True Deceptions

Light My Fire

As a young girl, Ellie Harrison hadn't cared much for cakes. With two twin brothers it had always been a rush to the counter to snatch up their mother's baking, and unfortunately for her the boys had much longer legs. So, with a great display of willpower, she convinced herself she hadn't wanted any in the first place. Isabelle, their mother, wasn't blind. She saw the squabbles and the poorly masked disappointment and always hid away an extra piece in the pantry for her daughter if she wanted it – but Ellie never caused a fuss.

It was Ellie handing out the cakes now. She moved around the back of the cabinet with a confidence that two years under her belt had brought, serving up tarts and muffins and slices with a swish, flick, and a tight smile. Suzie rang up the order, and the lunch rush ended. A surprisingly spry eighty-four years of age, Suzie had been running the bakery for what seemed to Ellie like a millennium; it was only due to a chance meeting that she'd landed the job. Once the young girl had been trained up Suzie was able to take a well-earned respite and rest those weary feet. She still popped in every now and again to check on things, but it was more out of boredom than necessity.

"I've started writing again," Suzie confessed now that the shop was quiet. Ellie suppressed a smile.
"Oh?"
"A memoir," she continued, "I'm very exciting you know."
"I don't doubt it for a second. You must lead a very thrilling life when you've been working in the same small shop on an island for 40 years."

Suzie gave a quick roll of her eyes and gave Ellie a gentle slap on the shoulder with her lined, pristinely manicured hand. There was a quirk to her lips that told Ellie it was all in good humour. "Don't sass me like that. All sorts of things have been happening around here, and you don't know the half of it," she said, and Ellie raised her eyebrows in scepticism. The self-proclaimed authoress leaned close and lowered her voice, eyes gleaming. "I'm going to write all about Dandridge's dirty secrets."
"I thought this was a memoir, not an exposé,"
"That man's life was prey to mine the day his mother called me a fat cow at the school dance in 1953. This is my chance to finally have my just desserts!"
Ellie rolled her eyes, turning away and stepping into the adjoining office to grab her things. She loved Suzie to the ends of the earth but that didn't mean the woman didn't have her flaws. "While I don't approve of the motivation, I'm sure whatever you write will be awesome. I'd read anything if it came out of that big head of yours," she said, stepping back out into the shop area. Suzie beamed. "Am I locking up today or do you want to?"
"I'll do it," she says, jumping off her stool at the till. "I'm worried nowadays I might forget how, seeing as you manage so well here by yourself." Ellie moved in to give her a kiss on the cheek as she made her way out the front door.
"You could never, it must be grafted into your DNA at this point." She said, and Suzie huffed a laugh before waving her out the door with a smile.

Ellie walked the short route home, backpack slung over both shoulders. School holidays were ending soon and the shop would close up for winter. No tourists meant it cost too much to keep the store running in the quiet months, but that meant Ellie could focus on school. It was her final year, and she wanted to make it count for something – otherwise she may as well just have dropped out the year before. She just needed to figure out what she was going to do afterwards. Her hands clenched around the straps of her bag, the tension rising as it always did when unwelcome questions about her future cropped up in her head. Breathing in is important, obviously, but breathing out is the vital part. When you breathe out, you can send some of those uncomfortable feelings out with it. Ellie's therapist's voice rings through her head, and she practices. Breathe in, breathe out. Her hands loosened, and her shoulders relaxed. A particularly loud wave crashed on the shore next to her and she looked across, finding ease in the familiar sight. It was hard to escape from the sound of water as a resident on Shipwreck Island, but for the most part it was pretty easy to tune out. Some tourists found peace and relaxation in the rhythmic beating of the waves, and some couldn't sleep at night because of it. Ellie had always loved the water.

So focused on the sight of the ocean, she failed to notice the teenagers sitting on the bench she was approaching. Only when it was too late to find an exit route did their laughter break her from her reverie, and her head snapped towards them. Ellie's eyes immediately met those of the blonde girl sitting in the middle of the bench and she felt her heart rate rise. All she wanted was to go home and relax, the last thing she needed was another confrontation with Chloe fucking Anderson. Dropping her gaze to the pavement, her hands fluttered anxiously at her bag straps before they fell to her sides in fists. Step after step took her all too quickly closer, and as she passed the silent clique, her steps took her all too slowly away. Just when Ellie thought she was out of the danger zone, a voice started singing behind her.

"You know that it would be untrue," Chloe began, and Ellie stopped dead in her path.
"You know that I would be a liar," her friends started to join in.
"If I was to say to you," Ellie focused on breathing out.
"Girl we couldn't get much higher," there's a long pause. Breathe in, breathe out. Ellie pressed her hands to her ribs.
"Come on baby, light my fire."

For a moment, nothing happened, until Ellie's breath caught in her throat. She spun on her heel – her heart pounding with a sudden burst of adrenaline, and the girls saw her eyes glisten with unshed tears of frustration. Chloe stood up from the bench as she saw Ellie take a faltering step towards her, but as Ellie gained speed, her smirk started to fall, and her eyes flickered uncertainly to the girls at her sides. By the time she realised her mistake it was too late, and she'd been punched in the nose. As Chloe fell back with a cry of pain, the nameless girls sprung to their feet – one turning to aide her while the other shot a look after Ellie, who was already sprinting away.

She made it home in record time and stood for a moment by the mailbox, hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. A stream of cursing began to fall from her mouth, and she peeked up at her house to see if anyone was home. Her brother's shared car wasn't in the driveway, and at this time of day her dad was normally working in the garage, so on wobbly legs she made her way up to the front door and up the stairs to her room, as quietly as possible on the off chance anyone was inside.

Ellie pulled her shoes off with a clatter and climbed straight into bed, shaky hands drawing the covers up to her chin. There she lay for the next fifteen minutes, waiting for her heart to slow down and the dread to set in. She squeezed her eyes shut with a grimace, finally noticing the pain in her knuckles. Slowly, Ellie pulled her phone out of her pocket. I messed up real bad, again, she wrote, when's your next available session?  She clicked send, and tried to go to sleep.