Not Thinkin' Bout You

Chapter 4

PREVIOUSLY: She blared Ruel's Painkiller on repeat, the image of Zach's face not leaving her mind for a second.

Ellody checked the time again, and turned on the lock screen of her phone. Still nothing. Instead of waiting for her phone to light up with a call or text, she stood up from her desk chair and stared out of her bedroom window. A giant oak tree sat opposite her house, the entry to a beautiful park that everyone on Instagram knew she was obsessed with. Since Why Don't We blew up and the fans figured out who Ellody was, she had created a second Instagram account for her less personal stuff, which was public - her first one had too many personal pictures for the whole fanbase to see.

"Where is my first-born?" a woman's voice floated up the stairs. The girl sighed and listened as her mum pushed the door open and poked her head in. "Have you seen Sienna?" she asked quietly, glancing around the room. Ellody shook her head and leant back on the window, trying to arrange her face into what was hopefully a neutral expression.

"I don't think she's home yet," Ellody said slowly, glancing back out the window as though her older sister was about to climb through it. Little did their parents know, Ellody and Sienna had made a pact; if one of them came back after curfew, the other could let them in through the window on the stairs. It had saved Sienna's butt many times, but only saved Ellody once when she went out with Tatum and they'd gotten lost. She'd gotten home at about 1am, and Sienna had opened the window by the stairs to let her in without their mum noticing.

"Well, she's got ten minutes to walk through that door," the woman sighed and shut the door behind her. Ellody let a deep breath she didn't know she was holding escape her as her mum's footsteps made their way down the creaky stairs. Her phone lit up on her desk, and Ellody nearly tripped in her haste to get to it.

"Oh, for God's sake," Ellody murmured as she realised it was her sister. "Where are you?" she said immediately.

"I'll be home in an hour. I'm going to need you to open the stair window, OK?" Sienna said loudly. She was, honestly, the world's bossiest older sister, but Ellody didn't know where she'd be without her.

"Fine. Mum's on the hunt for you, though. I don't know how you're planning to get past her this time. We were cutting it fine doing this two weeks ago," Ellody lectured. Sienna didn't reply for a few seconds, and Ellody was about to hang up.

"My phone's about to die, so I won't be able to call you when I get home. OK? You have to remember to let me in," Sienna added before hanging up. That was how Sienna always acted. She never said goodbye in phone calls, and it drove their family of three crazy. Since their parents had their quiet divorce without telling anyone and their dad moved in with another woman, it had just been Ellody, Sienna and their mum. It had all happened in the space of a week, years ago. Nothing seemed to really change, which was the weirdest part.

It was 11:30pm, and they'd eaten McDonald's on the way to the airport, but Ellody was starving. She wandered down the stairs into the kitchen and started making herself toast when she realised she'd left her phone on her bed. Panic set in as she raced back upstairs, because what if I missed their call and they can't wait for me to call them back? She threw open her door and found her phone, which had no notifications. Of course. Shit, my toast.

It felt like an eternity of slowly eating toast and staring at the black screen of her phone before it finally buzzed with a text from Christina.

CHRISTINA: hey is this a good time to chat i just landed

ELLODY: sure i'll call u

Seconds later, Ellody had Christina on speaker.

"Hang on, the flight from LA to NYC takes a lot longer than an hour," Ellody pointed out two minutes into the conversation.

"It was cheaper to take the flight that has to stop at different points than to go straight there. I've got fifteen minutes before I have to go again," Christina replied as Ellody started to walk back up to her room.

"Fair enough, then. I'm going to ditch this and FaceTime you from my laptop in a second, once I've gotten to my room," she said, reaching the top of the stairs and feeling like she'd forgotten something.

"OK, see you in a sec then," Corbyn's girlfriend said and the line went dead. Ellody pushed open her door and was about to shut it behind her when she heard a scratching sound. She was starting to wonder if she was in a horror movie that she didn't sign up for as she poked her head out of her room and saw a shadow by the window. Shit, I forgot about Sienna.

"I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming," she muttered and hastily ran to the window, fumbling for the keys in her pocket before unlocking it and letting her in.

"Jesus Christ, how long were you planning to leave me out there?" Sienna demanded quietly.

"You're home sooner than you said, not my fault. You're lucky I was just walking upstairs and didn't lock myself in my room for another ten minutes," Ellody snapped back as they blindly tried to close the window.

"Well, thank you anyway. I was with Jaiden and we... didn't notice the time," Sienna whispered. Ellody raised her eyebrows, knowing that if she didn't push for information now, her sister would spill the tea later in Ellody's room.

"OK. I'm about to FaceTime Christina, you should join me," Ellody whispered back as she hung the key back up, leading her sister upstairs in the dark.

"Ooh, I haven't spoken to her in ages. Oh my God, how was your weekend?" Sienna asked suddenly, clearly just remembering that Ellody was away all weekend.

"We can talk about that later, Christina only has a few minutes before she boards again. She caught one of those fly-stop-fly planes," Ellody explained as she stopped at her door. Sienna nodded and disappeared into her own room while Ellody booted up her laptop. She really did just want to vent to Christina by herself, but the only way to get the truth out of Sienna was by doing this with her, and getting her in Ellody's room.

Finally, Christina was on the screen and the Brown sisters were sitting side by side, Ellody feeling very self-conscious next to her older sister.

"OK, Ellody, vent. Please. You look like you're trying to sit on information, and it's irritating me," Christina said, running her hands through her hair. Sienna frowned and turned to look at her sister before nodding.

"Yeah, you look like you need to spill some tea," her sister smiled. Ellody sighed, knowing she wasn't going to get out of this.

"Fine. I like Zach. But he has a girlfriend, and he's my best friend, so I can't. And I miss him already. Who knows when I'm going to see him next?" Ellody said, trying to give them enough information to be satisfied. She wasn't going to tell them everything, no way.

"There we go! She's finally opening up to us. We need to take notes, this is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity," Sienna teased, punching Ellody lightly on the arm. The girl wanted this conversation over already, and it had only just begun.

"How long have you liked him?" Christina asked, and Ellody blinked a few times before responding.

"Since the weekend." Lie. I've liked him since he existed.

"Isn't he still with Kay?" Sienna mentioned, and Ellody's stomach tied into knots.

"Debatable," Christina frowned, and a heated discussion about whether they were still together or not broke out between Christina and Sienna, leaving Ellody to quietly debate this herself. She wished they weren't together, she really did. But she also hated the idea of him being single, and all those fans thinking that they had a chance. It wasn't fair on the fans, for them to think they had a chance with Zach. Sure, that sounded mean, but it was true. Wasn't it?

"Sis, what do you reckon? And don't just say he's single because you like him," Sienna pressed. Ellody bit her lip and shrugged. She would never have this discussion with Sienna; she was too opinionated.

"I don't know. He never gives a straight answer when I ask him about her," she responded as confidently as possible. They seemed to buy it, nodding and letting Christina change the topic to the top her older sister was wearing, even though it meant nothing to any of them.