I'm sorry I'm a lazy ass. I need to update more often. I'm going grad dress shopping tomorrow, which should be fun. I emphasize should because I'm shopping with my mom and grandma and it could quite possibly be hell. Wish me luck.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Ella
We'd finished dinner early. A simple pasta/salad combination. So we'd just left it and gone to my room to chat. I'd decided it was time for a change. So now Iggy was sprawled out on my bed and I was sprawled out similarly on my floor.
I know what you must be wondering: "Ella, why are you lying on your own floor and Iggy's on your bed?" Well, the answer is simple:
Iggy got there first.
We stayed like that in silence for a while, until Iggy finally spoke up.
"Are you mad at me?" he said quietly. I looked over at him.
"What? No, why?" I asked. "Should I be?"
"No. I don't know. Maybe," he sputtered. "I mean, you seemed kinda mad at me earlier when I said the stuff about not being like Max and Fang. I don't know." He broke off. "Are you?"
"Um…no, not really. I mean, I was a little disappointed at first, but, I guess…"
"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to upset you. But, I guess, I don't know. I'm just not really…wanting that sort of thing. Not right now."
Again, we fell back into silence. It had gone from perfectly comfortable to completely awkward. I chewed my lip for a minute, clawing through my mind for something to say. Finally, I checked the time.
"We should probably go feed the flock," I suggested. Iggy rolled off the bed and onto his feet.
"Yeah," he mumbled. "Good idea."
We served dinner and sat around the table with the flock and my mom. Although we sat beside each other, neither of us uttered a word. I saw Max's eyes flicker to us for a second, as if evaluating us, then starting up a conversation. After dinner, we brought our plates out, and headed off to our after-dinner activities. Just as I was leaving the kitchen, my mom pulled me aside.
"Ella, can we talk?" she asked. I looked at her sceptically at first, then shrugged. She pulled me off to her room and sat down on the bed, patting the spot beside her.
"What's up, Mom?" I asked, going for curiosity. She gave me her usual sweet, sad smile.
"What, a mother can't want to talk to her own daughter every once and a while?" she asked playfully. I shifted, smiling back.
"Okay, then what do you want to talk about?"
She sighed. "What's going on between you and Iggy?" she asked, getting straight to the point. I furrowed my brow.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, you two used to be stuck together like glue," she said. "But now it seems like your almost avoiding each other. So I was wondering, what's going on?"
I turned my head away from her, pretending to be fascinated by the floral bedspread. "It's nothing, Mom," I said evasively. "I don't really want to talk about it, okay?"
"Honey, you know you can tell me anything, right?" she said, putting a hand on my arm. I shrugged it off.
"I know that, Mom. I'm not trying to hide anything from you, it's just…" I paused, looking for the right words to describe it. "It's just silly teenage stuff, Mom. You wouldn't understand."
She laughed. "You know, I was young once, too. What's bothering you?"
"It's just that…I don't know. Iggy said that he doesn't really want to settle down and have, y'know, a real life," I said hesitantly. I looked at Mom's face. She had a slight frown.
"Well, Ella, honey, you know Iggy hasn't had much of a normal life himself," she said, like each word was putting tiny dents in her delicate heart. She smiled that same sad smile. "Give him a chance, honey. I'm sure he'll come around. In the meantime, just show him how much you care about him, and you'll be just fine."
I looked up at my mom. "Okay," I agreed. "Thanks, Mom."
"I'm glad we talked, honey." She hugged me tightly. "I love you very much."
I smiled. "I love you, too, Mom."