Gravity | Embry. Call. |

Chapter Three

Gravity
Chapter Three
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Eli walked down Main Street, making her way towards the small espresso shack. She had woken up early that morning, despite lying in bed for six more hours staring at the ceiling blankly, and decided to try getting out of the house one more go. Her father left for work early that morning, leaving her alone for the rest of the day. As for her brother, she frankly didn't care enough to know where he was.

She spent a long time stuck in her thoughts that morning. She felt that she had just lost her brother but soon realized that she had lost him a long time ago. A year ago was when he stopped visiting and stopped answering her phone calls.

He stopped telling her about his personal life and was more temperamental than he usually was.
Even though they had already forgiven each other, she remembered the last major fight they had only a few months back.

Eli was speaking to her brother over the phone about her friends. That was before they had shunned her– the calm before the storm. She had noticed that they were acting differently around her and wanted to talk to someone she trusted about it. She didn't feel comfortable talking to her parents about the topic and Paul was the only person that she felt comfortable enough to tell.

Big mistake.

She didn't know what had happened while she was talking but he suddenly went off on her and told her that he didn't care, that he had other things to worry about.

He was very, very mean about it. Her brother has always been an angry and easily irritable person, but he rarely acted that way towards her. He used to make it a point to act interested in whatever she wanted to speak about; even with her petty teenage drama.

Then it changed.

Eli stopped speaking to anyone about personal things after that. Nobody seemed to care enough to listen, so she stopped trying. However, she didn't completely block herself off from everyone until everything went downhill involving her friends.

That was her breaking point.

She walked towards the small shack and ordered a small black coffee. She recognized the girl who was making the coffee and placed a five-dollar tip in the jar while she waited. The barista was the daughter of one of her father's ex-girlfriends– not that he's had many. Her name was Jasmine and Eli remembered her always being nice when their parents forced them to hang out together. That was five years ago, making Eli twelve and Jasmine thirteen.

Eli stood beside the shack while she waited for her coffee to be made. She glanced around and noticed a girl staring at her with a bright smile.

"I like your outfit." The girl complimented her.

Eli glanced down at her outfit, instantly forgetting what it looked like, even though she has worn the same thing almost every day for months. She had on shorts with black tights underneath, a scarf, and her usual oversized sweater with a black denim vest over it– something that she had stolen from her ex-boyfriend when they first started dating. She had on her old combat boots, because of possible mud, and her usual knitted beanie. Her eyes were also being hidden by black bulky sunglasses.

"Thanks." Eli gave a tight smile. "I like yours too." She returned the compliment. She did like her outfit, even though it was opposite to her style. The girl wore a white sundress with a tan cardigan over it and sandals.