Chapter 20
Sierra
After a long day of shoveling, the moms forced all three girls to have a game night with them.
Halfway through the night, Sienna announced she was too tired to keep going and went up to bed.
When everyone else decided they’d had enough, Ellie asked Sierra if she wanted to stay up to watch a movie with her, but Sierra was exhausted.
The day had been emotionally and physically taxing, and she could barely keep her eyes open.
“Tomorrow?” Sierra asked when she saw the disappointment on Ellie’s face.
The disappointment immediately faded away when Ellie broke into a wide grin. “Really? Yes. That would be great.”
The whole next day, Sierra tried to be present, but it was hard with thoughts of her impending movie night running through her head. It was almost as if her body hadn’t gotten the memo that this wasn’t a date. Because it totally wasn’t. I mean, come on, Sienna would probably be there too.
Except… she wasn’t. When Ellie asked her about watching the movie with them, she made up an obvious lie about how tired she was.
That was exactly why Sierra and Ellie were sitting in Ellie’s bed, much closer to each other than was necessary for them to be. This isn’t a date, she reminded herself again.
“Do you want to watch the movie right away or are you okay to talk for a little?” Ellie asked.
“Talking is cool.”
“Cool,” Ellie responded teasingly.
“What… should we talk about?”
“Hmm. I got it. Which movie villain do you think got an unfair rep?”
That was definitely not what Sierra expected Ellie to say, but she was appreciative they weren’t going too deep. It didn’t take Sierra long to think of her answer and she delivered it with confidence. “Definitely Gaston. He was just trying to save the kidnapped girl.”
“Gaston?” Ellie’s voice was a combination of surprise and disgust. “Gaston has that fragile white male ego. Men like him are the reason I’m a lesbian. Terrible pick.”
“Fine” Sierra tried to make her voice sound annoyed, but that was impossible since it was the opposite of how she was feeling. “Who’s your pick?”
“Definitely Carrie. Her mom was terrible. Her classmates were the worst. Everyone in that movie deserved to die.”
Sierra choked out a laugh. “Wow. That’s dark.”
Ellie simply smirked in return. “I know.”
They continued to go back and forth like this for the next hour, telling each other so much without really revealing anything at all.
When Ellie asked if they should start the movie, Sierra thought about saying no since she was enjoying their conversation.
She had to admit that a movie also sounded great, though.
She definitely didn’t regret her decision when the movie started and Ellie and her naturally snuggled closer together. There weren’t any intentional touches, but with how tightly they were pressed together, Sierra could feel Ellie everywhere.
“Thanks for agreeing to watch this with me,” Ellie whispered.
“There’s nowhere I’d rather be right now,” Sierra answered honestly.
The smile that confession brought to Ellie’s face caused Sierra’s stomach to somersault.
Their hands were already resting against each other, but when Ellie moved her finger the slightest bit to stroke the top of Sierra’s, lighting bolts flashed through her body as if she was in the midst of the most amazing storm.
After a few minutes of continuing this motion, Ellie’s finger wrapped around Sierra’s. Ellie smiled over at Sierra and Sierra smiled back, and fireworks went off around them (at least, that’s how it felt). It was the most innocent thing in the world, but right now, it was everything .
When Sierra noticed her eyes becoming heavy, she decided not to fight it. As she began to drift off to sleep, Ellie’s head came down to rest against hers. “Is this okay?” she asked.
“It’s perfect.” Sierra could hardly get the words out since she could barely breathe.
Slowly, but surely, Sierra let sleep overtake her and she drifted into the most restful snooze she had in a long time.
A few hours later, when Sierra woke up, her finger was no longer intertwined with Ellie’s, but instead, their bodies were.
Ellie had an arm and a leg draped over Sierra, and Sierra was leaning heavily into her.
The last thing she wanted to do was leave this perfect cocoon they were in together, but she figured it would be awkward if they woke up in bed together in the morning.
She slowly extracted herself from underneath Ellie’s body, careful not to wake her up.
She crept across the hall and slowly opened the bedroom door to try to keep the sound from waking up Sienna.
She tiptoed across the room and delicately pulled back the covers so she could get into bed.
She let out a relieved breath when Sienna didn’t even flinch beside her.
Sierra tried to fall asleep, but she was finding it impossible with the absence of Ellie’s body. She picked up her phone so she could mindlessly scroll through social media, but when she did, she noticed a text had come through from Ellie.
You could have stayed. The bed feels cold without you.
Sierra felt like her brain was short-circuiting as she tried to figure out what to say to Ellie. I didn’t want Sienna to get the wrong idea…
Or was it the right idea? Sierra wasn’t sure at this point.
And what would that idea be? ;)
Sierra really didn’t know what to say to that.
When did this shift happen? When did they become the people who sent each other flirty texts?
A week ago, Sierra didn’t even know if Ellie was a nice person.
Now she wanted nothing more than to stay up all night texting her.
Okay, actually, there was one thing she wanted more.
She wanted to stay up talking to Ellie, their fingers still intertwined.
Goodnight, Ellie :)
It felt like a safe response. The smiley face still made it flirty without giving too much away.
Same time and place tomorrow?
Sierra smiled down at her phone. I’m in. The smile never left her face as she closed her eyes and drifted back off to sleep.
***
The next day was similar to the one prior.
They shoveled (mostly alone), spent the rest of the day with their families, and fell into bed together to watch a movie and talk until they couldn’t keep their eyes open anymore.
When Sierra woke up in the middle of the night again, she thought about staying, but it felt like a bad idea with so many unanswered questions between them.
Before getting out of bed, she pushed a piece of hair behind Ellie’s ear and watched her sleep. She didn’t want Ellie to wake up and find Sierra staring at her, so she forced herself to get up and walk out of the room.
“Same time and place tomorrow,” Ellie said sleepily as Sierra was slipping out of the room.
As requested, the next night, they found themselves in the exact same position. “How would you feel about skipping the movie tonight, so we can talk more? I’m really enjoying getting to know you better.”
“Having fun learning about all of my thoughts on book and movie characters?” Sierra teased.
“You’re right. Our conversations have been much more surface level these past few days. Tell me something deeper.” Ellie wiggled her eyebrows. “Or juicier.”
This didn’t feel like the safe little bubble Sierra was trying to keep them in, but with Ellie looking at her that way, she forgot why she needed to protect herself. “What do you want to know?”
“Hmm.” Ellie tapped her chin as if she was thinking. “Let’s start easy. What’s your middle name?”
“That is easy, because I don’t have one.”
“You don’t have a middle name?” Ellie scrunched up her nose. “I thought everyone had a middle name.”
Sierra shrugged. “Not me and Sienna. Our birth parents apparently didn’t find them important.”
“Interesting. Sierra No-Middle-Name Finnegan. I like it.”
Sierra waved her hand in a go-on motion. “And now it’s your turn. What’s your full name?”
Ellie cringed. “I guess I walked myself into that one, huh?”
“You kinda did.”
Ellie sighed. “Fine. I was named after two of my great grandmas, so my full name is Eleanor Patricia Finch.”
Sierra pinched her lips together to try to keep from laughing. It really was an old lady's name. “I can see why you go by Ellie.”
“Hey!” Ellie grabbed a pillow and hit Sierra with it before she could duck away. “Since you decided to be mean, I’m not going to take it as easy on you with this next question. How many people have you kissed?”
Sierra swallowed hard. “Just one.” Talking about kisses made her think about the person she didn’t want to be thinking about right now. “How ’bout you?” she asked before Ellie could ask any follow-up questions.
A small crease formed on Ellie’s forehead as she thought about Sierra’s question, and it took all of Sierra’s willpower not to reach out and run her finger over it. “Ten to fifteen maybe? Some of them were girls I made out with at parties, so does that even count?”
Sierra’s heart clenched. That definitely counted.
Until this moment, Sierra had let herself forget about what happened at that track party.
Now, it was all she could think about. Part of her wanted to run away again and another part of her wanted to call Ellie out for what she had done.
There was a third, much smaller, part of her that wanted to crash her lips into Ellie’s to prove to her how much more chemistry they had.
“Like Teresa?” she asked. Apparently, her mouth had decided she was going with the second option.
Ellie looked genuinely confused by Sierra’s question. “Who’s Teresa?”
It was strange that Teresa was the person who had torn Sierra’s whole world apart and Ellie didn’t even know her name. Maybe that wasn’t the weirdest thing since it was a random hookup at a party. “My roommate. The redhead. The one you have a big crush on and made out with at that track party.”
Now, Ellie looked even more confused. “I didn’t realize that girl’s name was Teresa, but just for the record, I didn’t make out with her at that party.”
“You didn’t?”
Ellie shook her head. “No. This was really bitchy of me, but I only said I was going to because I thought it would piss you off since I was convinced you were homophobic. Once you stormed out, and I felt like I had accomplished what I wanted to, I told everyone it was a joke. I had no interest in kissing her. She’s not my type at all . ”
It made no sense. Why had Teresa made it sound like they had made out when they actually hadn’t? Did she just want to hurt Sierra even more? Also, why was Ellie saying that Teresa wasn’t her type when she had been caught checking her out multiple times? “Really? Then who’s your type?”
“Girls with a little bit of mystery about them. The more competitive, the better. Normally blondes. In a nutshell— you . I was never actually checking out your roommate. It was a lie I told Juniper, so she didn’t realize I was actually checking out you.
You caught my eye at the state track meet last year and haven’t stopped catching it since. ”
There were so many questions Sierra needed to ask Ellie. So much more she needed to know. Right now, she wasn’t looking for an explanation, though. Right now, she needed something else. “You should probably kiss me before I change my mind.”