Over the Years

by angellwings


#7: Absence

"Hello Beautiful,

It's been a long time since my phone's rung,

And you've been on that line.

I've been missin' you.

It's true…"

Caitlyn shook her head at Nate as he strummed sadly on his guitar. "You could just call her."

"Call who?" He asked.

She smacked him on the back of the head. "Don't be stupid. You know who I'm talking about."

"Caity, she hasn't called me for a reason—"

"Exactly why you need to call her. What if something's happened to her? Don't you want to know?"

"No, if Ella was in trouble she'd call me. She always does. It's obvious that she's just too busy. She's moving on. Finding a new life, new friends…a new me—"

Catilyn laughed. "For someone who knows Ella so well…you really don't know her. Ella could never just replace you and whatever the two of you are to each other these days."

"We're friends, Caity. Just friends."

"Right, because friends often write songs for their friends about how beautiful their eyes are and how they can't be satisfied until they're with them," Caitlyn scoffed.

He sighed. "I don't really know what I'm feeling right now. I just—I miss her more than I thought I would. I didn't realize how big of a role she played in my life. I just got to thinking about how she does things for me to—to—"

"Take care of you?" Caitlyn asked knowingly.

"Yes," Nate nodded. "She's…"

"Your rock, Wonderful, amazing, the person that gets you through the day?"

"How did you—"

"That's the way I feel about Jason, Nate. I know exactly what you're talking about." Caitlyn nodded. "It's called love, my friend."

"I'm not in love with Ella," Nate said with a shake of his head.

Caitlyn rolled her eyes. "You keep saying that, and I've yet to believe you."

"I've never been in love with Ella before. I can't just start loving her now," Nate sighed.

Caitlyn laughed. "Yes, you can. Have you never seen a romantic comedy? I mean you write sappy love songs so I'd assume you'd know a little something about love—"

"My songs are not sappy," Nate pouted.

"Look, I think you've been in love with Ella for a long time now. Maybe not from the moment you met, but at some point over all the years you've known her I think you fell in love with her. I just think you took her for granted. You took what the two of you had and assumed it would always be there, and now that it's not here you're beginning to realize just how strongly you feel for her." Caitlyn told him sagely. "That's what I think."

Nate glanced at his phone as it sat on the coffee table in his dressing room and willed it to ring. If he thought about it hard enough maybe it would happen. He just wanted to talk to Ella. That's all. Just to hear her voice and know that she was happy and safe. And maybe to hear that she missed him just as much as he missed her. Was that too much to ask for?

"And I think you might be right," Nate agreed with a resigned sigh.


Ella glared at the phone that rested in her hands. "Ring, ring."

Nothing.

"C'mon, please? Please ring?" She asked it as she bit her lip. She fell back onto her bed and stared at her ceiling. "Damn it, Nate, call me!"

"Oh my lord. Just call the guy."

Ella turned her glare on her room mate, Michelle. "But…what if he doesn't miss me like I miss him? What if I'm sad and pathetic and this whole situation is completely one sided?"

"Well, you'll never know if you don't call him. Besides watching you mutter angrily at your cell phone has gotten extremely old," Michelle told her with a roll of her eyes.

"I should just be happy that I was ever friends with him right? I mean he's probably out at all these glamorous parties, meeting all these glamorous women. I'm lucky that he ever wanted to be friends with plain old me. Right?"

"Plain old you? Ella, you regularly rub elbows with super models. You take their measurements and fit clothes to their much too small waists. Your life is pretty glamorous too, girly."

"Glamorous?" Ella asked. "I have calluses on my hands from sketching, and way too many band aids from sticking my self with those damn pins all the time. Plus, those models barely say two words to me. I'm not the designer. I'm his assistant. Big difference."

"Your boy doesn't know that," Michelle told her scoldingly. "He probably thinks you're out with beautiful Italian men all the time. He doesn't know that you refuse to go no matter how hard your roomie tries to persuade you."

"I don't want beautiful Italian men! I want—"

"This guy. I know. Who is he anyway? You always talk about him like he's Bruce Wayne or something."

"It doesn't matter who he is. He probably isn't even thinking about me. He's probably too busy hanging out with Miley Cyrus," Ella muttered darkly.

"Miley Cyrus? Does that mean he's famous?" Michelle asked eagerly.

"Ugh!" Ella exclaimed in frustration. She gripped the phone tighter and shouted, "CALL ME!" The phone blared a ring tone and vibrated suddenly. Ella screamed and jumped which sent her phone flying across the room. "Eep! No! That's his ring tone! Find it! Find it!"

"I'm looking!" Michelle yelled as they both began to crawl around on the floor. "Oh! Oh! I got it!" Michelle snatched it up from under the coffee table, accepted the call and tossed the phone to Ella. "It's for you!"

"Of course it's for me," Ella said sarcastically before answering. "It's my phone. He—Hello?"

"Ella?"

"Nate!" Ella yelled excitedly.

"Did I call at a bad time?"

"No! Not at all! You called! You actually called! I've been staring at my phone for days thinking, 'call me!' and you did!"

She could practically hear his smirk. "You have?"

Ella smacked her forehead. She hadn't meant to say that. Sure, she'd been thinking it, but she hadn't wanted to say it. Michelle stuck her head close to the receiver and spoke up loudly, "She has."

Ella shoved Michelle away quickly and glared at her again. "I—I—I, well…yes. You're my best friend and—"

Michelle scoffed and shook her head. "Best friend my ass. You love him."

Ella shushed her before continuing. "—and I missed you."

There was a pause on the other end and she heard Nate sigh. She very clearly heard relief in that sigh.

"I missed you too, Ella. I would have called sooner but I was afraid you'd be too busy to talk to me."

Ella gasped at that.

"What? Are you okay? Did anything happen?"

"No, it's just…I didn't call you sooner because I was afraid of the same thing."

"That I'd be too busy to talk to you?"

"Yeah…"

"I'm never too busy to talk to you, El. Never."

"Then, the next time I want to call you…I'll just call."

"Please do. Even if you can't really talk it would be nice to know you're still alive."

Ella laughed. "I'll keep that in mind."