"Joel? Joel, wake up dammit," Tommy yelled while pounding on the front door of Joel and Ellie's small cabin-like house. He hears loud, large footsteps slowly descending from the steps from inside. Finally, the door opens and a not-so-happy Joel answers.
"Jesus, boy, you know how early it is?" Joel mumbled in a sleepy haze trying not to fall over from his sleep deprived state.
"Joel, you do know Tanya is comin' over for dinner at your house tonight, right? You didn't forget?"
Joel sighed. "Did you really come all the over here this early in the morning to tell me that?"
"I'm just makin' sure you remember. She's been talking about it non stop for the past couple of hours with the rest of the townspeople. And Ellie knows, right?"
Joel rubbed his forehead tiredly and nodded. "Yeah, yeah she knows okay? Who else is comin'?"
"Her husband, John. Be careful around him, okay? He's uh, sort of trigger-happy. Especially around guys like you. Try not to piss anyone off tonight, okay?"
Joel scoffed. "I'll keep that in mind," and shut the door. After he heard Tommy leave, he started to make his way up to Ellie's room.
He opened the door to their room silently, trying not to wake Ellie up. He went to lie down on his bed when he realized in the vague, morning light that Ellie had moved to his bed. He thought about waking up to get her to move, but decided to just sleep in her bed instead.
Loud, hammering sounds of a thunderstorm above woke Ellie up from the terrible sleep that she had the night before. She sat up on Joel's bed and saw Joel sleeping in her bed. She smiled for the first time in a while. But her smile faded away when she remembered what was about to happen in a few hours.
"Goddammit," she muttered under breath.
She sat on the bed for what seemed like hours, watching the rain hit the window and watching Joel sleep, his breath rising and falling in a steady rhythm.
He started to stir and eventually woke up, rubbing his eyes and forehead in the process.
"Mornin'," he said wearily. "Hey, you okay?" he asked when Ellie didn't respond after a few minutes.
"Hm? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. I just didn't sleep well, that's all."
Joel sighs. "Ellie. I know when you're lyin' to me. Is this about Tanya because-"
"Ugh just drop it, Joel. Okay? I don't want to talk about…her," Ellie said with exasperation in her tone.
"Well, look if you're uncomfortable with her bein' around…"his voice trailing off, not really knowing what to say next. He was still pretty lethargic and trying to wake up after his restless sleep. She sighed, got up, and walked down stairs quickly to get away from Joel.
Throughout the entire day, Ellie avoided Joel as much as possible. She just sat on the couch in the living room the entire time, distracting herself with comics and humming to herself. Whenever Joel tried to make conversation with her, she would automatically shut him down. Ignoring him at every change she got. Who the hell does he think he is? He's actually letting that woman that we barely even know into the house? She wasn't sure why she was ignoring Joel, but quite frankly she didn't care. She felt he was responsible for letting an intruder into their comfortable little house.
It was close to dusk when they finally heard a knock at the door. Ellie's heart thumped and she rolled her eyes when she saw the one person she truly loathed saunter into the room. Fucking great.
To her disappointment, it was just Tanya that was joining them that evening.
"Hi, Joel!" that same cheery and annoying voice exclaimed. Ellie pretended to not acknowledge Tanya; she concentrated on the floor rather than her unwelcomed guest.
"Ellie?" Joel asked. "Can you be polite and join our guest at the table, please?" he asked with slight irritation in his voice. It wasn't just Ellie that wanted to get this over with, Joel was just as eager to get her to leave. He wasn't too hospitable to new guests in his usually peaceful home with Ellie.
Ellie scoffed and got herself up off the couch. She grudgingly walked over to the dinner table and sat down, eyeing Tanya's movements. The closer Tanya moved to Joel, the more aggravated Ellie got. She picked at her food, moving the mashed potatoes and corn around in an untidy manner. Tanya kept asking irrelevant questions and making small talk and Ellie swears that she saw her fucking foot rub up against Joel's leg.
"May I please be excused?" Ellie asked in a more condescending and sarcastic tone as she shoved herself out of the chair she was sitting in and stormed off up the stairs.
Joel sighed. "I'll go talk to her."
"No, no let me go talk to her," Tanya replied. "I think it's better if she talked to me instead."
He raised an eyebrow. "Okay." He said unsurely. "But don't get too close to her. She's pretty unpredictable."
"Ellie? It's Tanya. Can I talk to you for a second?" She gradually opened the door to Ellie's room.
She was sitting on her bed and twiddling with her thumbs like she always does when she's nervous. She looked up and watched Tanya sway into her room with that same obnoxious walk that always bothered Ellie. She sat down on Joel's bed that was opposite of Ellie's.
"Look, I don't want to make small talk here, okay? I'll just get right to the point. I get it. You're a bit jealous. You're not very comfortable with another woman being in Joel's life. Its okay."
Ellie looked at her with disbelief. "Are…are you serious? This isn't jealousy," she laughed, "I have been through so much with him and I have met some people who seem nice and turn out to be complete dickbags so I'm sorry to disappoint you, Tanya, but no, I'm not jealous. I mean Jesus Christ don't you have a husband?!"
She seemed to be taking in every word Ellie just said with deep thought and concentration, but her eyes narrowed into a scowl.
"Okay. Let me explain something to you. I'm not leaving, ever. No matter how much you don't like me, I definitely plan on staying in Joel's life. And to be honest, I couldn't care less what had happened between you two. That's all in the past now. It has no value anymore. That's another thing as well. You honestly think he cares about you? Are you really that delusional?" she got up off the bed and started to get closer and closer to Ellie, "All you are to him is a trophy, a pet. You aren't anything to him. You're just this tag-along annoyance to him, a dog. He could be out living his life and all you're doing is dragging him down."
Ellie sat, wide-eyed and motionless on her bed. She didn't know what to say. One side of her wanted to kick the shit of her and the other side just wanted to break down and cry.
Tanya left without a word but the air was still thick with fury and anger.
"Is she okay?" Joel asked nervously, getting up from his chair when he saw Tanya walking down the stairs.
"Oh yeah, she just wasn't feeling well that's all," she replied, waving her hand dismissively. "Let's finish dinner!" she said quickly and changing the subject.
"Wait, wait a minute, I think I should go talk to her-"
"Joel, trust me. She's fine. She said she was just going to rest." She sat back down in her seat nonchalantly and started to eat her food again.
"Actually, Tanya. I think it's best if you left. I'm really worried about Ellie and I just want to make sure she's okay."
It's like she was in a trance. Like she was in deep thought and her eyes grew darker by the second. She looked at her food for a really long time then quietly got up.
"Thanks for the dinner, Joel," she whispered. She glanced at him, looking at him straight in the eyes briefly before turning hastily leaving.
Small footsteps started to creak down the old steps.
"Is she gone?" Ellie asked meekly.
Joel turned and looked at her. "Ellie, are you okay? What the hell happened? What did she say to you?"
She held her breath. No. No please don't cry in front of him. Don't do this. Come on, you can do this.
"Hey, hey! Are you okay?" Joel eased, obviously recognizing the tears in her eyes. "Ellie. Please tell me what's wrong please-"
"She…said that I'm not important to you. That you don't need me anymore. And you know what? The more I think about it, the more I believe her. You don't need me, Joel. All I'm doing is dragging you down. That's all I'll ever do to you." She started to silently cry, hot tears streaming down her face.
No. No. Goddamnit, why was she crying? She was supposed to be fucking strong and right now she was being the complete opposite.
He tried to bring his arms around her. "Ellie-"
She shoves him away. "No! Don't do this shit, okay? Admit it! Just admit it! She's fucking right! All I do is slow you down. That's all I ever was to you! An inconvenience. That's all I'm ever going to be to you. So do yourself a favor and get rid of me right now, okay?"
He took her hands into his, trying to calm her down.
"Ellie. Ellie! Listen to me. You are more important to me than anything on this goddamn Earth, okay? If you weren't in my life… I don't think I'd be here right now. If I had left you on the operating table back in the spring…" his voice trailed off leaving only silence between them.
"I'll tell you one thing, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I knew you were hurt or, God forbid, dead. I'd bet that I would put a bullet in my mouth if you wouldn't have made it or if someone would have killed you or…"
She looked up at him with her large, green orbs. "You really think so?"
Joel laughed in more of a weary way, knowing the answer to that question like he knows the back of his hand. "Ellie, I promise you, I promise you, I will never leave you. Ever. Do you understand me?"
She looked down for a while but then nodded, understanding that this is a promise he could keep, that he would keep, forever.
"Okay."
Hi guys! Wow so it looks like I'm uploading every month or so? I really hope that doesn't continue...Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter and leave a review telling me what you think! xox -CurrentWay