56. Consequences

All Saints - Never Ever


JORDAN'S POV


Ella listened to my reasons for not calling her remarkably calmly. She didn’t yell or raise her voice, she just sat there and listened. Part of me was wondering if she really cared, she almost seemed passive. Most chicks would probably have flipped out by now. She didn’t and that was one of the things I liked about her.

I’m not saying she’s not passionate about things or doesn’t get riled up, because she does, but she was so chilled about it when I was explaining and actually listened instead of flying off the handle. Ella’s no doormat either; I knew I still had the hardest part ahead of me – trying to win her back.

When she left the room to “stretch her legs”, I knew Ella well enough to know that she needed some thinking space, so I let her go. I sat in the den, in front of the large TV screen debating whether to turn Max’s xbox on. I thought that would completely distract from the situation at hand. And as much as I was tempted to play NHL 10 or Halo or whatever other games Max had down here, I decided not to.

Pushing myself up off the floor, I drained the last half of my beer before collecting another from the kitchen. I don’t know if Max had forgotten that he had left a lot of alcohol down here, or if he had purposely done it, either way Ella and I were taking advantage of it.

From the kitchen I could see Ella sitting on top of the laundry machines. She looked so cute sitting up there, her long, twiglet legs dangling off the edge, swinging back and forth, gently banging against the machine. She was fiddling with the label of the empty bottle in frustration. I headed back to the fridge and pulled out another one for her.

“How are you doing up there? Stretching your legs?” It was lame small talk but I needed something to break the ice with. I handed her the bottle seeing her pop the top off and downing more than half. Wow, she was thirsty. Noticing my staring, she gestured for me to do the same. I got brain freeze as I poured the bud slowly down my throat.

I wanted to know if she missed me, so I told her I did partly to see what she said. Each time I feel like I’m pushing the conversation but trying to make sure she was comfortable at the same time. After a few moments of deliberation, Ella told me she missed me too. I decided to push this a little further. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you,” I said looking right at her. Apart from my body yearning for her, I missed her in my life, the way she talks, her smile, the way her eyes light up when she sees something or talks about something she’s passionate about.

“Tell me,” Ella said. I could stand here all night and rattle off reasons as to why I missed her. I think I would bore her to tears if I went through the whole list. So I thought maybe showing her might be better. It was a disguised way of saying ‘Can I kiss you?’ and she didn’t respond. If she had immediately said no, I don’t think I would have gone ahead, it’s not right to disobey someone’s wishes like that. But her delay meant she was thinking about it and probably about what it would mean which means she doesn’t know.


So I had to convince her.


So I stepped closer and kissed her.


She didn’t push me away or stop me which was definitely a good sign. I pressed my lips gently to her soft, smooth lips as her eyes fluttered shut and she gently began to kiss me back. It wasn’t urgent or needy and passionate, it was just tender and gentle and very slow. I can’t scare Ella away, not now.

I pushed my tongue against her lips, silently asking for entry which she granted me as she pushed her tongue gently into my mouth, her hand coming up to the back of my neck, playing with the hair there. She nibbled my bottom lip as I told myself to take this slowly. She tasted like lemons and oranges, intermingled with the smell of her shampoo and the floral perfume I got a strong waft of earlier. I need to ask her what perfume she wears so I can drench my pillows in the scent.

I’m not sure which one of us broke away first, but the kiss ended too soon. I stood there with my forehead against hers, both of us staring into each others eyes, neither one of us wanting to speak first. Her arm was still strung around the bottom of my neck, my hand still on her leg. Ella broke the eye contact first, looking down in embarrassment.

“I love you,” I whispered causing her to flick her eyes back up towards me. She had that whole ‘deer in the headlights’ look which would normally be really cute on her, but caused me to internally panic. It was too soon for me to say things like that to her. She wasn't ready. Taking her hands, I held them gently, noticing the goose bumps on her arms. She was either cold or spooked. Hoping it was the first one, I whispered to her gently, “Never stopped. C’mon let’s go back to the sofas, it’s cold in here.”

I lifted her off the washing machine, taking her by the hand and leading her back to Max’s den. I didn’t know whether to sit by her or not so I dropped her hand and headed over to the sofa I had been sitting against before. She sat cross-legged in the same place again, drawing the blankets around her into some sort of cocoon.

“Jordan, the kiss…” Ella started, not looking at me, focusing on some part of the carpet which seemed really interesting to her. “I don’t know what to say, or what to do,” she said quietly still not looking at me.

Did I have to kiss her again to convince her? I wanted to do whatever it took to convince her to get back with her, no matter what it took, I would be happy to do it. I think I would even give up hockey for her, if it meant she we lived happily ever after. I don’t want to give up on her. Seeing her tonight, looking breathtakingly gorgeous and talking animatedly with Tanger, made me realise how much of an idiot I was to ever lose her in the first place.

“Let’s play a game,” I said rummaging through the pile of xbox games next to the TV. I tossed a controller over to Ella who took it without any questions. I needed a distraction - something to do whilst I thought over what I was supposed to say.




As Ella overtook me on the final lap, I still wasn't sure what I was going to do. Admittedly I had sort of hung back a little bit, giving her a chance to win; it's not so fun if you're going to thrash the opposition by running in circles around them. So I let it look like I just sucked - I drove the car into a rock or a tree or the side of the tunnel or whatever even though I've played this game hundreds of times before on the road.

"Wahoo I win again," Ella said, tossing the controller down and looking at me as the writing on the bottom, losing, half of the screen read "YOU SUCK". As if I didn't already know.

"What shall we do now?" Ella asked, drawing the blankets tighter around her. I had some pretty good ideas of what we could do down here - maybe we could get some use out of those condoms Max had thrown down here? I know Ella's not ready for that though. She had kissed me back, that was one thing, but I don't think she was going to want to go any further just yet.

"Let's drink," I said, thinking it was the best idea I've had all night. When Max finally lets us out of here, I'm going to kill him for having one of the most boring basements ever.

"Sure," Ella said getting up still in her cocoon and walking in it to the kitchen. I stretched out and got onto the sofa. I had no idea what time it was but by the steady beat of the bass upstairs, the party was still going. "Thanks," I smiled as she handed me another beer and put a spare at my feet.

We sat there in silence, not really knowing what to say, both contemplating things. I could see her furrowed brow, meaning she was overthinking - she only does that when she overthinks.

"Drinking game?" she suggested looking around for things to play with. Ella shifted in her cocoon as she played with the label of her bottle. "Truth or dare?"

"Sure," I replied. I haven't played this since I was about fifteen, I thought. And it's probably going to end up being truths since we're stuck in a basement - it's not like we can do many 'dares' down here. "You first. Truth or Dare?"

"Truth," she grinned taking a long sip of her drink.

Hmm, I said. What did I really want to know. There were many things I could have asked her, some were probably too X-rated for our current state so I would try and keep it clean, for now. "How old were you when, you had your first kiss?"

Ella raised her eyebrows. "Kinda lame but I'll let it go. Thirteen," she said. Good to know she wasn't some sort of preteen hussy. "OK, truth or dare?"

"Dare." This could be interesting. I want to see what she has in mind for me.

"Stand on your head." I looked at her as if she was insane. C'mon, this is me. I have about as much coordination as a two legged cat. "Do it," Ella pushed.

Putting my beer down I turned around in my seat so I was sitting backwards on the couch. I leaned backwards until my head reached the floor and I placed a hand either side of my head. "Can't believe you're making me do this," I muttered as Ella just grinned at me. This could only end in disaster. Slowly I pushed my legs off the couch until my torso was in line with my head. If I could just keep my weight on my arms and not my neck. I was never one of those boys who used to practise handstands and gymnastics with the girls at school, no way José.

As soon as I had managed to get my legs in the air, I toppled over, crashing to the ground. Several profanities were on the tip of my tongue but I tried to keep quiet. She burst out laughing, as I sat up with a stupid grin on my face. "Six out of ten," Ella said - such a harsh critic.

"OK, truth or dare?" I offered Ella. If she chose dare, I was going to have to think of something more than 'suck my dick'. Maybe something mean and funny that I wanted to see her do.

"Truth." I rolled my eyes. She was going to play it safe. So that only meant one thing - the questions had to become more... risqué.

"How many people have you... slept with?" Ella let out a sigh before she pointed at me then did some quick maths on her fingers. "Four. And you?"

Shit. Think quick. "Seven," I said which was a complete lie. It was more like three times that but I didn't want her to know that. It was not something that was going to impress her. And seven was perfectly acceptable, it wasn't in double figures. At least I'm not into three figures like Max. Ella nodded as she accepted what I'd just told her. She didn't seem shocked or disappointed in anyway. I should really know the real number, but seven is good for now.

"Truth or dare?"

I'm going to do an Ella and play it safe. "Truth," I said wondering what sort of question she was going to pick. "If you had to have sex with an animal, what would it be and why?" I don't even want to know her thought process on that one.

"Hmm... Ella, this is really hard. Do humans count?" Ella shook her head. I'm not into beastiality. This has to be the most random question ever. Shit, what the fuck do I say? "Maybe an orangutan, I reckon they would give good hugs, and they're sort of human like?"

Ella snorted with laughter, no doubt as she tried to imagine me hugging an orangutan. "Truth or dare?" I said, picking up the beer again. If the questions continued like this, I was going to need a lot more alcohol. Ella chose truth again - what a surprise.

"OK, what's your bra size?" I needed to know and now seemed appropriate as opposed to when it lay on my bedroom floor.

"32C." Good to know I thought, even if that means pretty much nothing to me. The game eventually turned into truths. I was dared to sing 'Oh Canada' which I failed miserably at before Ella asked a killer question. "Who on your team would you turn gay for?"

I couldn't stop laughing. She did not just ask that question. I've seen them all naked, it's not something I'm fazed by. "Definitely not Max, just no. TK, no again. Kelsey would kill me. Not Sid, his butt's just too much." Ella stifled a giggle at this before nodding slightly. "Maybe Tanger, yeah Tanger. This goes no further, yeah?" I would never hear the end of it if this got out.

"Sure. I pick truth," Ella said before I could even ask her the question. Again, it's not like I didn't have some up my sleeve, I just had to wait until we were drunk enough to play those ones.

"What are... the three worst things you've ever done?" I know Ella's a good girl most of the time but I'm pretty sure there's a bad girl hiding in there somewhere - she can be pretty kinky in bed.

"Good question. On Spring Break, this year, whilst Gina was sleeping, Sophie and I skinny dipped in the pool one night. We were caught by security who threatened to throw us out. That's number one. Then back in second year, I screwed one of my economics tutors on his desk, then smoked a spliff with him, does that count?" Yep, I think it definitely does. "And a third one? I don't know," she sighed as she looked around the room. "I'm good, most of the time."

"C'mon there must be something else. Something you did at school?" Ella shook her head, she was clearly a goody-goody then.

"I can't believe I'm ever going to say this, but I once made a sex tape."

"That's not bad! That's normal," I said. Maybe on her scale it was bad but it wasn't off the scale by any means. And she didn't make the sex tape with me, and I'm assuming she didn't film herself having sex with the professor so that leaves the other two left on the list. I knew she had had a serious relationship in first year so I'm guessing it was with 'him'. Ella shrugged as she blushed. I guess I had embarrassed her a little with that question. She finished her drink and took a long swig of the next one before she spoke.

"If I was a food, what would I be and how would you eat me?" What a question. Of all the foods to pick. I needed to pick something tasty, maybe something forbidden that I could unwrap with some sort of filling, or maybe something seductive.

"A creme egg, like those Cadbury ones around Easter. I would carefully unwrap you, taking care not to rip the outside. I would gently bite the top off, nibbling my way down before I licked out your centre," I said thinking about going down on Ella.

"Pretty good," she replied still engulfed in her cocoon. All this beer was going to my head and making me sleepy. I was going to have to do something soon if I didn't want to go to sleep.

I involuntarily shivered as I sat on the couch without any blankets. I could feel that the temperature had dropped in the last couple of hours. "Cold?" Ella asked. I was a little bit. I nodded slightly, not wanting to admit it. Normally I'm a radiator, I don't get cold, I shoot off body heat in every direction.

"Come over here," Ella said opening her cocoon to me, opening her arms which were still covered by the blankets so I could see her body. "Plenty of blankets." I didn't need to be asked twice. I hopped up off my couch, trying not to look too eager and sat down on the couch next to her. Ella threw the blanket over me and snuggled with her back to me.

"God, I'm so tired, hope Max lets us out soon," Ella said as she leant backwards into me so her back was nestled against my chest, her legs up on the sofa whilst I left mine on the floor. I was just enjoying having her closer to me.

"MMmm.." I said not really paying attention, just relaxing with my eyes closed.

"Jordan do you mind if I lie on you?" Ella said, tilting her head back so she was looking up at me. I shook my head. She could lie on me for the rest of her life if she so wanted.

"What perfume do you wear?" I asked absentmindedly.

"I don't, it's just scented moisturiser and citrus shampoo,"she replied. Whatever she was using, it smelt so damned good. "Mind if I put my feet up?" I asked.

"Not at all," she replied as she moved over so I could lie next to her. I slowly manoeuvred myself so that Ella didn't lose any of the blankets until I was lying next to her, her head looking at the ceiling.

The room span as I lowered myself until I was horizontal, Ella's head against my chest as I dropped a kiss on her head, taking in the scent of coconut and fruit.

We lay in silence until I realised if she was asleep I should probably turn off the lights. Slipping off the sofa I found the lightswitch, turning the basement into darkness. "'Night Ells, love you," I said pulling her closer to me, listening to the steady, slow rhythm of her breathing until it lulled me to sleep.