AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As if to accentuate my point, Ellie stepped on the porch, her foot going right through a slat before she started to tumble backward. Both Micah and I were moving the moment we heard the wood break but I reached her first, catching her before her back could hit the concrete stairs leading up to the porch.
She felt so good in my arms. and she smelled even better this close. I was reluctant to even move but her foot was still stuck in the wood. I helped maneuver her out of it but didn’t put her down until we were off of the porch again.
“Okay, yeah, this one might be a bit more of a fixer upper,” she agreed with a humorless laugh. “Fuck. That hurt. Do you even think it’s salvageable or do you think it’ll be condemned like the other one?”
“I’m not sure,” I said as I stepped onto the porch, taking small, careful steps until I reached the door. Just like the other location it swung right open. From the smell that practically stole my breath it had been completely abandoned to the point animals had taken over.
I didn’t even bother to go any further, closing the door and making my way back to the others.
“That bad?” she questioned as she bent down to brush the small splinters of wood from her pant leg. Just as my gaze landed on the movement something slithered over her shoes.
She let out a scream and launched herself at me. I caught her easily and stepped back until we were free of the overgrown yard.
Micah was losing it at her reaction but I held her close. I didn’t care that it was a harmless snake, she was scared and that was enough for me to offer whatever reassurance I could.
“Fuck this house,” Ellie said as her nails dug into my arm. She was back on her feet now but didn’t even try to back away.
“You big baby,” Micah teased. As if she realized who she was clinging to she stepped away with an apologetic smile and shook her hands out. I wasn’t sure if it was disgust at the snake or nerves from being close to me.
She was so expressive, even now I could easily read her embarrassment and exasperation. It had me wondering just what she was like on the show.
Was she a different person when the cameras were rolling or was I seeing the real Ellie?
It was impossible to know exactly who she was yet, we’d only met a few short hours ago. But I could already tell that I wanted to know so much more.
Ellie
The dulcet sounds of my mother’s screeching voice filled Micah’s car and I smacked my head against the dash as quietly as possible. As if that could make it stop.
“I just can’t believe she’d disappear like this! It’s so irresponsible to run away. The finale couldn’t have been that bad,” mom scoffed like this was all a shameful thing for her specifically.
“Mom, if she ran, there has to be a good reason. Ellie is the sensible one,” Micah argued. My mother let out a world-weary sigh like she had just been through hell and back.
Dealing with me must be so taxing,I thought with more than a little sarcasm.
The irony wasn’t lost on me that she had yet to seem worried about my well-being. It all boiled down to how I was making her look and if that wasn’t my mother in a nutshell, I don’t know what was.
“If she calls me, I’ll have her call you back,” Micah promised for the fifteenth time.
“Well,” she said with a cocky, little huff. “The producers are hounding us. They think we’re hiding something and they’re reminding us that she has obligations, contractual ones. I’m just trying to make sure she doesn’t get sued. Can you imagine? That gossip would spread like wildfire at the country club.”
Micah mimed slamming his own head down before appeasing her. “She’s not going to get sued, Mom.” The woman was infuriating on her best days but he handled her well. He’d always been the buffer between her and us. Me because I never gave into her outlandish demands and Tori because she was too free-spirited to be boxed into the mold my mother created for us. She wanted little debutants to fawn with her friends over, but we wanted no part of that life. The rest of our parental pack was much more laid back, which was the only reason any of us came out normal.
“I’ll let them know that I’m still searching,” she bit out, muttering again about doing an interview because, of course, my mother would want to be in the center of attention. I should have seen this one coming, I could only imagine the nightmare shit that she would tell the world. It would be more untrue than the bullshit the producers added in.
“Mom, you know damn well Ellie wouldnotwant you to do that.” I had to put my hand over my mouth to stop myself from gasping. “You already have a rocky relationship, I’d caution you to tread carefully. I have to go. Bye, Mom.” Micah’s harsh tone had even stunned my mother into silence. For about two seconds, I had a feeling my fathers were getting an earful now.
“I’m calling Tori,” I said, grabbing his phone since I had yet to check mine. The only calls getting through were Micah’s and Tori’s since I had the do not disturb setting on.
There was barely a single ring before Tori was answering.
“Oh my god, Micah, tell me you’ve done some crowd control with Mother?” she demanded, sounding exasperated. “She’s posting on every social media platform she has, saying how Ellie has disappeared and she’s calling me twenty times a day. She’s like, two steps away from missing persons flyers, though she hasn’t gone to the police, of course, it’s all theatrics.”
“It’s because she’s all about drama,” I said. “She just threatened to do an interview in my place.”
Tori let out a snort of laughter. “You know it’s telling that I’m not even shocked because not once has she been worried about you in our entire lives. She knows you’re smart enough to handle yourself, she’s just mad that she’s not in on the secret and can’t use you to get attention.”
“She is using her for attention already,” Micah pointed out. “You just said she was posting and she’s doing an interview. Seriously, keep an eye on the tabloids and let us know if you see anything.”
