She's so Bright

I had never thought so much about one girl as I had thought about Ellarie. I couldn’t even pinpoint the exact reason I was unable to omit her from my thoughts.

It could have possibly been because she was so quiet and unusual. Was it possible she was a mute? That’s really the only explanation I could think of as to why someone wouldn’t talk for the seven or so hours I spent over Garrett’s. Wait. Never mind. She couldn’t be a mute. She talked to Garrett. Whispered, to be accurate. It certainly wasn’t talking. Talking is done so at an audible level. Her whisper was so quite I wouldn’t have even known she said something had I not watched her whisper it. Dogs probably couldn’t even hear her whisper, that’s how quiet it was.

I don’t mean to sound like a dick, but it kind of pissed me off. Why wouldn’t she talk to me? Was there something wrong with me? Did she have something against tall, lanky boys with tattoos and messy hair? It wasn’t even that she wouldn’t talk to me; she didn’t even acknowledge my existence. For the entire time I spent at Garrett’s she wouldn’t look at me. If I turned around to talk to Garrett, Ellarie would either look at something else in the room, or down at her lap, like it had suddenly turned to gold right before her eyes. Or, my personal favorite, she would look right through me, as if I wasn’t even there. I didn’t know it was possible to look through someone before I had witnessed Ellarie do it to me. And let me tell you, it was not a pleasant thing to experience.

Another possible reason I couldn’t get Ellarie off my mind was because I’d never heard mention of her before in my life and suddenly she was moving in with the Nickelsen’s. Garrett was one of my best friends. We had been friends for a lengthy amount of time. So, it was very unusual for him to never inform me that a cousin of his was moving into his house. A cousin I didn’t even know existed until yesterday. Very much like cliche best friends, we told each other practically everything. Why wouldn’t he tell me this, though? Why would that be information to omit? I could kind of understand why he’d never mentioned Ellarie before. His family lineage wasn’t something he was obligated to share. It didn't hold much importance in a friendship. But to not tell me someone was moving into his house? That was just plain weird. Especially taking into account the amount of time I spent at the Nickelsen’s.

Perhaps I couldn’t stop thinking about Ellarie based on one simple fact. She was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. It sounds so cliché, I know. Believe me, I know. But there’s no other way to say it. No beautiful, rhythmic words or exquisite prose would even come close to doing her justice. It was simple: I had never, in all of my life, seen a girl as alluring as Ellarie. She had beauty the likes of which was not commonly found in Tempe. It had certainly proved to be a challenge to find a girl my type around here. Not only was she extremely beautiful, she looked like my type. Granted I had only seen her once and she was wearing shorts, a sweater and bunny slippers, she still seemed to be my type. No other girl in Tempe would be content to be that unapologetically pale. And her freckles. Most girls would try everything in their power to hide their freckles. Whatever reason, they saw them as nothing more than an imperfection. But Ellarie’s freckles added so much to her beauty. It gave her character. It set her apart. She was just so… unusual. In so many ways.

And I think that might have been it. The reason I couldn’t stop thinking about her. It was because she was so unusual. Her unusual behavior, the unusual circumstances surrounding her, her unusual beauty. It drew me in, enticed me.

She was a mystery. A mystery I craved to unravel.