YOU'RE KIDDING ME!
by Justin-EllieandJoel4ever
Somewhere, sometime between Pittsburgh and Jackson…
They had been walking along for what seemed like miles now to Ellie and so typical of Joel and so un-typical of Ellie, not a word had been spoken between them.
Ellie let out a sigh and abruptly stopped. She'd had enough. "You know, you're killing me with your constant small talk old man. We need to lighten the mood. Time for a joke." She turned around to pull the pun book out of her backpack.
Stopping dead in his tracks, Joel slumped his shoulders in defeat and turned around to face Ellie knowing full well she was going to tell him the damn joke whether he wanted to hear it or not. Resigning himself to the inevitable, he crossed his arms over his chest and waited…impatiently.
"Alrighty. Here we go." Ellie said. "Did you hear about the fight that broke out at the Candy Store last night?"
With an exasperated sigh and annoyance on his expression Joel said, "No. What happened?"
"Two suckers got licked!" Ellie said and looked up at Joel from her joke book with anticipation in her wide eyes and a huge grin on her face. She waited excitedly for a reaction.
In what seemed like forever to Ellie, Joel finally shaped his right hand into the form of a gun and pointed it at his right temple. He mock fired it into his head with the mimicked sound of a gunshot coming from his lips. With his left hand at the left side of his head, he waved his fingers outwardly mocking his brains being blown out. In a comically theatrical display, he'd just committed mock suicide. With a huff for good measure, he turned around and started walking again.
Totally shocked by this uncharacteristic display of what some would call annoyed humor from Joel, Ellie barreled out laughing and bent over at the waste catching her knees with her hands to keep herself from falling over. She didn't see the smile on Joel's face and the twinkle in his eyes as he kept walking away from her and thinking to himself, 'Beat you at your own game kiddo.'
Behind him, Ellie, finally over her bout of uncontrolled laughter, straightened up with a final snort, folded her arms over her chest and as she stood there watching Joel walk away she thought to herself with a smile, 'Yep, I'm going to crack that stone heart of yours yet, you grumpy old fart.' Then she jogged up to walk by his side with a wide bright smile on her face.
Joel hid his. Well, externally at least.
The air between them had just gotten a little thinner and the world around them a little brighter.
'Laughter is a funny thing.' Joel thought. 'I could get use to this'.