Eat.

It's been a week since Ellie and I have been told about Mabel's suicide and she still wasn't taking it well. But, it has been four days since Ellie's been to the hospital and talked to a professional about her health. She's been eating little things, like fruit and crackers but with time, but soon, she’ll get to eat bigger things.

This morning started off as a usual routine stretch and backrub because of sleeping on the not so comfortable couch. I saw the time and saw that it was still pretty early but noticed that Joe had already left for work. Getting up and yawning, I went to the bathroom, performed my morning routine and walked back downstairs to start cutting up Ellie's fruits and saltine crackers for the morning. Once I had finished cutting the strawberries (a process in which I accidentally nicked my finger on the fucking knife) I walked upstairs to awake her with it.

“Wakey wakey eggs and bakey. Well more like grapies and strawberries but you get the point.”

She groaned and rolled in her sheets, squeezing her eyes in an attempt to ignore me, “No. Come back later.”

“No later. Now scooch.” I ordered, pushing her small body to the side as I sat next to her, “Breakfast time.”

Ellie sighed and sat up in annoyance, I smiled when she made a disgusted face, “Fruit again. Hooray.”

“Doctor said that-”

“I know what the fucking doctor said, I went there last week.”

I raised an eyebrow and shrugged, “Alright, alright, I'm sorry.”

Ellie grimaced and tucked loose strands of hair back into her bun, she leaned towards me and placed a kiss on the corner of my mouth and said, “I'm sorry. I'm just really...cranky.”

“Once you're done eating you can go back to sleep and I'll get out of your hair, does that sound good?”

She picked up a grape and twirled it around her fingers, “I'll eat, but I want you to stay here and continue to annoy me.”

“Why? So you can snap at me again?” In response, she rested her head on my shoulder nibbled on the grape cautiously. I smiled and wrapped my arm around her shoulders, placing a kiss on her ear. “I'm just teasing, dork.”

“You're a dork. Dork.” She grumbled.

“So, what's on the agenda for today?”

“Sleeping and doing homework.”

“That's not what normal people do on a Saturday.”

“But we aren't in a normal situation, are we? I'm basically in house arrest.”

“You're not in house arrest. You can go wherever you want.”

“Yeah, with the thought that my psycho ex boyfriend could find me, kidnap me, and kill me.”

I clenched my jaw and cleared my throat, “Going back to the question at hand, so it's just homework and sleep today?”

“Yes. It is.” She yawned, beginning to eat a strawberry, “Do you want to sleep with me?”

“I'd love to. Wait, we're talking about actual sleeping, aren't we?” I smirked.

Elizabeth giggled and shoved me, “You freaking little-”

“What? Little what?”

“Little dick.”

“How can you claim that?”

“Because I've seen it.”

“We both know that's not true.”

“You were drunk.”

“I was never that drunk.”

“Shut up, I don't want to talk to you anymore.”

“You were just asking me to sleep with you a second ago?”

“I will shove this grape in your nose and dropkick you.”

“Please. I'm more afraid of Mac than I am of some kid with strawberries and a few saltine crackers.”

“Who are you calling a kid?”

“As far as I'm concerned, you're still seventeen. I'm eighteen, ergo, you're still a child.”

“That makes you a pedophile.”

“Why is that?”

“Because you're friends with a child.”

“So what? I'm not sleeping with you.”

“Not yet.” She mumbled.

“Sorry what was that?”

“Nothing.” Ellie said into her cracker.

I pulled the square away from her mouth, “What did you say?”

“I didn't say anything, you creep.”

“I heard something.”

“You're an old man. You hear lots of things.”

“Tell me what you said.”

“I'm trying to enjoy my breakfast, dickwad.”

“Enjoy your breakfast after you tell me.”

“You heard me. You just want me to say it again.”

I smirked and leaned closer towards her, my fingers intertwining with hers, “Say you wanna sleep with me again.”

“I wanna sleep with you.”

“Say it again.” I ordered, placing the tip of my nose on hers.

“I wanna sleep with you.” She said more quietly.

“And again...”

She didn't say it again, mostly because when she opened her mouth to say it, my lips met with hers again. Ellie kissed me back for only a second before pulling away, “I thought we weren't technically together.”

“Five minutes.” I breathed, “Let's pretend for five minutes that we are together, that we've done this so many times before. Pretend...”

Ellie turned her body towards me, spilling the half empty bowl of fruit on her bed as she lined her body with mine, her hands resting on my chest and my hands resting on the small of her back, pushing her closer to me. But at the end of those five minutes (which could've easily been more) she pulled away, her face hovering over mine. I sighed and caressed her top lip, “Can we pretend to be together for five more minutes?”

“Maybe later.”

I stayed silent for ten seconds, “It's later. Can we pretend again?”

Ellie giggled and shook her head, “No. You got my breakfast all over my bed now you have to clean it up.”

“It's just a bunch of crackers.”

“But now there are crumbs everywhere!”

“You've slept on a rock once and you're complaining about some crumbs on your duvet?”

“Yes.” Ellie sighed, getting up from bed and pulling the sheets from under me, “Do you even know what a duvet is?”

“I can infer. What are you doing?”

“Trying to get you off my bed so I can remove all the crumbs.”

“Good luck trying to get me to do that.”

And in that exact moment, the doorbell rang. Elizabeth laughed when she saw that I rolled my eyes and eventually got off her bed. Before leaving the room, I placed a chaste kiss on her cheek and continued to walk down the stairs.

When I opened the door, I saw no one standing on the porch, if it weren't for the wind, I wouldn't have heard the piece of paper hitting the door. Picking it up, I saw that it was addressed to me.

You know it's not wise to change the engine on someone elses' car without their permission.
You can't always protect her, Brian.
One day, you won't be enough.
She’ll end up just like Mabel.
Except I’ll be the one who secures the belt.
I'll win my prize car back.
And some amateur mechanic won't stop me.
-M

“What's that?” Ellie asked behind me.

I shut the door and faked a smile, “It's nothing, dearest. Just a letter from the school reminding us to do our homework.”

“You sure?” She asked skeptically, walking closer towards me.

“Positive. You've got nothing to worry about.” I reassured, kissing her forehead as I coyly hid the note in my back pocket.