Because of Ellison (23 page)

“You read them.”

“I did.”

“And?”

She breathed out a resigned sigh. “And — I realize
that I’ve been unfair. I should have been there for you rather than getting
pissed off and ignoring you. I was disappointed, but that didn’t mean it was
okay for me to turn my back on you … ”

“El — just stop.” I put a finger against her mouth.
And I may have held it there for a few seconds too long because I really loved
her mouth. “This isn’t about anything you’ve done to me. I completely
understand. I just want things to go back to the way they were, okay? You know,
to before Tiffany, to before next time, to before everything that went wrong
between us.”

“Next time?”

My cheeks may have reddened. “Never mind.” Her eyebrow
arched over her eye, but I chose not to explain. “I want to be friends, El. I
want to go back home and be able to feel like I can call you, or text you, or
whatever the hell it is I need to do to get in touch with you. I want to know
you. That’s really all it comes down to. I just want you to let me know you.”

She got a funny look on her face. It was a mixture of
happiness, and sadness — and something that I didn’t recognize.

“Can we talk about what happened that night in my room?”

My spine straightened to a point of being painful and every
muscle tensed when I waited for her to continue. I was afraid she was mad
— and I knew that I had this coming. I’d hoped she would tell me it was
the best sex of her life and that she couldn’t live without more of it, but
more likely, she thought I’d taken advantage of her.

“Because I have to admit … I …. ”

It was obvious she couldn’t say whatever it was she was
thinking, and the blush on the skin of her cheeks was all I needed to see. I
leaned over the table and I kissed her. It wasn’t a soft kiss and it wasn’t a
small kiss. It was a real kiss — the kind of kiss that love stories are
built around. It was a kiss that said hello and it said goodbye. It was the
beginning and the end of a summer that made me want to grow up.

Pulling back, I looked in her glistening blue eyes. “I’m
sorry. I had to do that.”

“I’m not entirely upset that you did.”

We sat there; our hands tangled together and stared at each
other for the longest time. The sun started to set behind her and I groaned to
realize it was time to head back.

I stood up from the table first and reached up to help her crawl
down. We were standing toe to toe and I lifted her chin up to look down into
her eyes. “So, is this fixed?”

Smiling brightly, she answered, “It is.”

“Good.” I grabbed the box and blanket from the grassy path
and then reached over to grab the trash bag that carried the crumpled cardboard
Hunters. “Is there any way I can convince you to help me carry this stuff
back?”

She laughed as she walked ahead of me and shook her head.
“Not a chance.”

~
    
~
    
~

The next three weeks were a blur. Ellison and I still hiked
daily and I finally finished the porch. Bill was on his way home and I was
slapping on a big red bow after slaving my ass off fixing the screens as a
surprise.

“Damn, Hunter. It looks good. Maybe you should skip Harvard
and work with a handy man until you can start your own business or something.”
Lily stood with Ellison behind me surveying the finished job.

“Don’t think so, Lil. But if one of you could help me with
this stupid fucking bow, I’d appreciate it.”

Ellison laughed and stepped up to hold the ends of the bow
so I could secure them. I was leaving that night and the tension between us for
the day had been tough to deal with. It wasn’t an angry tension, but one filled
with sadness and loss. My insides were breaking apart, but I tried to keep
anyone from noticing how hard I was taking my impending return home.

“It’s perfect. Dad is going to be so damn surprised. He’s
been trying to fix this place up for years.”

We stood staring up at the porch for a few minutes. Nobody
spoke and the significance of that porch meant more to me than just being a
simple porch. It was something that had been forgotten, something that had been
neglected and misused and I’d fixed it. Hours of labor had gone into the porch
and, to me at least, it sparkled. It was brand new once again and would have
many years ahead of it as long as it didn’t get weighted down in trash and
debris — as long as it was loved and cared for, it could last forever.

“I’m going to go inside and start dinner. We should
celebrate your last day here, Hunter, and if I start cooking now, there’ll be
just enough time to eat before El and I have to drive you to the plane.” Lily
bounced her way up the porch steps and the screen door slammed behind her when
she disappeared inside the house.

I sat down on the steps and stared up at a girl I didn’t
want to let go. “I can’t believe the summer’s already over.”

Sitting down beside me, Ellison reached out to put her arm
around my waist. “Me neither. Seems like the days just flew past. Makes me sad
to think I won’t have my hiking partner. I’ll have no one to laugh at anymore
for tripping over a root or a rock, or even getting slapped in the face by a
branch.” She winked at me and I laughed.

“I fucking hate nature.”

Chuckling, she commented, “Yeah, well, you and nature seemed
to hug and make up over the past couple of weeks. Maybe when you get back home,
you can spend some more time with it and get to know it better.” She reached
over and took my hand before quietly adding, “Might keep you away from all
those parties you couldn’t avoid before you came down here.”

I squeezed her hand and let out a loud sigh. “No worries,
El. I won’t be attending any of those parties. I’ll be at my parents’ house
long enough to pack up and then I’ll be moving to Massachusetts for school. I
plan to actually attend class this time, so I’m sure I’ll be busy.” I nudged
her with my shoulder to get her to look over at me. “You need to be getting
ready for school yourself. It starts up soon and you’ll be out there doing your
thing and showing those other students how awesome you are in your element.”

“I’ll be in a classroom for the first semester, at least.
It’s not exactly ‘my element’.”

“You’ll be perfect, El. Just like you always are. Seriously,
I feel bad for Finn. Competing against you would suck.”

She smiled a sad smile. “Yeah, well, if I start school. I’m
thinking about holding off until next year — especially with everything
going on with my dad.”

My shoulders dropped and a little painful lightning bolt
shot through my body. I wanted to demand she start school on time, but I also
knew her dad was more important and couldn’t be put off until some other time.
“If you need anything, El. All you have to do is call me. As soon as I get back
home, I’m setting you up some social networking accounts and texting you the
user names and passwords. We’ll be connected in a hundred different ways.
You’ll never be able to get rid of me.”

Her brilliant blue eyes sparkled up at me. “I could just
refuse to turn on the computer.”

“Then I’ll send smoke signals and carrier pigeons will be
pecking at your window. I live in New York. There’s an endless supply of
pigeons. They’ll be pecking day in and day out.”

“But you’ll be in Massachusetts”

“I’m sure there’s pigeons there as well.”

She laughed but things got quiet and it felt like a blanket
of misery had settled on top of us. “I’ll miss you, Ellison. You know, if
things had been different — if we didn’t live a thousand miles away from
each other and if we’d had more time — I wouldn’t have let you just make
me a friend.”

She looked up at me and opened that lovely little mouth of
hers to argue. Placing my hand over her mouth, I silenced her. “Nope. I’m not
letting you argue. I know you can’t help it, so I’m not holding it against you.
But you need to accept
that,
if circumstances had been
different … ” I motioned between us. “ … This would have happened. It would
have happened on those trails, it would have happened in these houses and it
would have happened at the bonfires. I don’t care if Mr. Sensitive-Guitar-Guy
was watching. I would have called you ‘my girl’ and there would have been
nothing you could say or do to stop me.”

“You’re full of yourself, Hunter. In fact, I think you’re so
full of shit, your eyes are turning brown as we speak.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Well, damn, if I didn’t have to show her how much she was
wrong. Leaning over, I
said
“You should take another
look. My eyes couldn’t get any bluer.” When I was close enough to her, my mouth
latched to hers. She jumped in surprise, but I wrapped my arms around her to
keep her from making a break for it. Her hands came up to my face and I
flinched in anticipation of her pulling my hair out or smacking me upside the
back of the head, but when her fingers curled into my hair, pulling me against
her, and as she opened her mouth to deepen the kiss, my heart beat faster and
blood rushed through my head making it close to impossible to hear anything
else. With every movement of her lips against mine, my heart broke a little
more. I loved this moment; I loved the girl that I was holding. I wanted
nothing more than to lay her out right there and show her how much I loved her,
but I knew I couldn’t — I knew it wouldn’t be fair to either of us in the
long run. Breaking apart from that kiss was like stabbing myself in the gut
— but I did it and I smiled when I looked into her beautiful face and
noticed how her eyes were still closed and how her lips were swollen from the
intensity of the kiss.

Slowly, she opened her crystal blues and a smile peeked out
on the corner of those swollen lips.

But then she pinched my nipple.

Hard.

“Ow, Sonofabitch!”

She laughed. “I told you what would happen if you tried that
again.”

When she let go, I put my arm around her shoulder and pulled
her against me. “Yeah, well, at least this time you didn’t bite me. That makes
me think we’re making progress.”

“Nah — I’m just leading you on.”

I chuckled. “You’re a cruel woman, Ellison James. Very
cruel, indeed.”

We arrived to the plane with about a half hour to spare
until the time I was scheduled to leave. Mr. Klimpt opened the gates to the
private airstrip, but rather than driving me back in his golf cart, he allowed
Ellison and Lily to escort me back to the plane in Ellison’s Jeep. I still hung
on for dear life as she drove, but it broke my heart to realize it would be the
last time I rode in the death trap she referred to as a ‘car.’

Reaching the plane, Ellison skidded to a stop and Lily
jumped out to immediately cross the tarmac and up the stairs into the plane.
The entire ride over, all she had asked was if there would be time for her to
tour the interior before I left. I was happy to give her as much time as she
wanted. The last thing I wanted to do was board that plane.

I stumbled out of the back seat and resisted the urge to
fall to the ground. My equilibrium took a second to stabilize and once I could
walk again, I turned back to grab my bags.

“Now that is some fancy transportation, Hunter. I know I’ll
never see the inside of one of those in my lifetime. It’s hard to imagine your
parents own it.” Ellison laughed nervously to my side. Placing the bags on the
ground, I turned to her and pulled her against my chest.

I looked up at the plane. Sunlight reflected off of the
silver exterior, almost blinding in its intensity. “Yeah, mom and dad are what
you would call the ultimate consumers. If it’s new and it’s something the
neighbors haven’t already acquired, they have to have it — to set the
trend, I guess. You should see my dad’s garage. He’s an avid collector of cars.”

“Well, he is Bill’s brother. Why do you think Bill has a
shop? He just can’t afford the collection, so he tinkers on other people’s
vehicles. Guess both of them worked around cars a lot growing up. It’s hard not
to love something that spent your life around.”

It was a new perspective into my father that I hadn’t
considered before and I was somewhat stunned by what Ellison had said. “And
here I thought he was just trying to show off.” I squeezed her body to mine
when she laughed. That was one of the things I was going to miss about her the
most. She always had a different way of looking at things. It wasn’t that
Ellison could see the good or bad in people, it was that she saw the
real
in people. She didn’t excuse and
she didn’t place blame on people either, she simply pointed out the most
rational explanation for their actions.

I didn’t know what to say to her and the tension was killing
me. We both were trying hard not to be upset, or at least not to admit that we
were upset about my leaving. Even though I’d told myself all summer that this
moment would come, that I would have to say goodbye to her, I could never have
prepared for the absolute desolation I felt. It was like a void expanding in
the center of my body, slowly growing and hallowing out the places that it
reached.

I knew I had important things waiting for me back home. I
knew that college was something I needed to take seriously. But even knowing
that, I wasn’t able to shake the feeling that I was making the biggest mistake
of my life by climbing on that plane. I’d never felt for anything in my life
that way I did for Ellison and regardless of how much waited for me at home,
none of it compared to her.

The silence between us was too much, but it gave me time to
think of some way not to have to leave. And then it hit me …

“Do you remember when you told me that I need to be a
pirate?”

Ellison pulled away to look up at me. Her lips twisted up in
confusion. “Yeah. Why?”