Clockwork Daisy

Chapter 13

Ellie

Chapter 13 

I fiddled with my locker after the last bell of the day rang. I had already opened and closed it several times. I had filled my backpack with everything I needed to bring home. Yet I waited. I was unsure of what I was waiting for, but I knew I needed something, anything, to take my mind off of Deacon Knight. 

"Beth!" I saw her bobbing through the crowd, fingers flying over her iPhone screen. Her ears perked when I called her name. Sliding her phone into her pocket, she scanned the area, searching for a pair of familiar eyes. "Beth!" I tried again. Luckily, she turned in my direction and she saw me. She held up a fragile hand and weaved through the sea of teenagers. 

"What's up?" Beth asked, taking a swig out of her maroon Camelback. 

"Come over to my house." I said, removing the asking portion. I needed some girl time. 

Beth's smiled glittered. "Sure!" She agreed. "I'll just hop on your bus. You take the bus, right?"

I nodded, feeling a tad embarrassed that I had no licence to my name yet. October couldn't come sooner. 

"No shame." Beth bubbled on. "I turned sixteen a week ago and I'm in no rush." She pulled out her phone and tapped a few icons on its screen. "Let me just text my mom." I heard a whoosh noise, signaling something had been sent, and Beth shot me a smile. "All set!" We skipped out the door, arm linked in arm, friends. 

The bus had smelled of rotten egg and sweaty gym floors. I was reminded of why I often walked home from school in New York. But living on the tallest hill in St. Wisteria kind of handicapped that option for me in California. 

"My family looked at a few houses up here when we first moved to St. Wisteria." Beth told me as we approached my yellow mansion. "We couldn't afford any of them, though, so we settled for a house at the bottom." She flashed me a grin and we both shared a laugh. I opened the front door and stopped dead in my tracks. 

A woman I had never seen before was running a bright blue vacuum over one of my mother's sprawling antique area rugs. Her auburn hair hung past her shoulders and was shiny but lifeless. Her mostly smooth face was dotted with occasional worry lines and her plump lips were cast in a serious line. 

She must have sensed motion when Beth moved into the house beside me, because she immediately flicked the vacuum off. She turned in our direction and her entire face lit up, making the lines disappear. "Hello! You must be Ellen, I'm..." She paused when she spied Beth. "Bethany Mallard, is that you? I haven't seen you in ages!" 

Beth stepped forward cautiously, but gave the woman a warm smile. They knew each other. "Nice to see you again." Beth cooed. 

She turned back to me. "I've known Bethany for years. I didn't realize you two were friends." 

I was about to ask who this woman was exactly, but then my mother came spinning in, wearing a long orange dress and fluffing her hair. "Ellen you're home! And I see you've brought a friend!" She motioned excitedly toward Beth. "I'm Lena Wells, darling." She offered her hand to shake, but she had a look on her face like she'd rather Beth kissed it. 

To my relief, Beth simply shook it. "Beth Mallard, ma'am." 

"Wonderful." Mother beamed, overjoyed I had found a friend. She looked as though she was about to turn back to the kitchen when she noticed the vacuum woman. "Oh I am terribly rude, aren't I? Ellen, this is Patricia. I've hired her to clean for us once a week." Mother patted Patricia gingerly on the shoulder. 

"It's great to meet you, Patricia." I said sincerely. "And please, feel free to call me Ellie." 

"Okay." Patricia nodded. "Ellie it is." 

"Well," Mother interrupted, fidgeting with the back of her earring. "Why don't you girls give Patricia some space so she can finish up?" Mother strolled back to the kitchen and Patricia focused her attention back on the vacuum. 

But before she could turn it on, Beth spoke. "It was nice talking to you again, Mrs. Knight."

Patricia looked genuinely touched. "You too, Bethany."

I flew up the staircase as the vacuum clicked back to life, Beth on my tail. I pushed into my room and when both Beth and I were situated, I shut the door. "That was Deacon's mom." I said aloud, a tad shocked. 

Beth nodded, staring at the ground. "That was Deacon's mom." 

"How do you two know each other?" I asked, curious. "I thought you barely knew Deacon."

"I lied." Beth said flatly. "I'm sorry I did."

I walked over to my white vanity, which my father had set up last night, and took a seat in the cushioned chair. "Well, here's your chance to tell me the truth." I pulled the hair tie out of my hair, releasing it from its top bun. Picking up my hair brush, I began tugging the knotted stands.

Beth sunk into my mattress, her clothing colors looking dull and sad next to my bright comforter. She let out a huge gust of air. "I met Deacon in sixth grade. We both had huge crushes on each other."

I smiled lightly at the thought. "Cute." 

"We became really good friends through the years. We'd go over to each other's houses, hang out, babysit his sister Anya." Beth's voice remained monotone, and I began to wonder where the story would lead. "Then eighth grade came."

"What? Did your friendship disintegrate?" I put the the brush down and turned towards her.

"Kind of." Beth propped her head up with one arm. "But not exactly."

"Go on." I hadn't even noticed I was biting my nail in anticipation. 

"Listen, Ellie. I don't know if you want to hear this. I can tell you really like him." Beth looked concerned and a little worried. 

What was the worse thing she could have done? Kissed him? An eighth grade kiss wasn't going to make me jealous. "It's okay, Beth. I can handle it."

Beth collapsed back into my blankets. "I don't know, Ellie..."

"Beth." I spoke sternly. "Tell me." 

There was a pause. A long one. Then she started to talk again. "Okay..." She started carefully. "It was the last day of school and Trevor Oakley, y'know, Deacon's best friend?" She waited to see if I nodded in recognition, and when I did, she continued. "Trevor was hosting this end of the year party at his house. Basically everyone was invited, and Trevor has this awesome pool so we were all swimming." Swimming seemed innocent enough. "Anyway, I got out for a second to get something to drink. I went inside the house to the kitchen and I ran into Deacon, who had just gotten out of the pool as well. We were both dripping wet and trying to grasp glass cups without them slipping out of our pruned hands. It was pretty funny." Beth started chuckling at the thought, but I remained silent. "I took a sip and set my glass down to dry off my hands and Deacon reached over to dry his at the same time and we were touching." I couldn't help it, I flinched a bit.

"I pulled away really fast." Beth said, demonstration by flinging her hands through the air. "And there was no awkwardness. But then Deacon said he wanted to grab a CD out of Trevor's room to play outside because he hated the pop music that the girls insisted on playing and he knew that Trevor had an awesome music collection. I followed him up there. Deacon started scanning through Trevor's tall stacks of CDs and then he just...stopped. All of the sudden, he was kissing me." Beth crossed her arms across her chest and she lay there a moment, contemplating whether or not to continue. She did. "The next thing I knew we were on the bed. We were on top of each other." Beth sat up quickly, and there were tears welling in her eyes. "Ellie...Deacon and I...we had sex."