Redefine Me, Redesign Me

A loud ringing sound echoed through Ellie’s living room causing Ellie to let out a groggy groan.

“What is that noise?” she demanded clinging to Alex and pressing her face into his neck.

“It’s your phone,” Alex mumbled tightening his grip on her and slowly opening his eyes.

He glanced down at a very tired Ellie tilting his head awkwardly because of the way Ellie was laying on top of him. He realized that they had lost a lot more clothes than they had the first time. Ellie was only in her underwear and bra though she didn’t seem to care and Alex already knew he was only wearing his boxers. He pulled a blanket from the back of the couch and covered as much as he could with his limited mobility. He frowned noticing a strange scar on her side that he hadn’t noticed before but decided not to say anything about it.

“Thanks,” Ellie mumbled against the skin of his neck sending a shiver down his spine.

Her phone was still ringing and Alex spotted it on the edge of the coffee table. He stretched out his arm, fingers just barely able to reach it and somehow managed to get it.

“When did you change your mom’s contact to she devil?” Alex asked looking at the screen.

Ellie chuckled to herself, “I don’t remember.”

The call ended but Ellie already knew that she would be calling again in a second. Her mom was a two calls in a row kind of person and it drove her insane.

“I want you to talk to her,” Alex told her rubbing her back with the hand that wasn’t holding her phone.

Ellie sighed, “Why? All she’s going to do is apologize and then give me a reason to be mad again.”

“Just give her a chance?” he begged holding out the phone to her as it started ringing again, “Sometimes people can surprise you when you give them a chance.”

Ellie tried to find some way to sit up that wouldn’t end up being awkward but ended up straddling Alex. A blush colored her cheeks and Alex chuckled repositioning the two of them so they were both sitting on the couch. Ellie thanked him and took the phone from him.

“We’ll talk about all of this,” she gestured between the two of them, “in a second.”

Alex chuckled and nodded for her to answer the phone.

“Hello?” she answered sounding as though she had no idea who she was going to be talking to.

Alex pulled her into his lap and covered their legs in the blanket. Ellie didn’t even fight him she just kept her attention on her mom.

“Arielle? Where have you been? I’ve been calling for weeks,” Ellie frowned, her mom almost sounded frantic. For a moment Ellie almost believed that her mom had been worried about her.

“I’ve just been busy I guess,” Ellie lied as Alex’s fingers traced along the words of her tattoo on her ribs.

Goose bumps covered her body in response to Alex’s touch and she was having a bit more trouble listening to her mom.

“I wanted to talk to you about our last conversation, because your father really wants you to come home for Thanksgiving,” Ellie knew that she wasn’t calling on her own accord and it made her want to scream. She was glad that she hadn’t let the idea of her mom actually caring sink in too deeply.

“Don’t worry about it I’ll be there,” Ellie said cutting her off before she could make up an apology.

Alex pressed his lips to her shoulder kissing it softly causing more goose bumps.

“Well why don’t you bring Alex?” Kathleen suggested as if Ellie had told her all about him.

Ellie rolled her eyes and sighed. She wished she could bring Alex, but he’d be on tour.

“Oh mom, as much as I’d love for you to ruin him for me,” she said in a cheery tone, “he has his own family to be with.”

“Your boyfriend can’t spend Thanksgiving with his girlfriend?” Kathleen asked innocently.

Ellie ground her teeth together. “He isn’t my boyfriend, mom.”

“Oh good,” Kathleen exclaimed.

“Bye mom,” Ellie mumbled before hanging up without waiting for her mom to say bye. So much for people surprising you. That conversation may as well have been scripted, in Ellie’s mind.

“Well that went well,” Ellie muttered leaning back, into Alex.

“You are wearing a blanket,” Alex pointed out chuckling and leaning his cheek against Ellie’s.

Ellie chuckled as well. “Yeah it seems that we can’t get drunk together again, I seem to lose more clothing each time and I really can’t afford to lose much more,” she pointed out.

“I wouldn’t let things go too far especially when we’re drunk,” Alex promised, kissing her shoulder.

“Stop being so perfect,” Ellie groaned.

Alex laughed, “That would make it too easy for you to not want to date me,” he reasoned.

Ellie rolled her eyes and Alex’s fingers traveled down her side touching the scar he’d noticed earlier.
She winced, though in reality it didn’t hurt anymore. Alex covered the discolored skin with his hand.

“What is it from?” he asked knowing that she knew what he was talking about.

Ellie shrugged, “I got it on my sixteenth birthday,” she admitted.

“Is it part of the reason you don’t celebrate your birthday?” he questioned cautiously.

Ellie decided that it was time to get dressed and pushed herself out of Alex’s grip taking the blanket with her.

“I don’t really want to talk about it,” she mumbled as she trudged to her room to put on some clothes.

“You shot yourself in the foot with that one,” Alex muttered under his breath to himself after Ellie had disappeared up the stairs.

------------------------------------------

“You know my mom wanted me to bring you to Thanksgiving,” Ellie told Alex randomly as they cooked together that night.

“I wish I could go,” he told her honestly.

“You don’t mean that,” she argued as she rinsed a tomato for the salad, “She really is awful.”

Alex raised an eyebrow at her, “Do you really think that your mom would scare me off?”

Ellie shrugged she had other reasons to keep him from going back to Sycamore with her.

“You are hiding something, missy,” Alex called her out reading her easily.

Ellie shrugged, “It’s different there, I’m different there.”

“How do you know?” he asked raising an eyebrow, “You haven’t been home in months, you just might be a completely different person by now.”

Ellie hadn’t really thought of that and it wasn’t necessarily what she was talking about, but she wasn’t going to tell Alex that. What she really had meant was that she is treated differently there. Everyone knows her and her family… well they held a good amount of power.

“I guess so,” she allowed though she didn’t feel different, “Mallory will be upset that she didn’t get to meet you.”

Alex chuckled Mallory was constantly calling Ellie and chatting with both her and Alex. She always seemed to have a list of questions to ask him and without fail he answered every one of them. He didn’t want to give Ellie’s sister and closest friend the wrong impression.

“I’ll meet her eventually,” Alex offered, “as long as you let me,” he added giving Ellie a pointed look.

“Why wouldn’t I let you meet Mallory?” she asked, “and at this rate it looks like she’ll be my new roommate next year some time.” She didn’t mention that she didn’t really think that Alex would be around that long, he would just tell her that she was wrong anyway. But Ellie could feel it. Alex was going to leave her eventually.

“Whatever you do, don’t tell Jack,” Alex warned her laughing a lowly to himself.

Ellie laughed as well, “Oh I know how he can be.” Ellie had come to realize all too soon just how much Jack got around.

“Speaking of meeting people though,” Alex said getting back on topic, “How are you feeling about meeting my parents?”

Ellie sighed, “Honestly?” she clarified.

Alex nodded his head signaling for her to continue as honestly has she possibly could.

“I don’t know how to feel about it,” she continued, her eyebrows pulling together demonstrating her confusion, “we aren’t dating and we aren’t just friends. This is the weirdest thing I’ve ever had to deal with and I really don’t know how to take it. Do I freak out? Or do I just take it in stride like I’m just some friend that you decided to bring home for dinner? This isn’t college so it makes it even more complicated.” She finished off shrugging her shoulders and sighing heavily.

“You’re over thinking it, I promise,” Alex replied, “I’ve told my mom and dad a lot about you so naturally they want to meet you. You are a very big part of my life and so are they and they have been begging me to bring you over for a few weeks now. I’ve been holding them off because I didn’t want to scare you off but they were particularly pushy about meeting you before I went on tour.”

“I’m not the kind of girl you bring home to your parents,” Ellie pointed out, “I have major commitment issues that I have made painfully obvious.”

Alex made a face and Ellie’s stomach dropped.

“Did you tell them about that?” she demanded whirling around so she was facing him.

“No?” he tried clearly lying.

Ellie groaned and walked passed him to get a knife from the drawer just behind him, for the tomato. She yanked open the drawer taking out her frustrations on the cabinetry. She went to grab a knife but stopped short when she saw a small box with a bow on it.

“What is this?” Ellie asked holding up the small box to Alex.

Alex smiled, “It’s for you I meant to give it to you when I told you about tour but I guess I got distracted,” he shrugged.

Ellie sighed. another present .

“What is it?” she asked picking at the tiny bow.

Alex rolled his eyes at how stubborn she could be. “Open it and you’ll find out,” he told her. He didn’t care about her aversion to gifts. In his mind she would just have to get over it.

Ellie took a deep breath before yanking off the lid. She didn’t even see what was inside before she had shut her eyes keeping herself from knowing what was inside the box.

Alex chuckled, “Quit being such a baby it isn’t nearly as painful as you’re making it out to be,” he teased.

Ellie opened her eyes slowly and looked down at the box. A cartoon batman looked back up at her. It was a key, a cartoon batman key. Her eyebrows drew together in confusion before she looked back up at Alex.

“No matter what you say,” Alex began, “Batman is the best and only the best superhero can be on a key to my house.”

Ellie laughed loudly. “You are so lame!” she exclaimed shoving Alex. “You couldn’t come up with your own key idea so you steal mine?” she continued laughing and teasing.

Alex smiled back at her taking her teasing in stride. “I just figured it could be our thing,” he told her shrugging and catching her with his arms around her waist.

Ellie rolled her eyes, “You’re a total cheese ball and I’m going to laugh at you with Mallory.”

“You are a big bully,” Alex pouted causing Ellie to lose herself in hysterics all over again.

“I have a key to your house,” Ellie mused after she had caught her breath and controlled her laughter.

Alex raised a curious eyebrow in response. “Why does it sound like you’re up to something?” he asked cautiously.

Ellie shrugged, “No reason I was just thinking about how many times you have scared the hell out of me by just letting yourself in and I think I might enjoy scaring you,” she replied.

“I will tell my mommy on you,” Alex threatened.

Ellie groaned and buried her face in his chest, she had forgotten all about the dinner until he mentioned his mom.

Alex chuckled knowing that Ellie was worried about the dinner again.

“You’ll be just fine,” he promised.

Ellie decided not to answer him and instead stepped away from him and got herself back on track as she grabbed a knife and got to work on the tomatoes. She didn’t want to dwell on the upcoming dinner with Alex’s parents because chances were that after that Alex wouldn’t be sticking around much longer. She knew the way parents reacted to her and she knew that Alex’s parents wouldn’t like her. Alex seemed to be relatively close to his parents and their opinion might actually mean something to him and if it did then she wouldn’t be in the picture after this week.

So for now she was going to keep spending her time with Alex doing what they always did, because that made her happy. And who knows how much time she had left.