Robbers

five

// five //

          Monday night passed very uneventfully. Ella had been forced by her mother into helping Rosie with her literature homework, and attempting to compose rhymes for Rosie’s limericks had turned out to be a little more difficult than she’d originally thought. She ended up going to bed later than she would have liked, and when Ella finally placed her phone on the bedside table and shut off the light, Ryan still hadn’t called.

            She should have expected this, of course. Why would Ryan ever take Ella up on her offer to help him actually steal money? They scarcely knew each other, and Ella was well aware she didn’t look like the sort of person who would jump at the chance to break the law. He had probably been expecting her to turn him in to the police for breaking and entering, not offer to help him get the money he owed.

            To be quite honest, Ella still wasn’t sure why she’d offered to help him.

            When Ella shut off her blaring alarm the next morning blindly grasped for her phone, she blinked at the light of its screen and discovered she only had text messages from Nina and Talia. There was still nothing from Ryan.

            She rolled out of bed feeling impossibly stupid and annoyed with herself. Why would she have ever thought Ryan would want her help? Of course he hadn’t called her, and it was clear he wasn’t planning on it. Ella forcefully tugged on a pair of black skinny jeans, stumbling in the morning darkness, and cursed herself for even bothering to try.

            Ella made it to school on time with some sort of luck, entering her chemistry classroom a good five minutes before the warning bell could ring. Nina was already seated in her usual place at the back, slumped over her backpack on the desk with her head buried in her arms. Ella dropped her bag beside her chair and sat next to her, biting back a smile when Nina groaned into her backpack, peeking over at Ella through strands of black hair. “I’m exhausted, Ella.”

            “Me too,” she agreed easily. A yawn escaped Nina’s lips, and Ella had to bite her bottom lip to keep from doing the same. She reached down for her chemistry notebook, asking, “Did you text me last night?”

            Nina finally dragged her head up to rest her chin on her forearms, sticking out her bottom lip to blow away the hair that had fallen across her eyes. “Yeah, I wanted to ask about the homework.”

            “Oh,” Ella said guiltily. She’d been so tired from the weekend’s sleepless nights – nights that had been caused by Ryan – that she had fallen asleep right after helping Rosie. “I’m sorry.”

            “S’okay. I figured it out – or, you know, sort of.” A tired grin was on her lips, and Ella smiled too because she knew exactly what Nina was talking about. Nina’s older brother had gone through the same chemistry class years earlier, but his notes and old tests were still buried in their basement. Although Nina only dug through them when she was truly desperate, Ella was sure she looked through them at least once a week.

            “Anyway,” Nina sighed, “what have you been up to? We didn’t hang out at all this weekend.”