Kinda Sorta

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Ella was fuming mad, and admittedly totally embarrassed. Why? Because she had finally put two and two together and realised that Collin kind of sort of had a boyfriend, and kinda sorta had a boyfriend since November.

Thing’s had been going so good for Ella. Collin had loved her gift, and Ella even saw him looking through it a couple time during lunch. Then Ella had an amazing winter break at the same ski lodge that Collin’s family went to, she even caught him alone a couple of times and hung out with him one on one.

Like the time when she woke up and Mariah had disappeared and she figured that Mariah had went down to the cafe and was getting herself some breakfast so that’s where Ella went too. But of course Ella wasn’t stupid, she wasn’t gonna leave her room without getting ready a little bit. So after fixing her hair and putting on her “natural makeup” she went downstairs, presumably to join her sister. Whos he found instead, to her pleasant surprised, was Collin sitting in one of the comfy chairs in the corner drawing. Alone.

She almost jumped up and down and squealed, but she controlled herself and manage dot get herself a muffin and coffee before heading over to him looking as composed as she could.

“What brings you here?” She asked as she took a seat next to him. Collin and his family had their own cabin away from the lodge, so she hadn’t seen him around here very much.

“Oh, hey, Ella,” Collin said looking up from his paper, “What was that?”

“Oh, sorry, what brings you here?” Ella asked again, feeling her face flush.

“I wanted to try drawing the cafe,” Collin said, looking around the cafe, “it’s not easy.”

“Oh?” Ella inquired.

“Yeah,” Collin said, looking back at Ella, “lots of people and stuff. What do you highlight and what do you just keep out of it.”

Ella nodded slowly, amazing by him as always.

“How are you doing?” Collin asked.

“Oh, me? Good,” Ella said, “been skiing. How about you? Do you like skiing?”

Collin frowned a bit, “A little bit. Not as much as some people, I don’t like the cold and the snow.”

Ella nodded, “I understand that. My parent’s really just bring us here because everyone else does. We’re going back home before New years, got a big party planned.”

Ella bit he rlip, then stopped thinking it might look weird, had she said too much? Had she rambled a bit? Hopefully not and if Collin was annoyed he didn’t show it he just smiled and said “we always celebrate new years at home too.”

Ella was momentarily silenced by his gorgeous smile.

“I better go, Harriette’s probably awake now,” Collin said, glancing at his watch.

“Ella,” Ella said, trying to to show how disappointed she was, “I guess I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah,” Collin said, standing up, “see you around.”

And with one last gorgeous smile sent her way he walked across the cafe, stopping to toss something in the trash before heading out the door.

After that Ella was convinced it was only a matter of time before they fell in love and started dating. She was convinced that 2014 was her year, well her and Collin’s year. Anr as they counted down to the new year with all of their old school friends Ella kept a solid image of Collin in her head, her only resolution. Well, that and of course raising even higher on the popularity totem pole.

But then Mariah kinda sorta forgot to fill her in on Collin’s relationship status.

It had become painfully obvious when walking through the hallways that first day back to school she passed Collin standing at his locker awfully close to this weird looking hispanic guy. She had literally stopped in her tracks feeling the full force of how stupid she had been.

And when she told Mariah later all she did was laugh and say “so you finally figured it out?”

She was going to kill Mariah.

“You helped me pick out that gift for him,” Ella continued, Mariah just sitting on the couch painting her nails. “You must have known I was gonna embarrass myself! I am so embarrassed.”

“He probably didn’t even notice,” Mariah shrugged, “calm down, it’s not that bad.”

Ella glared at her sister, “you can talk when you find out the boy you’ve been crushing on is gay and totally in a relationship!”

Mariah gave her sister a overly sympathetic look, “I’m sorry, sis. But you have to calm down, it’s not a big deal. As I said, I don’t think he’s the type to pick up on people hitting on him.”

Ella stopped pacing and stared at Mariah, she had a point. He was kind of clueless. Ella smiled a little, “you really don’t think her noticed?”

Mariah nodded earnestly.

Ella collapsed dramatically onto the big comfy chair her dad always sat in. She wrinkled her nose, it always smelled really bad for some reason. She pushed herself off the chair and sat on the couch next to Mariah.

“What color is that?” Ella asked, watching her sister paint her nails a light creamy pink color.

“Blushing Poppies,” Mariah said, “I found it on my dresser this morning, must be from mom.”

Ella nodded, their mom was always leaving little gifts on their dressers or just around the house for them, probably to make up for the fact that she was always off somewhere exotic for “business meetings”.

“I like it,” Ella said, “it’s totally your color.”

Mariah nodded, “right?”

Ella watched Mariah blow lightly on her nails.

“So you’re done with you melt down?” Mariah asked.

Ella groaned and got up, “I’m gonna take a bath.”

Mariah shrugged, “have fun.”

Ella nodded and went up to her room to prepare for the said bath. Ella didn’t like showing emotions, well other than anger. So whenever she felt anything other than Anger she transferred the feelings into anger, which wasn’t exactly healthy she was aware but better than sobbing everywhere.

The thing is she actually really liked Collin, she had spent the last four months obsessing over him and now she had to move on and get over it and that wasn’t exactly easy. Honestly, she was kind of hurt, why didn’t anyone tell her. She had made it kind of obvious that she liked collin and not a single person filled her in on the fact that he would never like her back. She had to find out the hard way.

Yes, a bath was exactly what she needed.