and another thing

They went to Kyle's house. Ok, of course, Ellie thought, that would be next to drop off. It was way into the night, the wee hours of the morning.

She was groggy and a little lost even if Eric was dropped off first. Here they were at Kyle's. Ellie stayed in the car.

"Ok, lets get unloaded," Ellie's Dad said.

Ellie didn't move. This was not happening. Right? She'd go home. Take a look around her room. Maybe a shower, check her e-mail then maybe listen to some tunes and perhaps doze off, if she could, but she was wired to be home.

Only, her Dad cut the engine. He got out. Everyone did. Ellie felt kind of lost.

After her Dad and Kyle unloaded the mini-van, her Dad opened the cargo door. "I did tell you, you live here now."

Ellie froze. No. No one had a said a thing to her. How was that possible?

Ok, so....

1. her parents split up.
2. they still had a home even if it was just the two of them.

"Dad's what are you talking about?" Ellie winced getting out of the van. "Tell me what's going on? You haven't even divorced Mom."

"That's a done deal."

"Are you kidding me?"

"All right, we've had the papers drawn up for a long time. I know I should have have said something, but your mother didn't want me too. I think she kept thinking we'd make it work because I wanted it so badly. But it ended. And-"

"And now you're with Kyle's mother? Oh my God!" Ellie didn't mean to sound so frantic, "How could you?"

"You like her."

"Yes, she's all right, but she's Kyle's Mom." Ellie shook her head, no. "You just hook up with the first person you meet? And now this? You just move in and instant family!"

"Don't say that." Her father squinted back. "You don't know everything. Joan's been there for me. And we were friends for an awful long time before anything else happened."

"Really?" This was news to Ellie. "Its true I don't know everything because no one lets me in on anything going on with our family!" She kept thinking what was their family. Somehow that was a fading memory. Now it was just the two of them. "I want to talk to Mom about this."

"You are going to live with us, aren't you? I don't think she planned on you wanting to move in with her."

"I don't want to live with Mom. I just need to talk to her. We need to talk. She won't talk to me."

"She doesn't talk to me," Ellie's Dad informed her. "What makes you think she's got anything to say to you?"

He was probably right, but still she wanted to talk, hoping for the better. She followed her Dad into the house. There was Kyle waiting on the stairway.

"You have your own room, you know," he told her as he ran up the stairs ahead of her to show her the room next to his.

"Eric and I tried really hard to duplicate what your room already looked like. He took pictures and we moved everything to the same spot as closely as we could."

Ellie looked around and saw that her desk was there along with her black laptop. It was her bed. Her shelves of crocheted animals were along the wall, a few were missing.

"Eric wanted to hang on to a couple of them to sleep with, hope you don't mind," Kyle said.

Ellie just nodded as she saw the room was painted a sunny yellow to go with the bedspread and the curtains she had in her old room. It was very much like she remembered.

She did manage a quiet thank you, but really all she wanted was to be alone. There was a lot to think about.