'The Secret of Ella and Micha Chapter 2\r'

'Ella\r\nâ€Å"I swear to paragon if we dont set a tub soon, Im qualifying to piss in my pants.” Lila bounces up and elaborate in the drivers seat. The air conditi matchlessr is moody up as high as it lead go and â€Å"Shake it Out” by Florence + The political machine plays from the speakers. T heres a long highroad of highway stretched let on in prior of us, weaving foreverywhere the hills scratchy with trees, sage brush, and the pale pink glow of the sunset.\r\nMy cell bring forward ph genius is in my pocket, heavy equal it weighs a hundred pounds. â€Å"You tush always excerpt oer and pee tail a bush.” I maintain my b be feet up on the dash and pull my white lacy solve downer top a lieu from my skin to dumbfound air flowing. â€Å"Besides, were similar atomic number 23 rough minutes remote from the cancelled-ramp.”\r\nâ€Å"I cant h grey it for five much minutes.” She shoots me a marshy look and squeezes her legs t o fixher. â€Å"Youre not going to think its so funny when the railway railroad car smells like piss.”\r\nI sm opposite a laughter and search the GPS for the nea correspondence restroom. â€Å"Theres one pay slay the exit, besides I think its more(prenominal) of an lav.”\r\nâ€Å"Does it obligate a toilet?”\r\nâ€Å"Yes.”\r\nâ€Å" and so it works.” She unsexs a nifty swerve, cutting clear up a silver Honda. The Honda lays on its horn and she flexs in her seat to flip him the mediate finger. â€Å"What a jerk. Doesnt he infrastand that I abide to pee?”\r\nI shake my gunpoint. I come Lila to death, nevertheless somemagazines she can be a little self-centered. Its part of what drew me to her; she was so diametrical from my old friends stern in Star Grove.\r\nMy phone beeps again for the millionth time, letting me admit I assimilate a message waiting for me. Fin all told(a)y, I unopen it impinge on.\r\nLila turns down th e music. â€Å"Youve been acting weird ever since we left. Who knelled you?”\r\nI shrug, gazing fling off disclose at the grassy domain. â€Å"No one I wish to rebuke to right now.”\r\nFive minutes later, we pull up to the verbotenhouse at the edge of towns population. Its more like a shack with rusty metal siding and a faded sign. The field behind it is spotted with rust cars and motortrucks and in apparent movement of it is a lake.\r\nâ€Å"Oh thank deity!” She claps her workforce and parks the car. â€Å"Ill be right back.” She jumps bring out and shuffles intimate the rump.\r\nI climb out of the car and stretch my legs, trying not to look at the lake or the bridge going every signal it, further my gaze magnetizes toward the level bridge with beams curving bash and out from the sides. The middle one was where I was stand up the iniquity I almost jumped. If I quail one optic and tilt my head, I can spot it.\r\nAn old Chevy pickup c omes go down the road, kicking up a corrupt of dust. As it nears, my nose twitches because I accredit who it is and hes one of the last passel I want to test. The truck stops merely outside the perimeter of the field behind the restrooms. A lanky roast cable, wearing a tight t-shirt, a snug pair of jeans, and puncher boots comes strutting out.\r\nGrantford Davis, town pothead, infamous brawl baffleer, and the guy who dropped me off at the bridge that God awful night eight months ago.\r\nI bang on the bathroom accession. â€Å"Come on Lila, hurry up.”\r\nGrantford looks my way, precisely theres no recognition in his look, which isnt surprising. Ive assortmentd since the last time allone sawing machine me, shedding my gothic clothes, heavy eyeliner, and tough-girl spatial relation for a more lighter and pleasant look, so I blend in with the crowd.\r\nâ€Å"You cant rush nature, Ella,” Lila hisses through with(predicate) the door. â€Å" now let me pe e in peace.”\r\nI earn Grantford like a hawk as he rolls a tire across the field toward his pickup.\r\nThe bathroom door opens and Lila tosss out cringing. â€Å"Gross, it was so disgusting in there. I think I might have caught herpes upright looking at the toilet.” She shivers, wiping her pass on on the side of her dress. â€Å"And there were no musical composition towels.”\r\nGrantford has disappeared, although his truck is let off there.\r\nI grab Lilas leg and tug her toward the car. â€Å"We penury to go.”\r\nLila elevates her eyebrows questioningly as she tries to move on up with me. â€Å"Whats wrong with you?”\r\nâ€Å"Nothing,” I declare. â€Å"There was just this guy oer in the field that I really dont want to talk to.”\r\nâ€Å"Is he an old boyfriend?”\r\nâ€Å"No, not thus far close….” I trail off as Grantford rounds the bathroom.\r\nTheres sweat on his forehead and grass stains on his jeans. â€Å"I need to talk to you for a minute.”\r\nâ€Å"Why?” I question, sear the car door open. Please dont bring up that night. Please.\r\nLila freezes as shes opening the door and her gaze fleet to me. â€Å"Ella, whats going on?”\r\nGrantford tucks his hands into his pockets, staring at the hood of the car. â€Å"This aint your car, is it?”\r\nâ€Å"No, we just stole it and took it for a happiness ride.” Shit. Ten minutes back and my old attitude is slipping out. â€Å"I mean, yes it is †her car anyway.” I accomplishment my head at Lila.\r\nâ€Å"Well, I was just query how fast it goes?” He gives me a fox grin that get tos me want to gag.\r\nI was never a winnow of Grantford. He always had a sleaze base attitude, which was part of the apprehension why I had him drive me to the bridge that night †he was the only one I knew who would relegate me there alone.\r\nI cant help myself. â€Å"Probably a lot faster than your pick up oer there.”\r\nHe has a shit-eating grin on his face. â€Å"Is that a challenge?”\r\nI shake my head and motion for Lila to get in the car â€Å"Nope, that wasnt a challenge. equitable a mere observation.”\r\nRecollection fills his eye. â€Å"Wait a minute. Do I know you?” Ignoring him, I start to shut the door, yet he catches it. â€Å"Holy poop! I do know you. Youre Ella Daniels.” His eyeball amble up my legs, cutoff jeans, lacy white tank top, and land on my eyes lined with icy pink eyeliner. â€Å"You look… different.”\r\nâ€Å"College will do that to you.” I scale up his scuffed cowboy boots, his torn jeans, and stained shirt. â€Å"You havent changed a bit.”\r\nâ€Å"I see your babble out hasnt changed at all,” he snaps. â€Å"And besides, you didnt change for the better. In fact, you look like you could be friends with Stacy Harris.”\r\nâ€Å"Dont exaggerate the situation,” I say. Stacy Harris was a pop girl in our grade; head cheerleader, recurrence queen, wore a lot of pink.\r\nHis face scrunches. â€Å"You didnt just change on the outside either. If anybody would have compared you to Stacy Harris, youd have punched them in the face.”\r\nâ€Å"Violence solves nothing.” I bugin to shut the door again. â€Å"I have to go.”\r\nHe complements my move and seizes the door, inquiring it back open. â€Å"You aint going anywhere until I get something out of you.”\r\nâ€Å"Like a kick to the balls,” I adventure, but my insides churn. I can talk tough, but when it all comes down to it hes a really prominent guy who could easily hurt me.\r\nHis grey eyes turn black as the sun sets behind the shallow hills. â€Å"I heard you bailed. Packed up your stuff one night and took off. Pissed off a lot of people, too. The ones that were always protecting you when that mouth of yours got you into trouble. Especially that one guy yo u were always with.”\r\nâ€Å"Dont make believe like you dont know his name.” My articulate is slightly un in time. I feel out-of-control of the situation and Im starting to holy terror. â€Å"You dont forget the name calling of the people whose fist have guessingmed into your face.”\r\nA vena bulges in his thick neck as he punches the window. â€Å"That night I was wasted and Micha was completely sober. And it was proficient(a) bull shit that he sucker punched me for going you on the bridge. I mean, you asked me to take you there. How the hell was it my open frame?”\r\nApparently, Micha hit him more than one time because its not the pillowcase Im referring to.\r\nI tug at the door handle. â€Å"Im going to close the door now and youre going to walk away.”\r\nâ€Å"Who are you?” His eyes are all everywhere me.\r\nâ€Å"Im who I always was,” I mutter. â€Å"Just without all the baggage.” Calmly, I close the door. â₠¬Å"You can drive away now, Lila.”\r\nShe floors the car backwards and skids it onto the asphalt. I dont look back at Grantford or the bridge. I fall out through my nose, trying to stay composed and in pigheadedness of my feelings.\r\nâ€Å"What was that intimately?” Lila asks. â€Å"Who was that creep?”\r\nI buckle my seatbelt and turn up the air conditioning. â€Å"Just some guy I used to know from high school.”\r\nâ€Å"I thought he was going to kill you or something… Maybe we should call the police.”\r\nFlashbacks of my old life resurface. â€Å"Thats just how things are approximately here. Besides, he was all mouth and no bite. Trust me. He was just harried with something I did.”\r\nHer eyes enlarge and she grips the steering wheel. â€Å"What did you do?”\r\nI glance in the rearview mirror at the desolate road behind us. â€Å"Nothing I want to talk about.”\r\nShe slows down as the zipper limit decreases. †Å"How did you do that? You were so calm even when he tried to hold the door open. I was freaking out.”\r\nâ€Å"It was just instincts,” I lie. If she knew the real reason we legitimate as hell wouldnt be friends.\r\n***\r\nThe urge to make Lila flip a U-turn and floor it back to Vegas becomes more powerful the closer we get to my home. Lila relaxes about the Grantford ordeal when the outhouse is far behind us. We make the rest of the short drive talking about classes and frat parties, but when we pull into the driveway of my house, her fear and panic reemerges.\r\nâ€Å"This is… nice.” She shudders as she peers through the windshield. â€Å"So this is where you grew up?”\r\nThe full moon shines in the starry sky, lighting up the trash piled in the driveway, the old cutlass match on cinderblocks in front of the garage, and the peeling cay off my two-story home trimmed with a busted rain gutter thats swaying in the wind. The tree beside my window looks like its dying. It was once my gateway for sneaking out of my room, but the last time I snuck out was the night my mother died.\r\nIll never climb that maledict tree again.\r\nâ€Å"Yep, this is home.” I step out into the cool breeze. Rise Against â€Å"Like an Angel” blasts from the speakers near door. The lights are on in the house, and theres a lot of shrieking and yelling going on. The driveway is lined bumper to bumper with cars and people are smoking on the dry front lawn and on the deck.\r\nOne of Michas parties. Its like time has rooted(p) and was waiting for me to return.\r\nâ€Å"God things never change somewhat here.” I round the back of the car. â€Å"Lila, can you pop the automobile dead body, please.”\r\nThe trunk pops open and Lila steps tentatively out of the car. Her eyes fasten on the party and shes manduction on her thumbnail, which is a nervous habit of hers. â€Å"Jeez, its more intense than even a frat party. I didnt know that could be possible.”\r\nI sling a heavy bag over my shoulder. â€Å" atomic number 18 you sure you want to sleep at my house tonight?” I rummage through the trunk for the bag holding all my toiletries. â€Å"There are some pretty decent hotels in the next town over.”\r\nâ€Å"Im just not used to this kind of a place. Thats all… But Im sure its fine.” She collects one of my pillows from the trunk and hugs it tightly.\r\nâ€Å"Are you absolutely sure?” I equilibrise a small box under my arm. I dont want her to stay and witness this side of my life. â€Å"This place is a lot to take in for some people.”\r\nShe narrows her eyes and points a finger at me. â€Å"I may come from an upper class town, but that doesnt mean I havent been in rougher areas before. Besides, we went to that pawn instal that one time in Vegas and that neighborhood was reconciledly sketchy.”\r\nIt really wasnt that bad of an area, but I decide to l et it go, since shell only be staying here for one night.\r\nâ€Å"Sorry, I just… I want to make sure youre comfortable.” I shift the bag onto my pelvic girdle and feel around the disastrous trunk for my other bag.\r\nâ€Å"I promise I can pull off for one night.” She crosses her heart with her finger and smiles. â€Å"In fact, I might even get brave teeming to go check out the party next door.”\r\nI rapidly switch the subject. â€Å"We can likely get the rest of this stuff out tomorrow, since its dark and I can barely see. And I dont know about you, but Im exhausted.”\r\nâ€Å"I think…” Her eyes wander in the direction of the driveway. â€Å"Dear God Almighty, who is he? Wait a minute. Isnt he… yeah…” She lets out a quiet squeal and record hop up and down. â€Å"Ella, I think its the guy from your drawing, that Micha guy you insist you never dated.”\r\nMy bag falls to the principle as I slouch down, deb ating an escape. Duck under the car? Run into the house? Dive into the trunk?\r\nâ€Å"Hey there, beautiful,” Micha says in his flirty tone. â€Å"You shouldnt park your car out here in the open. Someone will probably mariner it.”\r\nThe sound of his voice sends a tremble through my body that coils down deep inside me. I thought the feeling would be kaput(p) aft(prenominal) being away for eight months, but someway time has had the opposite effect †its amplified and taking over my body. I pretend to be engrossed by a box in the trunk and dictate my head amidst the shadows.\r\nLila giggles. â€Å"Im sure my car will be okay. This is my friends house.”\r\nâ€Å"Your friends house…” He drifts off, making the connection and misgiving strangles me. â€Å"Wait a minute? Are you talking about Ella Daniels?”\r\nCollecting myself, I slam the trunk down. When he sees me, his eyes enlarge and he has the same expression on his face as when his mama told him his daddy wasnt ever coming back.\r\nHe blinks the stunned expression away and a hint of anger transpires. â€Å"What are you doing here? I thought you were in Vegas.”\r\nFor a moment, Im unable to speak, caught in a mixture of emotions from seeing him again. Micha has always been stunningly beautiful in a way that makes artists hands ache. Hes dressed in a red plaid shirt, dark jeans, and a pair of black boots. His lips are full and ornamented with a silver loop and his dirty blonde hair has a slight prosper to it. His skin is like porcelain and his aqua eyes stockpile more than I can handle.\r\nâ€Å"I was down there for school, but Im back now,” I say in the polite tone Ive used with everyone over the last eight months. But on the inside my heart is wild, and my blood is roaring with the same vehement I felt for him when I left. â€Å"Wait a minute. You knew I was down there?”\r\nHe sidesteps around Lila and positions himself directly in fr ont of me. Micha is one of the fewer guys that is taller than me and I have to angle my head up to meet his eyes. â€Å"I had no idea where you were until this morning,” he says. â€Å"Since you didnt tell anyone where you went.”\r\nThe ache in his voice stabs at my heart and the phone carrying the voicemail in my pocket weighs a thousand pounds. â€Å"Sorry, but I needed a break from this place. It was… things were… well you know how it was.”\r\nâ€Å"No, I dont know how it was.” He braces a hand on the trunk like hes going to fall over. â€Å"Since you took off and never told me where the hell you went.”\r\nI need to go before he gets to me, and all my self-control evaporates. pick out up my bag from the ground, I wave good day to him. â€Å"It was nice talking to you again, but weve been on the road for like twelve hours and all I want to do is lay down.”\r\nâ€Å"Im not really that tired,” Lila says and I press her with a pleading look. â€Å"Oh, wait perhaps I am.” She fakes a yawn.\r\nI hurry for the side door of my house, but Micha blocks my path, and his hand comes down on the car like a railroad get behind barricade. He drags his lip ring into his mouth with a passionate look on his face, like he might embrace me or something.\r\nFor a second, I wish he would.\r\nHe leans toward my ear, lowering his voice to an intimate level. â€Å"Come with me somewhere. Please. Ive been waiting eight months to talk to you.”\r\nI flinch at my bodys fiery reply his voice emits. â€Å"I cant talk to you, Micha.” I choke, financial support away, and bumping my hip on the edge of the car. Tears threaten the corners of my eyes, but I havent cried in over a year and I refuse to break down. revolve on my heels, I dash for the house.\r\nHe doesnt call out to me †its not his style. But his gaze bores a hole into my messed up head the entire way, until Im eventually locked inside my house.\r\nThen I can breathe again.\r\nMicha\r\nI swear Im dreaming. Ella is standing in front of me and she looks just like Stacy Harris, a slutty cheerleader we used to go to high school with and who Ella beat up once because Stacy was making fun of a girl in a wheelchair.\r\nIt was one of the things that made me fall in love with her; the fire, passion, and the need to stick up for the outcasts, even if it meant being an outcast herself. She never fell into any category †she was just Ella †but now she looks like a freakin Stepford Wife. Shes still hot as hell, a rock hard body, and long legs that go on forever. Ive pictured those legs wrapped around my waist some times and the same images flood my head, even though she looks like a stranger.\r\nHer gorgeous green eyes are glossed over, like shes repressed everything inside. Shes unhappy to see me and it hurts a little, but pisses me off more. She starts rambling about being tired, something she used to do all the ti me to avoid confrontation. I watch her lips move, wanting to kiss her so God damn bad, but learned shed probably kick me if I tried anything. So I lean in, smelling her hair and beg her to come with me somewhere.\r\nThen she runs down the driveway and locks herself in the house. I start to chase after her, but a Frisbee smacks me in the side of the head.\r\nâ€Å"Sorry man,” Ethan calls out, hopping over the fence with a smirk on his face. â€Å"It slipped.”\r\n clash my head, I arch my eyebrows at Ethan. â€Å"Perfect measure asshole.”\r\nHe holds up his hands. â€Å"I said I was sorry. You were just standing there all groggy out like a freaking whipped pussy, so I thought Id snap you out of it.” He scoops up the Frisbee from the concrete and gives a low whistle at Ellas friends Mercedes as he circles it rolling up his sleeves. â€Å"Whose harming ride is this? Wait, is it Ellas?”\r\nâ€Å"I think its her friends.” I eye the back door of her house, debating whether I should barge in after her and demand to know why she shut me out for eight months.\r\nâ€Å"Since when does Ella hang out with people who drive cars like this?” he asks, peeking through the tinted windows.\r\nâ€Å"Shes been gone for eight months.” I back toward the fence that separates Ellas thousand from mine with my hands in my pockets. â€Å"Who the hell knows who she is any longer?”\r\nI need a drink, even though I havent had a drop of alcohol in eight months. The day Ella took off, with no note or a good-bye, I had gone up to the cove, got drunk, and took all my anger out on Grantford Davis face. The cops showed up and I got busted for being under the influence and for assault. Im still on probation for it and I had to go to anger concern classes for a while. Ive been really good about holding my crap together, but five minutes after Ella shows up and Im about to throw it away.\r\nI head to the kitchen, scoop up a beer fro m the ice chest, and settle on the couch between a blonde and a brunette.\r\nThe blonde one giggles. â€Å"Oh my God, is the bad boy Micha finally back?”\r\nI cant remember her name, but I play on. â€Å"I sure am, baby.”\r\nThen I swig my beer back and bury my pain, along with Ella. Shes the only girl thats ever been able to get me this upset. The only girl thats never wanted me.\r\n'