𝒯𝒽ℯ ℛℴ𝓈ℯ𝒲𝒽ℴ ℋ𝒶𝓈 𝒮ℯ𝒸𝓇ℯ𝓉𝓈 (𝒯ℒℴ𝒰 𝒫𝒶𝓇𝓉 2 𝒩/𝒜)

Dropout and Ditch

Ellie opened her eyes, upon hearing Cooper whimpering because he wanted to go outside. She smiled, standing up slowly to avoid waking Riley up.

She grabbed a hoodie from the hook on the back of her closet door, tossing it over her head and walking out to the living room to open the front door.

Cooper ran past her, as Ellie leaned up against the doorframe, watching him run around. She couldn't believe that today was the day where she would be giving up her future as an ecologist, possibly forever. As her dad was so notorious for telling her and Sarah though... You've gotta do what you've gotta do, even if you don't want to.

As she watched Cooper roam around, sniffing the grass and the bushes, Riley walked up behind her, already awake, alert and changed into her clothes from the previous day, "Good morning, Ellie!"

Ellie turned her head to the sound of her best friends voice, "Good morning! How long have you been awake? I've only been out here for 10 minutes"...

Riley giggled, "Long enough to change my clothes and brush my teeth. I've got a question"...

Ellie smiled, glancing over at Cooper before turning her attention back to Riley, "What is it?" She asked, locking eyes briefly with Riley.

She tossed her blue denim jacket on over both shoulders, sticking her arms inside the sleeves, "Want me to drive you to the college this morning? I have to go there for class anyway and I'll deal with Kat if she decides to start sh*t with either one of us"...

Wow, Riley dealing with Kat? Ellie loved her... So much... An ex dealing with another ex... This was going to be an interesting day, to put it lightly.

Unsurprisingly, Ellie immediately nodded at the opportunity, "Will you please? I usually would deal with Kat myself, but I'm really not in the g*ddamn mood today"...

Riley lightly laughed at the all too familiar sound of Ellie's "I'm not in the mood for this" voice. This wasn't the first time that Riley had heard her talk that way, but Riley used to find it attractive... Maybe she still did.

Riley smiled, "Sure, I'll deal with her. Oh, by the way, I fed and watered Cooper already, so he's all good!"

At the mention of having full food and water dishes, Cooper ran past Ellie to enjoy his food. He was always excited to eat his first meal of the day, which was kind of coincidental, considering how much Ellie used to look forward to eating breakfast herself.

Ellie giggled at the adorable antics of her furry friend which never seemed to get old, before standing up, "Alright, I'm gonna go get dressed and then you and I can head to the college campus".

Riley nodded, pulling Ellie into a side hug, "Okay. It's raining and cold, like usual, so I'm gonna go start my truck in order to warm it up. If you get dressed and I'm still outside, just come out and meet me in the car". Ellie nodded, tossing a small smile over her shoulder to Riley in a successful attempt to make her smile back.

As Riley left to head outside, Ellie headed into her bedroom, scanning through the neat arrangement of clothes in her closet. After thinking out loud to herself, Ellie pulled down black pants with no holes in them and a black short sleeve shirt with gray stripes on it, "Alright, going basic today"... She whispered, kneeling down to grab a white bra out of the bottom drawer of her 3 drawer unit.

Ellie sat on the edge of the toilet seat, quickly pulling her white bra over her head, doing the same with her shirt.

As she was pulling her pants up, Ellie buttoned them and allowed a deep sigh to slip past her lips, "I really REALLY don't wanna see Kat today. I don't wanna have dirty thoughts about her tonight. That's the last thing I need! At this point, I'd rather have dirty thoughts about Riley instead of Kat"...