Slowly learning that life is okay (GirlxGirl) [COMPLETE]

Elllie - Hold onto me cause I'm a little unsteady

Joel had left to help Tommy fix someone's roof after a particularly windy night so Ellie was sitting alone in the living room, plucking at her guitar. She'd been trying to learn a new song, to figure out the right chords but the Christmas carols the neighbour was always blasting made it harder for her to focus. Every time she started strumming she ended up in doing it in the rhythm of Michael Bublé.

It was almost completely dark outside, though it still wasn't that late yet. The snow had given them a truce, and the sky was somewhat clean. Her phone buzzed on the sofa beside her, showing her a notification from Dina.

'Are you busy?' It read, and Ellie furrowed her brows. Who was truly busy in the winter holidays?

'no'

'Meet me in the Halloween convenience store in 5?'

'sure' she answered back before putting the guitar down and taking a jacket and gloves.

She wondered if something was up, because Dina sounded weirdly serious through her text, and it made Ellie kind of worried, so she sped up in her canvas snickers through the salted pavement.

The lampposts were already lit, and Dina was sitting on the curb next to one. Her hair was up in a ponytail and she was wearing only a T-shirt and sweats. The light of the convenience store behind her made her glow slightly blue.

She sat beside her on the curb, stretching her legs out in front of her. Dina's hair was glued on her neck and on the sides of her face with sweat. "Aren't you cold?" Ellie asked, eyeing Dina's outfit once more. As if waiting for her words, the wind picked up, blowing their hairs and sending shivers up her arms.

She didn't wait for Dina's response, taking her jacket off and then giving Dina her hoodie before zipping the jacket back up. "Here," Ellie said and Dina put it on, sighing inside the warmth.

She sat beside her, their sides touching and their butts slowly freezing in the pavement. Dina's face was impassive, but her eyes were sad and angry. Something had happened.

"What happened to your arm?" Dina broke the silence, her quiet voice ringing out in the empty street. She almost forgot she had taken the hoodie off and her forearm had been exposed with the T-shirt before she'd put the jacket back on.

Ellie hesitated. This was how it had happened, with a simple question answered to the wrong person. She met Dina's eyes, her caring dark eyes, sincere and open. She felt like she stood in an important life crossroad, deciding if she should trust her or not.

She'd made this mistake before, and it'd rendered her friendless. She sighed, deciding to take that leap of faith, if not for her, for Dina.

"It was... an accident," she started, touching where her scar was under the layers. "I was with a friend and we were just exploring this empty house. You know, like you do." She licked her lips, watching her breath condensate in front of her. She could feel Dina's eyes on her, "and then the floor gave way under us because it had rotten over the years, and we fell."

She cleared her throat. "I fell over some broken glass, but she fell on a piece of iron and," she paused, the guilt rushing inside her, and she felt Dina's hand on her arm. "and I shouldn't have moved it, but I did and then she died."

Her mouth was dry and her heart was heavy inside her. "I shouldn't have invited her to go there. I shouldn't have moved her. Maybe if I hadn't been so fucking stupid she would be alive now."

Rationally, she knew it hadn't been her fault. That Riley falling on the pole had been bad luck. But in her heart, she felt responsible for it. For dragging her inside to explore the mansion, for moving her from the iron piece and making her bleed out. For not being able to do anything to help. How unfair was it that if she'd been the one walking on the right, she'd be the one impaled.