A/N- Sorry it took forever guys! But it's here now! Enjoy!
"El? El! Get up!" Elise slowly opened her eyes to see Maxine standing next to the bed. Allison was standing in the doorway to the room and the blonde couldn't help but wish for a second that it was the shorter woman who'd woken her, "Come on. You gotta eat dinner. Al made some really good stuff that I can't pronounce."
"Who are you my mother?" Elise grumbled, putting her pillow over her head.
"No I'm your camp director."
"I think I'm gonna skip it. I'm tired."
"Fine. You're missing out." Maxine walked right out of the room, brushing past Allison who was still standing in the doorway. The shorter woman then approached the bed.
"Come on El. We haven't seen each other in months. Please get up."
As much as Elise didn't want to get up, she did what the other girl said. Allison had always had some sort of hold over the blonde. She could make her do things when no one else could. Elise, who famously didn't listen to anyone, would do anything Allison asked. When they were younger, it was no big deal. She just listened to her best friend and did things for her. But now, as an adult, Elise found herself thinking more and more about what she would do for Allison and she wondered if it was healthy to be willing to go that far for another human.
"It's a miracle. Allison you've raised the dead." Maxine joked when the two girls emerged from the bedroom.
"Shut up." Elise responded, taking care to make sure that her voice contained the perfect balance of resentment and playfulness, "If there's no grown-up juice here I'm going back to bed." They took their seats at an island in the middle of the kitchen. Allison produced food and tequila.
"So, El, how long were you at the lake before Penny found you?" Maxine asked finally.
"Not long." The redhead looked at her dubiously and Elise could feel Allison's blue eyes on her and she found that she couldn't lie to them, "A few hours. It really wasn't that big a deal."
"How many is a few?"
"Like four."
"Okay. Do you want to tell me why you sat outside for four hours?" Elise didn't respond right away. She opted to take a bite of the sandwich Allison had made. The other two waited for her to speak.
"I—ummm—I just needed some quiet time." Elise purposely kept her answer vague, not wanting to accidentally reveal anything about how she had begun to feel for her shorter friend.
"Alright. Did Eli come as well? We need some veggies." The blonde was grateful for Allison's change of topic but not so grateful that she turned the conversation to an equally difficult one.
"He said he was coming but that was a pretty long time ago. He may have changed his mind. He and I aren't—uhhhh—together anymore." Elise looked down and her hands and twisted a friendship bracelet around her wrist. She could feel Maxine shifting beside her and the next thing she knew, the redhead's arms were tightly wrapped around her body. Elise felt guilty when she realized that the hug she craved came from the other woman sitting across from her.
"You okay? What happened?" Maxine asked when she finally let go.
"Uhmmm—yeah. I'm good. It just wasn't working. And we talked about it and decided to break up together. And that's it really." Elise took a deep breath and managed to look up to meet Allison's eyes, "Can we talk about something else please?"
"Course. How's school been Al?" Maxine asked, changing the topic. Allison, excitedly began to recount her stories about culinary school. Eventually the three girls moved to the couch to continue talking. She talked for a while and then the conversation shifted to Maxine's teaching. Somewhere in the conversation, Elise fell asleep. This time no one woke her.
The next morning Elise woke up to the sound of the camp alarm. She slowly sat up. She was still on the couch. Someone had covered her with a blanket and placed Tylenol on the little coffee table along with a glass of water and a note.
Elise—
Good morning! (or afternoon) Max thinks that you should take a day to yourself today. You're pretty bad at hiding when you're feeling shitty. So, relax, read, swim. sleep… Take the Tylenol's I left out. Oh and come see me in the mess for eating and for therapeutic carrot cutting.
—Al
Elise smiled at the note and downed the pills. She contemplated briefly taking Allison up on her offer of therapeutic carrot chopping but she quickly put it out of her mind. Being alone with Allison was not going to help her situation. Instead she put on sneakers, shorts, and a Camp Takota t-shirt and decided to go for a run, hoping that it would clear her mind.
When Elise emerged from the cabin, she took care to avoid any areas that would be crowded with campers. She wasn't exactly eager to explain to the kids that she'd been benched by Maxine because of her mental status. She ran on the path through the woods. Soon after someone came up beside her, also jogging. It was Eli, he had obviously had the same idea.
"Hey stranger." He said, pulling out his headphones.
"Hi." Elise gave him a small smile. Honestly of all the people who she could have run into, she was glad it was Eli.
"I didn't know you were coming."
"Neither did I." The answer was short but Eli knew the blonde well enough to know when something was bothering her.
"Ummm... Is everything okay?"
"Yeah. Things are great."
"Then why aren't you finger painting or making bracelets or something campy?"
"Max thought that I needed a day to myself." Elise sped up, hoping to dissuade any more questions but Eli matched her pace.
"She's worried then." He observed. Maxine would never just give a counselor time off unless she was really concerned.
"Yeah, I guess."
"Should she be worried?" Elise took a deep breath to give herself more time to choose the right words. She didn't want to lie to Eli but she also really couldn't deal with him prying right then.
"No. I don't think so." She finally answered and she felt like that was at least a half-truth. Perhaps Max thought she should be worried but Elise didn't think so.
"Well, I'm worried."
"Can you just stop please?" Elise snapped, "We're not together anymore! You're not my boyfriend! It's none of your business so just stop! Go run somewhere else!" They stopped running but Eli stayed standing beside the blonde. He knew that she wasn't really upset with him. Tentatively, he placed a hand on her shoulder and then moved it down to her back, rubbing gently in small comforting circles, "Sorry. That wasn't—you're just trying to help. I didn't mean to push you away."
"It's alright. What's really going on?" He expected Elise to have brushed his hand off of her by now but she hadn't so Eli continued rubbing. The girl didn't say anything, she just looked down at the ground so he took the initiative, "Is it Allison?" Elise nodded slightly, keeping her gaze on her shoes, "Do you wanna talk about it?"
"Not really."
"Okay. Well, I'm always a few flashlight flashes away if you wanna talk. No judgment." Eli emphasized the word flashlight, hoping to earn a smile from the blonde beside him but she didn't even look up, just making a small noise that indicated understanding.
Eli used the hand already on her back to draw her in to his body for a hug. He loosely wrapped his arms around her, so that she could easily pull away if she wanted to. Eventually she did pull away but not before she spent a few minutes resting her head on his chest. Somehow to Elise, this didn't feel too intimate, maybe because she knew that they were just friends. Which left her wondering when Eli rose to the same level of friendship that she held Maxine at?
She stepped away from his body and smiled widely, it was genuine for the first time that day, "I bet I'm still faster than you."
"Yeah right. You live in the city. You haven't been properly running in months."
"Fine. Race you to the dock!" The two took off running down the narrow path and for the first time that summer she really felt like she was back.
A/N- I hope you liked it! I'll be putting it up on Tumblr in a bit. Review!