While She's 15

Chapter Nuef - And We All Lie Under The Window

A few days pass, Ashton is back from his trip a day late. It’s storming outside, which happens a lot out here. It’s relaxing to most of us but to people like me it’s annoying and a nuisance.

  I picked Ashton up from the airport at six, it was dark and rainy and I’m sure it’s not the scenery he wanted coming back from the warm beaches of California

  Ashton, Manny and Elodine are all in the living room just sitting. It’s this thing they do, it’s weird. The television isn’t on, the blinds are open and they’re just sitting in the living room with their eyes closed 

  Ashton is laying on the floor underneath the window on the far left and Manny is lying next to him

  Manny pokes him and he smiles and poked her back

   I thought back to a year ago when Ashton’s parents invited my parents over for Thanksgiving. It had rained just like this and Elodine and Manny went and laid down underneath the window for a long time until the rain stopped

  Ashton and I thought it was weird and we watched them for a while. Ashton had folded his arms, and he smiled a little “when Manny and Elodine were younger my mom would always put on a CD of rain sounds and it would put them right to sleep”

  I smiled “they slept a lot when they were little”

  He laughed, “Elodine and Manny were so adorable when they were younger”

  I nodded “they were, Elodine would always make me play Princess Tea Cup Party with her and she would make me sit next to Mr. Mittens”

  Ashton chuckled, “Manny would always make me these little cards that said ‘I like ur face’ and she would draw a stick figure of me and with a bunch of crooked hearts around it” he ran a hand through his hair “I still have most of them”

  A year ago, before I knew Elodine’s feeling toward me existed I thought it was weird for him to keep those cards, and secretly…weird for me to enjoy Princess Tea Cup Party with Elodine. It’s as if we were desperately trying to hold onto their childhood

  My family is Ashton’s family and vice versa. Our parents were childhood friends and for a lot of my childhood I was either at Ashton’s house or he was at mine. Ashton and I bonded over video games and our love for store bought pizza.

  When his mom got pregnant he wasn’t too happy about it and for nine months he complained about how he’d have an annoying little sibling to look after and I was on his side. I was just as mad at his mom as he was

  Something happened in the hospital though, Elodine was born and Ashton and I were scowling…but the second Ashton laid eyes on that little baby he fell in love.  

  When Elodine started walking he was taking her everywhere. Bringing her over to my house when we hung out and teaching her how to kick a soccer ball

  One minute Elodine was prancing around my parent’s house in her Cinderella dress and now she’s strutting around my apartment making my libido rise to inappropriate levels.

  I’m not sure how I feel about her liking me the way she does. I mean, I’m eighteen and she’s fifteen and those three years are a big deal.

  The odd thing about society is that it says that a freshman and a senior liking each other is okay up until the senior turns eighteen and graduates. Then to  society the freshman becomes a minor and the senior goes to college and is expected to forget about his feelings for the freshman and find someone his own age. At least, that’s the mature ‘adult’ thing to do