The Irony
Joel had pulled Ellie aside the day they met Mac and Emma, and warned her to keep the bite hidden, or else they would shoot her without hesitation. Ellie had laughed and said-’You didn’t shoot me when you saw it, old man,’ which made Joel's face harden.
“I’m serious Ellie.” Ellie immediately felt bad, it was Tess that had convinced him not to shoot.
“Ok, sorry. No bite shown. Got it” And the conversation ended there. But now, the blood trickled down her arm she looked up to Joel, who jumped up and stood protectively in front of her, guarding her from the other pair. Mac had his gun out, but not aimed. Emma's jaw was dropped and a tear trickled down her face.
“I’m gonna speak real nice and clearly, and you are going to listen, understand?” Joel said, gun in his hands positioned so that if need be, he can raise it in an instant. Mac set the gun on the ground, to show he wasn’t gonna do anything.
“Yes sir.” Mac replied, his voice wobbly, but not breaking. Emma just stared at the bite, tears silently falling down her face.
“Ellie here is immune. Don’t know why, don’t know how. But she is, been bitten twice before. I’m gonna clean the wound and we are gonna keep on moving, and not shoot Ellie. Got it?” Joel said, making it very clear that this was not up for discussion. Ellie was glad for that.
“What-I Don't understand.” Emma said, wiping her tears and her face full of confusion. Ellit stood up, and yanked her sleeve up.
“See look, two healed bite marks. One’s fresh. Kinda funny how they are all on the same arm.” Ellie giggled, she wasn’t sure why but she did. She thought of Riley. ‘Riley would think it was funny how all my bite marks are on the same fucking arm.’ Oh god, Ellie was gonna think of Riley everytime she looked at her arm. Her fucking arm. She kept giggling, and then laughing, so hard that she doubled over….
Then she started crying. Every emotion that had been building up inside of her since the mall came out. She felt mortified but didn’t stop. A had touched her back, she was about to scream at Joel not to touch her, but it wasn’t Joel. Suddenly she didn’t wanna scream as much.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Emma felt happy. Then terrified. Then helpless. Then relieved. Then confused. So confused. Why was Ellie crying? She went over Ellie and placed a hand on her back, rubbing small circles in a comforting manner, like her brother did when she was having a panic attack. She sat down next to Ellie, and slowly put an arm around her shoulders, bringing her in. She just comforted her, not pressuring her to talk. She only cried like this once, and it was the first time she had been called a dyke. She hadn’t come to terms with her identity yet, and it felt like shit. She went home to her brother, on the verge of tears and broke down the second he asked what was wrong. He held her and let her cry. He asked a few times what had happened and she refused to answer, and he dropped it. That was the day she realized she was Bi. Ellie cried for about 2 minutes in total, and when she stopped, she looked embarrassed.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cry like that, just, the irony reminded me of something and, I don’t know. I’m so sorry that was so lame-” Ellie rambled. She would have kept going if Emma didn't stop her.
“Hey, shh. You're fine, I’ve cried like this before too. We all have shit we don’t wanna talk about. I get it. If you wanna talk, I’m all ears.” Emma soothed. Mac and Joel were standing about 4 feet away, standing there awkwardly unsure of what to do. Emma waved them off, and they did not need to be told twice.
“What did the grape say when it got crushed?” Ellie asked, smiling widely at Emma. Emma basically fell in love right there. She knew from the look Ellie was giving her that she had a massive crush on Ellie, despite knowing her for so little time.
“What?” Emma asked,trying to keep her cool like she didn’t just have a massive realization, heat rising into her face.
“Nothing, it just let out a little wine.” Ellie went into a fit of giggles, Emma joining her.
“Come on, let’s go find Mac and your dad,” Emma said, offering a hand to Ellie.
“He’s not my dad, dumbass. Have you heard me say dad at all?” Ellie questioned, grabbing Emma's hand and standing up. This surprised Emma, Joel was so protective of Ellie she was almost positive.
“Huh, ok then, let’s go find Mac and Joel.” She corrected. The two walked over and saw the pair sitting in the car, they hopped in and they were off.
After about five minutes, both the girls were bored, so Ellie gave Emma a mischievous look before reaching into her backpack and grabbing something. When her hand came back up Emma’s eyes almost flew out of her head, but she knew what she was gonna do with it, fuck with the guys, duh.
“I got this magazine while at Bill and Franks, thought it looked worth the read.” Ellie started.
“Good for you kid.” Joel replied, not bothering to look back. Mac did not do the same.
“Ellie! That is not for kids!” Mac scolded, drawing Joel's attention to the back seat.
“It’s got some interesting pictures, little light on the reading though.”Emma said, flipping through the page with Ellie.
“Girls! Put that damn thing away! That is not for little girls!” Joel's eyes looked like they were about to pop.
“Hold your horses, just wanna see what all the fuss is about.” Ellie rolled her eyes, and flipped the page again.
“Woah!” Emma exclaimed, as they got to the especially graphic page.
“How the hell does he walk around with that thing?!” Ellie looked mortified, and the girls couldn’t stop giggling. Mac kept reaching for the magazine, but couldn’t get it from Ellie dodging.
“Chill out man! See, look gone.” Ellie rolled down the window, and threw the magazine out with one last goodbye.
About 6 hours later, they made camp and got some sleep, but they needed to be on the road again.
“Emma, go get your brother, taking way too long back there, make sure he didn’t get mauled or some shit.” Joel said, him and Ellie packing up the car.
“Got it.” And with that she walked in the direction of the woods that her brother went in.
Emma thought she had a pretty difficult life, living in a QZ and going to a Fedra school, but nothing had traumatized her as bad as what the sight in front of her did.
Her brother, looking at a propped up porno magizine of some random women, jacking off. Emma screamed and turned away. Mac jumped and redressed his-bits- and screamed as well.
“Wha-I-HURRY THE FUCK UP MAC WERE ABOUT TO LEAVE!” Emma yelled running back to the campsite, gagging all the way, leaving her brother there in a state of shock.
“Is he coming?” Joel said, not looking up from what he was doing in the trunk.
“He's uh- he's cumming all right.” Emma said, hands on her knees, trying not to vomit.
“Shit- Em you good?” Ellie said, running over to her, and putting a hand on her back. Normally the nickname would cause her heart to warm and speed up, but right now she was trying to keep her lunch in her stomach.
“Yea, just never, ever, ever, bring up this moment again. Please.” Emma said hooking arms with Ellie and walking back to the car, getting in. Mac came back, backpack on his shoulder, and face as red as a tomato. Joel said something, and he answered looking down at his shoes, and Joel busted out laughing, harder than either of the girls ever had seen. Ellie was clueless, but Emma had an idea of what he said.
“The fucks that about?” Ellie said, eyebrows furrowed.
“I don’t wanna talk about it.” Emma put her head on Ellies shoulder, not even paying attention to what she was doing.
~~~~~~~~~~
‘Her head is on my shoulder. Her head is on MY shoulder. HER HEAD IS ON MY SHOULDER!’ Ellie was blushing beet red and was unsure of what to do, so just sat there, as the two men got inside the car, Joel shot her a knowing smirk, which she returned with a glare, but Mac was too in his head to notice.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The girls both fell asleep and Mac tried to forget what had happened, and was going to tease the absolute shit out of Emma for snuggling Ellie in her sleep. She doesn’t know he knows about her preferences, and he never brought it up. But now, he just had to tease his sister, it was his brotherly job (that and intimidating Ellie, but would never admit to it.)
“They’ve gotten close, huh?” Mac said, trying to get a feel of Joel's stance on gay people.
“Sure have, reckon Ellie called Emma her best friend, but they seem, ah, very close. A lot like Bill and Frank if yk what I mean.” Joel rambled.
‘Damn, he went straight to the point.’ Mac thought. He wasn’t expecting Joel to pick up on that.
“Yeah, I guess they have.” Mac replied, and the two just sat in a comfortable silence for a bit, enjoying the drive.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Emma woke up, temporarily blinded by the sunlight streaming from the car windows. She was going to sit up, but felt so comfortable and just stayed there. ‘Wait, why the fuck am I so comfortable?’ She looked at her surroundings. ‘HOLY FUCK I AM LAYING ON ELLIE LIKE FULL ON SNUGGLING OH MY GOSH SHES GONNA HATE ME’ She internally rambled for like a millisecond when it clicked, Ellie was, snuggling back? She had a hand on Emma's back and was curled up in a similar way Emma was, feet to the side of the seat closest to the door, and head on Emmas. She was freaking out in a totally different way now. ‘Ellie might like me back. Ellie might LIKE ME BACK! Or, maybe this was platonic? Idk we are pretty close...’