downpour / mileven au.

eight.

CHAPTER EIGHT;
WHEN THE PARTY'S OVER.

"remind me next time i ride in a car with you to drink more," mike said as el pulled to a jolting stop, and their unsettling drive to the location of his choosing was finally over.

she rolled her eyes. "you're alive, aren't you?" she defensively replies before looking out the windshield to see where they were. her brows furrowed, "why are we at the quarry?"

the same quarry where ryan cooper had jumped from.

he returned to her a with a smirk before exiting the car. reluctantly, she unbuckled and followed in suit. he popped the back of his car and retrieved a plaid patterned blanket, and proceeded to walk past the parked car to the edge.

she thought for a moment before mirroring his steps as he laid the blanket on the pebbles that coated the ground. "sit," he insisted, taking a seat on the blanket, leading her to believe he came here often — often enough to have a blanket stowed away in his car.

she complied and took a seat, leaving about three feet between them. "you come here a lot, yeah?"

she knew the answer, so she didn't really mind as much when he bypassed her question. "we don't know much about one another, do we?" his eyes were glued on the dark water that resided just 400 feet below them.

she pursed her lips, humming as she considered her answer. "i suppose not, but i know you more than i did two weeks ago."

he chuckles, "well, yeah, obviously. but i was just thinking that if we're going to be doing this for a while, we should at least be friends."

"i thought we already were friends," she voiced, unsure if she was offended.

the freckled boy laughed at the meekness of her words. he assures, "no — wait, i mean, yeah, we are! we just don't know each other very well, so like, tell me something!"

her lips gaped slightly as she lifted her brows. "about me?"

his eyelids weighed, resisting the desire to roll, "no, about quantum physics. yes, genius, about you."

she inhaled deeply, nothing too terribly interesting about herself coming to mind. "well, what do you want to know?"

he shrugged, "anything i don't, i guess."

this would've been a really good time to have some secret talent; however, she had none. curse her father for not forcing her to take piano when she was young, she could be a musical genius by now.

"uh, my mom's dead," she says before thinking, her voice raising higher towards the end as if it was a question. his eyes widened at her bluntness and she immediately scolded herself. "okay, maybe i should've phrased that differently."

he smiled with amusement. "yeah, you should probably ease into something like that."

she giggled, flickering her gaze from the water to the stars. she couldn't help but notice how disgustingly cliché this picture was. if only they were some lovesick couple, then this scene could make john hughes a richer man. but that certainly isn't the case, they're anything but lovesick.

only two teenager in two very different situations, hoping to benefit from a fake relationship with each other.

"i didn't mean for that to sound so — harsh. i mean, she died when i was a baby, so it's fine — well, not fine, obviously. no one wants their mom to die, but i'm not, like, upset or something. i mean," her stuttered words only grew more twisted as she continued. el huffed in frustration. she didn't talk about her mom much — well, actually she never talked about her mother. she only now realized how foreign the subject was to her lips.