Elodie and Heloise (2 page)

So began a growing rift between the two of them as they split off from one another and each sister became her own person. Elodie turned into the soft, feminine and pretty one, the Homecoming Queen and head of Student Council. Her face was everywhere in school, whether it was on campaign posters or on the Morning News Show. Visible and extroverted. Happiest among as many people as possible.

As far as Elodie was concerned, her sister turned into the invisible one, happier with a good book and with as few people around as possible. Heloise would hide in her room when Elodie invited her friends over and the two of them stopped confiding in each other like they used to do as children. Though she clearly took some care in her appearance from the way she always tied her hair up in a knot at the back of her head to her usual, well put together outfits of sweaters and jeans, Heloise wasn’t nearly as up on the latest fashion trends and preferred keeping it simple. Elodie wished her sister would come out of her shell more and at least be happy to have some people around. But what could she do?

Elodie watched her sister grab a book from the bookshelf and then shut the door of their bedroom behind her. 

“What book is that?” Elodie asked.

Suddenly she heard the doorknob of their bedroom door turn and Heloise poked her head out of the door. “Something that doesn’t have pictures. You wouldn’t be able to read it.”

“Hey!” Elodie cried as her sister shut the door. A piece of hair flew into Elodie’s face and she blew it out of her way. “Hmph. She could at least be happy I’m inviting Noah. At least she’ll have someone to talk to,” Elodie muttered to herself. “It wouldn’t hurt to be social once in a while, you know?”

Elodie glanced at her phone. 4:17 PM. Less than three hours until the party. 

Elodie walked over to the living room couch and practically threw herself against the cushions. She gingerly picked up the remote and began flipping through the channels, looking for something to occupy her time. She finally stopped on a romantic comedy, but couldn’t pay attention to much of what she was watching. 

Less than three hours until Quentin gets here.

She started fidgeting with her hands, her usual nervous habit, banging her fists together and cracking her knuckles. Since it was only her in the room at the moment, she didn’t mind showing her anxiety. Around her friends, Elodie had to be confident and poised, not the nervous wreck she was becoming just thinking about Quentin coming over.

Quentin Rice. His full-bodied laugh that seemed to come from deep within him... His smile lighting up his usually serious face... Her name rolling off his tongue as his gray eyes looked straight into her face as if she were the only girl in the entire room. She’d been over to his house before and had seen him during school of course, but this would be the first time Quentin would be stepping foot into her house since they moved in a month and a half ago. Therefore, the thought of him coming to her party was enough to make her head spin.

Quentin and his family moved into the newly-built house next door on a rainy Sunday at the beginning of the school year. Elodie had heard the sounds of car doors shutting and loud voices, so she opened the blinds of the dining room windows and watched the moving vans unload their cargo. More and more families with small children were moving to their town so she was not expecting two teenaged boys to walk up to that new house. From far away she could not make out their features, except that they were tall, had dark hair like Elodie, and were definitely handsome. Finally someone in our age group, Elodie thought to herself.

Later that day, the rain crawled to a slow, cool drizzle. While the new neighbors were busy hauling new furniture into their home, Elodie continued watching from the dining room window, an impatient look on her face.

“Oh I wish they would hurry up and move in already! I’m dying to go over there and meet the new people!” Elodie threw her arms in the air and continued staring outside at the new neighbors.

“What on Earth are you watching?” Heloise asked. “Who’s moving in?”

“Some new neighbors! Come look!” Elodie turned around and saw her sister standing in the middle of the dining room, a copy of Great Expectations in her right hand, looking like she was eager to get on with her reading.

Heloise huffed as she placed her book on the dining room table and took a seat to her sister’s left. She opened the blinds of the window to Elodie’s left and briefly glanced at the buzz of activity that her sister was watching. 

After ten seconds, Heloise shrugged her shoulders and remarked, “Well, at least it looks like we’re getting some new neighbors who are in our age range. Nice to see some other teens for once.”

“I know, right?” Elodie exclaimed. “We need to go over and introduce ourselves to them. Not right now but in a few hours. What do you say?”

“We need to go over? You mean you need to go over. I don’t really want to. You’re the more social one.”

“Oh come on, Heloise! It’ll be fun! It’s just to say hello and introduce ourselves. We’ll be quick about it. Plus....” She gestured with her head in the general direction of the new neighbors. “Our neighbors aren’t just teens. They’re boys.” She raised her eyebrows with a light giggle.

Heloise shook her head and rolled her eyes at her sister’s boy-crazy behavior. “You’re acting like you’ve never seen males of the species before. You can go over, Elodie. I’ll stay here.” She closed the blinds of the window she was looking out of and rose from her seat. She headed directly for the book she’d left on the table.

“Are you sure? It won’t hurt to go over and talk to them. They won’t bite us, you know.”

Heloise paused with one hand on her book and her other hand on her hips. She raised her eyebrows the way she usually did when she was exasperated with her sister. Finally, she sighed. “Fine. But just for ten minutes. We’ll say hi and leave. Promise?” 

“Yeah yeah sure, I promise,” Elodie responded with a wave of her hand. She was intending to stay as long as she wanted to and her sister would just have to deal with it. Besides, it wouldn’t kill her to be a little more more social for a while. 

Elodie continued looking out the window at the new family, waiting for just the right time to make her move. She had already seen the two teenaged boys about her age and two adults walking behind them. She watched as the new boys hauled an new-looking green and blue couch into the house while the parents came and went with boxes in their hands. Elodie was so wrapped up in watching them that she didn’t even notice her sister left the dining room and returned later.

“So are you ready to go?” Heloise suddenly asked.

Elodie jerked her head and saw her sister standing about five feet behind her, decked out in a light raincoat and boots. “Well, you said you wanted to go over and talk to them. Let’s go then.”

“Wow, I wasn’t expecting you to be all ready,” Elodie said incredulously.

“Let’s just go and say hi. Remember, you promised.”

“Yeah sure, let’s go then!” Elodie squealed and immediately ran over to get her coat and boots. 

As Elodie approached the door, she noticed her sister, who had been walking about ten paces behind her, digging her hands deep into the pockets of her coat, stray bits of hair falling into her face. Elodie dismissed it, not giving it a second thought as she rang the doorbell.

One of the boys Elodie had seen earlier that day answered the door. He was at least six feet tall with olive skin, a slight stubble around his chin as if he hadn’t shaved for a few days, and curved eyebrows. His face was framed with shoulder length, unkempt curly black hair and he wore dark brown pants and an orange t-shirt with a long-sleeved dark green zippered sweater over it. There was a charm in the way he stood so nonchalantly in the doorway, his eyes focused on Elodie’s face.

He opened the door and immediately saw Elodie, who was standing in front of her sister. He raised an eyebrow and greeted the girls with a simple hello. Elodie was very impressed so far with their new neighbor. He was even more handsome up close than he was from afar.

“So, you must be our new neighbors,” he said.

Elodie gave him a huge smile, her attempt at hiding the anxiety knotting in her stomach, and answered, “Yeah we are. I’m Elodie DeGarmo and this is my sister Heloise.” She turned her head and gestured to Heloise standing behind her, hands still in her pockets. “We live right next door.”

“I’m Quentin. Quentin Rice. Come on inside, we’re just watching TV,” Quentin announced, giving Elodie a wink and flirty smile and opening the door wider so that she and Heloise could come in. “This is my brother Robert.” He gestured to the teenager standing behind him who looked a lot like Quentin except for a slightly different build and a completely different hairstyle. The aforementioned Robert gave them all a simple wave and went back to the sports game on the television.

The house was a one-story home like theirs but much smaller. As Elodie walked into the house ahead of her sister, she saw two large couches and a TV immediately to her left, boxes piled everywhere in the kitchen and living room, and even more boxes piled in the hallway to her right leading to the bedrooms. The TV was playing the local weather report, something about how the drizzly weather they were experiencing that weekend would continue into the week. The smell of microwave macaroni and cheese filled the air, and she could see a few plastic bowls set out on the kitchen counter. It didn’t look like any parents were home, or maybe they had just gone to bed early. It turned out it was the latter, as Quentin told them later.

“Sorry about the mess of boxes. We did just move in today,” Quentin chuckled, first looking at Elodie and then looking toward the kitchen at something unseen. Elodie grinned at his little joke as her sister pushed past her and took a seat on one of the couches next to Robert, clearly looking uncomfortable.

“So where did you move from, anyway? We don’t get new neighbors all the time around here in our little corner of Virginia.”

“We’re from Raleigh,” Quentin replied. He led Elodie to one of the couches in front of the television set and patted the cushion next to him. “Mom and Dad are hippies who wanted to get closer to nature. So we left the big city and came here.”

“Welcome to our little town then,” Elodie spoke, turning to face Quentin. She made a point of flipping her long hair over her shoulders and a small grin came across his face. They were sitting only a foot away from one another and from this close distance, Elodie could look him over a little more. There were the subtle curls in his dark hair as it flowed around his shoulders, the prickly, unshaven stubble around his chin, the cool way that his orange shirt and green vest rested on his broad shoulders, and his large, caramel hands resting on his knees. His hands looked large enough to completely envelop Elodie’s dainty ones.

“And thank you for the welcome,” he added. “By the way, I don’t think I’ve ever heard the name Elodie before. Lovely name.” 

She let out a nervous giggle before responding, “Thank you. It’s French.”

“Isn’t that the language of love?” he asked.

“Very original. That’s what everyone asks me.”

She wondered if he was aware of how nervous Elodie felt at that moment. With Quentin sitting just next to her, Elodie’s eyes drifted down to her hands knotted together on top of her knees. In the background, the television blared a weather report for the next five days, and in an effort to curb her anxiety, Elodie looked up at the screen and tried to pay attention, despite the banality of what was going on.

“So how does a girl with a French name end up in a small town like this? I didn’t know this town had such a large French population.”

Elodie turned back to Quentin, laughed and threw her hair over her shoulders again, making Quentin smile. “My Papa is French. He met my mom while she was visiting France. And that’s how I ended up with my French name.”

“So can you actually speak French?”

“Non, je ne sais pas parler français.” She raised her eyebrows to Quentin’s delight and chuckled to herself as he beamed at her little joke.

“Sounds lovely. I can barely speak English, so you’ve already one upped me!”

“Anytime, Quentin. Bienvenue,” she replied, her eyes still fixed on Quentin’s face as her palms began to sweat. She wasn’t used to this intense feeling coming over her and though she knew she sounded confident on the outside, on the inside she was anything but.

Elodie hardly noticed the time going by until she began to yawn from fatigue. She and Quentin had been talking for the last few hours about any and everything it seemed: school, interests, anything that came to mind. Only when she finished her yawn did she realize that she, Quentin, and his brother Robert were the only ones left in the room.

“Wait, what time is it?” she panicked.

“11:15. Oh and your sister left about four hours ago. She sure didn’t stay very long, did she?” Robert shrugged as he switched off the television, which was now showing a rerun of some show from the 90s.

He’s right. Elodie glanced around and didn’t see her sister anywhere. She deduced that Heloise had probably gone home, which didn’t surprise Elodie. After all, she wasn’t much for social engagements, especially with people she didn’t know very well. 

“Well, I should probably get going,” Elodie huffed. She turned to face Quentin. then leaned forward to his left ear and whispered, “See you tomorrow, Quentin.” 

“See you in school.” He gave her a nonchalant wave before getting up from the couch to walk her to the door. The two of them were all talked out from the last few hours, so their walk to the door was quiet.

Her heart did somersaults in her chest, but all she could do was simply wave goodbye. She waved goodbye and she left their house. Her conversation with Quentin left Elodie with a buzz in her head and a flutter in her heart that she had only ever felt a few times before. All Elodie could think about was Quentin and everything about him. She analyzed his voice, like the way he said he’d see her in school tomorrow and how he was looking forward to it. She analyzed his different smiles, remembering how his cheeks rose with that first smile he gave her as he laid his eyes on her at his front stoop. Nothing else could enter her mind