Elly fumbled madly with her purse. “Do I look like one of those people? Here, just hold on to my credit card, then. I promise we’ll be back.” She looked longingly at her chicken sandwich. “And don’t clear the table.” Then she raced out the door.
Outside Blueberry Hill, the street was full of leggy college students laughing and smoking, making their plans for the evening. Elly looked up and down the street frantically. Down the winding street, she saw a young man dressed in a black T-shirt turn into an alley. He was walking quickly and wiping his nose. Dennis. Elly ran up the street after him, her sandals clipping sharply across the pavement. She had never run this fast in her life. It occurred to her that this was the second time now she had chased after Dennis. Calves burning, Elly rounded the corner to the alley. Dennis sat against a dumpster, folded arms wrapped around his chest, his greasy forehead against his wrist.
Elly approached him slowly. “Dennis….” He looked up at the wall to avoid her eyes. Elly took a deep gulp of air. “Hold on, I need to breathe. I’m not used to running.”
Dennis looked away from her. “Me, either.”
Elly bent over and put her hands on her knees, inhaling thick mouthfuls of air. She sat down by him after pushing an old diaper away with her shoe. Dennis still wouldn’t look at her. With small wheezes, Elly put her hand on his arm. He flinched at her touch, and it broke her heart into a thousand pieces. “I’m sorry I asked about your plans. I shouldn’t have—I know that your plan was to find me. I was just trying to make conversation.”
Dennis let out a loud sniff.
“And, you might not believe me, but I’m glad you did. Find me.”
He stared at the ground.
“I want to get to know you. Everything about you.”
Dennis nodded, his arms hanging limply over his knees. “There’s nothing to know. I’m a fat loser orphan.”
She settled against the dumpster, trying her best to ignore the scent of rotted fruit. “Look, we both have no idea what we are doing here. I don’t know how to be a sister. I didn’t even know you existed until a week ago. The one person I’d like to talk about it with is my mother, and she has been gone for years. So I’m fumbling, too. It’s going to be awkward and weird for us for a while, but I’m willing to take the good with the bad if you are.” Elly smiled. “I have a brother. It’s completely bizarre, but in a good way. You went through a lot to find me and I am so glad. I’m sorry about the strained conversation in there. I was trying to make you think that I was cool. Here’s something you can learn about me: I’m not cool. On any imaginable spectrum. I’m insecure and clumsy and I don’t know how to dress and I totally love Celine Dion.”
Dennis shook his head, his dirty blond hair hanging over his eyes. “I think you’re cool,” he grumbled halfheartedly.
“Well, I’m not. And you’re not, either. Which is more proof that we are related. So let’s go inside, finish our dinner, and have some awkward conversations about what we like and don’t like. We’ll get to the point where we don’t have to talk about bands or TV shows or movies. But it doesn’t have to be right away.”
“It’s true, though.” He rolled his head on his sleeve, peeking out over his elbow.
“What’s true?”
“That I don’t have a plan. I have no idea what I’m doing after this. I never even left my town before and I’m here, and I don’t have a place to live….”
“You can live with me,” stated Elly plainly, totally catching herself off-guard. Did I just say that? Do I mean that? She continued, in spite of the alarms buzzing wildly in her brain. “We can’t have Keith paying for you to stay in a hotel forever. He probably has even less money than I do.”
Dennis stayed silent.
“So will you—stay with me? I have a guest room with a bed.” Please say yes, she thought. Then immediately afterward thought, please say no. Oh Lord, please let him say no.
“Okay. Sure. If it makes you happy,” he mumbled, actually sounding very grateful.
“Okay,” she said, still out of breath. “Want to go finish our food?”
Dennis jumped up, faster than she had ever seen him move. They walked back to the restaurant in silence to finish their meals. Over dinner, there was more small talk, this time with Dennis raving about some show called Battlestar Galactica. After dinner, Elly drove him back to the hotel and walked him back to his room.
“Okay, well, Keith paid up through the weekend, so you have two more days here, and then I’ll come get you. That will give me enough time to get the house ready for you.”
“What about your dog?”
Elly widened her eyes. “What about my dog?”
“Is he going to stay there?”
“Are you allergic to dogs?”
“No, I just don’t like them. My dad liked big, mean dogs,” he said, making a small circle with his foot on the carpet.
Elly gave a sigh. This wasn’t happening. “I can see if he can stay with Keith for a while, but Cadbury will come back soon. He’s my dog. I love him, and he would never hurt you. I promise.”