take on me, e.williams

sixteen

—you're
a dick —

———long hours of riding early in the morning and late into the night. stopping only when joel or odessa got too tired to ride, ellie took naps on odessa's back occasionally. this morning, joel had woken ellie and odessa and announced he would be teaching ellie how to shoot his riffle. being she was the only one that didn't know how.

                     ellie missed the target by a large amount, odessa and joel hiding their laughs.

                          "you're flinchin'." joel told ellie, who sighed as she missed again.

                          "the target's too small." ellie complained, odessa scoffed.

                           "or you just cant aim." odessa teased the other girl who looked up with a smirk.

                        "i made the target bigger than i should have. eject the cartridge." joel instructed ellie. the williams girl did as she was told.

                          "the riffle just sucks." ellie spoke as the cartridge popped out an empty shell.

                          "give it here." odessa stooped down to take the gun from ellie.

                   "it doesn't aim right, you'll see." ellie told her, watching. odessa stood up and placed the butt of the weapon comfortably on her shoulder. odessa closed one eye briefly, took a deep breath in, and pulled the trigger as she exhaled. it hit the target right on the spot.

                       "what was that?" odessa grinned at ellie, who was fumbling with words. ellie had to admit it was attractive anytime odessa handled a gun. odessa handed the riffle to joel now.

                       "deep breath in, slow breath out. you squeeze the trigger like you love it. gentle, steady, nice and slow." joel told ellie, who was watching the target through binoculars.

                          "you gonna shoot this thing or get it pregnant?" ellie remarked, this earned a snort from odessa as she laughed aloud. joel shot an annoyed glare up at ellie then to odessa. joel fired the gun and hit the target, putting the gun down with a proud smile. "you dick!" ellie gasped.

                       "you gotta feel the sway." odessa shrugged, making it sound effortless. with this, the trio packed up and got back on their horses,

                          they rode over hills, and through valleys. stopping occasionally to eat something and nap for a short while. odessa and ellie switched every stop or to let the other rest longer. ellie was the current rider of the horse, which they found out was named shimmer.

                        "so the way they ran jackson, was how things used to be?" ellie asked joel. odessa had her arms draped around ellie's waist and her cheek resting on ellie's shoulder. odessa felt ellie's voice vibrate in her chest as she spoke.

                         "no. the country was way too big for that. back then, there were basically two main ways of lookin' at things. some people wanted to own everything, and some people didn't want anyone to own anything at all." joel explained, riding next to the two girls.