Secure// Ellie Williams

Finally

Ellie and I have been together for about 2 weeks now and it's been great. It's weird. Finally being with her is this new experience where I finally understand what everyone talks about when it comes to relationships. Sure, I thought my past experiences were fun, but this is something that is almost indescribable. The thing with us now being together is that we now have to tell Joel, Tommy and Maria. For Ellie, she's already had an open relationship with a girl. My relationships with girls were so short that I never actually had that conversation with Tommy and Maria. And the fact that I'm with Ellie is a weird dynamic since she isn't blood related, but she's as good as family to Tommy, Maria and Joel, so I'm not sure how they will think with us dating. Ellie's on patrol right now, so I'm at Adam's place.

"So how's dating someone you actually like?" I roll my eyes at Adam's question.

"Great, thanks for asking." 

"And have you finally told Tommy, Maria and Joel."

"No, it hasn't come up yet. We are probably gonna do it tonight at family dinner. I'm just nervous, you know? I've never had that conversation with Tommy and Maria I don't know where they stand on that stuff."

"They backed you up when Caleb was a dick at the dance."

I shrug my shoulders, "Yeah but they knew Alaina and I were just friends. And besides, they also knew Caleb was just a dick."

"Yeah well they never liked Caleb."

"Well Caleb wasn't anything."

Adam doesn't reply for a bit, "Well Tommy will be relieved that you're not dating me."

I snort, "Yeah remember when they always thought we would be together?"

Tommy let me go out with him, Joel and Ellie for my 15th birthday. He said he's got a surprise for me, and since Ellie and Joel are still fairly new in town he let them come with us. Joel is also his brother who he hasn't seen in a while, so he's taking every chance he gets to spend time with him. Ellie's been extremely distant since she first got to Jackson. Not really talking to anyone and just doing her work. Always seems like she has something on her mind.

"Hey." I say to her as I slow down so Tommy and Joel are ahead while Ellie and I stay back a bit.

"Oh, hey." Ellie turns a bit red.

"You look like you're thinkin' hard." I give her a teasing smile.

"Oh yeah, it's nothing. Just stuff."

"Right. Stuff."

Ellie seems nervous, "So... what do you think this surprise is?" she asks.

"I don't know. Maybe a dog? Or a dinosaur."

"A dinosaur?"

"Yeah!" 

Ellie chuckles, "Okay." I just smile at her and we keep walking. From the corner of my eye I notice that Ellie keeps glancing at me, but I don't really say anything.

"Lils, you said you're going to Adam's later tonight right?" Tommy asks me.

"Yeah if that's cool."

Tommy nods at me, "You two... you're..."

"Friends."

"For now. You spend an awful lot of time together."

Joel turns to me, "Yeah Lily, you know Tommy and I have a keen eye on this sort of thing. Same thing with Ellie and Jesse."

Ellie starts to shift  uncomfortably,   "Yeah you might want to rethink this 'keen eye' of yours." I smirk at Ellie and agree with her.

"You been talking to Jesse?" I ask her.

"A bit. There's nothing there though!" She tells me quickly. I just smile at her.

"Didn't say there was." Ellie gets red again and avoids eye contact with me. It's weird, after I met her the first few times I never pictured her as a shy type.

"Well, just you two wait." Tommy tells us, "Joel and I will be right in the future."

"I wouldn't hold your breath on that."  Ellie smiles at me and nods at Joel and Tommy.

"Well here we are." Tommy says and we pull up to a giant old bookstore, "Pick up what you want and we will all carry it home." I look over at Tommy with the biggest smile on my face before I rush into the store. Ellie trails behind me slightly and looks around herself. I pick out whatever seems interesting from romance to sci-fi, mystery, fantasy- the only genre I don't ever read is horror since our world is horrifying enough. I'm almost done when Ellie comes over to me.

"Why do you like to read so much?"

"You read comics."

"You knew that?" Ellie asks and I nod my head, "Oh... well that's different. There's pictures so it's more fun."

"Well when you use your brain you can picture the words in your head." I tease Ellie, "Anyways, I just like to read. It's like, this world sucks, so at least for a little bit I can leave it to go somewhere else. Not just be stuck in Jackson."

Ellie gazes at me for a bit before she nods her head slowly, "Yeah I get that."

I look down and see Joel and Tommy are looking around, "Come on. We should probably head back now." Before I turned around Ellie called for me.

"I never actually said this yet, but happy birthday Lily."

I smile, "Thanks Ellie."

~~~~~~~~~

"It's gonna be fine Lils." Ellie tells me as we walk to the front door of Joel's house. He is hosting this weeks dinner and I told Tommy and Maria that I would meet them here. 

"I know this just feels weird. And I don't know... Me, Tommy and Maria have never really had these conversations."

Ellie stops and grabs my hands, "It's gonna be fine Lils. I promise." I take a deep breath and nod at Ellie. She smiles and places a quick kiss on my lips before we walk up to the door. Ellie is holding my right hand- I'm still sensitive about my injured hand so I typically try to hide it or don't have anyone touch it. Before we can knock on the door it swings open and Tommy, Maria and Joel are standing there with confused looks.

"What?" Ellie asks.

"You just kissed at the front lawn." Tommy says.

"And you're holding hands." Joel adds.

Ellie and I weren't expecting this so quick so we just stay quiet for a minute. I lift up our conjoined hands, "Well you did say you wanted us to get along again." I give them a strained smile.

Maria gives me a small smile and pulls me away from Ellie before wrapping me up in a hug, "I'm happy for you guys." She whispers. I take a deep exhale and melt into the hug. Maria isn't always the most affectionate person, so these moments are rare. When I leave the hug I step back next to Ellie and look over at Tommy and Joel.

"So..." I say softly, Ellie next to me waiting for a reaction as well.

Joel clears his voice, "Well uh it's a step up from what we were expecting, but I'm happy for you guys." I give him a soft smile and look at Tommy. Waiting for his reaction.

"I couldn't wish any better for you girls."

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Sorry it's been so long I just didn't like any of the ideas I came up with for this chapter.