Chapter 15
Ellie
Ellie couldn’t believe they were actually standing out in the cold, unlocking the practice for some family from out of town.
Ellie’s mom didn’t ask for many details before saying she’d love to help, so the only thing Ellie knew was that some teenage girl had fallen on the ice and done something to her ankle.
Ellie watched as a car slowly drifted from the road into the parking lot.
It parked in what would have been the closest parking spot if the spots could actually be seen.
Ellie watched as one woman got out of the driver’s side and another out of the passenger side.
They both looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t figure out why, especially if they were from out of town.
When the back door of the car opened, Ellie got her answer.
Slowly, but surely, Sierra stepped out of the car.
Even though it was almost impossible to see anything because of the snow coming down, Sierra’s eyes drifted right to Ellie.
Ellie felt it more than she saw it, but she had no doubt Sierra was watching her.
Every bone in her body told her she was.
Ellie bristled, but it wasn’t from the cold winter air.
Wait . Is she hurt? A feeling of dread passed through Ellie’s body as she thought about all of the times she and Juniper had hoped that very thing would happen.
Now that it could have been the case, she was praying it wasn’t.
She watched Sierra, looking for any sign that she had hurt her ankle, but it was hard to tell with the low visibility.
From what she could see, Sierra’s figure was walking from her side of the car to the other.
She opened up the door and helped someone else.
Duh. Her sister. Ellie could only assume she was her sister, at least, since they looked exactly alike.
Sierra was built more like an athlete, which was to say she had all muscle and no meat.
Her sister had less muscle and a little more cushioning around the midsection.
The two older women, who must have been Sierra’s moms, walked to the back of the car as well and helped Sierra get her sister out. The four of them struggled to walk from the car to the office, but soon enough, they were standing in the lobby of the office with Ellie’s family.
“I can’t thank you enough for coming in to see us,” the woman with long auburn hair said to them.
“I’m Brooke Finnegan. My daughter, Sienna, is the one who slipped on the ice.
” Her eyes slowly drifted from Ellie’s moms to Ellie.
“Wait a second. You’re Ellie Finch.” She put an arm around Sierra, who hadn’t made eye contact with Ellie since making it inside. “You’re on the track team with Sierra.”
Ellie saw when the realization hit both of her moms about who this was. It was obvious they were intrigued after everything Ellie had told them.
Ellie’s mom stepped forward and took Brooke’s hand. “It’s very nice to meet you. I’m Ellie’s mom, Brinley.”
“Very nice to meet you,” Brooke said.
A brunette stepped up beside Brooke and held her hand out as well. “I’m Tiffany Finnegan.”
Brinley grabbed Tiffany’s hand, but stood frozen for a moment. “You look oddly familiar to me.”
“Me?” Tiffany furrowed her eyebrows for a moment. “Maybe you saw me at the meet, and you’re recognizing me from that.”
“Maybe.” Brinley shook her head. “I just feel like I know you for some reason.”
“You do feel familiar to me too.” Tiffany looked between Brinley and Ellie’s mama, Annalise. “You both do. But, it could definitely be from seeing you at the track meet.”
“You didn’t ever happen to live in this area, did you?” Annalise asked with a laugh as if she suspected the answer to be no.
Tiffany pointed between herself and her wife. “Not Jersey, but we both lived in and around Philadelphia at one point.”
Brinley laughed now too. “Wait. I also used to live in Philly. Maybe we have met at some point.”
“Small world, huh?” Tiffany laughed, but it was short-lived, and her eyes went wide as she stared at Brinley.
Ellie watched as her mom’s eyes went wide at the same time, and she swallowed hard. “Very small world,” she said with a nervous giggle.
Okay, what the hell is happening?
Tiffany looked all around her before putting her focus on Sierra’s sister. “Anyway, this is Sienna, Sierra’s twin sister. She fell coming out of our hotel this morning and did a number on her ankle.”
Brinley bent down in front of Sienna and felt her ankle.
“Definitely might be broken. If you come with me, I can do a few tests.” She stood back up and looked at Ellie and her mama.
“Annalise, could you begin getting Sienna’s information put into our computer system? And Ellie, stay with your friend.”
Friend . That seemed like a very strong word for Sierra, but also, somehow, didn’t feel like enough. Soon, it was just Ellie and Sierra left in the room, both of them staring at the floor awkwardly.
Ellie cleared her throat and pointed behind them. “Want to have a seat? I’m guessing this will take a while.”
“S-sure,” Sierra answered hesitantly, as if she was anything but sure.
Ellie led the way back to the waiting room chairs and sat down, motioning for Sierra to take the seat beside her. Part of her expected Sierra to refuse to sit next to her, but Ellie was pleasantly surprised when she did.
“So, what happened to your sister?” Ellie asked, desperate to find any way to break the ice between them.
Sierra snorted. “She’s an idiot. She was walking way too fast and not paying attention, as usual, and completely ate it on the ice.”
Ellie cringed as an ache came to her legs just from the thought.
“Sounds painful. I’m glad it wasn’t you.
” Ellie cringed again, but this time, it was at herself.
Why the hell would she say something like that?
“I just mean, that would really suck for the track team. You did an amazing job yesterday, by the way.”
Amazing segue, Finch. Ten out of ten. Very demure.
Sierra’s eyes widened, but then her face softened. “Thanks. I really appreciate that. So did you, obviously, but that’s a given by now, right?”
Ellie shook her head as the same nerves that ran through her body whenever she thought about track returned.
“It doesn’t feel like that to me. Every meet I wonder if it’s going to be the one where I forget how to run or something.
I’m constantly afraid I won’t live up to all of the expectations people have of me. ”
It was weird for Ellie to say that out loud to someone her own age. She had shared that fear with her parents, who obviously assured her that she would never let them down, but she’d never voiced it to one of her peers. Not even Juniper.
“That’s funny, because you carry yourself with such confidence. When you race, it’s clear you know that’s where you belong, and no one is going to take that from you. I would have guessed you never get nervous.”
“Yeah, kind of disappointing, huh?” Ellie asked, her mind going back to the words Sierra spoke about not meeting your hero. Words that still haunted her to this day.
Sierra shook her head. “I like that you get nervous. It makes you more real. More human.”
Sierra looked over at Ellie, and when their eyes met, all of the air was sucked from her lungs.
She felt like she was floating outside of her body.
It was the exact same feeling she’d had when Sierra’s eyes met hers on the bus ride.
Ellie knew she had to say something, but she couldn’t remember how to form words.
She opened and closed her mouth a few times, before she was finally able to get words to come out.
“I’m really sorry about ditching our dinner plans.
They weren’t fake. I was so happy you agreed to go.
When I got back to my apartment that night, I found Juniper in her room, crying.
I couldn’t leave my best friend when she needed me.
I know it doesn’t seem like it from your perspective, but she’s actually a really good person.
She just doesn’t always like to show that side of herself.
Throughout college, she’s been an amazing friend to me.
She’s the type of friend who would drop anything to be there for me.
Have you ever had a friend like that? Someone who might seem a bit standoffish or bitchy to other people, but you see the soft side of them, so you’d defend them until the end of time? ”
Ellie didn’t know why she was so set on proving to Sierra that she and Juniper weren’t bad people, but she needed her to realize that was the case.
Sierra blinked a few times, and it looked like she might start to cry. She gazed at something behind Ellie, a distant, hard look surfacing on her face as she did. “I did. Well, I thought I saw a soft side of her. It’s not there anymore.”
Ellie wanted to know what Sierra was talking about, but she didn’t want to push her to talk about something that made her uncomfortable. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“She was actually…” Sierra shook her head rather than finishing her sentence. “Never mind. I don’t know why I’m talking so much right now.”
“You can tell me anything,” Ellie reassured her. What she really wanted was for Sierra to tell her everything .
“It’s okay. You don’t have to be nice to me just because I’m stuck in your hometown while your mom takes care of my sister.”
Was that really what Sierra thought? What else did Ellie have to do to prove herself? She didn’t have time to figure that out, because her mom and Sierra’s family walked back into the lobby at that very moment.
Sierra’s sister pointed to the boot that she was now wearing. “Broke a bone in my ankle. This amazing doctor believes I’ll be fine as long as I wear this boot for the rest of my life.”
Tiffany rolled her eyes. “She’s being dramatic. She needs to wear it for a month or two. If we ever get home, we’ll set up a follow-up with Dr. Ohrs.”
Annalise looked out the window and gritted her teeth together. “I hope you don’t have too far to go.”
Tiffany’s smile dropped from her face. “Unfortunately, we do. We’re over four hours away on a clear day. I think we might have to get a hotel and wait for the storm to pass.”
“We can’t!” Sierra said so loudly it caused Ellie to jump in surprise. “What if Mel goes into labor? I can’t miss my first nephew being born.”
Add that to the list of things Ellie didn’t know about Sierra. Apparently, she was going to be an aunt.
Sienna raised her hand. “I personally think we should stay. We’ll never meet our nephew if we don’t make it home, and given the fact that there’s no visibility out there, I’d say there’s a pretty good chance we wouldn’t.”
Sierra looked between her moms as if she was desperate for one of them to say they would make the drive. “But what about work?”
Brooke laughed. “I’m sure the school will survive if I work remotely for a few days and your mama can literally work from anywhere.” Her face softened as she looked at her daughter. “What’s the real problem, sweetie?”
“I just really don’t want to have to stay in a hotel.
” The way Sierra’s voice cracked made Ellie believe she was trying to hold back tears, and that broke her heart.
She had no clue what was going on with this girl, but it had to be something.
It was as if she was always on the edge of a mental breakdown.
An idea popped into Ellie’s head. It was probably an awful idea, but right now, it felt like the best idea in the world. Ellie looked between her parents. “Mom, Mama, could I talk to you in the back?”
Brinley squinted her eyes at Ellie as if she was trying to figure out what her daughter was up to. “That’s a little rude when there are people here. Don’t you think?”
“Please?”
Brinley looked away from Ellie to focus her attention on Sierra’s family. “I’m sorry. Give us just a moment.”
Ellie walked with her parents through the office and into the break room in the back. “I think we should ask them if they want to stay with us until the storm passes. It’s not like we don’t have the space.”
There were four bedrooms in their house. The guest room and her brother’s old room were completely vacant right now. Sierra’s moms could stay in one room, and her and her sister could stay in the other. It was perfect.
Much to Ellie’s surprise, her mom shook her head. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea, sweetheart.”
Ellie was shocked her mom would actually say no to this. “Aren’t you the one who is always preaching about going out of your way to help others? This is the perfect opportunity to do that. Come on. It’s the holidays. They shouldn’t have to stay in a hotel. Not when we have the space.”
“I just really don’t think it’s the best idea,” her mom repeated.
“Why not?” Ellie asked. She definitely wasn’t going to let her mom off that easily.
“Yeah, why not?” her mama asked, clearly just as confused about Brinley’s reaction as Ellie was.
“I’ll tell you later,” Brinley whispered to Annalise as if Ellie wouldn’t hear it when she was standing right in front of them.
So odd.
Annalise smiled at Ellie. “They can absolutely stay at our house. We’re not making them stay in a hotel during the holidays. You’re right.” She looked at Brinley and lifted an eyebrow as if to tell her she needed to agree.
Brinley shrugged. “Okay, you’re right. We should definitely ask them. Just don’t be offended if they don’t say yes.”
Ellie squealed and gave both of her moms a hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
When they went back out, Brinley was the one who spoke. “We think you all should stay at our house. There’s no reason to stay at a hotel when we have the space and we’re just a few minutes from here.”
Brooke shook her head. “We wouldn’t want to impose.”
“Yeah, we couldn’t,” Tiffany added more firmly.
“As the one with the broken ankle, I think I should have the final say, and I’d feel the most comfortable if I stayed with a doctor while we’re here. That way, if I need anything, she’ll be right there to help,” Sienna said.
Ellie could have sworn she saw Sierra glare at her sister, but she didn’t say a word in response to her.
“She does have a point,” Brooke said. She looked over at Annalise and Brinley again. “But only if you’re sure. Like I said, the last thing we want to do is impose.”
“We are positive. The more the merrier, right?” Annalise asked. Everyone nodded in agreement, but only half the room seemed to actually mean it.
Sierra was not one of the people who looked happy about their arrangement, but now Ellie had time to work on that. It was shaping up to be a very interesting Christmas break.