Last Round Romance

Elliot woke up in the middle of the night at the sound of someone opening his bedroom door. He slowly sat up in his bed and watched as the door opened slowly and the dim hallway light came in. He saw a short little shadow standing in his doorway and smiled when he noticed the pigtails in her hair. Leah whispered, “Ellie? Ellie are you up?” He gave a tired chuckle, “Yea, I’m up Hon.” She closed the door so there was just enough light for her to find her way over to the edge of her bed. She put her hands on the edge and toyed with the corner of his blanket, “Can I sleep in here? I had a bad dream.” Elliot picked her up and set her next to him on the bed and slid his pillow over to her. She crept under the covers and closed her eyes as her head hit the pillow. Elliot fixed the blanket around her shoulder and watched as her breathing slowed and she slipped back into sleep. He lightly brushed the stray locks of hair out of her face and kissed her forehead. He laid back down and stared up at the ceiling for a moment when he heard Leah whispering in her sleep. He couldn’t help but to smile as she rolled over in her sleep and her one arm went slack as it hung over the edge of the bed.
He looked at the clock; it was one-thirty in the morning. He knew that he needed to get back to sleep, but he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to. He looked at Leah and he envied how quickly she was able to slip back into unconsciousness. He closed his eyes and tried to stop from thinking about everything that was going on, but he couldn’t stop his brain from constantly generating thoughts. He rolled onto his side and looked at Leah; he couldn’t help but to think that there was something off about the whole situation. Any other girl her age who had a bad dream would’ve gone to their mother if they had a bad dream, not their older brother. He had always known that none of them really had a relationship with their mother, but for some reason the scenario that he was in really drove in the realization.
His little sister turned back over in her sleep and instinctively cuddled up against his side. He smiled as he gently and protectively wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He loved his little sister more than the whole world and anything else that could be offered to him. She was the little piece of innocence and happiness in his life, and he had no idea where he’d be without her. The fact that she always wanted to be around him gave Elliot a feeling of purpose, a reason to come home every night instead of just driving away. It was tempting at times, to just drive and never come back. He didn’t like always having to be both parents for his siblings, but he knew that if he walked out there wouldn’t be anyone to pick up all the slack. Matt could take care of himself, but that was it. And his mom couldn’t even take care of herself anymore, let alone their whole family.
He rested his head on the pillow next to hers and shut his eyes as he tried hard to fall back to sleep. He focused on the sound of Leah’s breathing as he tried to relax a little bit. Leah twitched slightly in her sleep and Elliot opened his eyes and gently stroked the hair out of her face. He looked at her for a moment with a small, tired smile on his face before closing his eyes and finally falling asleep.
His alarm woke him up next and he reached over Leah to shut it off. He removed his arm from around her shoulders as he sat up and stretched. He gently shook Leah’s shoulder, “Hey, time to wake up kiddo.” She pulled his blankets over her head, “I don’t wanna though Elli.” He chuckled, “I know, but you have to.” He saw her shake her head under the covers at him and he smiled. He wrapped her blanket around her and picked her up and hung her upside-down. She started laughing and moving around inside the cocoon that she had gotten herself into. “Elli!” she shrieked, “Lemme go!” He laughed as he set her down on the bed and the blanket fell off. He chuckled as she pushed her frazzled hair out of her face. She had a grin on her face that made Elliot smile himself. It was the kind of little-kid smile that fades away after they grow up. She still had the innocent, carefree kind of attitude that Elliot wished he could’ve kept with him. “So,” he said as she hopped off the bed, “are you ready to go get ready for school now?” She nodded and started to walk by him and out of the room. He tugged on a lock of her curly blonde hair and she turned around and stuck her tongue out at him. He pretended that he was going to chase after her and she started to laugh and run down the hall to her room.
Matt stumbled out of his room and walked down the hall to Elliot’s, “Dude, tell her to try and keep it down. Jeeze, I want to get some sleep sometime.” Elliot glared at him, “You’re fucking kidding me right? You need sleep? I’m the one taking care of everyone and I’m the one on fucking nightmare comforting duty at one thirty in the morning. I don’t even wanna hear anything from you. You don’t do shit.” Matt’s jaw dropped; Elliot hardly ever got mad enough to snap like that, especially while he knew his little siblings were still home. Matt just turned around and went back into his room without another word.
Elliot walked down the hall and knocked loudly on the twin’s door, “Come on guys! Time to wake up!” He heard the groans of two tired fifth grade boys. Every morning was a fight to get them out of bed. They were stubborn, just like all boys their age were. There had been more than one morning when Elliot had to go back and actually go into their room and physically drag them out of bed. He had picked them both up, one in each arm, and just plopped them on the floor. This had of course been when they were smaller. He chuckled at the memory and hit the door one last time to make sure that they were really up.
He went into the kitchen and got their breakfasts ready. Leah liked strawberry yogurt, Danny liked blueberry Poptarts, and Dave usually had the Ice Cream Sundae Poptarts. He had them all set out on the counter for them to take whenever they were ready. He put their backpacks on the three stools that were at the same counter. He checked all of the tables and chairs in the kitchen and living room to make sure that none of them had left homework or anything lying around. Because he knew that if they forgot something that he would be the one getting the phone call from their teachers about it.
He was walking back to his room to put on whatever clothes that he was going to wear to school that day and he called down the hallway, “Danny, Dave, Leah, come on! Let’s go! You guys gotta get ready!” He was walking over to his dresser when he heard the quick footsteps of his little brothers and sister going down the hallway. He smiled and grabbed a pair of cargo shorts and pulled them on and walked back out into the hallway.
Elliot poked his head into his mom’s room, and she was in the same spot where she had been the night before, and the night before that, and the night before that. Elliot sighed and walked in, “Hey Mom? We’re almost out of milk, so if you could run out today and grab some, that’d be really helpful.” He hoped that by maybe just giving her something to do that it would inspire her to at least get out of bed. He didn’t know if it’d work, but it couldn’t do any harm at this point. He kissed the top of her head and then walked back out of the room.
When he walked into the kitchen Leah ran up to him, “Elli! Elli!” She was jumping up and down in front of him. He laughed, “What’s up kiddo?” She pointed down the hallway to her room, “You put my art project on the top shelf so it wouldn’t get broken, but I can’t reach it to get it back down. And I need it today!” He laughed, “Alright, calm down. I’ll go get it. But go eat your breakfast okay?” The little girl nodded and went back over to the counter to get her yogurt.
He walked back to Leah’s room and picked up her diorama from the highest of the three shelves that she had on her wall. Elliot smiled; he remembered watching her work on this for a few nights in a row on the kitchen table. She had to make a model of something that made her happy. So she made a field that had little dolls to represent her, Elliot, Matt, Dave, Danny, and there were two other dolls that he just assumed were Curtis and Zach since they had spent so much time at his house. She put a bunch of candy wrappers in it, because candy made her happy, and just a bunch of other little knick-knacks that she had picked up in the most random places. But the things that made her smile made Elliot smile too just because of the simplicity of the things that she got enjoyment out of.
Once the three of them had gotten ready and were heading out to the bus, Elliot took a deep breath. Mornings were always hectic, and so were nights so there was really no escaping it. The few minutes after they left in the morning and when they went to bed at night were his few minutes to relax and just breathe.
He put his sneakers on and grabbed his backpack and cellphone before heading out the door to his car that was parked behind his brother’s in the driveway. He texted Curtis quickly, “Hey, I’m leaving now…you need a ride?” Curtis responded, “Nah, I’m taking the bus today. Thanks though.” Elliot started the car and sped out and down the road to get to school early. He hated getting caught in the bus traffic, whether it was getting stuck behind one that was picking kids up, or having to wait for kids to get off at school. He just wanted to park his car and see his friends before homeroom since that was one of the only times he got to see them.
Curtis got on the bus and went back to his seat. He rested his head against the window and almost immediately fell asleep. The scream had pierced right through his dreams again the night before. He hated the sound of it. But what he hated more was that he had no idea who it was or what it meant. He had his earphones in and turned all the way up as he rested his forehead on the cold window glass. He didn’t even notice Maria sitting down in the seat next to him.
Maria could see that he needed what little sleep that he was getting, so she decided not to disturb him even though she wanted to talk to him about what may or may not happen with her Harrison, and Shawn that day. She rested her knees against the seat in front of them and pulled out her sketchpad. She put her headphones in and put on some of her mellow music by The Fray. She pulled the pencil out of the spine and kept adding to the collage of mini-sketches that she had started her first day at her new school. She had always been intrigued by people and what they looked like when you drew them. And when she first saw Curtis leaning against the window like that on the bus, she started a little doodle of it. When the art teacher had seen it, she had told Maria that it might be cool to make a collage of the doodles in a bunch of different poses. But if she ever caught Curtis in the same position twice, she’d put more detail into whatever pose that it was. And she always caught him while he was asleep on the bus. It entertained her a little bit to see him fast asleep when she walked on.
A few minutes later, Curtis woke up and turned to see Maria sitting next to him. He wiped his eyes and smiled at her, “Hey.” She laughed and pulled an earphone out of her ear, “Goodmorning there Sunshine,” she said sarcastically. Curtis laughed and stretched, “I got like, no sleep last night.” She smiled, “So I figured.”
Curtis spotted the sketchbook in her hands, “Are you ever not drawing?” She laughed and closed the book, “I like to draw, is that a problem?” He shook his head, “Nah man, but seriously, I hardly ever catch you when you don’t have that with you.” She shrugged but didn’t say anything else about it.
He looked at her for a moment and he could see that there was something bothering her. He wanted to ask her about it, but he didn’t know if that you backfire on him or not. He knew that she always asked him about stuff, but he didn’t know if she could handle it when the positions were reversed. And the last thing he wanted was for her to be mad at him. He had already lost one of his friends, and even though he and Maria didn’t know each other overly well, he still didn’t want to lose her.
Maria was looking out the window on the opposite side of the bus. Curtis lightly nudged her shoulder, “Hey,” he said gently, “what’s buggin’ ya?” She turned to him and smiled, “Oh, it’s nothing, I’m fine.” He gave her an unconvinced look, “Don’t bullshit me Maria. What’s going on?” She sighed and leaned her head back against the seat of the bus, “It’s,” she paused, not wanting to finish the sentence, “it’s Harrison.” As soon as she said that, she saw the look on Curtis’ face turn from concern to anger. She knew that the frustration wasn’t directed at her, but she was still nervous. Curtis saw the fear flash across Maria’s face and he took a deep breath to try and calm down, “What’s going on with Harrison?” Maria bit her bottom lip in hesitation, “Well, you remember what I told you the other day about him wanting to hang out before the dance and stuff?” Curtis nodded but didn’t say anything. “Well,” she said as she fussed with the tattered edges of her shorts, “he’s gonna talk to be about it today. ‘Cause the dance is tonight and everything. I just don’t know what’s going to happen or what I’m going to do.” Curtis sat up straight and rested his elbows on his knees, “You’re not gonna hang with him are you?” Maria put her hands up in desperation, “I don’t know. I mean, I don’t want to, but…it’s Harrison. There’s something about him that makes me not trust him at all, and I know that he wouldn’t hold back if I pissed him off. I think that that scares me more than anything. Not to mention that even if I did somehow manage to get him out of the way, there’s still Shawn.” Curtis nodded understandingly, “Well, had either of them asked you about it since we ran into ‘em?” Maria nodded, “Yea, Harrison texted me last night,” she paused, “I didn’t respond.”
They sat there in silence for a minute or so. Maria was trying to plan out a way to avoid Harrison and Shawn, and she was also planning an argument just in case the avoiding tactic didn’t work. She had never really had to deal with this kind of stuff in school before, so she had no idea what to do about it. For the most part she had always gotten along with everyone in school. There was always the commonplace high school drama, but there was never anything that had struck fear into her like this whole situation with Shawn and Harrison did. The last time she had been this scared of someone was a few years ago, and she never thought that she would have to relive that kind of fear again.