Sparks Fly

Shortly after Carlos' visit, Sophie and Ellie's mom had stopped in. While she'd said it would take two weeks for her to visit, it had been more like two months.

"Ellie, can I talk to you outside for a minute?" She'd asked, after having spent a couple hours just catching up with Sophie. Ellie nodded, following her mother outside. She shut the door behind her, folding her arms across her chest. "Oh, please don't give me any attitude."

"Forgive me. I might be angry that it took you this long to care enough to visit your six year old daughter who has leukemia!"

"Ellie, please. I wanted to talk to you out here just the two of us because we need to discuss Sophie's future. And, to be frank, yours." Ellie shrugged, motioning for her to go on. "Thing at the office have slowed down a fair amount, for me anyway. We've gotten a lot of new hires in, and there's an opportunity for me to work from home."

"What?" Ellie was speechless, to say the least. Her mom... home? "What does that mean?"

"Well..." her mom began, a hint of a smile on her face. "It means, that I'd only need to come into the office maybe once a month or so. A lot of my calls, work , whatever I need to do, I could do at home. So, what I'm offering, is the chance for you to leave."

"So... I could graduate early?" Ellie was now in her first semester of her Senior Year of college. She could, of course, take a second semester of electives (for fun, and to be close to Sophie). But the opportunity to graduate soon? To move? To be with Carlos? That almost seemed too good to be true.

"Yes, sweetheart. Sophie is already six, but she still needs someone to be looking after her. And I've always somewhat regretted that that hasn't been me. And your father feels the same way." Ellie sucked in a breath. Her heart was beating a mile a minute.

"Mom, you have no idea how much that would mean to me. If you're serious. I mean, I love Sophie, of course. But, um..." Ellie hadn't told her mom about Carlos yet. "I mean, you're serious, right? I don't have to get this in writing or anything?"

"Of course I'm serious, Ellie. We can even go in and tell Sophie about it together, if you'd like." Ellie nodded, bracing herself, hoping that this wouldn't upset Sophie. She had been doing so well lately, and the doctors were saying that she'd be able to leave soon. She would just have to come back for chemo.

"Yeah. Let's do it." Ellie pushed the door to Sophie's room open. "Hey, Soph! How're you feeling?"

"Not too bad. You guys can stop asking me that every five minutes." Ellie put her hands up in defeat, offering a smile.

"We just wanted to talk to you about something, okay?" Sophie nodded, pushing herself up in bed as best she could. "So, mom's job is gonna let her work from home. What that means is, I could graduate early, and get a job, and move away." Ellie paused, letting this sink in with her little sister, whose eyes lit up.

"Does that mean you and Carlos could see each other more?" Sophie pressed. Ellie bit her lip, shooting a sideways glance at her mom. She and Carlos (and Sophie, sometimes) talked on the phone almost daily. But they hadn't seen each other since his one hospital visit, and it had been a month before that.

"Who's Carlos?" Ellie's mom probed, looking quite interested now. Though Ellie was busy with school and Sophie, her mom still somehow expected her to find a boyfriend.

"Um, Carlos is, he's so wonderful mom I just know you'd love him-"

"Carlos is Ellie's boyfriend!" Sophie chimed in. Ellie smacked her forehead - now came the interrogation.

"Boyfriend? Where is he from? What does he do? What does he look like? Does he treat you well? Does he care about you? I mean it's clear that Sophie likes him so he can't be that bad, but-"

"Mom!" Ellie cut in, pulling out my phone. "Yes, Carlos is my boyfriend. He's one of the nicest, most genuine guys I've ever met. He's from here, but he lives in Hollywood most of the time. He's in a band. He cares about me very much, and we talk on the phone all the time even though I don't see him much. He's on tour right now. This is a picture of me with him." Ellie took a huge breath in, tossing her phone to her mom. The photo was of Ellie and Carlos on the night of their first actual date.

"Oh, Ellie" her mom exclaimed, clutching at her chest, overcome with emotion. "He sounds so sweet. So then, if you graduate early, I imagine that you'd want to move out to Hollywood with this Carlos?" Ellie nodded, still biting her lip. Graduating early was one thing - asking to move to California with a boyfriend her mom had never met? "Well, I'd like to meet him first."

"No problem. In fact, Sophie, I've been meaning to tell you - Big Time Rush have a tour date here next week. I was waiting to tell you until the doctors thought it'd be okay for you to go, but I talked to them about it, and..." Ellie dove into her purse as Sophie squealed with delight in the background. "Carlos sent us an actual invitation to go." Ellie handed the ridiculous invitation to Sophie, who insisted on keeping it by her bed. "Mom, I'll let Carlos know that all three of us are coming, okay?"

"That should be fine. I'll let the office know that I'll need the day off, and we can have a girls night out. God knows that's long overdue, anyway. But you can't tell Carlos that you're going to move in with him until I've met him and given him my approval."

"MOM" Ellie whined, as her exact plans after this had been to call Carlos to surprise him.

"Oh, stop it. Besides, don't you think that's the kind of news you'd rather deliver in person?" Ellie bit back a smile, just trying to imagine the reaction Carlos would have to this kind of news.

"You know what, you're right. I think I can wait a week."