Because of Ellison (29 page)

She pulled away from me again and stepped back quickly
towards her house. I followed her. When she’d almost reached her door, she
turned around. “I don’t love you, Hunter.” It was a gut punch and shot to the
chest all at the same time to hear her say it, but her tears told me she was
lying. “Now, go home.”

She turned back and I yelled after her. What I had to say
was harsh, but she needed to hear it. “Your dad is the one who’s dying,
Ellison, not you! So, when you can get it through your thick skull that you
need help and that your life will continue on after his ends, I’ll be outside
waiting for you to tell me. I’ll be right fucking here waiting for you to
realize you’re pushing away your future because you’re too damn stubborn to
realize you can’t take on the world and all of its problems by yourself!”

I planted my ass on the hood of my car and stared at her
back as she walked away. My heart slammed against my chest and my lungs dragged
in air, desperate to replace the oxygen I’d lost by screaming. My hands hurt
from fisting as tight as I held them and my body trembled from the flood of
emotions that coursed its way through my veins.

She paused for a second before she opened the door and I
thought she was going to say something. She didn’t. When she went inside, I
settled against the car determined to stay there day and night until she
admitted that she needed me in her life.

An hour passed and I shifted in my seat on the hood. I heard
the door open and close at Bill’s house, but my creepy stalker eyes remained
trained to Ellison’s front door. Bill walked up beside me and silently handed
me a bag of frozen peas. I looked at him in question.

“It’s for the nipples. That looked like it hurt.”

I laughed and couldn’t blame him for watching. Ellison and I
were screaming right outside of his living room window. I placed the bag to my
chest and, oddly, it helped. I’d been too mad to realize the skin where she’d
pinched me was swollen and inflamed. When I breathed out a sigh, Bill chuckled.

“I learned to use frozen peas instead of ice after Emily hit
me in the jaw for the third time after I’d pissed her off. The woman had one
hell of a right hook and I found that the peas were less messy.”

I laughed softly. “She must have been a strong woman.”

“She was.”

He unfolded a lawn chair and sat it down in front of my car.
“Think this might be more comfortable than where you’re at now.”

I smiled while sliding down the hood to sit in the chair.
“Thanks for worrying about me, Bill.”

He laughed. “It’s not you I’m worried about. This is a
really nice fucking car and I’ll be damned to let your big ass dent it.” He
clapped me on the shoulder and looked over to Ellison’s house.

A small sliver of rage wound its way through my body when he
mentioned damaging the car because it made me think of its owner. “It’s not
mine, so I don’t give much of a fuck.”

Bill huffed out a breath. “Don’t matter whose name is on the
title, it’s still an impressive ride and I won’t put up with you abusing it in
my driveway.”

I didn’t respond. My mind kept mulling over the looks of
disgust on my parents’ faces when I’d mentioned inviting Bill and Lily up for
the holidays. Eventually, I gave in to my
curiousity
.

My eyes were trained on Ellison’s door when I asked, “What
happened with you and my dad?”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before
answering, “Ellison’s mama happened.”

My eyes immediately shot to look at him. “What?”

Bill sighed again and grabbed another lawn chair that he’d
brought with him. Unfolding it, he took a seat beside me like he had a story to
tell. “Well, Anna, Emily, your dad and I all grew up together. Anna and Emily
were best friends. They were the same age as your dad, but I was only a year
and a half older so I ended up hanging around with them most of the time.
Eventually, as we grew older, your daddy fell for Anna and I fell for Emily.
Your daddy dated Anna for few years in high school and he was about as smitten
as a man could be with a woman. Henry moved into town during my senior year and
we became friends. After a few days, he became one of the
group
.
Anna and Henry had something special almost instantly and after a few months,
she decided that she wanted to be with him. It broke your dad’s heart to lose
her. He reacted badly and got angry with me for not cutting Anna out of my
life. But, she was Emily’s friend, and there was no way in hell I was leaving
Emily. I thought he’d gotten over it by the time he went off to college, but
after he left I didn’t hear from him very often. He lived down here for a few
more years after he finished school and we got you kids together every once in
a while, but then his business took off and he moved up north.”

“Holy shit. Did my mom know about Anna?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Bill looked at me. “Don’t know how
she would unless he told your mom about her.”

I returned my gaze to El’s house and sat back in my chair. I
noticed how every once in a while she would look out the window, but fling the
curtain back in place every time she saw me. I tried to imagine what she was
doing inside.

Jake came outside after a few minutes and shot us a strange
look before crossing over to us. He turned to look back at his house and back
at us. “Do I want to know why you two are parked in lawn chairs staring at my
house?”

Bill and I looked up at him in unison. Finally, Bill laughed
and answered, “Hunter is sitting outside the house waiting for when your sister
will admit she needs him.”

Jake joined in Bill’s laughter. “Wow, you’ll be parked out
here for a while. Hope you have a tent or some shit in case it rains.” After the
two had quieted down, Jake waved and walked off. “Later. I’m off to work.” He
turned back to me. “I’ll be home around nine. I think she can handle things
fine until then. Dad’s been sleeping a lot.”

I nodded my understanding as he climbed in his truck and
took off. After Jake’s truck pulled away onto the street, Bill stood up. “Guess
I should grab you the rest of the supplies you’ll need.” He disappeared into
the house a few seconds later and I settled into my chair even more. It was
going to be a long couple of days.

Ellison

Hunter had been camping outside my house for close to two
weeks. On Thanksgiving Day, I’d watched as Bill and Lily brought him out dinner
and sat with him while he ate it. I could have sworn he would at least go
inside for the holiday, but no. He maintained his silent vigil in the
driveaway
day and night like he said he would. I was pissed
off because I knew he was missing class, but he’d already told me he had no
intention of going back.

I hated to admit it, but Hunter coming down here had changed
something in my brother. Whereas, he used to avoid the house, opting to crash
at Finn’s place or some girl’s house, Jake was now coming home when he wasn’t
working and it felt good to finally have some help with my dad - even if was
just stuff like cleaning up and watching him so I could shower, it was still
something.

The nights were getting colder and on this particular night,
the temperature dropped suddenly to 35 degrees. The wind was blowing something
fierce against the windows and it howled as it tore through the canopies of the
trees. I looked outside and noticed Hunter wrapped up in his jacket, sitting in
the chair outside of the tent he’d set up his first night there. He looked
miserable and I shook my head at his persistence.

They’d found a medication that worked to control my dad’s
anxiety and pain and he slept most of the time for the past week. When he did
wake up, he was more like himself for the short period of time he remained
conscious. Jake was watching an old Christmas movie on television and dad woke
up. Sitting up, he looked around for me and I rushed over to him to hand him
some water. He could barely drink because his swallow reflex was weakening, but
he was able to get small sips down. After he taken what he needed of the water,
I sat beside him as he watched the movie with Jake. After a while, he finally
spoke.

“Why don’t we have a Christmas tree, El?”

It was an odd question and I turned to him with a confused
look on my face. I didn’t have an answer for him beyond how odd it felt buying
a tree when he was dying. “I don’t know. I haven’t been able to go get one, I
guess.”

He nodded and after a few more minutes he said, “El, I want
you to go get Bill and Lily and see if they want to come over here and talk to
me. I know I’ve been difficult, but I can’t exclude them from saying goodbye.”

My eyes widened to realize what he was saying, but I got up
to do as he’d asked. When I stepped out the front door, he added, “Baby girl,
I’m sorry for everything I’ve put you through. You’ve done a good job taking
care of me — don’t ever think you didn’t. I love you Ellison.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I love you, too.”

Weakly nodding he added, “And get a tree will you? It’s the
holidays. We should have a tree.” I could barely understand him because his
voice was so frail.

Closing the door behind me, I stepped down the stairs and
walked in Hunter’s direction. He didn’t move at first and I couldn’t tell if it
was because he was in shock or because he was frozen.

“I need you to do me a favor.”

That got his attention and he stood up immediately. That’s
why my teeth went “tsk” when I saw that his lips were blue from how cold it was
outside.

“I need you to get me a Christmas tree.”

His jaw dropped, but he seemed to bounce back from his shock
pretty quick when he nodded and grabbed his keys. “It’s midnight, El, so I’m
not sure what I can do, but I’ll try.” He surprised me when he got in the car
and took off to get the tree without asking questions. I’d expected a little
bit of drama after I’d gone so long without talking to him, but the minute I
needed him, he did what I asked without being upset with me for it. I’ll admit:
it impressed me.

After Hunter left, I retrieved Bill and Lily and was
surprised to see that daddy was still awake by the time we’d gotten back to the
house. Bill’s face fell as soon as he saw Daddy and Lily did a poor job of
attempting to hide her gasp. I couldn’t blame them though. My dad looked like
he was over 100 years old and he’d looked nothing like that the last time
they’d seen him.

Jake and left the room to let Bill and Lily speak to dad and
eventually Lily came back to the bedroom where we were to allow Bill some time
alone with him. I could tell she’d been crying and I put my arm around her to
comfort her as much as a could. After another hour had come by, I saw
headlights pull up outside and I ran to the front to open the door. Hunter
dragged the tree inside and I smiled to see it.

Placing it on the ground, he looked up at my dad and nodded
in his direction. The room grew quiet and I looked over to see how my dad would
react to Hunter’s presence. It felt like an hour before my dad finally nodded
back at Hunter and said, “Come here, boy.”

Hunter approached him and my dad held out his hand. Hunter
gently took it and they shook. Daddy looked up at Hunter after that and asked,
“You remember what I said?”

Hunter smiled. “Yes, sir.”

Daddy nodded and lay back on his pillow. “Good.”

What was that about?

I shook off my question and all five of us got to work
decorating the tree. Daddy was in and out as we did so. He seemed to enjoy
finding us in the room when he woke up and, by the time the tree was done, he
had a front and center view of it. He smiled and fell back to sleep. When he
didn’t wake again after a long period of time, Bill and Lily excused themselves
home and Jake went to bed. Hunter and I were left sitting on the floor near the
tree.

Reaching up to rub at the back of his neck, he yawned.
“Guess I need to get to bed myself.” I looked over to him and smiled. He
squeezed my shoulder before standing up and moved to grab his jacket.

“Hunter?”

“Yeah?” Turning back to me, he looked exhausted as he
continued to pull the jacket over his body.

It was too damn cold for him to sleep outside and I knew
he’d get sick if he attempted it. “Why don’t you sleep in my room? I tend to
fall asleep out here for dad. It’d be easier for me to ask for help from you if
you were inside the house, you know?” I was lying, but if it got him to stay
inside, it was worth the lie.

He looked surprised to hear me suggest it. “Are you sure?”

“Yep. It’s cold as shit outside and I don’t feel like
walking out into that if I need something. So, just stay in my room until the
weather warms up, okay? Then you can go back to your makeshift campsite.”
Another
lie
— and I think he knew it, although
he wasn’t calling me out on it.

He smiled just before he stepped forward and kissed me
softly on the cheek. The contact sent shivers down my spine, but I didn’t let
it affect me more than that.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.

We stood a little too close to each other for a very long
time. The heat of his body rolled down the side of mine and I could hear every
breath he took beside me. I started leaning into him, but I felt so fucking
guilty that he was here. Initially, when he’d told me he wasn’t leaving, I’d
been crushed. I felt like the one thing I was trying to protect from all of
this had been exposed and I’d lost every fucking battle I fought. He was the
one exception, but all that was ruined when he’d not returned to school.

“Did you drop out? Is that why you’re still here?” I had to
know. I hoped that he’d just taken an emergency leave of some sort.

He looked distraught to hear me ask that question. “Yes.
It’s not going to affect my GPA because the professors understood I had a
serious problem, but I won’t be going to back to Harvard, El. I’ve already told
you that I’m staying here.”