Secure// Ellie Williams

Target Practice

I'm in the range with Jesse and Adam working on my shooting. Adam's working on the target next to me while Jesse stands next to me.

"So how are you and Ellie doing?" Jesse asks me.

"Alright." I tell him as I continue to shoot. I'm a pretty good shot, so most of my bullets go either on or near the bullseye, "Why?" I finish my round and hand the gun to Jesse who takes it and puts in a new round.

"It's just nice that you guys are working on things." Jesse shrugs. 

"Things are still kind of awkward. It's weird I guess." He nods at me while he shoots at the target. One of his shots are off, but most are good, "Want to work with a bow?"

"No you know I suck with it." 

"Can't get better Jesse if you never practice."

"Yeah, yeah." I smile at him and pick up my bow and arrow. I prefer this over any weapon. I run my hand along it as I prep the bow to shoot. I've always preferred it because it's quiet and if you shoot it right you can always get your arrows back. I aim the arrow at the targets, pulling the string back so my hand is resting next to my mouth. I take a deep breath before releasing the arrow- it lands right in the bullseye.

"Nice shot." I hear Ellie's voice. I turn and see her standing there leaning on the wall.

"Thanks. You want to go?" Ellie nods at me and grabs the bow. I lean on the wall and watch her aim at the target. She steadies her breath before releasing the arrow. It sticks itself into the target, "Nice shot." I tell her and she smiles at me. 

"Thanks." We just stand there for a bit before Ellie speaks up again, "Do you want to go do something?"

"Sure, have anything in mind?" 

"We can just hang out in my room if you want?" I nod at Ellie and we start to leave, waving bye to Jesse and Adam first. When we get to Ellie's I go over to her bed and look at her wall. There's a few pictures of her, Dina and Jesse, some with Adam, Alaina and another of Cat. I keep looking at them when I look and see a picture of us framed in a space themed frame. I smile at it and look back at Ellie, she was just watching me.

"You never changed much." I say referring to her room.

"Wasn't much to change." I nod at her and walk over to the bed and lay down to look at the ceiling. Ellie follows my actions and slowly lays down next to me, "Why didn't you ever tell me about Casey, or anyone." Ellie asks me.

"We weren't really talking when I was with Casey."

"Yeah, but I never even knew about it. I don't think anyone did."

"We were quiet about it. Some people here suck when it comes to that stuff. I didn't want to deal with it." Ellie nods in understanding. Her and Cat used to get comments, mainly from people like Seth. 

"You were open with Evan. I feel like I saw you guys all the time."

"Evan was... easy I guess. I tried to love him, but I never could fully."

"Why?" Ellie asks. Both of us still stare at the ceiling.

"It's not something you can force."

"But you liked him?" Ellie asks.

"Yeah."

"And you liked Casey?"

"Yep." Ellie nods at this and we continue to lay down. 

"Have you ever been in love?" I ask Ellie. 

"Um I don't know. Don't think so."

"Not even with Cat."

"No. I didn't get past like."

"You know, I was always so jealous of you and Cat?" I tell her. She turns her head to me quickly.

"What? Why?"

"You guys just never seemed to care about what anyone thought about your relationship. And I don't know, you guys seemed close and I was jealous because that used to be me and you."

Ellie stays quiet as she processes this information, "I'm not that confident. I have a loud mouth but I was always scared when it came to you." I look over at her confused, "I was always jealous of Evan. It felt like he replaced me."

"Evan doesn't stand a chance against you Ellie." I feel her gaze on me, "this sounds bad but I mostly dated Evan since you stopped talking to me, and Alaina and Adam were getting really close. I just...  I felt really alone."

"I'm sorry." I shrug at her. I want to ask again why she stopped talking to me in the first place but it doesn't seem like the time. We continue to just relax next to each other. The awkward tension between us seems to slowly chip away. I want it to stay like this forever.

But Ellie was right, she really isn't confident when it comes to me.

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So this is super short and bad :/

I just wanted a sort of lead up to an explosion haha.