Love Always, Ella

Chapter Ten

Patrick

Ella opens the door and quietly sneaks out, closing it gently behind her. Her hair's still curly but it's tamed, the ringlets falling just to the middle of her spine and half is pulled back. Her body is covered in a long-sleeved summer dress with red and black flowers imprinted onto the fabric, and for a second I want to pull her closer to me and run my fingers over it. I'm not sure if she'd like for me to do that though, so instead I just stand here in khaki shorts and a red tank top feeling completely under dressed. She blows me out of the water.

"Hi Ella." I smile at her, attempting to not seem nervous. "Are you ready to go?"

The little black flip flops she's wearing hit the front porch, and she begins to lead the way around back. I'm the one that asked her to hang out tonight, so I figured that we could just hang out at the beach for awhile and talk. She seemed to love that idea.

The waves are crashing against the shore, and in the moonlight her dress looks even prettier. After getting to know her the past couple of weeks, I'm beginning to think that Ella is the type of girl who wants to take things slow, and that's different for me because I've never exactly been the one to take things slow. I'm trying, but it's so hard. She probably can sense that, or maybe not. I think she honestly questions whether or not I'm into her because damn, she really doesn't pick up on it whatsoever when I try to flirt.

"My grandparents are sleeping." She laughs, walking more towards the sand. "I'm sorry for making you stand there. I had to be quiet because they don't know I'm with you right now."

Her hand is so close to mine. I mean really close. I'm so tempted to reach over and interlock our fingers together so I can make her at ease and not make her so nervous. I swear on everything I'm going to until she starts walking a little bit faster so that she can take a seat down onto the damp sand, the spot where the water sometimes reaches if it's a strong enough wave.

"I'm not Chase." I chuckle, sitting down beside her. "Or Christian. I'm nice."

"It's so beautiful out here."

Ella completely ignores my statement, and for a second I wonder whether or not she believes me. But all thoughts leave my head when she looks up into the night sky and smiles. I don't get to see her smile much, but when she does I never want to stop looking at it. Admiring her and all of her features is something I will never get tired of doing.

"Yeah." I agree, but not about the beach. I'm just staring directly at her. "Beautiful."

She is. She's so beautiful and she doesn't even realize it. You know, I'm surprised that my friends haven't noticed that I'm not around them as much, but being here with Ella is a lot more promising than time with my friends. Even though she hasn't exactly opened up to me yet, I'm having fun trying to win her over. She can't tell that I have good intentions yet, but over time I will prove to her that I do.

"So what's in the bag?" She asks, pointing to the brown knapsack in the sand.

I almost had forgotten that I packed something for us, so I pick up the bag from beside me and pull out a beer.

"Patrick." She says lowly. "I told you that I don't-"

"Lemonade." I reassure her, pulling out the pink bottle.

I pass it over to her and she just stares at me with a look I haven't deciphered yet. It's the same look she gave me yesterday when I walked her home. I brought the beer for me, not for her, so as she opens her lemonade I open my beer and lean back onto my elbows in the sand. Some of the liquid goes down my throat and we just sit here in silence for a couple of seconds, enjoying the night that's in front of us.