Housemates

Chapter 84

Ellie sat on the edge of her bed with no idea what to do next. She wasn’t sure if she should just get in with Mia, or if that would be assuming too much. She wasn’t sure if Mia was only in the bed temporarily, to hide under the covers, or if she was actually planning to stay.

Ellie wasn’t even sure she wanted to ask.

Ellie wasn’t sure how much she should get ready for bed the way she normally did, or whether she should just get in, and assume Mia would leave later, and then she could worry about makeup and brushing her teeth. She couldn’t go to the bathroom, she thought, because that wasn’t fair to Mia. Not when Mia had to hide, and couldn’t go as well. That threw Ellie off a little. It disrupted her usual routine.

She thought, and decided it didn’t matter, because she didn’t really need to pee. She could probably last until the morning. She hoped she could, because being fair to Mia meant she wasn’t going to go, even if she burst, or got some kind of not-peeing-afterwards infection.

She thought about that, wondering if it was likely.

Maybe they’d both get infected because they both hadn’t. It would almost be romantic, having their infections together. She almost said that out loud, then decided she’d better not.

It would probably make Mia climb out the window and dash home.

Ellie couldn’t do anything about bathrooms, but she could about teeth, and about faces and maybe hands. She went and got her bag, and sat back down on the bed, and started rummaging inside. It was the one she usually took to work, and that she carried around most days. It was big, and had gradually filled up with everything she’d thought she might need over the last week or two.

In the end she upended it, and dumped everything out on the floor, and then picked up the packet of gum and makeup-remover towelettes she’d been looking for, and scraped everything back inside.

“Gum?” she said, and held it out.

Mia took a piece.

Ellie did too. She held out makeup-remover wipes. “Want these too?”

Mia shook her head. She still had eye makeup on. She didn’t seem to wear much else but lip gloss, and Ellie had already kissed that off. Ellie wasn’t sure why Mia refused. Perhaps she didn’t want to get half of it off and have it end up all smudged, or perhaps she didn’t care about sleeping in makeup. Or Ellie’s pillowcases. Or perhaps she wasn’t going to sleep in it at all, and planned to go fairly soon.

Ellie put the makeup remover back in her bag. She had been going to wipe her own off, but she wasn’t if Mia wasn’t going to. She didn’t really know why.

She was worried about getting smudgy too, she supposed. Or having her face bare first.

She kept looking in her bag, just for something to do. “Are you hungry?” she said. “I’ve probably got something in here. Like half a chocolate bar or something?”

“I’m fine.”

“Lip balm?”

Mia looked at Ellie for a moment, then shook her head.

“Oh wait,” Ellie said. She had hand sanitizer towelettes as well as the make-up wipes. “Want to wash your hands or anything?” she said. “I should have thought of that before, instead of the bathroom.”

Mia shook her head.

“You sure?”

“You’re the only thing on my hands,” Mia said. “So no.”

“Oh yeah,” Ellie said, and smiled. It was a sweet thing to say.

Ellie put her bag down. She slid it under the bed so she didn’t trip in the morning. While she was leaning over, she realized Mia was looking at her, all stretched out and bending.