What she meant to say was that she never postedpictures. She didn’t share videos. Eleanor might be chronically online and glued to her computer, but she didn’t really do social media.
So how had I seen her?
Well…
“No.” I fidgeted with my hair, raking my fingers through it. Fuck,hadthe AC gone out? It felt warm in here. Like, really warm. Maybe it was because I was so close to the ceiling, and heat rises and all that, but?—
“Then how did you?—”
“I didn’t see pictures of you,” I admitted, interrupting. “I just saw your…dot?”
“My dot?” Ellie laughed, clearly not understanding.
I tried to play it off, glancing over my shoulder and gesturing to my phone, which sat by hers on the TV stand. “Yeah, your location.”
Then I went back to slowly painting along the ceiling, trying to focus on keeping my brush straight and not on Eleanor’s reaction.
She was quiet.
Too quiet.
Theroomwas quiet.
I might have also been holding my breath.
“Sawyer, you—” she said eventually, before cutting herself off, andfuck.
I forced myself to turn around and face her. Because I needed more than that little snippet of a response.
Ellie had a hand over her mouth, her eyes fixed on me. And damn if they weren’t unreadable.
“I just…” I shrugged, not knowing what to say to explain myself. “You never stopped sharing it with me. And I never stopped looking.”
She blinked.
I went back to holding my breath.
And then decided I needed to clarify, “Well, I did stop lookingas much, but?—”
“I lied before.”
“What?”
Ellie turned her back to me, refocusing on the wall, rolling up and down like she hadn’t just left me sitting on a fucking cliff. She was moving quickly, too, making broad, somewhat crooked strokes as she rolled toward me.
“I did ask Natalie about you,” she said without turning away from the wall. “Once.”
“You did?”
“Yeah.” She jumped a little, trying to get her roller to reach up to where I’d painted the trim. “After I watched your graduation online, I couldn’t stop—” She paused, but it only lasted a moment. “I wanted—no, I needed to know where you’d be. If you had plans to move or plans to stay.”
My breath caught, but I managed a response. “I’m sure you weren’t surprised when she told you I didn’t have plans to go anywhere.”
Ellie had made it all the way across the wall, and now she was right beside me. Well,underme might be more accurate, since I still stood on the step ladder.
Her eyes flicked up to mine. “What I’m trying to say is, I get it.”
I swallowed, hanging on her words, needing her to say more.
