Paying The Piper

One full week since everything seemingly fell apart in Kenny's life had come and gone, and since, Kenny was genuinely surprised to see that things had seemingly been working out decently since then. Bella had visited him at his house a few times now, and while nothing beyond intense, angry sex took place, Kenny couldn't exactly complain. Add to the fact that Quinn had been giving him occasional updates for when she could work out a way to see him, though her master plan to get him to her house was still a well-hidden mystery to the teen. Hell, even things with Juliet seemed to be on an upswing. He hadn't seen or spoken to his cousin, but Kenny did get a few texts from the girl very casually checking in on him and seeing how he was doing. It wasn't the best of outcomes, but the time away from each other seemed to help smooth things over since their night together.

Nicole and Ellie had both been silent as the night, however, and Kenny wasn't too surprised. During the threesome, things had gotten a lot closer with Nicole than was usual for the girl, and Kenny understood the distance because of it. He wasn't going to push it either, Nicole was a good friend before anything else, and he wasn't about to go and destroy that by pushing her. As for Ellie...well, as much as he missed the blonde, he had silently started to accept that it looked as though his time with her had passed. The fallout with Will was heavy, and neither had sent so much as a text since that night, let alone gone to see one another. For the first girl he was with, it wasn't an outcome he wanted, but Kenny felt there was little he could do. His best course of action now was to look to the future, and coming up very quickly even was his second date with Tessa. With that in mind, Kenny decided he would dedicate his weekend to getting his Gran Torino in the best shape it could be in. At least then, he could feel a little bit better about picking up a girl like Tessa in a rusted-out bucket like that.

That's where Kenny found himself close to two o'clock on Saturday afternoon, covered in grease and rooting around in the engine of his car, tightening the last few bolts back in place after putting on a brand new replacement part. "There we go...that should take care of that annoying ticking...I think?" Kenny murmured under his breath before the horn suddenly went off, blasting right into his ears. Kenny cupped his ears, jumping and shouting from the shock, only for it to switch into a wail of pain as his head collided with the car hood. "Ah, Fuck! God shit, fucking hell!" The teen was spinning as he stumbled away from his car and tripped down on the driveway, looking over to his car only to see a blonde pulling herself out from the window. With a few solid steps towards him, the woman stopped, putting her hands on her hips and glaring down at him, "Oh shit...Elle?"

"So you do remember me," Kenny grimaced as Ellie took another step forward, her hands hanging down beside her now balled into fists, "You're an asshole!" The insult came bursting out of her but unlike with Quinn, Kenny couldn't hear any real anger behind it. "It all fell apart and where were you?! No where! No calls! No Texts! You even stopped coming to the gym! You just abandoned me!"

Kenny pushed himself back up to his feet, "Look..." Kenny let out a sympathetic exhale as he could see the twists of hurt all over Ellie's face, "I...I made a mistake, I'm sorry." Kenny took a moment as the apology left him. I really did, didn't I? Why did I do that? As bad as all this was for me, it had to have been worse for her. Why didn't I at least call her? He questioned himself, no longer finding a satisfactory reason. Still, he needed to at least give Ellie something, "Will confronted me, and I guess...I guess I finally saw the damage I did..."

"Oh and what, you just ditched me after that to what? Protect me? Make it up to him?" Ellie exclaimed, her voice cracking and breaking with each suggestion,

Kenny hung his head, "I think I told myself that's what it was for but..." He lightly shook his head, "Now that you're here, seeing you again, I don't think that's true. I was...I --" Kenny let out a low groan and squeezed his eyes shut, "I disappeared because I was scared that if I tried to talk to you again you'd say you hated me! And I was too much of a coward to risk that chance."

"H-Hated you?" Ellie repeated and Kenny looked up, now seeing tears in her eyes, "I needed you!" The blonde broke down into a few breaking gasps and in an instant Kenny was at her side, his hands at first taking a tentative hold on her arms but in the next pulling her into an embrace. "It w-was the worst f-fucking thing in my l-life. It was like the ground w-was coming out from under me." Ellie pressed herself tightly into Kenny's chest, "I h-had no one...Quinn hasn't said a word to me and J-Julie too...and then you..."

"I'm sorry, Elle, I'm so fucking sorry," Kenny sincerely replied,

"I was so worried about you, I didn't know what happened with Bella and then Will called yelling and I just --" Ellie buried her face into the teen. The pair stood unmoving for minutes, doing nothing but comforting one another and finally Ellie pulled herself back, "What actually happened? You lost?"

"Not...exactly," Kenny rubbed the back of his neck, "It's a hell of a long story,"

"I have time...no need to by worried or shy about being with you now..." Ellie pointed out as Kenny returned to his car and dropped the hood down.

The teen turned, let out a profound exhale and leaned against the vehicle, "Yeah, fair enough I guess...you deserve to hear it all, we were in this together when it started, right?" Ellie nodded, "Fuck, where to start? Uh...okay so...the match..."

Over the next few minutes Kenny did his best to recount everything that had happened since they had last seen one another at the hotel. He obviously left out the evening he spent with Juliet but beyond that, he felt the blonde deserved to hear it all. So that's what he did, he explained the entire match, about the confrontation with Will afterwards, and then about the pill...and what he and Bella had been doing to counter these apparent ill-effects. Surprisingly, out of everything he said, Ellie latched right onto that situation.

"Wait, so for the last few days, Bella has been coming here and you two have been --" Kenny recoiled ever so slightly, half expecting a slap, and quickly nodded. "What about Julie?! S-She wouldn't stand for that!"

Kenny raised an eyebrow, for the first time since she showed up Ellie sounded genuinely frustrated, "Uh, Julie is staying back at her mom's house right now, so Bella -- I mean, she's not really a factor right now?"

"Then let me do it!" Ellie's exclamation only threw Kenny off further, "Will and I broke up and it's more than official now, so I can come here when you need me. If that's what all this was about then let me be the person to help clear you out! You don't have to deal with her anymore, I can do it. Y-You can even come to my house with me, whatever you need I can do it."

"O-Oh, uh, I...I don't think it's going to last much longer. Bella said this crap should only be in me for a week or so. I'm probably finished with that anyway," Ellie rolled in her bottom lip, she seemed to be desperately looking at him, "Elle, are you alright?"

"N-No," The blonde let out a whine and stepped closer to Kenny, "After everything that's happened, after everything you've done since that night with Nicole and me in the hotel, I've been -- Ugh, God, I sound so stupid..." Ellie hissed as her cheeks started to burn red, "I just...I still wanted to hear what you think about...us. About what we are...I want to know if Nicole was right and now that we're both free and we don't have to really hide if you'd...if we would..." Kenny's eyes slowly started to widen, "Do you want to go out with me?" Ellie finally asked.