Can You Not?

Chapter 24

They were on their way to the creek. Norah and Ellis decided that they were going to spend as much time together as humanly possible; especially over the summer vacation before Ellis goes off to college. 

After much deliberation, he finally decided that he'd be attending a college out of state. There weren't any colleges in Minnesota that felt right to him and even if he did decide to study somewhere closer to home, Norah would talk him out of it, simply because choosing her as a reason just wouldn't be good enough and she couldn't live with the guilt of holding him back. Him being him, he argued that she wasn’t holding him back, but she knew him well enough to know that he was just trying to make life for everyone else easier. In the end, everyone convinced him to go to school out of state, but only after agreeing to a bunch of conditions.

One of his conditions was that Norah Skype with him every Saturday that he wasn't home. In the event of them not being able to do so, they have to inform the other within twenty four hours of the meeting.

Also, that his parents don't let Adam have his room when he moved up from Florida. He would not tolerate his little brother taking over his space while he was away and unable to defend his territory. He and Adam got along okay, but not so much when it came to the sharing of their personal affects. Adam was notorious in their family for borrowing things without asking and Ellis loved not having to deal with that while Adam was living in Florida.   

When they reached the creek, Ellis turned off the car and neither of them moved. They were supposed to be having a picnic, but neither of them felt like immediately jumping out of the car. It was very warm and windy outside. At least inside the Jeep they had air conditioning. Outside the warm air would just smack into their faces every time a breeze kicked up. Norah was wearing a dress and the thought of struggling to keep it down did not appeal to her in the least. 

So Ellis looked at her and she looked at him. Their eyes communicated their ideas and they stayed inside the car. They turned towards each other and let their legs rest on each other's seats. If it wasn't for the gearshift awkwardly sticking up between them, there would be no space to separate them.

"Stay inside until it's cooler outside?" asked Ellis.

"That seems like the best idea for now."

"Yeah." He turned up the AC and let the radio play them a mix he'd made in the background. "What did you pack anyway?" he asked curiously. He was always hungry.

"Grilled cheese sandwiches with ham, a fruit salad we can share, two sodas and cake."

"There's cake and you only tell me now?"

"Do you want some?"

"Hell yeah."

Norah laughed and reached into the back of the Jeep where the cooler bag with all their food was. She pulled out the Tupperware lunchbox with two big pieces of in it, along with two paper plates and two plastic spoons. She served up their pre-actual food dessert and they tucked in. Looking at his face when he took his first bite made her smile. She knew that chocolate was his favourite. They ate their cake quietly - for the most part - only stopping in between bites to pull weird faces or try to gross each other out. Ellis chewed his cake as finely as possible and tried to squeeze it between his teeth. It didn't work as well as he'd hoped and Norah didn't hold back on laughing at his pitiful attempt. She let him have the victory, not going any further than opening her mouth and showing him her chewed food.

"This why I enjoy your company so much," he told her after wiping his mouth.

Norah got them the two sodas from the cooler bag and they toasted to a nice day, the summer, their time together and Ellis actually getting accepted to a big, prestigious college. He was both surprised and relieved when he got his acceptance letter after a few weeks of horrific dread and anticipation. He had to go for an interview and submit a project to the university's school of architecture before they would even consider him. Minutes before his interview, he called Norah just to chat and try to forget about how nervous he was. It was adorable. Norah could practically hear him fidget over the phone. It all turned out okay in the end, just like she'd told him it would.