake was the dying of their hair blue, an endeavour which they had undertaken almost immediately upon arriving home from their zoo/pharmacy excursion. Morgan wasn't home anymore to tell them off; she had gone out to her friend Karen's house. It was just them, boredom and a lot of hair dye. Ellie hadn't anticipated just how messy it would get.

"I thought we were starting Operation Onion tomorrow?" Ellie asked. "Aren't you tired?"

"No, no, let's start it now!" Ro exclaimed, jumping up. He was full of renewed, childish energy again, even though they'd had a big day and sitting around waiting for his hair to be done had had him yawning and complaining for the past hour. "Please please please please please!"

Ellie glanced at Dan for his opinion, and he just shrugged. "I'm down," he said, "as long as we can get food first. I'm fucking starving."

She chewed at the inside of her cheek, thinking for a moment, then said, "If you guys get everything set up and move the stuff in my room, I'll make us all Nutella sandwiches and hot chocolate. Deal?"

"Deal," they both said, getting to their feet and following her out.

Outside of the bathroom, the rest of the house was dark and quiet. It was only just past eight o'clock, but with no one else home all the lights were off, and the effect the silence had was almost eerie. With Ro and Dan off to her bedroom to get things set up, it made Ellie feel like she was the only person in the world.

She went to the pantry and pulled out bread and Nutella, absently, on autopilot. She had done this for the three of them so many times over the years that she didn't even have to think about it anymore.

Half a minute later her phone went off, startling her so badly she almost dropped the breadknife she was using to spread the Nutella. She grabbed the phone off the counter and answered the call quickly, hoping it was nothing more than a spam caller so she could get back to Operation Onion quickly.

"Hello?"

"Ellie! Ellie, you picked up."

She frowned. "Luke?"

"Ellie. Ellie, Ellie, Ellie. You're correct. I am Luke." He burst into a fit of giggles.

"Are you okay?" she asked, leaning her back against the counter. "Are you drunk?"