Chance Encounters

After that week, the air between Ellie and I was never the same. We weren’t awkward around each other. But it was like we had something to hide from everyone else. If Mary found out about our ‘thing’, we would be treading terribly dangerous waters.

Honestly, I didn’t know what Ellie and I had. I didn’t know what she considered us. I didn’t even know if there was an us. I cared for Ellie, I did. But we were so mixed up. Our emotions kept getting in the way of everything. I did like her. I just had so many perplexed feelings that I couldn’t contain anything.

On the Friday a couple days after our strange encounter, I was left alone in the house with Mary. Ellie wanted to go to the store and buy some new clothes. She had asked me to go, but I obviously was not someone that enjoyed walking around a store mindlessly.

I didn’t mind Mary at all, honestly. However, I had never been alone with her. For some reason, I was anxious about what she would ask me. I was hoping I wouldn’t screw anything up. I would get extremely tense and hesitant in situations like that.

“Oh hey Luke,” Mary said as I strolled into the house, tossing my bag by the door and going to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

“Hey Mary,” I said kindly. I really did not want to get on her bad side. I knew she thought I was a sweet kid, but I didn’t want to make a bad impression.

“Where is Ellie?” She asked.

“Oh, she decided to go shopping,” I said, rolling my eyes and smirking.

“Ah, good old Ellie. I’m guessing you didn’t want to go with her?” She laughed.

“Oh no. I can handle helping her pick out outfits for school, but not shopping for them,” I replied.

“I’m not much of a shopper either. She gets it from my sister,” she said.

“When do you think she’ll be back?” I asked.

“She should be back within an hour. Ellie doesn’t shop for too long. She gets overwhelmed easily,” Mary said.

“I’m surprised she’s even shopping in this kind of weather. It’s scorching outside!” I exclaimed.
I shrugged and placed my empty cup in the sink. I sat on the couch and looked up at Mary.

“Ellie’s not huge into the sun,” Mary said. “She tends to hide from it instead.”

“That explains the pale skin,” I chuckled. It was true. Ellie had extremely fair skin. But she was one of the few people that actually pulled it off. She was gorgeous in that way.

“Yeah, she’s never liked being outside in the heat too much,” she said.

“What about going to the beach in the summer?” I asked.

“Did Ellie not tell you?” She asked, twitching her lip a little. I had never really had a conversation with Mary before. She wasn’t as intimidating as I had thought. I mean, she did allow me to stay with her when she had a niece my age in the same house. But she did have an edge to her that baffled me.

“About what?” I asked, getting sort of worried. Did Ellie not trust me? We hadn’t told each other every single detail about our life, but I thought I knew the majority of her secrets. I wasn’t mad that she didn’t talk to me before, but I was curious. Ellie had learned most of the events in my life. Wasn’t it fair that I knew about her too?

“Ellie is absolutely horrified of water,” she said seriously, crossing one leg over the other.

“If I may ask, why?” I questioned, tilting my head and narrowing my eyes. She looked at me and shook her head softly, biting her lip. Her eyebrows furrowed together, creating tight wrinkles across her forehead. They didn’t make her look old though, just frustrated.

“I don’t think it’s my place to say. Ask her. I’m sure she’ll tell you,” she said, getting up and walking to the edge of the stairs. “Nice talking to you Luke,” she smiled. I sighed deeply and lay back on the couch. Why did she never tell me? What had made Ellie so scared as to hate water?

I stood up from my spot on the sofa and stretched, raising my chest into the air and pulling my arms behind my head. I breathed in deeply, inhaling the clean, stuffy air, and then exhaled, letting the questions I had escape my body. Grabbing my back pack, I trudged to the stairs, tripping over each step. My bag was extremely heavy, mostly because of my math and history books. The step at the top made a loud creaking noise, compelling me to jump as high as I could with twenty extra pounds latched to my back.

Walking into my room, I threw my bag onto the bed and shut the door. I wasn’t exactly planning on doing homework, saying it was only Friday. I was a huge procrastinator. But I had a lot I wanted to do that day.

I had a plan to get Ellie to like water. I know it’s her choice whether she’s scared of the ocean or not, but I felt like I needed to do something. And if my plan failed, at least I would try.

~~*~~
One Hour Later

“I’m home!” Ellie exclaimed as she accidentally slammed the door in excitement. I quickly ran down the stairs before greeting her and taking the bags out of her hands. I took them up to her room with her promptly behind me. Dropping them at the edge of the closet, I turned to face her. “How was being alone with Aunt Mary?” Ellie asked. I shrugged, sitting on the bed and patting for her to sit next to me.

“It wasn’t too awkward. We were just talking about how you’re crazy for going shopping on a scorching hot day,” I said, slightly bending the truth so she didn’t question me.

“I’m sorry! But there were a lot of sales going on. I got five shirts for $40,” she said, signaling towards the excessive amount of bags. I smiled, trying to show some sort of interest.

“Well, if you want, we could still go somewhere for a couple of hours before the sun sets,” I suggested. Ellie looked at me, her head cocked to the right and her lips pursed. Then she smiled when she realized that it was going to possibly be a date.

“Where would we go?” She asked.

“I was thinking we could have a picnic at the park downtown and walk to the ice cream shop nearby,” I said, mentally hoping that she wouldn’t hate me too much. Ellie perked up, her mouth now shaped into a wide smile.

“Really?! Let’s go!” She said, holding onto my arm and pulling me off the bed. I used my weight to stand up and lightly take Ellie’s grasp off of me.

~~*~~
“Are we there yet?” She asked, impatiently moving around in her seat. We had been driving through the town for about twenty minutes. We still had about ten minutes left.

“Almost,” I said. Ellie huffed as she sat back in the seat with her arms crossed like an upset toddler. I smirked and gazed at her, meeting her glance.

“What?” She asked curiously.

“Nothing,” I said, shaking it off.

“Hey! You just missed the turn for the park!” She yelled as we drove past tall trees and a couple of ponds with a big sign. This was going to get messy.

“Oops,” I said, not knowing what else to say. Ellie looked at me, her eyes popping out.

“What do you mean oops!?” She bellowed, getting more and more frustrated by the second.

“I meant exactly what I said. Maybe I didn’t mean the park,” I articulated.

“Then where are we going?” She asked.

“You’ll see,” I said as we went over a speed bump. A couple more miles and we would be there. After an awkward prolonged silence, I turned a sharp left and the sound of water and screams entered my ears. We were at our destination. Ellie made a couple of unsettling sounds, almost as if she were about to have a panic attack.

“No, no, you must’ve taken a wrong turn. The ice cream shop is that way,” she pointed to the right. I winced, not excited for the inevitable.

“Ellie, I didn’t take a wrong turn,” I said, parking in a space and beginning to open the door. She glared at me, gluing her feet to the floor and about to protest what I had done. I got out of the car and walked to the other side.

“Please get out,” I mumbled to myself, half praying and half hoping.