Stand by Me by Fullmetal Pyromaniac
Chapter Six:
Elizabeth woke up with a tingly feeling on her forehead, she wiped the sleep out of her eyes and sat up in her bed. Sun filtered through the white blinds and lit up her bed. Last nights events replayed in her mind and Elizabeth let out a sigh.
She had only been in a few days but there was something that attracted her to the blonde boy next door. Every time she saw him something erupted in her stomach. It wasn't butterflies, it was worse.
Like a million bats or octopi, wriggling about and making her nervous. Was this a crush? It was odd, she'd never had one before. Except that really small one on Gilthunder when she was, like, five. But that was more a small infatuation.
There was a knock at her room door and Merlin appeared with her wooden clipboard.
"Good morning Elizabeth, shall we go for your daily tests, you'll have breakfast afterwards"
Elizabeth nodded and got up off the bed, her legs protested angrily. They appeared to be getting progressively worse. Elizabeth shook off the thought the went for her tests.
...
After a cup of Earl Grey tea and some tasteless scrambled eggs, Elizabeth lay in bed reading a favourite book of hers. The storybook lay on her bedside table, ready to be shown at the next club meeting. Elizabeth had even written down the tale of Mead reuniting with his parents.
Meliodas was out for the day doing goodness knows what, he was always very good at avoiding the subject of his stay here and that frustrated Elizabeth to no end. Shaking the thoughts out of her head, she delved back into the world of Pico Mundo, Odd Thomas and Stormy Lewellyn.
The cover of the book was stained and bent, signs that it had been well loved. When her mother died, she left two of her most precious things to each of her daughters.
Margaret was given a black silk choker from Asia which she always wore and a topaz bracelet.
Veronica was given a giant leather bound book on princesses, dragons and Knights where the princesses were brave warriors and the Knights were soldiers of evil and an amethyst hair pin.
Elizabeth was given a collection of her oldest and favourite books, almost enough to make up a library, and a round sapphire earring with sicker stars in it that Elizabeth wore in her left ear. She fiddled with the earring and sighed, if only she had got to know her mother better.
There was a knock at the door and Elizabeth looked up curiously, Diane was sat at the door of her room with a paper bag and looking kind of sheepish.
"H-hey Elizabeth, you're not busy are you? If you are don't worry, I'll ju-"
"No no! Don't worry" Elizabeth reassured kindly, sitting in the edge of her bed, "I'm kind of lonely today, come in"
Diane gave a wide smile and wheeled herself over to Elizabeth.
"Awesome! And look I even convinced King to go out and get us food!" She chirped, raising the paper bag. "I hate the food here, it's all so tasteless"
Elizabeth cringed, "Yeah, I miss the food from home. Thank you for the food, it's very kind of you"
"It's no problem really, after all, we're friends now and that's what they do for each other"
Elizabeth crossed her legs, trying not to grimace at the ache, and smiled softly.
"So, what brings you to my side of the hospital?"
Diane pouted and looked away, "Well, I was such a meanie I decided to make it up to" she winked and made a peace sign.
"Today is the official start of our friendship!" She exclaimed.
"I'll make a note of it in my phone so we don't forget!" Elizabeth sang.
"I will too, for now, let's eat some doughnuts!"
Diane opened the paper bag and handed Elizabeth a toffee doughnut and a can of iced coffee and took the other for herself. She scrunched the bag and put it in the pocket of her orange shorts.
"So, how will we officially begin our friendship?" Diane asked, Elizabeth swallowed her bite of doughnut and pondered.
"I know this is kind of a boyfriend-girlfriend thing to do, but how about twenty questions?"
Diane nodded, "Okay you go first"
"Favourite colour"
Diane laughed, "Orange, can you tell?" She winked, pointing to her enirely orange outfit.
Elizabeth laughed and turned pink, "Sorry, silly question"
"Okay, uh, favourite animal?"
"Rabbits, and dogs, I find pigs quite cute as well. Cats too! Okay, favourite actor?"
"That's a hard one, I mean, I don't really watch any movies. How about you?"
"Easy, Anton Yelchin"
"Is he cute?"
Elizabeth giggled, "Very"
"looks like somebody has a crush!" Dine teased, "Captains got competition!"
Elizabeth turned red, "M-Meliodas?"
"Don't you act all shy, Elizabeth, you clearly like him and he's interested in you too"
"H-he's just a friend, I don't know him well enough to like like him yet"
"Are you suuuuure?" Diane drawled making Elizabeth resemble a tomato or beetroot.
"W-well! What about you and King?" She fired back not unkindly. Diane froze, then spluttered.
"I- I-I!" Then she calmed down and leant back in her wheelchair, frowning, brown pigtails spilling down the back of it.
"I like him, a lot...but it's complicated..."
Elizabeth frowned and sipped her coffee.
"Really? How so?" Diane sighed.
"Well, to start with- I was in a car accident three years ago. I was paralysed from the waist down and I had amnesia. I couldn't remember anything from before my accident. Eventually over time I remembered a few things but I could never remember anything about my accident.
"It was a blur of shouts, guys and girls, then tires screeching then nothing. I was told that there were three other people in the crash, but I can't remember them. Then I met King, Merlin introduced us, as soon as he saw me he ran away"
Diane leant forward and rested her chin in her hands.
"Eventually he managed to talk to me, we got closer, he's my best friend, he told me about his favourite stuffed toy Oslo, his friend who died of illness, his family and I told him everything I could remember. Whenever I asked about his arm he always avoided the subject.
"Lately I've started acknowledging that I like him, and he's starting asking me odd questions like 'if you knew who caused your accident would you hate them?' and apologising at odd moments. I think he's hiding something from me"
Elizabeth frowned more and thought deeply, what would she do?
"I think..." She said after a few minutes, "I think I would leave it be, I mean if King is hiding something he must have a reason, I think I'd let him know that I would hate him or anything no matter what"
Diane pouted and nodded slowly, "Yeah, that sounds good. But I can't wait. If I like him I can't bear that he's hiding something. I'm going to ask him tomorrow after the meeting, then if all goes well I'm going to ask him to be my boyfriend!" She exclaimed.
Elizabeth clapped, "Good luck Diane! I'm sure he'll say yes"
She giggled and winked, "I sure hope so, I've been working on something just for him"
"Oh really? What?"
Diane clenched her teeth and gripped the arm rests of her wheel chair. Elizabeth peered at her curiously until she noticed the slight movement from underneath Diane's orange socks. A gasp left her lips and she clapped her hands together excitedly.
"That's amazing! How long have you been working on that?"
"Quite some time. It's a surprise for him so you can't say anything. Okay?"
"Sure, I promise"
Diane pulled out her phone and her eyes widened.
"Speaking of King, I gotta go, he'll be wondering where I am"
She reversed, then wheeled herself to the door of Elizabeth's room.
"See you tomorrow Elizabeth! Good luck with the captain!"
Before Elizabeth could protest, Diane wheeled away, laughing heartily and Elizabeth lay back in her bed. Revelling in the warm, fuzzy feeling of having a friend.
End of chapter six.
A.N. I quite like this chapter, I'm really pleased with how this turned out. There's not much to say really, I've just finished writing chapter 8 and when I finish 9 I'll post the next chapter. I'll also be posting the letter J of 'A-Z of Melizabeth' at some point, I haven't actually written it's hard choosing from all your suggestions! Thank you for sending them!
I couldn't help putting a reference to my all time favourite book I there XD I reference it everywhere! But seriously, it's unreal how much I love that book 3 Dean Koontz is the best 3 as is Anton Yelchin (Rest in peace)
Okay, one last thing, I've decided to cross post this story on my Wattpad account: Ruby-Like-Fire, I'm not too sure why, I just felt like it!
Thank you to all who reviewed, favourited and followed, you're all too kind ^\\\\\^
See you later!
-Ruby xxx
