Ellery & The Enigma

Eloise

As Ellery told Luca, she was not an inherently patient person. She was quite empathetic as well as reasonably logical, but not patient. Two days passed after their meeting in the park and she began to think that the ambiguous next time they hung out would be somewhere in the future when they ran into each other in a coffee shop and both showed off that they now had Dr in front of their surnames and reconnected over espresso.

She rolled her eyes at her own thoughts and continued washing her breakfast dishes. This was what happened when she was left to be impatient: her mind went off the rails and imagined ridiculous future scenarios instead of letting her forget about her silly hopes and fantasies.

"Good morning honey," her mother entered the kitchen carrying a newspaper and wearing the peachy-coloured kimono she always wore when she didn't need to rush off to work in the morning.

"Morning. Want some coffee, I made some a little while ago?" She felt quite on top of things that morning: she'd woken up at eight, vacuumed and tidied her room, made eggs and avocado toast for herself and made non-instant coffee with her father's French press. She joined her mother at the kitchen table and continued listening to the murder mystery podcast she'd been listening to, something Katie had been bugging her about finishing for the past three months at least.

Her mother declined and made some sort of sugary, caramel flavoured coffee in the Keurig and read the newspaper. She could feel her mother's eyes on her while she sipped her coffee, but she was unsure if she wanted to engage in the serious discussion that was possibly looming. She made eye contact.

"So, I saw Eloise at the grocery store yesterday."

"Oh?" She hoped that her voice hadn't cracked, she was pretty sure it had just been her imagination. Eloise had been her best friend since elementary school when they had bonded over having names so similar that they were always standing together in the line. Eloise was also the niece of the uncle whom she had accidentally made out with at said niece's Christmas party, in front of the whole party and his wife. She had never been slapped before and it had been as unpleasant as shocking, for her drunk self.

"I had figured she wasn't home yet, or something."
"I haven't talked to her in a while... guess we just grew apart." She said, sipping her coffee in a way that she hoped was casual and not forced-casual.

"It happens... maybe you should give her a call, though, you two used to be so close."

"Yeah... maybe," Ellery said, but on the inside, she said the fuck not. She didn't think that Eloise wanted to talk to her anyway, even if Ellery felt differently.

Ellery spent the morning printing off resumes and writing out horribly self-involved cover letters to all of the bookstores and consignment shops within two kilometres of her apartment. She had absolutely no retail experience, her only previous job had been at MacDonald before she left for university and she was hoping against hope that she would not have to return. She didn't think she could take another moment of smelling like grease all of the time. She wore a comically large pair of sunglasses and sensible twill shorts with a blouse around the neighbourhood as she distributed them.

"I'll let you know about an interview by Wednesday," the owner of the boutique bookstore and coffee shop told her with a smile. Because of the smile, Ellery decided to treat herself to Starbucks. It was the lunchtime rush and she snagged a stool by the windows with her iced mocha. She was feeling very cute and people watched for a while as they rushed along the sidewalk.

"Oh my God, I can't believe we just did aerial yoga," Someone exclaimed as they pushed past the doors and joined the line and a chill made its way down Ellery's spine. Realistically, she knew it was ridiculous. Subjectively, she wanted to jump through the plate glass window.

Eloise and Ellery's other old friend Cameron were wearing colourful lulus and sleek athletic tank tops and looking at their phones. She noticed that Eloise's thighs were quite a bit larger than they had been at Christmas when she had bragged about freshman fifteen not existing and also the fact that they were so glued to their phones. Ellery had stopped checking social media in public and around other people soon after arriving at Concordia and couldn't help but judge the people who did just a little bit. Ellery dropped her head and raised her shoulders, resting her elbows on the counter. She had cut her hair since returning to school in the new semester, it was much shorter and wavier, ending just above the tops of her shoulders. She had used to straighten it every single day but she was liking the wavy, natural look more and more lately.

She hoped they wouldn't recognize her. She also hoped they would. She was confused. In that moment she both missed them painfully and was terrified of some sort of public humiliation you see in those dreadful coming-of-age movies.

Then she met the eyes of someone through the window, just before he walked through the automatic glass doors: "Hey, Ellie."

Campbell had always been a staple in their group; in junior high, they had briefly had an affair of holding hands in the hallway and hugging before they parted ways on the bus, later, he dated Cameron for a year before returning to being just their friend. She had liked him enough but he'd always had this wandering eye that she wasn't keen on. Even when he'd been with Cameron, he'd walked in on her changing a couple of times and lingered for a second, or made a holiday cheek kiss feel far too intimate.

"Hey, Cam," she said very quietly, still hiding mostly behind her hair.

"We haven't talked in forever... have you spoken to Eloise yet?" He dropped onto the stool beside her and leaned low on the table.
"No..."

"Why did you never text me back?"

Ellery wasn't sure, she could probably attribute it to social anxiety but wasn't sure she wanted to talk about that. She had just wanted to forget about it but never did. She said, sipping her drink nonchalantly, "I don't know."

"Are you seriously hiding?" He asked, and he put his hand on her back.

"For now," she said, putting the book she hadn't opened back in her bag and standing. "See you later."

"Text me sometime, I miss you." His smile looked genuine and her stomach twisted. Maybe she'd just been a horrible friend. She walked as casually as possible out of the coffee shop and tried her best to disappear among the passersby.