Chapter 3
When I awoke I was lying on the couch a delicious smell was wafting up into my nose. I blinked a couple of times to get the sleep out of my eyes, then sat up and felt the couch blanket fall off of my shoulders. I was still wearing my clothes from yesterday, but it was Saturday so I really didn't care. I pulled myself off of the couch and shuffled into the kitchen where Jackie was standing over the oven.
"What the hell are you doing?" I asked and I could feel both of my eyebrows raise involuntarily. He turned and looked at me and I laughed at the sight before my eyes. Jackie had mom's white apron on and when he looked at me he had a smidge of flour on his nose and he was holding a spatula in his hand.
"What?" he said with the smirk. I was now having a major laugh attack. I caught my breath and looked up at him. He had a look on his face like he didn't understand what I was laughing at. I tried to get my laughing under control but it was difficult.
"You look like mom." I said sniggering. He smiled. He motioned for me to sit down and I took a seat at the counter. He tipped an omelet onto my plate and I looked up at him. He didn't say anything. "What did you do to it?" Jack smirked again.
"Nothing. Just eat it." He said. He leaned against the counter opposite me and took a bite of his own breakfast. "Eat. I'm not fourteen anymore, I didn't spit in it." He smiled. I hesitantly took a bite. And it was actually good. He put all the ingredients that he knew I liked in it.
"You cook like mom too." I said, mocking him however I spent the next few minutes wolfing down the omelet and Jackie laughed at me.
"I may cook like a girl but you eat like a man." He said. I looked up at him with an offended air. I took a crumb off of my plate and threw it in his hair. It stayed on top and he easily brushed it off with a swipe of his hand. I pouted and he laughed lightly.
"How did you learn to cook like this anyways?" I asked him, slowly picking the crumbs off of the plate. He shrugged.
"Sophie. She taught me." he said absentmindedly. I smirked.
"Yummy." I said and I giggled. Jackie looked at me with a mock scolding expression.
"Now, now, girls your age shouldn't be thinking about those kind of things. You should be staying at home and thinking about school and work." He said. We stared at each other for a second and burst out laughing. Like that was ever going to happen.
Jackie and I spent the day acting like we did when I was two and Jackie was fourteen. We jumped all around the house listening to music and bouncing on beds, all the while just laughing. And although this was a very convincing cover, what I was actually feeling would definitely not be expressed by breaking my mattress.
On Sunday though Jackie and I had to say our goodbyes. We had stayed up the entire night watching movies like "The Dark Night" and Jackie had officially given me nightmares with his creepy noises and smiles that he made every time the Joker came on screen.
I was squeezing the air out of his lungs with my hug and he finally picked me up over his shoulder just so he could breathe. I screamed and hit his back with my fists and he eventually put me down. I glared at him and he grinned but his face turned to complete seriousness in the next moment.
"Hey Lil, if you do go and see this guy at the airport please stay safe. Okay? And make sure to call me if anything bad happens. Or just call me if anything at all happens okay? Promise me." Jackie said holding my shoulders and looking down into my pure icy eyes with his. I nodded and wrapped my arms around his middle.
"I promise Jackie." I said and I kissed the hair on his cheek as he let go of me and walked out of the door to his car. But right there, somehow it made me make a decision. I was going to see Private Elliot Hayes. I was going to meet him. I mean I would definitely be bringing my mace and probably Bri or somebody but I was going to go.
At 5:10 I was standing in front of my mirror, examining myself. My hair was in perfect loose curls around my shoulders and my eyes popped compared to the dark brown eye shadow that was dusting my lids. My lips were glossy with my favorite lip gloss and my skinny jeans, sandals with a two inch heel and my favorite boyfriend cardigan made me feel not quite like myself.
Of course my hot pink mace was tucked safely away in my purse and my rape whistle was hanging off of the edge of my key chain although I was obviously praying that I wouldn't need it. I took the short drive to the airport and entered slowly and hesitantly. I glanced up at the "Arrivals" board and saw that the flight was arriving in two minutes.
Wow a whole two minutes to prepare for whatever the hell is coming at me. I stepped onto the escalator and rode up panicking and slightly hyperventilating. When I reached the top I walked to his arrival gate and saw people pouring out of it. I came up to the gate and as I saw people dressed in their army uniforms I realized that I had no idea what Elliot looked like.
I stared at the people coming out of the door and looked for a young kid. A couple of times I was about to walk up to some random stranger when a women would come up and throw their arms around the strangers and hug and kiss them and then obviously I would back away awkwardly and flushed red.
I felt a tapping on my shoulder and turned slowly. I was faced by a gorgeous person. He had a baby face but it was extremely attractive. His face turned into a slightly embarrassed smile/smirk. The same smile that Jackie always did.
"Hey I was just wondering, are you Lillian Paisley? Because I'm Private Elliot Hayes and I was just looking for Lillian but I didn't know if you were her or not." He was speaking slightly faster that what I expected was his normal speed and I smiled gently.
"Um, yeah." I said slightly sheepishly and he sighed with relief.
"Oh my gosh okay good because I realized that I had no idea what you looked like when I sent you the letter and asked you to come. I mean I know it's crazy that I asked you to come but I just really wanted to meet you and for just some reason I felt really connected to you when you sent that letter and I really just wanted to meet you. And I'm talking at the speed of light aren't I?" He said, he said the whole speech quickly and I could understand him because of how fast Bri talked but I laughed at him.
"Yeah I had that same problem. In fact I almost went up to about 3 guys thinking that they might have been you." I said smiling. " Do you need to get anything?"
"Oh yeah my pack is coming through. You know I didn't really think of what was gunna happen with this." He was walking and he talked with his hands and it really made me think of Jackie. "So is there anything you want to do?" He smiled at me and it made me melt. I grinned goofily.
"Um not really, do you want to go to the beach?" I asked, slightly hesitantly. He smiled wider.
"Yeah I would love that. It sounds perfect." And I seemed to warm up at the sight of his beautiful brown eyes now sparkling at me. Okay so not a bad start off with this guy. But I mean still, I barely knew him and right now I was having a hard time keeping in the awkward.
He made a quick stop at the bathroom to change out of his uniform and when he came out he was looking even more hot than he had at first sight. He had pulled worn and saggy denim jeans on and slipped a t-shirt on that seemed to move with his body. The fabric looked so comfortable that I wanted to reach out and bury my face in it.
We climbed into my car and he sat comfortably in the car as I drove to the beach and he talked to me.
"So I'm kind of hoping that we can get to know each other so I'm just gunna fire out questions. So, first of all you fit your name well. I would tell you about my family but I really don't have one and it's kind of a depressing topic so let's just stay away from that. So you're a senior? Do you play any sports?" he asked and I glanced over at him from the road.
"Yeah, I play volleyball at Vicksburg." I said, having to force myself to stare at the road as I wanted to stare into his chocolate eyes."What about you? Do you play any sports?" I asked and he grinned.
"I'm partial to beach volleyball, and I used to play football, but I never played on a high school team. How is your team? Good?" he asked raising his eyebrows, and I was surprised how un-awkward he was acting.
We sat in the car, just making small talk in the car all the way to the beach
YOU ARE READING
Dear Elliot
Teen FictionFor Lilly Paisley a new life starts for her wih the simple writing of a letter for school. She makes a friend in Afghanistan and she it barely able to see him. Will these two be able to last the 6 months and then the year that they will be apart or...
