Robbers

twenty - five

// twenty - five //

It would have been too suspicious if Ella played the "sick" card again, so there was nothing for her to do but go to school that morning. She left her house just two hours after she had snuck back in.

And she hadn't slept for those two hours, either. As soon as Ella had slipped back through her bedroom window at four in the morning, she had known sleep was out of the question. Her body had felt wired and her mind seemed to have been a bustling train station, with thoughts trundling over every curve of her skull. She had even been so anxious that she could scarcely shut her eyes for longer than a blink, as though she was worried a policeman would come bursting through her bedroom door at any moment.

Ella was drowsy and bleary-eyed when her mother dropped her off in the school's parking lot. Her hair had been thrown up into a lopsided bun, and the only halfway decent clothes she had managed to find were a pair of grey sweatpants and a black cable-knit sweater. To put it politely, Ella looked like hell – but her mom had chosen not to mention how exhausted she looked. She had partly been expecting her mom to ask if anything odd had happened overnight – since Ella truly represented the zero hours of sleep she'd gotten – so she was relieved when no suspicions were voiced. After all, Ella knew she was much too overtired to even attempt a valid excuse towards how awful she looked.

Classes drifted by at an excruciatingly slow pace, the blackboards floating in and out of Ella's vision as she fought simply to stay awake. The exhaustion didn't truly hit her until the moment first period chemistry began, and all she could focus on was keeping her eyes open.

Ella didn't see Ryan until lunch. It was his first day back to school after what had happened at the pier, as he had missed Monday and Tuesday's classes. Ella watched him enter the cafeteria from her place alone at the end of one table, nothing but her third cup of coffee set before her. As he walked closer, weaving his way through the groups of students waiting to pay, Ella could see the details of his fading black eye. The skin was just slightly bruised, and the split on his bottom lip had shrunk in size and begun to scab over.

Ryan came around the side of the lunch table towards Ella, giving the giggling softball players on the other end a quick glance. He ignored the way two of the girls' eyes widened at the sight of his bruised eye, bending down beside Ella and pressing his lips to her cheek. Ella's skin flared hot under his touch, the apples of her cheeks glowing even as Ryan moved to sit across from her. He'd never done that here before.

With a heavy sigh, he greeted half-heartedly, "Hey, Ella."

She gripped her travel mug tightly, the warmth seeping out through the metal siding and into the bones of her fingers. Cautiously, she replied, "Morning. How do you feel?"

The exhausted note in her voice was unmistakable, given away by the scratched tone and mumbled words. Ryan certainly didn't miss it, and he ignored her question completely as he leaned a bit closer to take in her appearance. "Shit," he said, his brows furrowing together as he glanced over her dark circles and bleary eyes, "you sort of look worse than I feel."

Ella was too exhausted to take offense, but Ryan almost immediately squeezed his eyes shut and let out a groan. "I didn't mean to sound like a dick. Sorry, what I meant is that –"

"It's okay, I know I look like crap," she interrupted. She glanced down at the dark grey rim of her mug, her heart starting to skip into motion just a little bit faster. "I didn't sleep last night."

"What? Why the hell not?"

Ryan's tone had been slightly teasing, a bit of a laugh behind the words, as though he thought Ella had pulled an all-nighter simply to study for an exam. He wasn't even jumping to any conclusions, and Ella knew he wasn't thinking of anything much more important than a test for school.

Ella focused her gaze down at her coffee, wincing slightly in nervous anticipation. She hadn't planned on telling Ryan what she had done until after school, either when they were in his truck or parked in Ella's driveway – where no one would overhear if he took it badly. In a soft voice, Ella began carefully, "You can't freak out when I tell you."

His tiny, half-of-a-grin faded just a little. Ryan pressed his elbows into the cafeteria's table and leaned even closer, a cautious uncertainty in his expression than made Ella's stomach curdle. When he didn't say anything for a second, Ella started to speak again because she couldn't stand the silence. Her voice lowered slightly as she started to ramble, "I know there's not that much time left. You know, for you to get the money. After what happened at the pier, I just – I needed to do something. Because you were really, really hurt and couldn't get any more money for a while."

"Ella," he said slowly, "what did you do?"

She shut her eyes tightly and whispered, her breath coming out in quiet rush, "I robbed a gas station last night."

Ryan leaned away from her. Ella couldn't look at him, her eyes fixated down at the tabletop because she could feel the air practically crackling between them. His voice was low and dark as he asked, "You did what?"

"Please don't be angry," Ella said. "I'm only trying to help you."

"How did you even do it?" His voice had risen an octave, but the tone was still dangerous and it was making Ella's skin crawl beneath the material of her sweater. When she braved a glance in his direction, Ryan was starting to shake his head in disbelief. "You didn't. Tell me you didn't do what I think you did."

She forced her voice to remain steady, her hands clutching the travel mug so tightly that the heat began to scorch her palms. Bravely, she told him, "I took the fake gun out of your duffel bag. I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to worry."

He didn't say anything, and Ella wanted to crawl out of her skin from the heated silence. She leaned closer, finally forcing herself to look him in the eye and whisper quickly, "Nothing went wrong. I was careful, and I got over two hundred dollars. No one knows it was me."

"What were you thinking?" he hissed. Ella leaned away, her stomach dropping into the soles of her shoes. "What the fuck were you thinking? Why would you take the gun without telling me?"

"I wanted to help." Ella's voice didn't waver, and she forced herself to hold her chin up and not shrink away at the sound of his tone. "If I told you what I was going to do, you would have tried to stop me. I did it for you. All I've done since I found you in my basement has been for you. Why can't you just be grateful I did this?"

Ryan slammed his palms into the table's surface, the plaster shaking beneath Ella's arms and making her jump. He was out of his seat, bending close to Ella, and the softball players had glanced over in nosy curiosity at the sudden outburst. His face was centimeters from hers, and his blue irises were fixed on her hazel ones. He was livid, and she wanted nothing more than to shrink away from him.

"Because, Ella Jane," he forced out angrily, his voice kept low so only she could hear, "the gun isn't fake."