Page 41 of Chasing Elliott
Opening the fridge, I sighed as I noticed we were out of milk and instead settled on abottle of water. As I closed the door and turned around, I saw Kara leaning against the counterwith a smile on her face.
“So, what’d you two get up to last night?” She drawled out as a giggle escaped her. Irolled my eyes and brushed past her to head back to my room to take a shower.
“Sadly, nothing,” I informed her with a sigh as she followed me. “Can I help you with something?”
“Well, you’re up before nine so I was wondering if you wanted to go to the farmers market with me for once,” Kara said as she leaned against the frame of my bedroom door.
I laughed but nodded and rolled my eyes as Kara clapped her hands together in excitement. “Just give me fifteen to get ready.”
I walked straight over to my closet and grabbed a lace spaghetti strap crop top and threw on a pair of light washed skinny jeans. Grabbing my hair brush, I attempted to brush out theknots before I sprayed an excessive amount of dry shampoo into it. I ended up throwing it into amessy bun, pulling some loose pieces out to frame my face. Once I had brushed my teeth and applied a simple coat of mascara, I exited my room to find Kara waiting for me by the front door.
“Okay, let’s go,” she said as I slipped my feet into my blue sandals. I turned and grabbed my wallet from the small bowl on the table we had near the door and gestured for her to head out first. I locked the door as she climbed into her car, waiting for me to climb in before we headed out.
“Don’t we have enough fruit?” I questioned as I looked down at the four full bags hanging off my arms as we walked around the farmers market that was half an hour away from our home.
“You can never have enough fruit,” Kara replied as she started shifting through the peaches.
I rolled my eyes as I readjusted the bags, watching her with a confused expression. “Normally I’d agree, but how the hell are we going to eat all this before it goes bad? I think weneed to ditch at least one bag.”
Kara whipped her head around and narrowed her eyes at me in an offended manner. Ishook my head as I set the bags down and walked to the other side of the table to look at the bushels of broccoli. After she finally decided on three peaches, we headed over towards thebeans but I froze in my tracks as my eyes landed on Laura.
“It’ll be fine,” Kara said quietly as she grabbed my arm and pulled me around the table in her direction. “She learned her lesson and, if not, you’ll put her in her place again.”
“Kind of hard to do when I saved her from an asshole at the bar the other night,” Igrumbled, allowing her to lead me.
As we approached, I saw her do a double take before she flashed me an apprehensive smile. Raising a brow questioningly, Kara and I brushed past her before stopping at the beans. Grabbing a small bag, I started scooping out some rice that sat nearby when I saw Laura stop on the other side of the table.
“Look, Elliott,” she started to say softly, obviously a little nervous. “I first wanted to thank you for the other night. You didn’t have to do that, but I appreciate that you did. Second, Iwant to apologize. It wasn’t fair for me to blame you for Cooper’s actions after what happened with us or take my anger out on you like I did.”
“Thank you, Laura,” I told her, forcing a smile on my face. “I’m not the only one you owe an apology to, though.”
Laura looked over at Kara who walked up beside me. “I’m really sorry for what I did, Kara. I never used to be the jealous type, but Cooper was just such a catch that, when I fucked up, I just kind of lost it. There’s really no excuse but I am sorry I dragged you into this.”
“I accept your apology,” Kara said happily before her face contorted slightly. “What do you mean though that you messed up?”
Laura’s eyes widened slightly as she looked between the two of us but as quickly as the look of panic was there, it was gone and replaced with another smile.
“I’ll see you girls around,” she responded instead as she spun on her heel and walked away. Turning to Kara, I raised a brow as she shrugged her shoulders and picked up the bag shehad previously set on the ground.
“So, I have a surprise for us,” Kara told me with a smile as she looped her arm through mine and led us toward the checkout counter. “We’re having a movie marathon day, just us girls.”
“Just what the doctor ordered.”
After checking out, we headed back to her car and loaded up the fruit and veggies into thetrunk. The drive back was pretty uneventful besides us singing along to the songs that wereplaying on the radio. Forty minutes later we pulled into the parking lot and brought the foodinside.
Six hours later I sat sprawled out on the couch with a blanket over my legs, and Kararesting her head on my stomach with an arm and leg wrapped around my body. We were into ourfourth movie of the day which was a miracle considering we couldn’t agree on what to watch.
“Have you ever thought about how different things would be if your childhood had gonedifferently?” Kara suddenly asked me in barely a whisper. My eyebrows furrowed slightly as Ibrought a hand up to play with her hair.
“All the time,” I mumbled in reply. “You hear from your mom today I take it?”
She nodded, her grip on me tightening slightly. “I mean, the ten-year mark is still acouple months away, but she’s having a rough time.”
“I’m sorry, honey,” I whispered. “You know I’m here for you, always.”
“You know, we never talked about why you were there that day,” Kara said, and Istiffened underneath her grasp.
Suddenly, a knock on the door startled us both before she sat up and cocked a brow in my direction. I shrugged my shoulders as she stood up and headed over to the door.
