Brother

Six

Louis' POV

I hold in my hands the envelope that contains what she wrote back me. I've been standing here, frozen looking at the writing on the envelope. All caps just like my writing. It's thick, lots of papers, just as mine was.

I'm snapped out of my thought when two large hands grasp my shoulders and start to shake me.

"Earth to Louis!!" Harry yells at me while thrashing me around. I hold the envelope up in front of his face.

"Look! She wrote me back! It's a letter from Ellie!!" I yell excitedly.

"Open it! Read it!!" Excitement evident in his voice as well. Though I feel his excitement may be for something else. I'll have to address that later.

"Go inside and get the game. It's on the coffee table, I'm gonna get back in the car and start reading this!" I say back to him.

"Forget it. We'll go inside and you can read it and chill. Liam's not expecting us till like two anyways." I glare at him and walk inside rushing to sit so I can read what's inside.

Harry sits down next to me. He urges me to open the envelope, yet all I can do is look at the envelope, and study her hand writing. After a moment more, I turn it over and very carefully open the envelope.

The ripping of the adhesive from the paper only last a second until it pops open to reveal the think stack of folded papers. I take a peek in the envelope then slide my hand in to collect all the papers, and draw them out of the envelope. I turn the stack over to view the top page and my breath hitches when I see it. A black, small paper. I know what it is.

I set the stack in my lap, and carefully pick the small piece of paper up, and turn it around. Ellie. My eyes water and my thumb brushes over her hand writing.

"so you can see what I look like x"

I image her taking the cap off the marker and writing this on the picture. I'm completely lost in the picture looking at all her little features. Her bright hazel eyes, and her perfect white toothed smile. The freckles that scatter across the bridge of her nose and spill over onto her cheeks. The darker freckles forming a constellation along her left cheek. She's beautiful, my baby sister isn't so little anymore.

I'm pushed out of my thoughts when I feel Harry leaning up against my shoulder, looking down at the image I hold in my hands. I hear his breathing change, and his heart thumping.

"Wow...she's gorgeous." He comments. "Smart of her to add a picture. I bet she wonders what you look like mate. You should send her a picture of yourself back!"

"Yeah..." I hand him the picture. "Hold this while I read what she wrote."

"Gladly." He says a little to eagerly. I try to ignore his statement, and begin to read.

"Dear Louis," I take a deep breath, then continue.

"I want to start off by saying hello. So hello brother! I can't get over saying that. The content of your letter was one that brought great confusion, but that also came hand in hand with great happiness. It pains me to know you've been out there my whole life and I had no idea, but I can't thank you enough for contacting me when you did. I have composed countless texts to you, but I could never bring myself to send them, so instead I thought I would compose a letter telling you about the last 14 years of my life sense I saw you last."

I look up after I finish the first paragraph of her letter, and stare at the wall ahead of me, blinking away my tears that have begun to blur my vision so I can continue to read her letter.

"I'll start with all the fun little trivial things about myself that my brother should know. I have three cats, Button, Mittens, and Speck, a dog named Baker, a frog named Alex and two ducks named Lola and Lucy. Ducks are my favorite animal and I have a large collection of them. I love pickles. Pink is my favorite color, but I like neons too. I'm a senior, and currently holding a 3.85 GPA. I walk to school every morning, no matter what the weather is outside. Christmas/winter is my favorite time of the year. I love the snow, but I'm always cold even if it's a hundred degrees outside. I used to have a pixie cut, but now four years later, my hair is to my waist. My favorite kind of cookie is the sugar cookies mom and I make during the holidays. And I still sleep with Ducky."

The entirety of the paragraph makes me smile, and the last sentence sends shivers down my spine when I visualize what she's talking about. The duck she clutched in her small hands the last time I saw her. I take a deep breath and continue to read her letter.

• • •

I've just finished reading her letter, and I have to hold it out in front of me to keep it from getting my tear drops on it. I continue to look at the blank inc she's added to the bottom of the last page.

Thank you Louis Tomlinson X

My watery eyes glance up to the contact information she left me. I pick my phone up from off the coffee table. I unlock it and open my phone app. I add in her phone number, my sisters phone number. I exit the add and open up messages. I type in her name and select her contact information. I tap the messaging bar, and hover for awhile. I think about sending a picture of myself to her, but decide to wait because my face is red and puffy from crying. I click my phone off and set it in my lap. I turn to Harry and ask to see the picture I told him to hold.

"Yeah mate." He hands it over. "Here you go."

I take the photo from his hands, and set the papers down carefully on the couch between us. He glances down at them then back at me. He gestures towards the papers while looking me in my puffy green eyes.

"May I read it?"

"Uh yeah. Go ahead." I told him, looking back at the picture, looking at her pretty hazel eyes.

I hear the shuffling of papers as Harry reads her letter. I glance up at him through my watery eyelashes as stealthily as I could to see his lips curl up into a smile. His dimples appearing on his slightly stubbled covered cheeks. My mind is curious to know what he's thinking about. He catches my eyes on him and looks over at me with questioning eyes.

"What?" He chuckles out in a breath.

"What's got you smiling so much Styles?" I question.

"I just can't believe I'm reading a letter from Ellie. You've talked about her so long, and it's like she tuned real today in these words on this paper. It's like I'm getting to meet your sister for the first time. With all you've told be about her I feel like I've know her, she feels like a best friend." He explains, and all I can do is smile at his words.

"When our red crying faces are cleared up and looking normal, we should send her a picture, of me, and then the two of us and introduce her to the both of us, and give her a visual." I say.

He shakes his head in agreement and now we wait for our faces to return to looking normal.