Not Thinkin' Bout You

Chapter 19

PREVIOUSLY: Luckily, Sienna went to too many concerts and her ears weren't exactly in the best condition.

"Who's going to help me make dinner tonight?" Ellody's mum's voice drifted up the stairs. Ellody waited for Sienna to reply with a lame excuse and made Ellody cook with their mum. It wasn't that bad, but today she didn't want to spend a lot of time with her mum. The more time she spent with her, the more she wanted to tell her about everything that was happening, but she couldn't. She'd already spilled to Sienna and Christina about the Zach thing, but she wasn't planning on telling anyone about her feelings for Jonah. That was just too much.

"I've got a test to study for!" Sienna yelled back as Ellody stood up from her desk chair.

"I'm coming!" Ellody added, walking out of her room. She passed Sienna's door, which was slightly open, and she noticed that the girl was sitting on the floor of her room with a handful of pictures scattered over her floor and a large picture frame next to her. Of course Sienna was making mood boards for her nineteenth birthday already and classing it as studying.

"Thank you, Ellie," the woman smiled as Ellody appeared on the stairs.

"Sienna's making mood boards on her floor, not studying," Ellody muttered, and their mum rolled her eyes.

"You kids do some weird things to study for tests. Making mood boards, scrolling through Instagram..."

"I don't!" Ellody snapped, glancing at the potato dish recipe before looking in the fridge for mayonnaise.

"You were last night, when you were supposed to be studying for that science test you had today. How did that go?" the woman asked, smiling expectantly. Every time she asked how a test or exam went, Ellody would explain how good it was, and how she knew the answer to every question except one, and that she figured it out ten seconds before the timer stopped. Of course she was expecting her to get another A, or an A+. It had been years since she'd gotten anything lower.

"It was... good. Yeah, it was good," Ellody lied, closing the fridge and avoiding her mum's eyes.

"Awesome. You always do so well. I'm so proud of you," she sighed, reaching for a dish in a low cupboard. Ellody's stomach dropped, her heart racing. It was so easy to lie about the test. It was so easy to lie about her feelings. It felt terrible, but the words just came out. "I finished it before everyone else," she added. The second she said it, Ellody wanted to climb into a whole and stay there.

"You amaze me. I didn't do well in school at all - I was too busy hanging out with your dad," she sighed, shaking her head.

"Tell me more," Ellody smiled, knowing everything her mum was about to tell her but wanting to steer their chat in a different direction. Ellody knew she'd talked her mum out of it for now - she could still ask later. Hopefully not.

~

"Please do not compare your test outcomes with each other. I know you will. Keep in mind that what I don't see can't hurt me," the woman called out as he slipped test papers back to the kids. Ellody's mind was wandering to what Jonah was doing right now. He could be doing anything right now. Eating lunch, taking a nap, swimming at a beach...

"What did you get?" a girl whispered in Ellody's direction. Ellody looked down at her desk to find a piece of paper waiting for her. Her heart was beating as fast as when Zach left her that day at the airport. She slowly turned the page over, shielding it from the other girl's view, before her eyes landed on the red number.

The world seemed to stop.

~

"I take it you've never gotten such a low grade," Jonah sighed, running his hands through his hair. Ellody couldn't take her eyes off the paper in her hands. She was too surprised to cry. Yet.

"Never," Ellody whispered, glancing briefly at the screen to see Jonah's concerned face staring directly at hers. They locked eyes before Ellody turned back to the most humiliating thing ever, sitting innocently in her hands.

"At least you passed. It's not like you failed or something... you can do worse than a C minus!" Jonah began, but he was cut off by a small shake of the girl's head. C minus. She hadn't gotten less than an A since their dad left them , and she didn't study for their physics exam, and got a B minus. But a B minus was better than a C minus, any day of the week.

"I'm sorry, Ell," he sighed, frowning at the screen. Despite everything, her heart fluttered at the mention of 'Ell'. Only Zach was allowed to call her that. But it sounded alright coming from Jonah's mouth. "Oh, I'm sorry... Ell is Zach's thing..." he stuttered, massaging his temples slowly. He seemed to be in some kind of pain, but Ellody didn't want to ask. Not when they were talking about something completely different.

"No, it's alright. You can call me Ell," she added quietly. Jonah's face turned to the screen, his eyebrows drawn together in confusion.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"OK."