I played with my fingers as I looked out the window, we drove into a neighborhood and I knew one of these houses had to be toms. I was so nervous I wanted to just stay in the car. As We stopped in front of a house tom took my hand. "Ellis it's okay" he said smiling at me. I gave him an uneasy smile and stepped out of the car. Instantly the air felt cleaner and thinner than in Atlanta. It was colder here too so I put on a sweatshirt with my jeans
I take a deep breath and tom and I knock on the door. Toms Mom answers the door and smiles big. She hugs tom "oh Tom I've missed you" she says holding him tight, "I know Mom I've missed you too" he says smiling. I stand their smiling until his mom looks at me.
"Oh my gosh you much be Ellis! You're so cute!" She says giving me a hug, I return the hug and smile, "well come on in you too I just made dinner!"Tom and I follow her inside and I see one of his brothers stand up, and put his arm out to shake my hand, "I'm harry" he says as I take his hand, "I'm Ellis" I say smiling. Harry winks at tom and tom rolls his eyes.
"So Ellis can I show you around?"
Harry says taking my hand. "Ellis you don't have to if you don't want to" toms Mom says.
"It's okay I don't mind!" I say laughing.I follow Harry around the house and then upstairs. "Wow very cool" I say smiling. As I enter his room I look at his pictures,
"Is this your girlfriend?" I say holding a picture frame up.
"Yeah" Harry says showing me another picture.
"You took this?" I say looking at him.
"Yeah I did, I mean I made it black and white but other than that it's all real" Harry says setting it down.
"You're so talented, I am not very good at taking pictures" I say laughing
"I bet you're good at posing for them though" he says laughing as he sits on his bed
"I'm not a model" I say laughing as I face him folding my arms casually.
Harry smiles and holds up a Polaroid camera "do you mind?" He says looking at me
"No not at all" I say smiling, he takes a picture and it comes out of the camera, he shakes it and sets it on his desk to develop. We stand there over the picture waiting for it to clear up. Harry holds it up and shows meWe both laugh and then toms voice calls from down stairs "where'd you guys go?"
"Coming!" Harry calls back, he runs down the stairs and I walk down following.
"Sam and my dad should be getting home soon with Tessa our dog, and paddy is over at a friends" toms says as I join him in the kitchen.Toms Mom was making dinner. "Mrs holland-"
"please call me Nikki" she says smiling.
"Oh uh nikki do you need help with anything?" I ask politely.
"Actually I would, do you mind stirring this while I take the rolls out of the oven?" She says as she paces around the kitchen. I nod my head and smile as I join her. Harry sits at the counter and scrolls through his phone and shows tom things. I continue to stir the soup as nikki grabbed the rolls out of the oven. "When you and tom stayed together did you cook or did he show off his skills" nikki says laughing as she picks up each roll setting it on a plate. "Honestly whoever was home first made dinner, toms a really good cook" i say smiling at him, he winks at me and smiles back. Nikki smiles as she looks up at tom. "He better have helped" she laughs as she puts the pan in the sink. "Ellis do you like dogs?" Harry asks. I smile "I love dogs" I truly did, I wanted one, one day like when I was a little girl. "Good because Tessa is super crazy" Harry says laughing. I laugh too as I continue to stir."We're back!" I hear a voice call. It must have been toms dad. He walked into the living room and smiled. "I'm guessing this is Ellis?" He says smiling at tom. "Hi" I say tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. "Nikki she just got here and she's already cooking!" He says laughing
"Oh I really don't mind" I say, reassuring that I didn't. He smiles and nods his head "well if you insist"
A grey dog came running in and was followed by two boys, a younger one and one about Harry's age. "No running boys!" Nikki called after them. I hand the stirring off to nikki as I bent down to the dogs level. She jumped up on me licking my face as I laughed. "You must be Tessa" I say scratching the side of her face. I hear Tom laugh and I feel him watch me. "You must be Ellis" the boy said, I stood up and held Tessa in my arms "I'm Sam, and that's paddy" he said looking over at his younger brother juggling the soccer ball. "Oooh paddy the football star?" I say smiling. He looks up and smiles. "Do you play football?" He asks
"Not any more but I love watching it" I sayPaddys eyes light up "I've never met a girl before who likes watching football!" He sets the ball down under his foot and smiles.
"Ellis than you don't mind watching the game?" Toms dad says turning the tv on. "Not at all!" I say joining him on the couch. Tom sat next to me and put his arm around the back of the couch just behind my shoulders. I watch the game closely and paddy sat infront of me on the floor. France shoots and misses the goal and both toms dad and I stand up. "Are you kidding me!" His dad yelled. I looked at him and we both started laughing. Tom and paddy looked at us. We sat back down and on his phone, toms dad showed me pictures of when he met England's team.
"Dinners ready" nikki called as she placed it down at the table. I walked over and sat next to Tom at the table.
"SO Ellis what do you do?" His dad asked.
"I dance, I'm a ballerina if you were to say that" I say smiling
"Yeah she just made it in a competitive dance team, she's the top 50th best ballerina in the world according to well... the world" Tom said adding on. I smile at him.
"No way!" Nikki said, "I think that's so elegant"
"Do you have to wear slippers and dance on your tip toes?"
Paddy says with his mouth full.
"Sometimes, but only depending on the piece" I say answering his question.
"Doesn't it hurt?" Sam asks
"When you first learn it does, but now there are so many great shoes out there that ensure you aren't in to much pain" I say smiling
The rest of the night consisted with me answering questions they had and talking about everything.Night came and Tom and I were going to sleep in the guest room, we put all our things on the floor, we didn't mind getting too organized because we weren't staying very long. I brush my teeth and put on my pajamas
And I climb into bed, Tom was wearing sweatpants and a white t shirt and we turned the lights off, I snuggled up close to him as the rain rolled down the window.
"So are you okay?" Tom says
"Yes I really like your family" I say
"They like you too" he says kissing my head.
I look up at him and I can barely see him face, but I know his brown eyes were locked on mine I felt myself smile and I laid my head on his chest once more falling asleep to the sound of the rain.