The backstory of Ellis and Emery

Book 1 (Part 1; There will be more)

June 15th, 2008, 12:45 PM. Ellis was sitting in his room reading a comic book while her parents were arguing in the background. What he wasn't expecting was for the infamous Man In Stripes to come through her window to try and hide from the police. It started to get hot in Ellis's room so he cracked open the window to try and cool off in the stuffy room. After she walks back to his bed and lays down, suddenly she hears a loud crack coming from outside, but before he can look out to see what was going on, the power goes out, which in turn causes Ellis's parents to stop fighting.

Are you serious? Ellis asks herself.

He grabs a flashlight that was on her desk in the corner. While he was over there, she heard a whoosh that came behind him. She whips around and shines the flashlight over towards the noise. Panicking because a strange man is in the room, an annoyed Emery, also known as the Man In Stripes, states:

"Can you shut that off please?"

"Not until you tell me who you are and what you are doing in my room!" Ellis hissed.

"Fine. My name is Emery and I flew in because I'm hiding from the police. There. I said it. Now can you please stop shining that light in my eyes? They're very sensitive you know."

"Ok, ok, sorry geez. Wait. Why are you running from the police?!" Urged Ellis.

"Because I killed a guy for abusing his family. What's your name by the way?"

Ellis was pretty shocked at the words Emery had just said. But he had stammered:

"My name is Ellis... Nice to meet you?"

"Nice to meet you, Ellis! Can I hang out here for a while?"

"As long as you don't kill me that is."

"I won't kill you! I just want to hang out here, where the police can't get to me, hopefully..." Emery trailed off.

After about 6 years of hiding Emery, and figuring out how to make sure that Ellis's parents don't find him, they were playing hide and seek to practice for when Ellis's parents come into Ellis's room next. After winning a couple of times, Ellis finds Emery under the desk.

"Found ya!" Ellis says proudly.

Emery crawls from under the desk and jumps into Ellis's arms when the floor creaks. Ellis laughs.

"What are you laughing at?!" Emery angrily muttered.

While Emery was quietly chewing out Ellis and trying to escape Ellis's grasp and failing, she walked over to the bed and tossed Emery onto it. Going onto the bed himself, Ellis plops herself right onto Emery's chest. Emery pauses for a few minutes.

What the fuck is going on?! Why do I feel like this? W-Why am I- Why is Ellis- What? Emery thought.

Ellis heard him pause and stop talking, flipped onto her stomach, and pulled Emery over him. Pushing Emery's face into her neck, wrapping his arms around Emery's waist, all while "purring."

Pfft, Emery is so confused and so red! Ellis thought to herself. After a while, Emery had gotten used to being cuddled by Ellis so much so that he had fallen asleep on Ellis's chest.

Awww, look at him! Ellis cooed to himself, admiring Emery all cuddled up on her chest. Ellis noticed that Emery was starting to shiver. In response to him shivering, Ellis grabbed the blankets from the foot of the bed and covered himself and Emery, covering both of them nicely. After a while of laying there, Ellis was about to fall asleep when she heard footsteps coming over to his door. There was a knock at her door.

"Zoey, can I come in?" Ellis's mother, Olive, called to him.

"I'm changing!" Which was the first lie that Ellis could think of to get her mom to not come into his room.

"Are you going to be done soon? Your step-father and I are going to go somewhere and we want to say goodbye before we go." Olive responded, not even noticing that it was a lie.

"Yea, give me a minute to finish up!" Ellis called to her mom. Panicking about what to do with Emery, Ellis had come up with an idea. In his room were some plushies. Ellis grabbed the closest one, flipped onto her side, and squirmed out of Emery's grasp while putting the plushie in place. Then he quickly changed out of her outfit into pj's with stars on them.

"I'm coming now!" Ellis called down to his parents. Making her way down the stairs, into the living room, he finds her mom, Olive, and step-dad, Liam, dressed up for a date night. He walks over and wishes them a good time while they are away for the night.

"You know the house rules when we are out Zoey. Clear?" Olive said, clearly annoyed that she might have to repeat the rules.

"Crystal," Ellis proudly stated. After they walked out the front door, into the car, and drove off to their date, Ellis went back into her room, took the plushie away, and took the spot where it used to be. Emery cuddled closer and then curled into a ball in Ellis's arms.

"You know, I could never tell you this while you were awake..." Ellis spoke softly. Emery was intrigued but didn't answer.

"I've always wanted to tell you, but I couldn't. See, the thing is, I like you. More than a friend or a best friend, a partner if you will." Ellis choked out, seemingly flustered. Emery wanted to "wake up" and tell Ellis that he liked him back, but didn't, only to see what she had to say next.

"I've liked you for two years now... I liked the way you laugh when you're happy, the way you smile when you get excited about something you like." Ellis reminisced, "The way that you chew me out when I do something dumb or stupid."

Emery finally worked up the courage to speak up and moved so Ellis could see his face. Ellis was quite shocked when Emery "woke up" and heard him speak.

"I heard everything you said..." Emery spoke.