Blue Violet

chapter 13



Alex tried to appear like he wasn’t watching Ellie. He tried not to notice that the boy she was talking to looked like the athletic, popular type that all the girls go for. He tried really hard not to think about how Ellie would probably be flattered by the attention. And most important of all, he tried not to think about the vaguely irritated feeling that came over him when Lila told Ellie she was being admired from afar. That feeling hadn’t gone away, and if anything, was growing stronger as he watched Ellie let out a small giggle and the other boy lean closer. Alex gritted his teeth. What could he do? He’d tried his best to keep his relationship with Ellie as casual as possible. Had even stopped texting her and tried to treat her like a little sister when they were on their runs. But that didn’t diminish his growing feelings toward her. Feelings he could never act on, no matter how strong they were becoming.

Alex shook his head and turned his attention back to his siblings, and caught Adelaide’s amused expression. He sighed.

“Ok, Delia, what do you see?”

Her eyebrows shot up. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Alex,” she replied, pursing her lips.

Shrugging, Alex let it go. She’d tell him when she wanted to, if she wanted to.

*****

While Ellie and Brian were talking about the movie on Friday, an idea popped into her head. She didn’t date boys in high school, but she supposed being friends with them was alright. She tapped into Griffin’s power and checked through Brian’s thoughts a little more in depth. As far as she could tell, he wasn’t actually attached to the idea of dating her. She just happened to be the new girl in his group. Someone he had yet to date. And someone who hadn’t shown much interest which, of course, made him all the more interested. So if she encouraged friendship, and remained clear about that distinction, she wouldn’t hurt him. And she needed a distraction from Alex. He seemed to be occupying way too much of her brain space these days. Too much for her comfort.

“If you’re here alone, why don’t you join us?” she said to Brian. She waved her hand in the general direction of the group.

Brian looked pleased and glanced at his watch. “I have to leave in about thirty minutes,” he said. “But I could hang out ‘til then.” He stood up, collected his gear, and followed her across the room.

When they approached the table, Ellie explained to her friends, “I invited Brian to join us while he’s here.”

“Hey, Reynolds!” Nate greeted Brian with a high-five. Nate played tight-end on the school football team, while Brian was the quarterback and team captain. The two boys were understandably friendly even though it was off-season.

“Brian, this is our brother, Alex,” Lila said. The two boys shook hands with a nod. Brian pulled out a chair and got settled.

“I’d better get to work,” Alex announced. With a casual salute, he left the rest of them to their studies.

After a little while, when Brian and Nate seemed to run out of conversation about basketball, Ellie nonchalantly asked, “So what movie are we going to see Friday, Brian?” Looking at the others at the table she kept her expression carefully innocent as she added, “Are you guys going, too?”

Lila glanced at Brian. “Is a group going to see a movie?”

Listening to Brian’s thoughts, Ellie almost laughed out loud as he mentally gave up on having a date with her. He just barely stopped himself from answering with a sigh. “Yeah,” he said. Ellie had to give him some credit, he bounced back quickly. “I’m getting a group together to go on Friday. You guys in?”

“What’s the movie?” Nate asked. “I’m not going to see some lame chick flick.” He scrunched up his face comically, eliciting a laugh from the others. Adelaide bopped him in the arm.

Brian named a movie that was definitely a guy’s guy type movie. All action, lots of blood probably, short on plot, but very entertaining.

Nate punched a fist in the air. “Yeah, man!” he exclaimed. “I’m in.”

Adelaide and Lila rolled their eyes in unison. “Not really my type of movie,” Lila said with a wry twist to her lips. “But I’m in, too.”

Adelaide shrugged her shoulders in resignation. “I go where Nate goes,” she agreed, snuggling in to him.

“What about you, Ellie?” Adelaide asked.

Since Ellie happened to enjoy that genre of movie, she grinned. “I’ve already told Brian that I’d go,” she confirmed. “I hope that it’s going to be as good as the first two.”

Both boys gave her a dumbfounded look. “No way,” Nate teased. “A girl who likes action movies? I don’t believe it.”

“Hey! Lots of girls like action movies,” Ellie defended.

“Not the girls in my life,” Nate declared, winking at Adelaide.

Ellie tapped her pen on her notebook. “I like almost all types of movies, but action and fantasy happen to be my favorites. Best movie ever, hands down… Star Wars.”

“Wait,” Brian narrowed his eyes at her. “Which one?”

“Duh…” Ellie rolled her eyes dramatically. “Episode four.”

“I beg to differ,” Nate scoffed. “Empire is clearly the best of the Star Wars movies.”

Ellie shook her head. “The Empire Strikes Back is too dark for me.”

“Sorry to interrupt your geek-out moment,” Lila started. “But after listening to basketball talk for twenty minutes, I’m afraid that sci-fi talk would send me over the edge.”

Ellie just laughed and bent her head back to her studies. About the time Brian left, Ellie moved on to her English assignment, writing her term research paper. This happened to be one of Ellie’s favorite assignments at this school so far. She was researching Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, one of her favorite novels, rich in both characters and in satire. The internet provided the opportunity to do the majority of her research from the comfort of her home, but Mrs. Cavender had insisted that her students include citations from real books. What better place to do that research than in the library? With that in mind, Ellie hopped up and went to the computer terminal and started to look up material that might help her with the assignment.

She was standing amidst the aisles leafing through one of the titles when a voice murmured in her ear, “That must be fascinating reading.”

She was so startled that she dropped her book and jumped back. She managed to remain cognizant of the library rules, and restrained herself to a little squeak of surprise, rather than a loud yelp. Alex was leaning against the shelf, arms crossed over his broad chest, one foot casually crossed over the other, and watching her with a highly amused expression.

“Jeez, Alex. You scared me,” she accused in a half-whisper.

“Sorry.” He gave her an unapologetic grin. “You know you’ve been standing there reading that book for a good fifteen minutes? I’m amazed at your powers of concentration.”

Ellie hid her chagrin that, unbeknownst to her, Alex had been watching her that long. She felt flattered and unnerved all at the same time. She bent to retrieve her dropped book, but Alex beat her to it. “Jane Austen fan?” he asked as he glanced at the title.

“What girl isn’t?” she quipped. She made sure their fingers didn’t touch as she accepted it.

Alex stood back and re-crossed his arms over his muscled chest. The look he gave her indicated he was waiting for a real answer. Ellie knew that expression from their morning runs. She was being too vague for him again.

She gave an exaggerated huff, pretending to be annoyed. “This is for an English paper. But, yes, I do like Jane Austen. As a rule I prefer British classical authors over American. Although there are a few exceptions.”

“See? That wasn’t so hard to share, now was it?” he teased.

She just looked at him with a bland expression, but he still caught the slight twitch to her lips and his smile widened. Ellie tried her darndest to ignore what that grin did to her equilibrium.

“Ready for pizza? They sent me to get you.”

The change in topic came so suddenly, it took her a moment to catch up. “Oh! Are the others ready to leave?” She peeked at her watch. Sure enough, it was well past the time they’d agreed to stop studying and head to dinner. She was a little shocked. The evenings and nights often dragged for her, but the time here with her friends had flown by. Maybe that’s what she’d been missing. Griffin was wonderful, and they were very close, but she needed more companionship than just him.

Alex nodded. “They’re waiting for you.”

“Are you joining us?” She gathered her research results holding it all against her chest in a defensive posture.

“If you don’t mind.”

Ellie just shrugged. “Why should I?”

“I’ve taken about as much legal research as I can for one night.” He rolled his shoulders, easing some tension out of the bunched muscles. Her hands itched to smooth the knots out for him. She clenched them around her books instead, irritated by her completely irrational responses to this boy. “And I’m driving everyone back after dinner, so it makes sense,” he continued, thankfully unaware of her internal struggles.

“If you don’t like legal research, why are you studying to be a lawyer?”

“Did I say I didn’t like it?” It was Alex’s turn to be evasive.

Ellie tilted her head. “You didn’t have to.”

They stood there staring at each other for what was probably seconds but felt like a long while to Ellie. She didn’t need Griffin’s mind reading ability to know that she and Alex were thinking the same thing… that they seemed to be very in tune with each other. Even from the small amount of interaction they’d had, it was clear that they just got one another, saw things about one another that other people seemed to miss.

Sensing a dangerous connection being made, Ellie forced herself to execute a little half-turn to head down the aisle. Glancing back at Alex, she gave her head a little jerk. “Come on,” she said, “Let’s go get some pizza.”

After taking a moment to gather all their school gear, all five of them headed across the street and towards the downtown area. The pizza place was situated along the river walk. The area was gorgeous. Lots of quaint little shops that edged a rushing river. The mountain directly across the water was protected land and untouched, and currently covered in snow. Ellie couldn’t wait for early summer when everything would be green again and the wildflowers would come out.

As they neared the restaurant, she suddenly heard Griffin in her head. “Ellie?”

“I’m with the Jenners right now, Griff, can’t talk,” she thought back.

“You need to find an excuse to get out of there.”

Ellie noticed Adelaide giving her another of her odd looks and immediately smoothed her frown.

“What’s up?” she thought at Griffin, as she attempted to keep her expression neutral and carefree.

“I saw a small pack of wolves… possibly Vyusher. Three at most. I think we should try to follow them.” The urgency of the situation came through loud and clear.

“We’re about to eat pizza, Griff. What on Earth should I say? Where are you anyway?”

“I’m just down the street. It seemed like a good idea for us to do this together.” That sounded like her prudent brother.

“Okay…” Ellie’s mind raced. “Stay out of sight until we’re in the pizza place. Then call my cell phone. Make it sound urgent. I’ll meet you outside.”

“Alright,” came his quiet reply. Just like Griffin to not make a fuss or ask questions.

They were just sitting down inside the restaurant when Ellie’s phone rang. She made a bit of a show about checking the caller ID, frowning a little, and then answering it like she wasn’t sure what he would want. “Hi, Griffin.” She put a questioning lilt in her voice.

“I’m waiting outside.”

“I’m at that little pizza place downtown. You know along the river…” She made a little show of acting like he’d cut her off and widened her eyes. “Oh!” she injected with surprise. “You are?” She turned to look out the window and saw him standing there. She waved.

In her mind she told him, “Turn around and pretend like you’re talking some more,” and watched as her twin did just that.

She pretended to listen carefully. “Okay. Hold on, I’ll come out. Just a sec.”

She turned her attention back to the table to encounter four pairs of very curious eyes. She scrunched her face apologetically. “Sorry. I’ll be right back.” Getting up to leave she added, “Order me a Coke, please?” With that she hurried outside to her brother.

“Okay, Griff, they’re watching. They have no idea who you are or what you want with me. I’ll go back in after we talk for a second and tell them that I have to go home. Hopefully I can move fast enough that they won’t have time to ask questions. So make it look urgent.”

Griffin gave her a pointed look.

“Well,” Ellie amended, “As urgent as it really is, I guess.”

“There’re three of them,” Griffin started. “They were within about five miles of the Jenner and Pierce houses but headed that direction, so I’m guessing they’re much closer by now. I think they’re just checking things out. It seemed like a good idea to follow them together in case something does happen and we need to intervene.”

Ellie nodded gravely. “Good thinking. Let me go get my things and make an excuse to them. I’ll be right back.”

Griffin waited outside while Ellie ran back in.

“I’m so sorry,” she began, avoiding Alex’s intense gaze. “I’ve got to go home.”

“Who’s that?” Adelaide asked staring out the window.

Ellie glanced over her shoulder. “Oh, that’s just Griffin,” she dismissed airily, pretending not to see the confusion on Alex’s face. She hadn’t mentioned Griffin to him yet. Glancing around at her friends, something about the look on Adelaide’s face made Ellie debate whether or not the other girl could see the real relationship between Ellie and her brother. But she couldn’t deal with that right at the moment.

“Is anything wrong?” Lila asked, concerned.

“Umm… I don’t think so,” Ellie said, “Just a bit of a minor emergency it sounds like.” She swung her backpack onto her shoulder and grabbed her purse off the back of her chair.

She circled the table and gave Adelaide and Lila both hugs. “I had a lot of fun tonight, even if it was just homework…” She grinned. “We definitely have to do this again. Maybe next time I’ll actually get to eat.”

As she started to move away, Alex stood and caught her elbow. Bending down he murmured in her ear, “You’re being vague again, Elle. Everything really okay?”

Ellie could see true concern in his silvery eyes, and her heart warmed a little bit more toward him. “Everything’s fine,” she lied. “Still on for our run in the morning?” The worry didn’t ease from his eyes, but he let go and nodded.

“See you at school tomorrow,” she said to the rest of her friends, giving them a little wave. And then she headed for the door.

*****

“Do you know that guy?” Alex asked after Ellie left. He felt irritated with himself for the absurd twinge of jealousy he’d felt watching her talk to the golden-haired boy outside. Sheesh. He’d only just been dealing with those same feelings with the boy at the library. Twice in one night was borderline ridiculous. He couldn’t seriously act this way with every boy that talked to Ellie. He wouldn’t allow himself to be that insecure.

“Alex? What the heck? You run with her?” Nate’s voice broke into his thoughts. He’d forgotten for a second that his family didn’t know about his daily jogs with Ellie.

Alex sighed and then proceeded to bring them up to speed.

“You know you can’t keep seeing her, Alex,” Lila said.

He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “I know,” he agreed quietly. He’d known all along that pursuing that relationship would be a colossal mistake.

Adelaide was still looking at where Griffin and Ellie had been talking. She had a slightly perplexed expression on her face.

“What did you see?” Alex prompted.

She turned a reproachful look on her brother. “You know I’m not going to tell you. But it’s nothing dangerous, just… interesting.”

Alex shrugged and gave up. Adelaide was his sweet, quiet sister, but she could be darn stubborn when she wanted to be.

*****

Adelaide contemplated what she’d just experienced. She had the ability to see relationships between people… past, present, and future. She saw them as various colored bands of energy connecting individuals. Different colors and thicknesses meant different things.

And she was very confused by what she’d seen between Ellie and Griffin. She wondered why Ellie appeared to be lying to them.