With You ✔

8

Kit

I get to class a little early and take my seat at the back of the classroom. Finn swears I head to class early now because I'm in a hurry to see Ellie, but really, I just don't want to listen to him talk about how excited I am to see Ellie for even a minute more. Apparently these past few weeks have been real amusing for my brother. Ellie has been at our school for over a month now and Finn still can't stop teasing me about her whenever the opportunity presents itself.

I look up and see Ellie making her way towards me and her seat, she has her head down as she looks at her phone but through the curtain of hair falling in her face I can see that she's biting her lip. She takes her seat and quickly begins typing out a reply to the text on her screen, only to backspace the entire thing and start again.

"You okay, Ellie?" I ask after seeing her delete her response for the fourth time. If she bites her lip any harder she's going to draw blood.

She looks up at me as if she just remembered where she is, "Yeah, I'm fine...it's just a text from my dad." She bites her lip again, "He wants me to think about visiting him for fall break."

"And that's a bad thing?" I don't know much about her family, just that she moved here with her mom at the beginning of summer. Family isn't really one of the topics we've covered on our weekly lunch outings or conversations during class - and for that I'm grateful, because family talk comes with a lot of baggage that I don't want to share.

Ellie looks at me like she is considering if she should say more, her sky-blue eyes searching mine silently for a moment before she says, "No, it's not bad. Things are just weird with my parents right now, and my dad is always going on last minute trips for work, so he might not even be home that week...and ever since the separation all he and my mom do is worry and apologize to me. It's like they can't be normal anymore."

It's like she's reading my mind. I feel the same way with my mom. Finn doesn't get it because mom treats him the same as she always has, nothing is different between them, but it seems like Ellie would understand. We have something in common, a shared feeling of wanting things to go back to the way they once were but knowing that they can't.

"Sorry Kit, I know you don't care about my family drama". She apologizes, tucking her hair behind her ear and looking down at the phone still in her hands.

Shit, I made her feel embarrassed. "No, it's not that. I was just thinking that I kind of understand how you feel. My mom is the same way."

Ellie looks up from her phone and opens her mouth to reply just as our principal walks into the classroom and announces that Mr. Mattox had to leave early today so this will be a free period where we can work to get caught up on out projects.

Everyone starts to pull their chairs across the room to sit with their partners and I look over at Ellie, who is already looking at me, a curious expression replacing the one of embarrassment. "What are you thinking, Sunshine?"

She blushes, embarrassed at being caught looking at me or at the nickname I've taken to calling her over the past few weeks, I'm not sure which. When the shade of red hits her cheeks, I can't help but smile at her, finding it cute that she's embarrassed.

"Have you ever been to Pretzel's?" She asks, after attempting to hide her blush behind her hands.

"Yeah. It's nothing compared to Rosie's though. Why?" Pretzel's is this tiny dive bar type place close to the college campus in town. The food sucks, but if you go at the right time and when the right people are working, they won't ID you, so a lot of kids from school go there to hang out on the weekend. I used to go with my friends, but I haven't been in a long time. Finn still goes sometimes though.