—chapter twenty-four.

  ❛ wednesdays always suck. ❜  

ELODIE VERBECK USED TO DESPISE THE RAIN.

Rain had always brought sour, bitter memories with it. Elodie always used to find herself stuck in it cold and soaked through with only the thinnest of jackets to keep her alive. It would be long walks back from even longer shifts and she used to make it home with tears in her eyes and a thousand sneezes building in her nose, ready to ruin the few miserable hours she had to herself. Of course, back then, she used to be very different. It wasn't so easy to run and she didn't have quite so much hope for what came after the rain. The storms never seemed to end, when she was a younger woman.

But times changed and she learned that the rain could clear. Or, at the very least, when the downpour was loud and refused to settle, she learned how to solve the problems that came with that in seconds. Being one's own walking blowdryer might not seem glamorous, and honestly she wasn't proud of how she utilized her abilities, but it at least kept her warm. And she was content with being lame, if it meant being useful and somewhat confident in what she was doing.

Elodie hurried up the shallow steps to her home. She fumbled with her keys for a second, shuffling from foot to foot as her clothes and body steamed. A few moments later and the young woman was dry as she had been when she first left, and swinging open her mahogany door to meet a softly lit foyer.

"You're a wonder, Miss Elodie," she grinned to herself. She dropped the keys into their allotted dish and caught her own smile in the hanging mirror; for a moment, she let herself admire the girl reflected back to her. "A whole freakin' wonder. Tired, but..."

Her hands lifted to pull her loose hair back. The curls fought back angrily, but the elastic held their tickling fingers back enough to give some relief. She nodded at herself in the mirror, watching the other girl give a thumbs up back, before turning to head into the kitchen.

"Ellie?"

Silence.

"Ellis? Where you at?"

The only sound back was the creaking floorboards under her socked feat. For a moment, Elodie began to consider the worst. She raced through the rooms, heart thudding angrily until she fell to a full stop in the tiny dining room's doorway, staring at the sight in front of her.

Elodie always reminded her brother that he could play his music out loud, especially when she wasn't there. She never knew why he preferred the tinny earbuds sound over sharing the sound with the entire room -- and it always meant he couldn't hear her calls and left her petrified that he was gone. But despite her protests and insistence, Ellis preferred his music pressed to his ears alone, serving as a peaceful friend as he poured over his work. It was like he didn't have the same fears she clutched so tight, scared of any little sound or sight. Like he could actually let go.

She shook herself out of her thoughts and stepped forward. "Hey, dude," she called, and grinned when he finally lifted his head. Brown tendrils hung lazily over his eyes; she set a mental reminder to cut it, as soon as possible. "Nice to see my favourite scholar working away."

He skirted away from her chasing lips but groaned as they found his thick locks, anyways. "Gross."

"Oh, don't give me that."

"That's like the worst compliment and physical affection combo possible!"

Elodie shrugged, one hand pressed to her tea kettle's glinting side. She made a show of plugging it in, but didn't bother flicking the switch. "You are my favourite scholar. It's just a fact."

"How many 'scholars' do you know?"

"Oh, so many," she tossed back. "Dozens come in hordes, er'day to the bar. It's nuts!"

"Ha, ha."

Elodie's smile softened. She spared another glance back at her younger brother, watching him return back to his frantic scribblings. "How was school?"

"It was...school."

"So, boring?"

Ellis shrugged. The taunt was in unspoken, loving jest; neither bothered to bat it around any longer. "It was okay. Mostly just a catch up day, so I just fiddled with my own stuff."

"You're going to have to explain 'my own stuff' to me one day. You know that, right?"

"Thought you thought all that was boring? And nerdy?"

"Yeah, but--" her free hand waved around loosely. "Nerdy cool. I'm sure whatever crazy inventions you're coming up with are, like, fascinating."

He grinned a little. "I doubt you'd see it that way. It's just numbers, right now."

"Oh, welll...dude, you know I love numbers."

Elodie's lips twitched as his smile grew, a habit she grew too used to at that point. Making him lose that serious, downturned look he always wore when swept up with 'work' made her worry, and while she wasn't the one to bounce his insane ideas off of, she could at least make him laugh a little before it all consumed him. And she made sure to do it whenever she could. For, even a brilliant boy is still just a boy. And boys like Ellis, with such gentle souls, needed to be fed that childish warmth before he froze right over.

"How was work today?"

"Eh. Despite the rain? Same old, same old." For a moment, there was silence again in the room. Then another idea struck her and she turned. "Did you get your mark back on that project?"

"Uh, no. Not yet."

"You'll let me know?"

He rolled his eyes, but there was still that shy little grin that told he he did not mean the insolence. "I always do."

"Good! I like to have something to brag about at Firebird's. Conversation keeps the good energy and tips flowing, you know."

Ellis' smile grew sly as he considered her words. "So you're technically using me for money?"

"Well -- yeah. Gotta pay for your expensive lifestyle somehow."

"Expensive?" He cried softly, feathered brows furrowing in indignation. She knew he was trying to look angry, but there was just no pulling that sort of look off with his innocent face. "How do I have an expensive lifestyle?!"

Elodie snorted. "Don't give me that. I know what you're up to -- all those mysterious 'needs', field trips, 'school supplies'...I played those same games with your Grandmother when I was your age."

"Except mine are actually for school," he shot back. 

"That's what you say, but...see, I just don't believe you on that."

"They are!"

She smirked, pretending to flick the kettle off. Its hisses sank back down to whispers, dying out as the water stopped boiling. "If you say so, buddy. You want a cup?"

"Uh -- sure. Thanks." 

Elodie passed him a steaming blue mug, decorated lightly with pink, yellow and blue posies. She nudged over the tiny sugar container, too, then sank back with her own cup, staring down at the floating teabag.

The only thing she kept from her brother was the same thing she had forced her father to years and years ago. He had no idea about her strange, pyromaniac abilities, and she had no desire to ever tell him. There just was no need, to bother him over a lie she had already kept for so long, and with her at least having some control over them, well...what was the point in worrying the kid?

It wasn't hard to keep it from him. Even as he grew older and his eyes grew sharper, more curious, she discovered ways to hide the idiosyncrasies that didn't happen to others -- quickly boiling water got chalked up to a fantastic new appliance and her always dry appearance was simply due to common sense. She had learned to control the big things, to mind her anger and avoid mistakes in his presence. She made sure that his focus was only ever on the things that mattered and left her own oddities to her own troubles. 

Maybe one day she would tell him. But for the moment...

Her eyes drifted from him to the window, watching the drizzle stain the glass. It didn't show any signs of stopping. "We should probably go visit Grandmother soon."

"Didn't we just go?"

"It's been...about a month," she mused, frowning at the realization. "Man. I never mean to forget, it's just..."

"...it's a lot," Ellis supplied. "I know. I love her, but it's hard to see her like that."

Elodie dipped her gaze down to her tea. Steam oozed up, tickling the bottom of her chin and sloped nose, but she hardly felt the heat it brought. Her grip tightened. "Uh-huh. I mean, she's old, it's gotta happen, but the dementia just gets worse and worse the more we go."

"No kidding."

"But we should still go," she sighed. "I mean, not like she's got very many other visitors. She's probably lonely."

Ellis looked reluctant, with his mouth hardening into a grim frown, but still he nodded. "Maybe Friday then, or something. After school."

"Sure. Sounds good to me."

Once more, they fell into a grey silence. She could just barely hear his music playing through his earbuds, but not enough to catch the softly mused lyrics or melody. The rain pattered away outside though, and added to the melancholy a little too easily. She let her mind slip away again, to the thought of their Grandmother sitting alone, her once-sharp gaze grown murky and dim. Just as she had told Elodie not seven years back, her mind deteriorated quickly and left her with nothing but a name. She didn't know her grandchildren, or really anything at all. Visits consisted of them standing awkwardly, watching her trembling fingers try to knit and fail and listening to her talk about people that never existed -- names that the woman never actually knew, but somehow meant something to her dilapidated mind. It wasn't an easy time, and both Verbeck siblings hated it. 

But they went anyways, because they had to.

Elodie sighed. She threw her teabag out and placed her mug down carefully. The tea simmered, unsipped on the counter. "Is pasta okay for dinner? I forgot to get groceries, but there's rigatoni still...and that frozen broccoli I got a while back."

Ellis just offered a thumbs up and a small smile.

"I should prob'bly learn how to cook cooler meals," she murmured, really only to herself. "I mean, I know I'm not bad, but...it'd be cool, to be a better cook." She glanced up at the window again, grinning to herself. "Maybe I'll buy myself a cookbook. Yeah?"

No one responded, as expected. Ellis had returned his attention to his work with his earbuds firmly placed in his ears and the rain only offered the same constant it had all day. But she was content. Their evenings often played out that way, her speaking aloud to avoid the pain of silence and her brother, presumably, ignoring every bit of it. While perhaps abnormal, it worked for them.

The water began to bubble on the stove. She watched it reflectively, hands just barely touching the pot. "Have to remember to fix the basement locks," she muttered, "and...the weeds'll have to get kicked from the front. And--" she paused, catching only the end of Ellis' question. "Yeah-huh?"

"Can I ask you something?"

Elodie nodded. She stepped back to collect the pasta, pouring it into the bubbling water with satisfaction. "Anything. Sure."

"What happened with that guy?"

"Uh...which 'guy', bud?"

She heard soft tapping echo from behind; Ellis, she assumed, with a newly grown anxiety towards whatever he had to ask. "He...you went out with someone about two weeks ago. David, I think you said his name was."

Elodie quickly placed the wooden spoon off to the side to avoid an unsightly accident. She didn't bother looking her brother's way, hiding her flush as she answered. "Yeah, David. He was nice, I guess."

"Did you talk to him at all after?"

"Not really, no...I don't think there was much between us. It was an okay time, but we didn't have much in common and I feel like we exhausted all our options quickly."

"So he didn't call?"

Elodie shrugged. "He did. It didn't go anywhere, we left things off on good terms and...yeah. Why?"

Ellis was quiet for a long moment. "I guess," he began again, slowly, "I was just curious. I didn't know if something had happened between you two or not."

"Ha. Nope. Just another thing to remind me I'm slowly dying alone still."

"Don't say that."

She chuckled quietly. "Don't worry. I'm coming to terms with my old age and singlehood is something I think I like, now."

"Old? You're not even thirty yet."

"Yet! Yet is the key word, my dude!"

She expected a laugh from her little brother. At least a sympathy chuckle to make her not feel so bad about the dumb joke. But when she turned around, she was met with a solemn look on the boy's face -- the sort of look that he only got when in deep, usually dark thought.

Elodie snapped her fingers. "You okay, buddy?"

"Yeah. I'm okay."

"Penny for your thoughts?"

He shook his head a little sadly. "Trust me. I don't think they're worth even that."

"Bud..." she let the pasta sit on the stove; it could be unattended for at least a moment. The chair screeched against the kitchen tiles, but she hardly heard it over the worried buzzing in her ears. "What's wrong? Was it something I said? Cause -- I mean, I don't think I'm that fuckin' old yet."

"No. No, it's okay." Ellis smiled, but anyone with working eyes would immediately be able to see it was about as fake as the first moon landing. "Nothing to worry about."

"You know I don't believe you, right?"

"Elodie, I'm good."

"You're a terrible liar," she grinned, straining herself to emit positivity. For his sake, whatever was pinching at his mind. "Now, come on...I'm not upset about what happened between me and the guy. I didn't like him that much and I think it was just someone thinking I needed someone that I didn't. I don't really care about it."

"I know."

"Then..."

Ellis sighed, and it struck her as such an oddly wise sound from someone so small. Someone that young shouldn't be allowed or able to make wistful sighs like that. Yet he could. "I just...I don't want to hold you back from life. With dating, or--"

"--you think you hold me back?!"

"Well, I--"

"--Ellie, Ellie, Ellie," she chuckled, taking hold of his tinier hands and gripping them tight. "You are the greatest force in my life, and a great little brother even if you always win Trivia Pursuit and make me buy vegetables."

He cracked the slightest smile. "I don't mean to win."

"I know, you just have too much in that little brain, and it's not fair. But, regardless of my bitterness towards that? I have never felt that you hold me back. In dating, work, life or otherwise. Okay?"

Ellis' bottom lip protruded a little in the softest pout possible. "Promise?"

"Absolutely. I don't really care for dating right now. I'm content with you, work, and what we've got here. And you know...maybe I'll meet someone tomorrow, maybe I'll meet someone in forty years and be one of those whack old couples with them. But I'm not worried about it." She tugged again on his hands. "I promise."

His lips tugged up a little more. "Okay. But...I think you'll find someone before you get old. I'm sure of it."

"Oh, well if I have your seal of belief..." Elodie let go of his hands and ruffled up his locks; she laughed as he immediately reached up to fix them. "We're okay then, right?"

Ellis huffed something about his hair under his breath but nodded -- even still as he pushed his straight brown hair back into its smooth mould. "'Long as you stop doing stuff like that."

"What, stuff like -- that!"

"STOP!"

"Like that?" Her hands pushed away his scrambling fingers, mussing up the shiny strands more and more as he struggled under her, giggling even still. "Like that? Or like that?"

Truthfully, Ellis saw more than she wished he did. She knew he was right on some regard -- loneliness was not a lost friend, but one that came to visit often. There were nights when she wouldn't sleep a wink, just staring out the window wondering if she had made the right call years and years ago or if this was the reality she was destined to live with. There were mornings when she would wake up and somehow convince herself that there was another person in bed with her -- and seconds later deflate when her hand only met more comforter. And sometimes in the evenings after Ellis had gone up to bed, she would sit with her tea and let her tears run down silently, falling over a person she didn't even know. A void in her life she didn't know how to fill.

But at the very same time, she was content. She would be content anyways. Her world was full of good things -- Firebird's was booming and her little brother was an academic force that constantly managed to blow her expectations out of the water, time and time again. She had actual money in her bank account, and a study roof over her head and a life worth living still. Even without someone to hold her when the memories came back to strong, she would be okay.

And that was an Elodie Verbeck-certified fact.

Happy belated Christmas, here's a bittersweet chapter. Sorry it's short (unless you prefer short chapters in which case, hey here you go), more will be explained in coming chapters. But I'm excited to kick off into part two.

Just as a reference, it has been of course seven years (at this point we're at late March, 2019), meaning Elodie is now twenty nine. Ellis is thirteen.

Thank you for reading, let me know what you thought!