Strike One

Chapter 30

I woke up and Eliot was still in my room but he was looking at my books.

"Morning." I yawned.

"Look who finally woke up." Eliot said with a smile. "How ya feeling?" He asked.

"Eh. I've been better."

"I think we all have before last night." He responded. "Wanna go eat? I'll get my keys and we can go get breakfast at McDonald's or something." He asked. He's so sweet. If only both brothers were that sweet.

"Yeah sure. Let me get ready. Don't leave yet please though. I don't want to fave the family alone. I'll go get ready in my bathroom."

"Yeah sure. I'll wait out here." He answered. I got dressed in some sweatpants, an olive green shirt, and put on my fuzzy slippers. I also put my wig in a messy bun and wore my glasses because why not. I came out of the bathroom and saw Eliot looking at one of my favorite books. Unlocked by Karen Kingsbury (it's an actual book and it's really good).

"Ready?" I asked coming out.

"Yup." He said putting the book down. We opened the door and Justin was sitting outside the door.

"What the heck are you doing outside my door?" I asked crossing my arms.

"What? Am I not allowed to check on you?" He asked standing up.

"Yeah. But it took you two years to check in on me so... again I ask, why are you outside my door now?" I questioned again.

"I was just checking in on my little sister-" He started but was soon cut off by Eliot.

"If you wanted to check in on your little sister, you should have treated her like your little sister when you were gone for two years instead of ghosting her." Eliot said. Eliot grabbed my wrist and we walked to his room, grabbed his keys and ran downstairs so Justin couldn't catch up with us. We ran into the garage and got in the car then sped off to McDonald's.

When we got there, we walked inside and ordered. They still only had the breakfast menu so I got pancakes with eggs and sausage.

We sat down after ordering and waited for our food. I was lost in thought, thinking about why life has to treat me like this, when Eliot broke me out of my trance.

"Hey. Liz. Are you okay? You seem kind of upset." He asked.

"Yeah I'm fine." I answered.

"You sure?" He questioned further.

"Yes. I am alright. Thanks." I replied. Just then, our number for our food was called so I went up and grabbed it and brought it back to the table.

"Thanks." Eliot said once I have him his food. I nodded and sat back down with my food. I said a little prayer in my head before I ate the food because that's what I normally do, then I dug in.

The food was delicious. Unhealthy, but delicious nonetheless.

"You wanna go back home?" Eliot asked once we got back in the car.

"I don't care. I prefer not to but I don't care."  I answered. We started driving the opposite way of home and I was confused of where we were going. "Where we headed?" I asked.

"It's a surprise. You'll see when we get there." He answered.

"Eliot. I love you and I appreciate everything you've been doing for me lately, but you know I hate surprises. I need to know everything now." I said cracking a smile when he started to chuckle a bit.

"Yeah I know, but I am going to surprise you anyway." He replied. I groaned and sunk into my chair.

Pretty soon we stopped. I looked up to see where we were and saw the book store.

"What are we doing here?" I asked smiling because this is my happy place. I'm kinda sorta broke so I can never buy me any new books. I always have to go to the used book store.

"I figured you would want a brand new book instead of the used ones for a change." He answered. I squealed because books are basically my life while Eliot laughed at me. We got out of the car and I ran and hugged him. He was a bit taken aback but hugged a second later.

"Thank you." I whispered. "For everything. I love you"

"Of course Lizzy. You deserve it. I love you more than you'll ever know." He replied before kissing the top of my head.

We walked into the bookstore and I looked around for a new book but didn't find much. Finally, I found a book. Catching Fire. It's the second book of The Hunger Games series. They just came out with a fourth one so I need to finish the second and third one so I can get it. I've only read the first one and I've been looking for the second one that was in my price range but they were always too expensive.

"You find one you want?" Eliot questioned.

"Yeah." I answered back. I looked at the price and saw it was $15. "Just kidding." I said putting it back. He grabbed it and brought it to the front desk. "No Eliot. It's too expensive." I said trying to grab it back from him.

"No it isn't." He said handing it to the lady at the desk. He payed her and we left. Once we got outside he handed it to me.

"Thank you. You didn't have to do that." I said.

"I know. But I wanted to." He replied back. Now we are on our way home. It's only 10:49 in the morning and I've already had the best day ever.