Status: under construction af (2/19/2015)

She's so Bright

t h r e e

“Cause she's in my head,
And I can't take it.
I need you by my side.”


Being the determined little fuck that I am, I made my way once again to the Nickelsen’s house. I demanded to have all my Ellarie-related questions answered. Garrett may not have volunteered the information of his cousin, but I was sure if I asked he’d be obliged to enlighten me.

I had texted Garrett earlier telling him I was coming over and that I had some questions that needed answering. Like I guessed, he was completely willing to answer any question I had.

For the first time in a long time, I knocked on the Nickelsen’s door and waited for someone to come and let me in. I don’t know why I did. Perhaps it was because I didn’t want a repeat of the last time I was here. I didn’t want to surprise anyone. And by anyone I meant Ellarie.

Only a few moments passed before Trey came and answered the door. “Johnny boy,” he greeted me, giving a welcoming nod. “How’s it hangin’, man?"

“It’s hangin’ well, Trey,” I replied, stepping into the house and removing my sunglasses. “It’s positively delightful to be off tour. As much as I love performing, drinking, and girls, it’s nice to be in my own home and not some fucking bus with six other guys.”

“I hear that,” he agreed. “So. I heard what happened the other night.”

Playing dumb I said, “The other night…?”

“Yeah man… you know,” he nudged me in the ribs and gave me a knowing look, as if we shared some sort of secret.

“But I don’t know, Trey,” I maintained my act of obliviousness.

“You’ve met the Nickelsen’s house’s newest resident,” he said in a “duh” tone.

“Oh!” I gasped, pretending to just now remember. “Yeah. I did. She’s a hell of a lot better looking than the other two Nickelsen children.”

Trey punched my arm in a semi-serious, semi-playful manner. “That’s my little cousin you're talking about O’Callaghan. You better not get any funny ideas. She’s as close to a sister as I got. She’s O-F-F limits.”

“Don’t worry man. Thought hadn’t even crossed my mind,” I raised my hands to show my innocence, although I wasn’t innocent at all. The thought had definitely crossed my mind. And not just once, if you know what I’m sayin’.

“Somehow O’Callaghan, I doubt that,” Trey chuckled. “Anyway, Garrett’s up in his room. I’ll see ya around.”

“See ya around,” I mimicked and made my way up the steps.

I’ll admit when I walked into Garrett’s room and didn’t see Ellarie sitting on his bed, I was a little disappointed. It almost made it seem as if she was never there to begin with. That she was just a figment of my imagination.

“Dude you wouldn’t believe how much a legit, genuine, authentic Storm Trooper helmet costs,” Garrett informed me, his eyes locked on his computer screen. No “hi” or “hey John glad you made it here safely”, just more Star Wars related nonsense that I couldn’t have given two shits less about.

“One million dollars,” I said just to amuse him as I plopped down on his bed.

“Might as well be,” he typed away on his keyboard. “Either way, I’d never be able to afford it.”

“Gare, we’re in a band, we make decent money, I’m sure you could afford it if it’s under a thousand dollars,” I tried to reason with him.

“Eh,” Garrett shrugged, finally turning to face me. “I’m too cheap. You should know that.”

I laughed, briefly reminiscing on Garrett’s frugal ways. “Oh, I definitely do. Anyway, your cheap ass aside, why don’t we talk about what I came here for.”

“And what exactly did you come here for, John?” Garrett questioned, his face attempting to look quizzical as he rested his hand on his chin.

“To kill you,” I said in a mock-serious voice.

He looked at me unamused. “You wouldn’t even if I could.”

“’Even if I could? Of course I could.”

“I’ve watched a lot of Star Wars, John. I’m nearly a Jedi myself. Well trained in self-defense.”

“If you don’t quit saying such ludicrous things and tell me about your cousin I’ll start smoking right here, right now,” I threatened. You see, Mrs. Nickelsen hated smoking. Therefore, if anyone were to smoke in her house, she’d flip major shit.

“Don’t!” Garrett all but yelled. “My mom will kill me. Literally kill me. She just got a nice new set of sharp knives for her birthday.”

I laughed, shaking my head. “Don’t worry Gare, I left my cigs in the car. So, it’s time to get down to business.”

“You want the 411.” Garrett sat back down in his computer chair.

“I want the 411,” I confirmed.

“Well,” He let out a big sigh. “It’s a lot.”

“I think I can handle it,” I assured him.

“Alright, so, I never told you about Ellarie because… well, there isn’t really a reason.”

Isn’t really a reason? That was definitely not the answer I was hoping for. I had spent too much time thinking about Ellarie and the circumstances surround her to be told an answer as unsatisfying as that.

“Okay…” skepticism filled my voice. “That may be. I can accept that. But that doesn’t answer all the questions I have. That answers like one. If that.”

Garrett looked mildly disappointed that his answer wasn’t satisfactory. “Then what questions do you have?”

“Why did your cousin just randomly move into your house?” I'm not sure the question even needed to be verbalized. What other question would I have had?

“It wasn’t random,” Garrett differed.

“Then what was it?” I was growing somewhat annoyed. “Just tell me everything. I want to know.”

“Everything? How broad. Where would I even begin if I were to tell you everything?”

“Garrett.” I said his name in a threatening tone.

He got the message because he sobered up and finally gave me an answer. “Fine, fine. I’ll tell you why she moved in.

“It’s a little bit of a long story, but I'm sure you already guessed that. First things first, Ellarie’s mom is my dad’s sister. However, they were never extremely close. Ellarie and her mom lived in Nevada—Reno, to be exact—so I never really saw her much. But in the few times I had seen Ellarie when I was younger, we were as close as any cousins. She always seemed so lonely, though. She never mentioned anything of friends or boyfriends or anything of the sort. She and her mom weren’t very close. At all. In any way.

“My aunt, from what little I know of her, is pretty damn rich. She’s your typical, cliché single parent business woman. Maybe she was so focused on being successful because she was a single parent, so she had to, ya know, say ‘fuck you’ to the patriarchy and prove she didn’t need a man to support herself and her kid. I don’t know. But whatever the reason, she was business-driven, obsessed with success and wealth and, as a result, never paid much attention to El.

“She wasn’t the most conventional, my aunt, in her methods of bringing in money. Well, I mean, if you consider embezzlement to be unconventional. So yeah, she got busted big time on that. And that’s how Ellarie ended up here.”

“What about her dad? Why didn’t she go stay with him instead of you guys? Isn’t that legally who her guardian should be?”

“Well, two things. One, Ellarie is 19, so, legally, she doesn’t need a guardian. Two, Ellarie doesn’t know who her dad is. Neither does anyone in this family. My aunt never felt the need to share that information with anyone. Super sketchy, if you ask me.”

“So then, she chose to stay with you guys?” I was a bit confused.

“Yeah. See, Ellarie is a bit different from the rest of our family. She has what’s called Social Phobia or Social Anxiety. That’s why she didn’t say one word to you the other day. She doesn’t do well with unexpectedly meeting other people.”

“Okay, so she has Social Phobia, what’s that gotta do with her living with you?”

“She’s not quite prepared to live on her own yet. She was home-schooled, but she has no college education, and no college education means no well-paying job. To be frank, I doubt, at this point, she’d even be able to handle a job. That’s just not something she’s ready for. So she has no college education, no job, and no means to support herself and be on her own.”

“So she’s staying with you to what? Go to school? Get a job? Get help with her… condition? What?”

“At this point, she just needs some comfort,” he explained. “Her mother’s in prison, John. That’s kind of heavy. She needs support and stuff.”

“Yeah, I guess I get that.”

He gave me a temperate smile. “Happy now?”

I don’t think happy was the right word for it. In all honesty, I was feeling rather overwhelmed. Maybe I was better off not knowing all of this about her.
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this explanation of Ellarie and her situation makes a lot more sense then the previous one did. So, in summary, Ellarie is living with the Nickelsen's because her mother went to jail for embezzlement. Since she has Social Phobia, it's made it a bit harder for her to be able to establish herself as an independent woman. She's staying with Garrett's family for support, until she can get on her own feet.

so, I'd love to know if you guys prefer this explanation! so COMMENT.

also, Garrett didn't tell John everything. that's important to keep in mind.