take on me, e.williams

twenty

—soft
words—

———it had been a few weeks since joel had found odessa and ellie in the snow. he took them to shelter where they laid low for a few days, attempted to heal up. odessa wrapped a damp cloth with snow over her burn, ellie's eyes were bruising from all the hits she had taken. the trio looked like one busted up gang.

                     with all the trauma the two girls had been through, the last few weeks had been pretty quiet. odessa seemed to be the only one close enough to being back to her old self.

                     "ellie." joel called out. odessa and joel and been looking around the area. each day brought them closer and closer to finding the fireflies.

"ellie!" odessa shouted, the williams girl turned over her shoulder. "did you hear us?" her eyes locked onto ellie's face, she shook her head.

"no... what?" ellie asked. her face was unmoving, seemingly spaced out. joel held up a can.

"i found this in a car. beefaroni. chef boyardee." joel told ellie, who smiled weakly.

"oh, cool." ellie said to joel. odessa fidgeted with the game box in her hand, walking over to ellie.

"have you ever played this? it's called boggle, joel says it's a word game." odessa handed ellie the box with an excited smile.

"never heard of it." ellie shrugged, handing the box to joel.

"well, if you wanted to beat me at somethin', it would be this." joel said to the two girls. "i know dessa would be a master at it." joel nudged odessa, who smirked. ellie's facw remained stone cold. "well... we're almost there. hospital that way." joel gestured over his shoulder.

"maybe this one will be the one." odessa said to ellie.

"maybe." ellie hopped out of the truck bed she had been sitting on, following joel. odessa brushed her fingertips over ellie's knuckles, but ellie did not take her hand like normal. odessa frowned and looked at her moving feet.

"they had a guitar in that rv." joel announced as they walked by the rv. "it's all smashed up but got me thinkin'. i want to teach y'all how to play." joel smiled back at ellie and odessa.

"i say 'fuck yeah' to that." odessa replied to joel, nodding.

"ellie?" joel asked the other girl.

"huh?" ellie has spaced off once more.

"do you wanna learn how to play guitar?" joel asked again, ellie looked up from the ground.

"oh, yeah. that'd be great." ellie forced a smile. odessa and joel shared a worried look before continuing to walk on.

                    they entered the city, sneaking in between alleyways and abandoned buildings.

                "okay, so here's what i'm thinking—" joel started.