Elliana X Jason

Thirty, Secrets

The day was a carbon copy of the one before. Elliana invited Elliana and Stacy over after school, they put on a cheesy but classic movie (today's was Legally Blonde), and another knock at the door.

This time, Emily rolled her eyes. "You invited him again?"

"Sorry!" Elliana said.

"Why? I mean, I'm not judging, but Ryan's probably just gonna interrupt it again." Stacy said.

"I'm gonna ask him about it today!" Elliana said triumphantly.

"Oh! Okay. Go ahead, then." Emily said, her annoyed face changing to an encouraging smile.

But when Elliana opened the door, she was surprised to see Cole on the porch, with Jason just walking up.

"Oh, hey Cole." Jason said.

"Hey Jason. Hi Elliana. Sorry for stopping by. I just wanted to say hi." Cole said.

"Oh, okay. Come on in, both of you. I've got Stacy and Emily over." Elliana said.

The boys followed Elliana into the TV room, where Emily had already started up the movie.

"Hey! I told you to wait!" Elliana said, giving Emily a playful shove.

Emily shrugged with a smile on her face. "Hey Jason. Oh, hi Cole. Wasn't expecting you here."

A flicker of confusion crossed Cole's face, but it was gone after a second, and Elliana couldn't place why it was there, so she ignored it. But she could tell, by the look of Stacy's face, that she'd seen it too.

"Anyway, we're watching Legally Blonde." Elliana said. "Can I get you guys anything?"

"Ugh. Ryan watches this movie all the time. Let's watch something else." Cole said.

"Uh-huh." Emily said sarcastically. "Like what?"

"Chucky!" He said.

"No!" Elliana shouted.

"Okay... but we can stay in the horror realm. Maybe something mild..."

Cole shrugged. "Honestly, I don't actually want to watch Chucky. I just wanted to mess with you guys, and I've seen Chucky, so it isn't that scary. But Ryan's a horror fanatic. She'll know one. I'll call her." Cole said.

Elliana and Emily shared a look. Cole pulled out his phone and called Ryan.

"Hey Cole. What's up?" Ryan asked through the phone.

It had never hit Elliana until that moment how different Ryan sounded. When Ryan had called the past few times looking for Jason, her voice had of course sounded different than it did in real life, but that was the way that phone calls worked. But hearing her talking now, her voice sounded... normal. Naturally, the sound was still ever so slightly different than it did in real life, but it sounded so much... lighter. Then it hit Elliana. Her voice today wasn't lighter. Every other time she'd called looking for Jason, her voice had been far, far heavier.

"What's a good horror movie-" Cole began.

"Oh wow! M3GAN is nice and creepy, and the kill scenes gave me chills. Jordan Peele's Us is really good, and it's been giving me nightmares. And the decapitated head at the end of the newest Texas Chainsaw Massacre haunted me for a while. Then of course, you know how much I'm obsessed with Ghostface-"

"Ryan." Cole interrupted. "A horror movie that isn't that scary."

"Oh." Ryan snickered. "Well, Bird Box wasn't very scary-"

Cole interrupted her again. "I thought Mom said you weren't allowed to watch that movie."

"She said that when I was twelve."