Nickleback - Saving Me
Nickleback - Someday
Nickleback - Rock Star
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"You're dating a cop."
Anna shrugged to herself, "Technically we're not dating. We're seeing each other. Nothing as official as dating."
On the other end of the line Elyria Duke, Anna's cousin, was smirking, "Don't change the damn subject." She pinched the cell phone between her right shoulder and ear, "A cop. And not just any cop," her hands began to feel around her sweatshirt, jacket and jeans searching for her lighter after she located a cigarette. She found it hiding in the breast pocket of her worn green army jacket. "You're dating the cop that you told me you hoped you'd never see again."
Anna's lip pinched between her teeth for a moment. "Yes."
"Uh huh," Elyria flicked the black metal lighter with day-glow Grateful Dead bears a few times, it sparked, but no flame. The fourth time she tried it lit, the wind blew it out. "Mother fu-" She bit down on the inside of her cheek as a woman with a sickly child walked past her.
"El, are you alright?"
Holding both the cigarette and lighter with one hand, "Yeah, I just hate this fu…freaking hospital."
Anna pushed back the curtains from the small window at her sink, "It's not picnic for Viola either El."
"No, really?" She switched the phone to her other ear, attempting to block the wind with her back. The lighter sparked and lighted again. The tip of her cigarette glowed reddish orange for a moment. She could have crowed.
Instead she took a drag.
"How is she by the way?" Anna asked.
Elyria looked up at the hospital, squinting amber-brown eyes to block the sun, "Chemo's screwing her up pretty good."
"I'm a three out five match El, if Viola needs a transplant…" Anna let the offer trail. They both knew the odds. With bone marrow transplants anything under four was dangerous. Host rejection could kill.
"I told you not to change the damn subject woman," Elyria expelled the smoke. A little old man that passed made a tsking sound at her. The twenty nine year old woman sneered in return. "The cop, what's his name again?"
Anna's mouth quirked at the corners, "Charlie."
"You pick a Charlie, I pick a Greg," Elyria muttered under her breath.
"Sorry, didn't hear that," Anna said into the receiver. The phone beeped a couple of times as she upped the volume. "What did you say?"
"I said," Elyria dragged on her cigarette once more, "didn't you say you never wanted to see him again?"
Anna had said that. She had said that to him. She had told her friends and Elyria that. Yet somehow he still found his way into her life. Fate, the powers that be, the universal energy, whatever, had still smashed Anna's life into Charlie's. And they kept smashing them together until Anna had gotten it through her head that he was there for a reason. So really, who was she to argue with the fates?
"Yes, back then I didn't want to see him." She shrugged more for herself because Elyria was in New Jersey, unable to see the simple action or acceptance, "But I don't mind him so much now."
"Uh huh," bluish-white smoke colored the air in front of her. "You haven't slept with him yet have you?"
Anna had the grace to blush. Her cheeks stained a soft pink. "El!"
"That would be a no then," Elyria couldn't keep the smirk from coming back. Her cigarette glowed as she dragged on it. It warmed her from the cold of the October air. "You going to sleep with him?"
On the other end of the line Anna was silent. She was biting her lip again. Her skin was flushed. "I don't know," she answered after a moment. "I really don't know El."
"You gotta get back on that horse girl."
"I don't even know how to define what's going on between us. We go out, we kiss, we talk, and somehow it never…" it never did. Ever. Sometimes, when he kissed her, Anna could almost feel the tension in him. She knew with all absolute certainty that Charlie wanted more.
He just never let it get to that stage.
Not that she had tried.
She hadn't tried. Not once. Because some part of her was still old fashioned that way.
"Woman I can hear you thinking," Elyria plucked the cigarette from her mouth. "Listen, I know you're all about the defining the relationship thing but seriously Annie, life marches on."
And Anna knew that. She knew it. The wood of the kitchen counter dug into her hipbone as she leaned against it. One arm crossed her torso just under her breasts. "El, I was with Andrew four years. We didn't even sleep together until we were official for six months."
Elyria looked at the burning end of her cigarette, seeing it but not really seeing it. "Life's too short Annie."
"I know El," and she did know. She really did. "What about your chemo? I thought you couldn't smoke during the treatments."
Elyria smiled wryly. She held the burning end of the cigarette up, imagining her old English professor talking about symbolism. Objects that represent an abstract idea. She wondered vaguely if he would think her situation funny sort of irony or just plain old sad.
"They're good," she lied, "the smoking helps with the nausea."
Anna's dark eyes closed. Her cousin could lie like a rug to everyone but Anna. Somehow, none of the cousins were ever able to figure it out; Anna always knew when Elyria was lying. "I'm glad, I know how bad it was when you were a teen."
"Yeah, well, different kind of chemo." Her cigarette had fully burned down. She dropped it to the pavement and stamped on it with the heel of her work boots. "Listen Annie, okay? Stop your fucking pussy footing around, make me some nieces and nephews with the cop if he's worth it and get on with your life okay?"
There was a lump in her throat. "Yeah," she said, the slip of her New York accent coming back, "I'll try."
Elyria's shoulders hunched as a cold wind blew past her, "No trying woman. You do it. Comprende?"
Anna was nodding, her eyes burning. She swallowed past the thickness in her throat, "I miss you El."
Across the country, standing in front of the hospital she was quite possibly going to die in, Elyria felt the burn of tears for the first time in almost ten years. "Yeah…miss you too." She blinked, "Call you next week or something."
"Alright. Take care of Vi."
"Will do. Adios hermana." Elyria's cell phone clicked closed.
The phone blinked the time at Anna. She stood against the kitchen counter, her hip bruising from the weight and pressure. The screen faded to black.
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I will explain this in the next chapter, but Elyria and her sister Viola are twins. They are also the only family Anna has left that she considers family.
I had the feeling that Anna didn't have enough depth, she didn't seem human enough. I think this helped.
More Charlie/Anna next chapter.
Thank you to those that reviewed and those that read. I never expected a response like this, it's fantastic.
Oh I almost forgot! Mini challenge to those of you who like my writing.
Elyria is actually part of another story for a different television show that I will be publishing after I finish When Charlie Met Anna. If you can guess which one (and I gave you hints) I'll give out cookies and ice cream flavors of choice.
Take a shot at it.
T/C
