Capturing Ella

Chapter 32 - Joe

Ella parked up on the fifth floor of the parking complex, before we both got out the car. We followed the stream of parents with young children who must have been here on holiday out of the car park and down the concrete stairs leading into Truro town centre.

'Where first, then?' Ella asked, smiling at me. She was squinting somewhat trying to stop the sun which had appeared now from getting into her eyes. Ella seemed a lot happier mid afternoon and in the sunshine than she had since we arrived.

'Er, Primark I guess?' I told her, shrugging with one arm hoping to appear nonchalant. Now on the main street, tourists and locals bustled through the slow walking crowds. Many languages interrupted my mind. One of the worst things of reading peoples minds, and their thought patterns, was I could barely be in public places. I suppose that's why I found it hard to be social when I was still in school. Okay, sure, I was one of the popular lads at school always invited to the parties and hung around with the massive group of boys. If you've ever been to school you'll know someone like me. However, I tried to escape it. It was painful to even be around them; being able to read twenty odd Jock's thoughts that they let loose. Most of the time their thoughts were insensitive and brutal, not caring if it would offend the recipient in mind. I couldn't deal with that. Jason never understood why I tried to walk off during lunch breaks until I told him that I was a Savant and I found it tricky. I told him I could read peoples thoughts and even remove them but I couldn't bring myself to do it just to stop the pain. From then on, Jason started to cut himself off from the group so it was just him and myself in Sixth Form. I could deal with Jason's thoughts and he even asked me to explain to him how he could hide his thoughts so it wouldn't cause me any pain. I never realised how much I appreciated Jason until now.

'Are you okay?' Ella asked, looking up at me. She actually looked like she cared alot, with her eyes brimming with concern.

'Yeah, just a lot of people around here – the Primark's just up there.' I nodded up the road, squinting. A tour bus filled with German tourists had just pulled up and the count of thoughts went up by another forty or fifty, easily. She nodded, before taking my hand again. There was something about the gesture that was incredibly soft and caring. One second she was arguing with me or trying not to hit me and the next second she was taking my hand to lead me through the throng of crowds to make sure I was okay.

A few minutes walk down, we turned a corner to see a huge slate building which had a plate above the door reading 'PRIMARK Truro' on the side. Roughly the size of three or four football pitches available just for clothes and homeware it was easily one of the biggest Primark's I had ever seen. We both picked up the fabric baskets trying desperately to look like normal people and like we weren't hiding a massive secret. Knowing that our brothers back at base could see exactly what we were buying, we messed around in the store for just over two hours picking up stupid items such as an orange polka-dot mini dress that wouldn't cover anything in a ridiculously small size that I don't even think the twins could fit into.

I picked up a black shirt with a low cut front in Ella's size, which I now knew and put it against her.

'It'll look good on you,' I said, gently moving it away as she shrugged. I knew she was trying to work out what had gotten into me and I really hoped she wouldn't suss out my feelings.

'Go for it,' she commented, picking up a white one in a medium for myself.

'Excuse me, love,' An old woman commented, making Ella jump slightly. I put my hand on her back lightly as if telling her the old woman was no harm to us. She backed slightly into me. The old woman just smiled at the gesture, though.

'I'm sorry, love; I just wanted to say you two are such a sweet couple. You two are very happy together, everyone at the tills I was talking too also commented on how nice you are together –' I looked over both of their heads and saw that we were in clear view of the tills where several cashiers all were looking over. Oh, this was awkward. 'It's just lovely to see.'