freefall |[ luke kuechly ]|

|[letters]|

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February 17th, 2013
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Ordinary. That's how Ellen's days have felt lately. She woke up at 7:00 every morning. She went to her business management class everyday. She came back to her dorm for lunch everyday. She went to her culinary arts class after lunch everyday. Then she stopped at her usually empty mailbox and went back to her dorm everyday.

"Hello Eleanor," Luke said when he picked up the phone on the first ring. Ellen had been trying to make more of an effort to talk to him since winter break. "What's up?" He asked, sounding interested in what she had to say. Ellen wasn't used to people being interested in what she had to say, she usually felt as though her thoughts were unimportant and not listened to.

"Nothing really, I just wanted to hear your voice," Ellen said into the phone. That voice. That sweet, deep, caring voice that made Ellen feel at home. It made her feel safe and vulnerable. It made her knees weak but it made her feel strong. She was walking up the stone walkway to her dorm building. The Carolina winds were blowing hard today and there was a damp feeling in the air.

"Well, can you hear it?" Luke asked in a slightly deeper tone, trying to make himself sound tougher. Ellen forced a small laugh paired with a wide smile.

"Yes Lucas, I can hear your voice," Ellen said. She ended up calling him Lucas, even though that wasn't his real name, because of his name for her. She had just gotten to standing in front of her mailbox. And she juggled her keys in her left hand, trying to find the one that opened the mailbox.

"What are you doing right now?" Luke asked quizzically. He could hear the rattling of her keys through the speaker. Ellen balanced the phone between her ear and her shoulder to open the mailbox.

"I am getting my mail and then I'm going to study for my test Monday and write my paper that's due next week," Ellen said as she reached into the small box. Her mailbox was surprisingly full today and she paged through the pieces of mail to see if she got anything important.

"Did you get anything good?" Luke asked. She was still looking. Her heart stopped when she saw a small white envelope. She began sweating and gulped hard. "Ellen? Are you there?" Luke asked. He was worried that she wasn't answering him but he could still hear her tense breathing through the phone. Ellen snatched the little white envelope from the stack and held it closer to her face to see if she read it right. She did. Scott Harlen.

"I uh I got to go," Ellen said in a very sharp tone.

"Ellen! Don't hang up this phone. What's wrong?" Luke said sternly. He wasn't letting her off the line until he knew she was safe. His harsh voice caught Ellen off guard and brought her back into a sane state of mind. He had never yelled at her before.

"It's nothing," Ellen lied.

"Tell. Me. The. Truth," Luke said with staccato pauses between every word. He knew she was luring, she knew he knew. Ellen didn't know why she tried.

"I just have a lot of work to do that's all," Ellen lied more convincingly this time. What Ellen didn't know was that Luke could lie better than her.

"Okay, we'll have fun studying," Luke said. They each said their goodbyes. Ellen thought that Luke had dropped it. The only thing he dropped was his phone, in search of his car keys. If Ellen wasn't going to tell him what was wrong over the phone, he was going to find out what was wrong in person.