sweet 16

"I'm telling you, for real," Ellie spoke in to her cell to Eric just before midnight. "Its like she's demented."

"Dementia?"

"No, just demented." Ellie sighed. How could she make him understand? "Why wouldn't Mom tell me? Why wouldn't she tell me about Ben?"

"You don't tell her everything," he reminded her.

"OK, I don't. I'm a private person." Did he have to bring up the birth control? He hadn't asked, but then she told him. "OK, I'm taking the damn pills."

"Jesus! You don't have too. If you don't want to. That's not what I'm getting at," he sighed.

In a minute she'd be sixteen, and here she was arguing.

"I'm just frustrated. I didn't meant it. I do want the birth control pills. I'm sorry," she winced, but she had to go back to these questions about her mother. "Did she send me here to find out? Is that why she's doing this?" She pulled her fingers back through her black hair as she laid back on her bed wishing she was anywhere but here.

"Happy Birthday," Eric then said.

Ellie smiled, and she remembered what Kyle had told her. Everything wasn't about her, yet listening to Eric, she knew this was about her, and she should stop talking about a brother, she just might have. It was her birthday, and she was sixteen.

"Thanks." Her heart ached. She wished he was here. She wished she knew none of this. "I love you," she told him. "I wish I was with you. Right now."

"I should just map quest and come and get you," Eric was serious. "You shouldn't be there."

"No, you can't!" She scolded him. "You want to keep your job, don't you? It would cost a fortune to come down here."

"But its a KIA, it gets a good gas mileage," Eric told her. "I don't care how much it cost."

"Even so. Don't. I have to get through this. Some how. God, I'm sixteen and its possibly the worst birthday ever." She bit her bottom lip to keep from crying. "I'm so sorry, for being like this."

"Don't be. I want to see you. I can't think straight with out you around. Everything is just not the same without you. I want you back, and I want to get you. I want to get you before something bad happens!" Eric talked nonstop.

"I don't think anything bad will happen. I can't see you coming all the way down here by yourself. I'd be worried. You're Mom would think you'd gone crazy. You have to calm down. Calm down."

"No, I'm going to find a way to come there. I will. I'm going to." He sounded so certain.

"Will you please get some sleep, " Ellie sighed. "We'll talk about it tomorrow. All right? I love you."

"I love you." With that they hung up.

Of course her phone rang immediately. She just knew he was calling back. But it was Leia.

"All right, better late than never, I know," Leia started in immediately. "Have you had some time to cool off by now?"

"Leia? I wasn't sure if you'd ever speak to me again."

"You were wired. Totally wired that night you called from the concert, " Leia said. "You're not taking drugs are you?"

"No."

"I swear if that Eric guy has you on drugs, I'm coming back to kick his ass," Leia remarked.

"God, what are going on about? Eric is not the problem. I'm with Eric and you just can't talk that way about him." Ellie told her.

"Here it is your birthday and we're arguing over a guy," Leia then said. "I don't know why you have to get so bitchy about Roxie. You know, she thinks the world of you."

"And pigs fly? What?" Ellie grimaced.

"Yeah, she says all these nice things about you when you're not around. I don't know why she's such a brat around you. Its like you bring out the worst in her, or something. She's not that way with me."

"And you were with her ex." Ellie reminded her.

"Yeah, well, he took both of us to that dance, you know."

"You were OK with that?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah, by then, it didn't much matter. I kind of knew it was over before it actually happened. I don't know what happened. The beginning was good. Great, even. He was so hot. Then it got all boring because it was like the same thing, again and again. I don't know. I don't know when the awesome factor flamed out. Really. But it was more of a fizzle. You know, and I tried to keep things going."

Ellie felt numb listening to Leia's words. It felt like she was talking about a disease. She so wanted an immune shot to that.

"Well, I just don't get Roxie. I don't. I don't know why you'd want to even be her friend. I don't like her. I still don't. Even if you tell me she does like me."

"She's never really had a girlfriend, all right. Except, maybe me. And she's really not as competitive as you think she might be. Looks can really be deceiving, you know, El," Leia said.

Ellie would have to think about it. They talked a bit more about her birthday and how much it sucked to be alone on your birthday. Leia made her laugh about something silly one of her cousins does when he dances.

"He farts every time when the Young-blood brass band plays." Leia finished up with a joke about her cousin.

Ellie just smiled. They were really talking again, and it could be about nothing.