Jimmy Gilmer's Sugar Shack was stuck in Gordie's head and he drummed his fingers to the beat of it while he waited for Elizabeth to pick up her end of the phone.

"No more cookies!"

Blinking in confusion, Gordie sputtered, "Elizabeth?"

"Gordie?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yes," she replied. "I just thought you were…someone else. Hi, how's it going?"

"Pretty decently, except I've got this huge research paper due in two days and I have done little research. Minimal research, in fact."

"No research?" she guessed.

"Stop knowing me so well," he laughed. "What about you? How are you doing?"

"I might go to jail."

"Hurry up, Lachance, I gotta phone my mom!" Tom Jackson ordered.

"I am TALKING to my GIRLFRIEND," Gordie told him irritably. "Go find your own phone booth."

Tom flipped him off, smiled good-naturedly and left him alone.

"Sorry,' Gordie said into the phone. "Why are you going to jail?"

"I'm going to strangle Ms. Cody. And then she will die. And I will laugh." Elizabeth sighed. "I have librarians. All they do is shush me. And who cares if her stupid books aren't in alphabetical order? It's a hell of a lot easier on me just to stick the books wherever there's room on the shelf."

"So the library job isn't going too well, I take it?"

"No," she muttered. "Who knew refusing to pay late charges could send you to purgatory?"

"Castle Rock in general is purgatory."

"Good point!"

Gordie put his hands through his dark hair. He was feeling homesick for her. Just hearing her small yet lively voice was enough to make him want to drive the four hours home to see her. He was beginning to forget what she felt like in his arms. "I miss you, Ellie."

She was quiet for a moment. All he could hear was her soft breathing. At last, she grumbled, "College sucks. Actually, you suck for making me want to cry every time I think about you."

"I'll see you in like six weeks."

"That's six weeks of a musty library and nobody my own age who wants to be my friend and no you."

"I'm sorry," he told her. "Hey, you could drop out of school and come live with me in my dorm. You'd have to live in the closet though because we're not allowed to have the opposite sex in our bedrooms. It's not like everyone's not off doing it on like park benches and bathroom counters and stuff."

"Except for you."

"Of course not. I'd much rather wait till you got here to do it in the bathroom. Girls' room or boys'?"

"Gordie," she giggled. "My brother's in the room."

"Tell him I said hi then."

"I'm not talking to him. He pushed me down the stairs."

"And I missed it?" he demanded.

"You're supposed to ask if I'm okay."

"I can't, I'm visualizing your fall."

"Jerk," she laughed.

"Ah, you know I love you."

"I love you too," she said, and then Gordie heard her muffled voice snap, "Shut up, Zeke!"

"Is your brother joining in on our special moment?" he asked, looking at the Rec room clock. He had about five minutes left until his ten minutes were up.

She giggled happily. "Not anymore. I threw flour at him."

"I'm awfully glad I don't have a sister."

"Um, now that Zeke's washing flour out of his eyes in the bathroom, I want to tell you something."

"Ellie, there's people everywhere here. Phone sex is inappropriate. I'm flattered though."

"I would not have sex with anyone through a PHONE, thank you very much," she snapped. "I wanted to tell you something about Ren."

"Ren?" he asked. "She's still kicking around?"

"Well, she tried to kill herself."

"What?"

"Her brother phoned me. That in itself was weird. I was all oh my God why is Ryder Rasmussen phoning me because he kinda scares me you know and stuff. But he said their mom left and she wouldn't take Ren with her, I guess. Her and her mom were pretty close. So yeah, she tried to down a bunch of painkillers."

"God," Gordie breathed. "She didn't though, did she?"

"Couldn't get the lid off."

"That would be funny under other circumstances."

Elizabeth continued, "Anyway, Ryder said he talked to her and told her to go to Portland."

"Portland?" he wondered and then realized. "Oh. Chris."

"Yep."

"Is he really going to be able to do anything for her?" he asked. "I mean, someone who has suicidal ideas, let alone someone who tries to act upon them, isn't going to make a full recovery by going to see a guy she's got a crush on."

"Gordie, she just needs someone to love her. And she wants and needs him more than anything." She lowered her voice. "And don't tell me that when Denny died you didn't think about dying."

"Ellie, I never would have tried to kill myself. Ren's sickly, you know that."

"But you wished it had been you."

"I didn't wish anything," he told her. "But…it just should have been me. That's what I thought back then anyway."

"And who was the one person who could change your mind? Who made you realize that you're around for a reason? Chris is as much Ren's best friend as he is yours, Gordie."

"Please do not psycho-analyze everything," he told her, laughing. "Yes, we allllll know you're a smart little cookie monster, you don't have to keep proving it."

"MONSTER?" she demanded. "Are you addressing I?"

"Five, four, three, two and ONE, get off the fuckin phone Lachance."

Tom had returned. He'd been keeping track of time. Gordie waved him away. "Elizabeth, I gotta go."

"RARG!" she roared. "You ALWAYS have to go."

"I know. But you don't want Tom to beat the crap out of me, do you?"

"No, you'd snap like a twig."

"Exactly, but shut up, I'm not that skinny."

"Yes you are," she giggled. "I love you, Gordie."

"I know, I love you too."

"You sick poor excuse for a man," Tom muttered when Gordie hung up the phone.

Sarah, a girl in his English Lit class, smiled. "I think it's cute. It's nice to see a guy who's not afraid to show he fell in love."

"Elizabeth tripped me," Gordie said with a smile. "It's not my fault I fell."