(Ellie)
Tears filled Ellie's eyes as she left.
It wasn't easy for her to leave but she didn't see Joel as her Joel anymore.
When he tells me I'll go back. She promised herself.
She rushed to Tommy's and Maria's house and gave the door two hard knocks until it was opened by Maria.
"Hey Ellie, you alright" She cheerfully asked. But she then noticed the tears in Ellie's eyes.
"Maria," she sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "Can I stay here for a while please." Her voice sounded weak and sad.
"Oh of course you can, Ellie, come in."
She touched Ellie's back and gently lead her inside.
"What happened?" Maria asked worried
"Joel's an asshole."
"Why?"
"He's lying about Salt Lake City, he lied about the Fireflies and he won't tell me the truth." She said in a frustrated tone.
Maria wrapped a arm around her side and gave her a squeeze as they walked into the living room. "Don't worry, you can stay here for as long as you want, okay?"
"Thank you, I don't want to be annoying, I just can't be around him" Oh god, I must sound like such a wimp. Ellie thought.
"I completely understand Ellie. Trust me, you're not acting crazy, he is."
Ellie looked up at Maria and gave her a trusting smile.
"I'll talk to him about what's going on, but right now I'm going to get the guest bed ready for you." She said as she sat Ellie down on a chair.
"Tommy." She called.
Tommy was sitting on the couch with his feet on the coffee table, watching some movie on his cassette player. He had being looking at them walk in anyway.
"Ellie's gonna' be staying with us for a while."
"Sure thing, but what's all this noise about Joel?" He looked at her puzzled.
"I'll tell you about it later. But I gotta' do something, I'll be back in a minute." Maria said as she left the room.
Ellie looked at Tommy in his sweatpants and t-shirt.
"Sorry to intrude." She said not wanted to feel like a pain.
"Don't worry about it, Ellie."
She looked at the screen and saw two British people in suits talking.
"Hey, what movie is this?"
"Uh, Goldfinger"
Ellie looked at him confused.
"You know...James Bond?"
"Oooooooohhh"
"I've heard of him, I just didn't know that it was a movie."
Tommy chuckled.
"You eaten?"
"Yeah, thanks."
Ellie relaxed and watched intently as the grey haired man pointed and talked about different switches under the arm rest.
"Smoke screen, Oil slick, rear bullet proof screen and left and right front wing machine guns." She tried hard to listen to the poor quality video.
"Whoa." She gazed. "Did cars have that stuff?"
Tommy laughed "Hahah, no Ellie, it's just a movie."
(-...-)
Ellie was lying in the guest bed.
It was different, it didn't feel right knowing Joel wasn't there. She felt scared and she felt alone. She shut her eyes and began to picture Joel and how he was dealing with it.
I won't be mad, why can't you just tell me!
She turned over on her side and hugged herself. It had only been a day and she missed him. She missed talking to him and feeling safe.
"Oh Joel..." She whispered as she stroked herself through her panties.
No! I'm not supposed to be thinking of him like that anyway!
She did have something for Joel, but at this point, she wasn't sure what it was.
She tried suppressing the feeling for a while, after talking to Maria about hormones and other girl stuff. But she didn't feel like it was a crush, it was something more.
He told me, his self that we don't have a father-daughter thing. So is it alright?
No of course it's not alright! The other part of her conscience cut in.
He's your friend and he's like 40-something.
She was angry at Joel but felt this way at the same time.
"Oh, man." She whispered as she put her hands on her face.