Ellie Dixon

That's My Bear

After my little incident yesterday, Rosita cooked me food. Once I came out of the shower, I could tell that she had been crying, but she still managed to slap a fake smile on her face. It broke my heart to realise I hurt her. I did to her what Isabella did to me. The guilt ate me up inside, but I managed to ignore it mostly as we talked. We just talked the entire day. We remembered stories from before the fall, she told me things about Abraham that I didn't know, I told her more what it was like after the fall before I met up with her again. It was nice spending the day just talking. It helped. It made me realise that perhaps bottling things up inside wasn't the smartest thing I'd ever done, and if I didn't want to turn out like Isabella then I'd have to work on that.

The next day, I was on watch again. I felt much better. I had earphones in that were connected to something called a Walkman? I'd never seen one before, but Mrs Cook gifted it to me so my shifts would be more entertaining.

When I noticed Mrs Tanner climbing the ladder to me, I took the earphones from my ears. "Hi, Mrs Tanner."

"Hey, Ellie. So, we haven't really had much chance to talk since you came back." She stated.

"That's pretty much because I've been straight up avoiding you." I nodded. "No offence... I just... Didn't really wanna talk about it. Or, go back to school."

"Don't worry. I'm not expecting you to come back to school just yet, but Ben won't stop talking about it. Apparently you owe him a game of pirates?" She laughed a little.

I bit my bottom lip, remembering my promise before I nodded. "Tell him that if he comes find me tomorrow, I'll play then. I'm pretty much booked all today."

Mrs Tanner smiled. "Thanks, he's been writing down a game plan. Ben was a mess when you were gone... I've never seen him so upset, since Sam passed anyway."

I nodded. "Before I took off, he did declare our best friend status for the first time. Guess I kinda left him high and dry on that one."

"Well, that's not your fault. I actually came up here to tell you how sorry I am for all you went through. I am here for you, for anything. I'm the teacher here because I got my teaching degree, but about three years into teaching I changed career paths so I'm also a licensed therapist." Mrs Tanner explained.

I smiled softly. "Thank you, Mrs Tanner. I might just take you up on that."

"You should. Think about it." Mrs Tanner squeezed my shoulder. "I'm also here to relieve you from your shift."

I laughed a little. "Right, guess I just lost track of time. Thanks."

"See ya later, kid." Mrs Tanner said kindly before I took off.

Rosita was out being a badass and doing Rosita things. So, I was home alone. Instead of doing what I did yesterday, I was baking cookies. I heard the front door open and close, and Olivia walked into the kitchen. "I could smell you baking cookies." She smiled, lifting a small bag with chocolate in there. "You can't have cookies without chocolate chips."

I grinned. "Oh, my god. Olivia, I ever tell you that I love you?"

She laughed putting the chocolate down on the counter. "No, don't think you have."

"I need to start telling you more often because you're an angel." I said, putting the chocolate in the batter.

"Someone's in a good mood." Olivia acknowledged.

"Yea, turns out... That not keeping every emotion buried deep inside you does wonders for the soul." I shrugged.

Olivia laughed, but then there was a knock at the door. "I'll get it."