If I could be anyone, no matter whether they were dead or alive, then I would be Leah... She has no boundaries, very little qualms, and a smile always on her face. Sure, I don't know what's going on in her life, I haven't even met her parents! God... I've never met Leah's parents.
I guess it's because I never wanted to even talk to her, but I guess I just expected her to invite me over for dinner or a walk around the block. It's kind of confusing.
Eli faced up at her bare ceiling, trying to lull herself to sleep before sundown. At least if she got to sleep early then she would wake up early. She never really cared much about when she woke up as long as it gave her time to get ready for school, if I was going to school.
"Knowing my mom," Eli started, beginning to talk to herself. "She'd probably make me go to school after a week- No.. that's probably not true." She paused, taking a slow breath in but deciding to hold it.
While she kept the breath in, she noticed that her chest didn't heave up and down, and instead stood still.
She carefully let the breath out, and tried to breathe slowly, stopping the heaving of her chest. She sat up and crawled over to her window. A calm and peaceful breeze ran through the room and Eli stood on her knees; hands folded on the stool of the window.
I want to go to Leah's house.
Eli reached for her phone, scrolling through her list of contacts. Friends she hadn't talked to in weeks, months, even years were still in her contacts list. She wondered if she was still in theirs.
She scrolled farther, seeing Leah as the second contact in L. She pressed the number and dialed it, but paused for a moment while the phone rang.
Did she really want to go to Leah's house? Or was she just bored and couldn't fall asleep anymore? All of those questions were thrown away when Leah answered the phone.
"Hey, Eli! Where have you been, girl?" She asked, prompting a heavy wince from Eli.
"Ah... well, how do I really explain this? I had another seizure and went into a coma. I don't know for how long because nobody has told me, but I just have one question." Eli stressed, leaving Leah dumbfounded and silent. Her pause was quite concerning when it became to be almost a minute before she responded other than when she muttered under her breath right after the confession.
"Well, Eli, what' s your question?" Leah said in a calm tone, soothing Eli's nerves and prompting her to respond.
"Can I come over to your house? I know that I just got out of the hospital, but I was just thinking that I've never actually been to your house and-" Asked Eli before she was cut off by Leah aggressively agreeing and saying she'd go and pick her up.
Eli didn't know what she meant by picking her up but assumed that Leah wasn't going to pull up on a bike, so Eli put her running shoes on.
Eli went downstairs, noticing that the house was empty. She poked her head out of the front door and took the spare key from under the doormat. She was ready, but wondered why it was taking her so long. Eli waited by the door, hoping to hear a knock on the door. She was crouched down, scrolling through her phone's gallery and not paying much attention to anything around her.
So when there was a loud knock she flinched and almost fell over. When she stood up, she saw Leah in the side windows of the door waving very enthusiastically at Eli.
Eli opened the door and locked it behind her, starting to walk away from the house. But Leah stopped suddenly.
She held a flower, a snapdragon, up to Eli.
"Here!" She cheered, waving the flower for Eli to hold. Eli took it, eyeing Leah in a strange way. She was confused and cocked her head to the side.
"It symbolizes graciousness, I wanted to give you a gift for surviving that coma!" Leah said, continuing the walk and going on a long tangent that Eli didn't bother to pay attention to.
The sun was already setting when Eli noticed that they were nearing the edge of the plateau, and the only way down was a decline with a small sidewalk.
"Hey Leah, where do you live? I thought you lived in the same row of houses as me." Eli said, prompting Leah to shake her head.
"Oh, no. I live way down the hill that we're on, but my place is just over there." Leah said, pointing to a halfway run-down house that seemed to be on the smaller side of the town. "Sorry if it's a bit small, I swear I'm not poor!"
"It's fine, it's like you're living in a tiny house!" Eli said under her breath, making Leah slightly chuckle.
When they arrived on the porch, Leah unlocked the door to an empty house. "My parents are at work." she said and led Eli upstairs to her room.
Eli felt the exchange was all too strange but ignored her gut feeling. Besides, it was normal to feel embarrassed, she had never been over a friend's house before
Leah brought her over to a beanbag while she sat down in her desk chair. The two sat idle for a moment, not too sure what to say. It hadn't been Leah's first time having someone over, but what would she talk to her about?
"So... will you ever come back to school?" Leah asked.
Will I ever come back to school? "Yeah... But I don't know how safe it is for me." Eli joked, eventually making Leah smile.
"You're kidding me, you have to come back at least next month!" Leah continued the small joke, even making Eli laugh a bit. The two continued the joke, estimating that Eli would go back to school in ten years, having fits of laughter in between jokes.
–
By the time Eli got home, her parents were just about to go out and search for her. But when she showed up, her parents were just at the door, opening it on her.
Her mother gasped and her father froze, they were both horrified. "Eli! Where have you been!?" Her father asked, taking the role of her mother for her. Eli faced to the side, quite ashamed.
"I went to Leah's house, sorry for not telling you..." Eli confessed, trying her best to avoid eye contact with her distressed parents. "We've been looking all over the house for you! Couldn't you just invite Leah over instead?" Her mother pleaded, taking Eli's hands and holding them in place.
"We don't want you going places without telling us, especially in the middle of the night."
"It was still the evening when I left." thought Eli, yet "I know, and I won't do it again." came out instead. "Can I go inside? It's getting cold." Eli asked as her parents parted to give her space to enter the foyer.
Eli took her shoes off and walked up the staircase, leaving her parents in a blur. Walking to her room, Eli noticed the door was wide open. She didn't question it, assuming that the first place her parents looked for her was her room. Then she noticed an envelope on her clothes drawer.
Confused, Eli picked it up and examined the front, the person it was going to was "cousin". "Which cousin is this from?" Eli thought as she brainstormed the possible number of candidates.
"It could be my cousin Mia, or Elanor, maybe William? Or..." Eli tore the envelope open and pulled a paper out. She started reading it, slowing down and concentrating on what it said, waiting to see who it was from and what it could entail.
"Hello Eli. It's been so long since I've seen you and I've been waiting forever for the annual family reunion! But it's fine, I just wanted to send you this letter to catch up with you, so how have you been? Do you like your new house? Have you made any new friends? I have so many questions but the biggest one is, how hot is it there!?"
"I know, I know, all of these questions are a lot. I just really want to know what's been going on with you! Anyways, I hope you've been having a great time in Strangerville!" The letter ended as Elis canned it for who signed it. Finding it at the bottom, it was signed "-Love, Annabelle".
Eli felt a small wave of discomfort wash over her as she remembered what had happened in the dreams she had. Though she only had two dreams, she couldn't get what Annabelle said to her in the dreams. How she looked at her. She felt inferior. Even though the real Annabelle would never treat her like that it all felt so real.
Without hesitation, Eli shouted out "Mom! Where's the pen and paper!? The fancy one!" To her mother, she was going to write a letter back to Annabelle.
Her mother shouted back the whereabouts of the supplies and Eli headed down the hall, making it to the office. The room wasn't fully set up but things were still in their place, in file cabinets brought from the last house so the family wouldn't have to purchase more.
Walking back to her room, her emotions bit at her as she scrutinized her new false perception of Annabelle. That wasn't her.
A deep burning in her heart could be felt as soon as she sat down at her desk as the wrong perception of Annabelle's voice creeped up on Eli. The room wasn't properly lit, and what had seemed to be a huge problem translated onto Eli's tone on the paper.
Everything she wrote was dry and what she had seen wasn't her. Her hands were trembling, and she could barely write as the tears welling up in her eyes made it impossible to see.
The pain she felt was agonizing, what would happen if she had another dream? Was sleeping even safe now? She put her head down on the table, frustrated at herself and the dreams she was having. She couldn't finish the letter, she couldn't finish the day, she couldn't finish her suffering.
She felt a tiny "pwing!" in her head, pushing her up through the tears. She was going to finish writing the letter through tears and shaking hands, she was going to finish it no matter what happened.
–
"Hey Eli, do you ever think of what you would've been through if you didn't come here?" Leah asked, turning over to see Eli looking up at the stars. She seemed so mesmerized by the constellations Leah thought she might not answer.
"Well, no. I've always had my run of shitty luck. It happens every year, but It's never been this bad." Eli said.
Leah shrugged, "Well may my luck be with you, forever and ever will It stay with you. Day and night, without judgment and beside you with faith" She recited, leaving Eli dumbfounded. The two up on the roof had been there for a while, just looking over the town and up at the sky speckled with stars.
"...Thank you, that was-... beautifully worded." Eli said, tearing her eyes away from the sky for a moment to see Leah brighten up. Her smile was great and eyes wide open, she really seemed to be taking Eli's response so happily. Leah swayed to the side, humming a quiet tune.
"So, school… Seriously. When do you think you'll come back?" Leah asked, surprising Eli.
She didn't expect Leah to bring school up, and especially while she's being serious. Eli took a minute to think, wondering how long would be "too long". If she was fine and just needed to sleep off the coma then she'd basically be back in a week, and her parents would pamper for about two weeks. The third week would be the start of her freedom. So she said "Maybe ina' week."
Leah laughed a bit, "I'll be glad to have you back, Eli." She said while peering at the black sky glittering with the stars dancing across.
Eli took a deep breath in, letting her eyes close and imagine she was back at the ranch. She felt light, like she was levitating through her dreams and being put through every experience she had in Stangerville. Time fast forwarded to now, the moment she was in, on the roof of Leah's house.
"Hey Leah, have you ever had a recurring dream?" Eli asked Leah, turning over to face her, but having to look up due to looking up. "Hm? No, jot that I think. But if you've ever had one then I congratulate you. You probably have a good memory!" Leah said, staring up at the sky with an unempathetic face. That same blank face she gives when she's about to leave.
"Are you about to leave?"
