When former beauty pageant queen, Ellie Wilde, hears of her grandmother's sickness, she's the first to offer to drive her to her chemotherapy. What she didn't know she was agreeing to was an obnoxiously cheerful blond boy somehow nudging his way int...
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You can still turn around, she tells herself as Ellie approaches the front entrance of the address Cooper texted her earlier today.
You told Cooper you'd come so you have to go, she says to herself immediately after, letting out a nervous breath before knocking on the door.
She's not sure why she's actually decided to come. She doesn't know why she agreed to come hang out with Cooper and his friends in the first place. It's not like they know each other all that well, but for some reason she felt inclined to say yes.
Not being spared another moment to overthink it, the door swings open, revealing a smiley Cooper on the other side.
"Hey, Ellie," he says, stepping aside so she can enter. "I wasn't sure if you were coming still."
She decides she can't tell him that she sat in her car down the block for twenty minutes contemplating whether or not to come, so instead she says, "Yeah. I took a wrong turn."
"Well, I'm glad you could make it." He shuts the door behind them and an awkward silence takes over. His arms swing back and forth as he glances around the room. "Um, so this is my house."
"You didn't tell me you live in a mansion. I would've worn socks without holes in them."
He laughs. "Don't worry about taking your shoes off. I like to defy my mom's rules anyway. In fact, let's go find a puddle to stomp in and then we can come back inside, yeah?"
Now it's her turn to laugh. Cooper smiles, watching her briefly before heading towards the stairs. "My friends are all up here. It's only a couple of us."
Ellie nods, following him up the stairs and swallowing down her nerves. There's something about being the odd one out in a group of friends that sends a wave of anxiety through her body.
Cooper reaches for the door handle, pausing to turn and face her first. "Don't be nervous or anything. They're all a bunch of losers."
She nods, smiling in reassurance. He nods back before opening the door and revealing a group of teens gathered around an abnormally large television. They're all shouting as an intense shooting scene goes down on the screen. From what she can make of it, they're playing a video game.
"Fuck, Brandon! Run!" a girl shouts, pounding away at a controller. The boy beside her screams loudly as he bashes at his own controller.
Another boy sits with an amused expression on the other couch, watching the battle go down and throwing in a scream of his own every now and then. Cooper stands awkwardly next to Ellie before deciding to walk in front of the television, earning screams in protest.
"Shut up," he groans. "It's just a video game. Guys, meet Ellie."
Everyone's heads snap in Ellie's direction and she can't help but feel like she's being scrutinized, as if everything she does and says in this moment is being judged. She sends them all a shy wave, putting on her best smile. "Hello. It's nice to meet you."
"Ellie," Cooper says, "This is Brandon, Nate, and Nate's girlfriend, Janie."
"Hello," she repeats.
"You can sit," the Brandon guy says. "Just don't sit by Nate. He bites. He's our rabid dog but we love him anyway."
Nate grabs a pillow and throws it at Brandon. Ellie laughs, making her way to the couches and taking a seat next to the other girl in the room.
"I'm Janie," she says sweetly. "The rabid dog thing is true. I should know. I'm dating him."
She offers the girl a smile. "Someone has to love the rabid dogs too I suppose."
Janie laughs. "I suppose so."
"Nate and Janie go to Western," Cooper says. "They're just home for winter break."
"Oh yeah?" Ellie says, her interest piqued. "I considered going to Western. I'm just working on my AA for now though. What year are you?"
"We're freshman," Nate says. "We live in the Same dorms. That's how she fell for this rabid dog."
Janie rolls her eyes before turning back to Ellie. "I'm actually not even from Washington. I grew up in California. I just go to school here."
"I'm going to Western next quarter," Brandon says proudly. "I took a gap year but now I'm ready to go back to school."
"And by gap year, he means played loads of video games and slept in until noon," Nate says, rolling his eyes.
"Don't hate cause you ain't," Brandon says with a shrug.
"Where's Samantha?" Nate asks, changing the subject.
"She's helping her brother with something. I don't know," Cooper says, glancing in Ellie's direction. "Samantha, Nate, and I grew up in the same cul-de-sac. Brandon went to school with us. That's how we all know each other."
She nods in understanding, her arms crossed over one another as she still attempts to make herself comfortable among the group of longtime friends. "Cute."
Cooper's lips twitch upwards as he leans back into the couch.
"You know, Ellie," Nate says, "You're lucky you met Cooper when you did. Getting cancer has made him less of a dick."
She starts to laugh, only to have it drowned out by the sound of Nate's screams as Cooper whacks him across the chest.
"One, I'm not a dick," Cooper protests, glaring at Nate. "And two, you can't just casually make cancer jokes. I can. But you can't."
"That hardly seems fair," Nate argues.
"You don't have cancer," Cooper says dryly.
In an instant, the mood completely shifts. An awkward silence falls over the room and no one seems to know what to say. Even Cooper is silent, which seems to take everyone by surprise. Though it doesn't last long.
