on any other day

Eric was holding up a copy of Birthday Massacre's latest CD. He'd just gotten off his shift at Homers records, and Ellie was just finishing up at the library.

"Opening band for MSI." He was still excited about the show. Soon. They'd be seeing Jimmy Urine and the gang. Soon.

"Cool." She hoped they stayed in the balcony at the concert like he said. She wasn't exactly mosh pit material.

They went back to his place, and he put on the CD even though he could have just brought up the music files on his computer.

"I can't wait." Eric sighed and Ellie wondered if it would be life changing by the way he acted, and danced around basically like a pogo stick when actually, it was all electronica and sort of Kim Wilde.

She danced around with him wondering where this was going. Finally, the jumping slowed down. Then it was a slow moving dance where they just held each other. Really, she hoped the concert was more of this than the jumping that shook her stomach.

Then as the song ended, sirens started.

Eric turned off the CD player then.

He coughed a laugh. "What the hell? Somebody steal a library book?"

They both looked out of his bedroom window and saw cop cars along with a few cops on motorcycles and some detectives. They had a teenager on the ground. Handcuffed.

First Ellie thought it was Kyle. The hairstyle was shaggy like his.

"Wooo," Eric said as he kept staring.

"You know who that is?" Ellie asked.

"No, no, not really, but Kyle does." He shrugged.

"And what does that mean?" She gave him a cold stare.

Eric scratched the side of his cheek then. "You don't want to know." He couldn't help but grin and then plopped himself down on his bed and drew her in. "Just don't think about it. All right."

Ellie nodded. She knew she could figure this mystery out. Easily.

He stroked her hair away from her face.

"You know, there are a lot of other things I know we could be doing right now." He kissed her forehead.

Ellie smiled. Yet she wondered if they were sinking into something far worse than getting high.

As of yet, it was just one step closer to being closer than the day before. And it was always a small thrill she found fascinating at the moment to spend the afternoon with him. Nude. Maybe they didn't have to go all the way, but eventually, it was inevitable. And she'd thought about this every waking moment it seemed.

Even if there was this daily routine. Eric went to open the store. She did her chores at home gladly, went to the library. It was like clock work. And everything was insync. Except for this little glitch. And Ellie found herself ready to change it.

"I think I want birth control," she said to Eric and not her mother. She'd never talk about this to her mother. Never. She knew her mother would be upset. She was already upset enough with her sister. It would be just impossible to explain what she needed when all along her mother would be telling her, "Just don't do it." Plain and simple. And she wished it could be that simple. It should be. Why wasn't she as strong as she used to be?

"OK." As if, it could be something that could drop from the ceiling like a safety device. "Do you want me to go to the clinic with you?"

She just nodded. "And it'll be confidential, won't it?"

"I guess."

But then the more she thought of an appointment with strangers, the more she wished it was over. Ellie hugged him tighter.

"Its not the end of the world," he said, but Ellie was pretty sure it would be if her mother found out what she was doing. It wasn't something she could ask for, for her birthday next week. And nobody seemed to want her to get her driver's license, either. But it was time to make some decisions. It was time.