Far From Over: A Billie Joe Story

My head snaps up and I see Ellie standing a few feet from the door. Every emotion I know is coursing through me.

"E-Ellie," I ask, feeling the weight of the world get lifted off my shoulders. She nods, trying to crack her knuckles but that familiar pop doesn't come out. It's her old nervous habit. She doesn't say anything.

Dammit, why the fuck did she come here, Christian asks, sounding pissed.

I thought you talked her into coming back, Gloria says.

No, I told her to stay away from here! From him!

"Christian told me to not come back," Ellie murmurs, letting her high pitched quiet voice ring through my ears.

"Now he's kinda taking it out on me," I joke, laughing a bit. She smiles a little.

"Yeah, I heard I'm not the only one he drove crazy." An awkward silence hangs in the air for a few seconds before I clear my throat.

"So how are you," I ask. "How have you been?"

"Not much better," she says. "You?"

"Same. Getting worse every day."

"How's Tysen?"

"Pissed. Of course. You knew he would be. He blames your death"-she cringes slightly-"on me at any chance he gets."

"How's Robbie?"

"Depressed. He misses you a lot."

"I know."

"How?"

"I can watch what all of you do when I behave well in In-Between. Which is rare."

"Why? What do you do that makes you act out?" She sits down on the ground and crosses her legs as if she were about to meditate.

"Christian already told you all of this-"

"I wanna hear it from you, El." She sighs and looks down, playing with a loose string from the black dress she was wearing.

"Pulled my hair out, hit my head against the walls, hit other people, screamed... cut." She doesn't seem fazed by admitting all the bad things she's done, so she continues. "I have a small bald spot from a handful of hair I pulled out after one day of being there. I have cuts and bruises from all the harm I've inflicted upon myself." She looks up to meet my gaze, something she had trouble doing when she was still alive. "It hasn't gotten any easier to deal with everything."

"Even though you have all the time in the world to be able to move on?"

"I don't have much more time. Only a year can pass before they send me to Hell. No matter how close I am to dealing with it. If it takes more than a year, they figure I'm just wasting time or I'm never gonna be able to deal with it."

"How can you say you have all these injuries, but I don't see anything?"

"You'll be able to see them when I start getting better. They won't heal till then, so they're all still pretty bad."

"Why are you wearing a dress?"

"It's what I'm supposed to wear." She looks back down at said clothing. "I would much rather be wearing jeans around you."