Elemental

Chapter Seventeen

"So what do we do now?" I asked Alexander as I walked in the kitchen. He was stood by the oven tossing pancakes.

"It's your decision." He said handing me a plate of pancakes.

I looked down at my hands, "Thanks." I smiled and sat down. "What would you suggest?" I took a bite, the sour lemon swirled around in my mouth as I chewed the soft batter.

"I suggest you eat, shower and go to school." He frowned and sat down across from me. "We need to think about where we are, and where everyone else is." He bit into his pancakes relaxing a little.

"We'll talk about this later?" I got up and put my plate in the sink.

Ash pulled up at the door at 8:37, and I joined him in the front, accepting a kiss on the cheek. "Morning beautiful!" He smiled sweetly.

"Good morning!" We drove the rest of the way to school in silence, and pulled into the car park to the sight of a group of students huddled in circles, catching up after their weekends of fun and frolicking - if only I had it that easy. We parked up, and joined our own little circle with Alex and Scarlett.

"Ella, where the hell have you been?!" Scarlett shouted - I'd hardly been at school the past week, and busy avoiding her questions about her powers.

"I felt awful, like really awful." I lied. "How was school?"

"Well, Jacob was..." Scarlett went off into her story of her latest love interest, as I tuned her out, occasionally nodding or laughing when I was supposed to.

At the end of the day, Ash dropped me at Charlie's, reminding me of how much I used to care about Scar and Alex before the elements got to me. Slamming the door, I ran through the empty house, up into my bedroom and threw the door closed with a gust of wind. Outside, the cool breeze quickened into icy gales and freezing raindrops biting the earth. As I lay in bed sobbing gently, the rain calmed into a soft pitter-patter on the roof; the hollow wood above me echoed the calm vibrations as each droplet hammered down. Maybe Ash was right? Though it hurt to have it thrust onto me by him, I hadn't been paying any attention to Scarlett or Alex. I scrambled out of bed over to my jacket which had been squished into a ball and tossed on the floor. I retrieved my phone and dialled speed dial two.

"Hello?" The voice replied.

"Scarlett, I think we need to talk." I said softly, "Do you want to meet me at that coffee shop in town?"

"Um," she stammered nervously, "I guess so..."

It was a quick five minute walk into town, the coffee shop - Dark Roast - was my favourite place to go to study and catch up with friends, it was a small, quiet place with maple chairs and matching tables. The mugs were an array of reds, blues and yellows, differing in shape and size. I ordered our usual, one pot of tea and a chocolate muffin for Scarlett, and a Black coffee and a chocolate and caramel shortbread cake for me. I heard the bell jingle and the door snap shut as Scarlett approached me. Her firey hair whipped round behind her. She dragged the chair out and plopped into it. "You sounded serious, have I like, done something?" She babbled not meeting my eyes.

"Ash spoke to me." I said calmly.

"Oh..." Her mouth stayed open, her eyes wide. "What about?"

"You."

"I'm sorry for running to him, it's just, you know, you've been gone for so long." I looked at her, a few awkward seconds ticked by. "I know you're angry, I know you've had stuff going on, but have you forgotten that I have too?" She snapped.

"Are you kidding me?" I raised my eyebrows. "You remind me every time I see you." I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Because you won't talk to me. You're keeping something from me. I can tell." Her voice raised slightly.