Getting to Know You
Part XXV
When things fall apart…
"Goodnight Jeanette," Eleanor said as she left her older sister's room.
"Oh, goodnight Ellie," she replied, smiling from her bed as Eleanor shut the door to her room.
When she was alone, Eleanor tried to get the images out of her head from Jeanette's story. She had thought they were on a romantic night out, but they had done way more then she had expected… she sighed as she thought about her own relationship with Theodore. They had started out innocent like Jeanette and Simon, then the tour happened and ever since then they had never been the same. They used to be best friends, now it seemed to her more and more that they were becoming just a release for the other. She had tried to talk to Theo about it, but it never seemed like the right time. And when it was the right time, they somehow always ended up having sex… Was that normal?
The phone buzzed on her nightstand and she picked it up to see who was calling. When she saw Theodore on the caller ID, she figured that now was as good a time as any to talk things out.
"Hey Theo," she said, flipping open the phone, "What's up?"
"I was just calling to see if you were ready for the meet tomorrow," he replied.
"Yeah, I'm ready for it," Ellie answered, "Uhhh, Theo, can I talk to about something?"
"Sure babe, what is it?" was the response.
"Well," she began hesitantly, "I was talking to Jeanette just now about what happened between her and Simon on their date, and I got to thinking, do you still love me?"
There was a pause on the other end of the line, "Of course I still love you Eleanor, why would you ever ask that?"
"Well, it seems like we don't do anything together anymore besides track and field, and sex… I feel like we're just using each other for pleasure."
"Baby, I love you more than anything on earth." He interrupted, "I never want you to feel like that, now what can I do to help?"
"As far as I know, nothing," she replied sadly, "I think I'm just overreacting to something, or maybe I'm over thinking things…"
"Yeah, I have nights like that too," he reassured her, "Sometimes I wonder if maybe we rushed into things and should take a break…" but as soon as he said it, he knew he shouldn't have.
"Oh shit Ellie, I didn't mean how that sounded… I'm happy with you, I was talking without thinking, just forget I said anything okay?" he begged.
"You really wonder if we should be together?" she asked, choking up a little, "I was thinking about cooling it down for a while and going back to the beginning, but if you think we shouldn't have rushed into it, then by all means."
"Ellie, that isn't what I meant, I want to be with you I swear." He tried to console her.
"No Theo, I don't want to be a part of something that was a mistake." She said finally.
"I'm trying to tell you that it wasn't a mistake. I think those things because I'm a guy, they don't mean anything. It's just testosterone talking."
"And why should I believe you?" she asked, glaring a hole into the ceiling over her bed.
"Because I love you Ellie," he answered, "I loved you before we had sex, I loved you before we even went on tour last summer, why would I want to end something that is so precious to me?"
"Maybe you don't, but right now I need to think about all this Theo." She said sighing, "Look, I'm going to go to bed, maybe I just need some sleep, but I'll see you at the meet tomorrow and we'll talk about it then okay?"
Theo recognized when to back away and reluctantly agreed. They said goodnight and hung up, each left to their own thoughts…
The next day, at the athletics field the loudspeaker buzzed to life to introduce the teams…
"WELCOME LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, TO THE FIFTEENTH ANNUAL INTERDISTRICT FIELD DAY! WE HAVE AN EXCITING COMPETITION AHEAD OF US SO LET'S INTRODUCE THE SCHOOLS… FIRST ON THE FIELD, IN THE PURPLE AND GOLD JERSEY'S WE HAVE THE NEEDHAM B. BROUGHTON HIGH SCHOOL TRACK AND FIELD TEAM. IN THE BLUE AND WHITE, PLEASE WELCOME MILLBROOK HIGH TRACK AND FIELD TEAM, AND LASTLY, IN THE RED AND YELLOW, PLEASE WELCOME YOUR VERY OWN HENRY CLAY HIGH SCHOOL FALCONS!"
As the crowd applauded and cheered, the teams ran onto their sections of the field to warm up and relax before the main event. Theo walked onto the field and looked around for Eleanor. He finally saw her, sitting in the grass and talking to Brad, the soccer team captain. He jogged over to her and was about to say hi when he overheard her agreeing for him to pick her up at seven…
"Ellie," he called, getting her attention once Brad had walked away, "What was that about?"
"Oh, Theo… that was Brad, he was just asking me if I wanted a ride to the senior block party next week. Is that a problem?" she responded over her shoulder.
"Uhhh, yeah, a little bit of a problem yes." He answered, "You don't think I have a problem with my girlfriend going to a party with another guy? Did you even think to ask if I was going?"
"I did ask you." she bit back, "I actually asked three times. You kept saying it wasn't your thing… and I wanted to go, so I got a ride. Do YOU have a problem with that?"
"Yes, I have a problem with that. Honestly, if you wanted to go that badly, you should have told me flat out. You know I can't take subtle hints… if it means that much to you, I'll drive you next week."
"Too late, I already told him to pick me up at seven." She answered, turning to face her shoes as she tied, untied, and retied the knots.
"Damnit!" he exclaimed, sitting down and glaring at the grass. "You just love to piss me off like this don't you?"
"Where did that come from?" she asked, spinning to face him, "Last time I checked, you never had a problem with me doing stuff without you. God, what's with you today?"
"I don't know," he answered sarcastically, "You know, maybe it has to do with you threatening to break up yesterday? Do you think that has something to do with it?"
"Maybe I should take that threat seriously…" she muttered.
Before he could respond, Theodore was interrupted by the announcer, "ALL RUNNERS COMPETING IN THE MEN'S MILE RUN, PLEASE REPORT TO THE STARTING LINE!"
"We'll talk about this shit later…" he said as he ran over to the starting line. Anger fueling his muscles when the starting gun went off and he burst off the blocks to win by a full minute. But when he went back to the grass where the rest of his school was, Eleanor wasn't anywhere to be seen. He looked around and saw one of her friends from her art class and asked her where Ellie had gone.
"I don't know, she said something about needing space and ran off for the bathroom like, five minutes ago…" was the answer.
He looked over at the restrooms and saw a small queue forming outside the girls room, when h got there, he asked what was happening and was told that someone was in there crying their eyes out. The bottom dropped out from his stomach and he hung his head in self loathing. He had been too mean, why the hell was he acting like this? He got so caught up in his own thoughts that he almost missed the call for his next event. And even when he did get there in the nick of time, he came in third of five… this was not his day for anything it seemed.
After he lost the event, he went over to the grassy patch and glanced over the area. He was surprised to see that Eleanor was actually sitting there. He rushed over to her to apologize. When he reached her, the first thing he noticed was that she had NOT been crying…then he noticed her angry expression.
"You know Theo, I don't mind you and me having the occasional fight, but you know what I do hate?" she asked, not giving him even the chance to say hi.
"Uhhh, am I supposed to actually guess?" he wondered out loud.
"No, you're not, but I'll tell you anyway. I hate it when you purposely run off and ignore me." She answered angrily.
"But El," he tried to explain, "I saw a crowd around the girls room, then I heard that someone was crying, and then I felt bad, and then the race, and you were here the whole time?"
"One, that made no sense, but I don't care right now. Two, yes I was here the whole time." She said, looking at him like he was insane, "And three, Theo, what you said earlier really hit home with me."
"What did I say?" he asked, afraid of the answer.
"You made me realize that maybe it's time we got some space for a while…" Ellie explained softly, looking him dead in the eye.
The floor dropped out from beneath him and his stomach rose in his throat, "Are you serious?" he choked out, fighting back the urge to break down then and there. He had said some things sure, but he had never meant them.
Eleanor sighed and answered, "Yeah, I just need some time to think and I think it's best if we take a break…"
"So that's it then?" Theo reiterated, suddenly wanting all this to be a dream, a horrible, horrible dream.
"Yeah," she answered, standing up to head over to her first event, "That's it…" and with that, she headed off, leaving him standing there stricken numb. A hole where his heart used to be…
Alvin and Dave were sitting on the couch watching "Nightmare on Elm Street IV" when Theo came in the door and walked with an angry stomp into the kitchen.
"Hey bro, how'd the meet go?" Alvin asked, his eyes glued to Freddy's glove onscreen.
Theodore stayed silent as he grabbed the bag of candy from the pantry shelf and a couple bottles of water.
"Theodore?" Dave called out, "Are you okay? What happened?"
He walked out of the kitchen and turned the sharp corner leading up the steps and to his room.
Dave had been a single dad long enough to know when the boys needed their space. But he couldn't help but notice that his youngest had just done the exact same thing he did as a young child whenever he was stressed out.
"Alvin, could you go see what's wrong with your brother?" he said, not really asking.
"Can it wait until after I see Freddy gut this guy?" he replied, his eyes glued to the screen.
"Alvin…" Dave started,
"Ah come on dad, I want to see the creep get it." he tried to explain, stalling for time.
"ALVIN…" he continued, his face already getting a little bit more red.
"It's going to take like three seconds more…"
"ALVIN!" he burst out.
"Okay okay, I'll go check on him, no need to shout you know." He grumbled as he stood up from the couch and walked up the stairs…
There you are folks. The first part of the Theo and Ellie story-arc, this one will be much shorter than the others and will be updated not weekly, but rather infrequently. I will definitely try and get a new chapter up by Monday mornings at the latest. This is also the first story-arc that I will do NO OUTLINES FOR… this means that if you leave a suggestion in the reviews or PM me, you have an excellent chance of seeing your idea written, for whatever that's worth to you. As always, you read it, you better damn well review it. and this goes for Anonymous as well as Members.
Happy Reading,
Musicalreader