Page 51 - It Ends with Us

“Come on,” I told hi m. He followed me inside an d I locked the de ad bolt. “If

my parents come ho me ear ly, run out the bac k do or an d do n’t let the m see you.”
He nodde d. “Don’t wor r y. I will,” he sai d, with kind of a lau gh.
I as ked hi m if he wan ted an ythi ng to dr ink an d he sai d sure. I made us a
snac k an d brought our dr inks to the living room. I sat do wn on the couch an d
he sat do wn in my dad’ s chai r. I turned on your sho w an d that ’s ab out al l that
hap pened. We di dn ’t tal k much, becau se I fas t-for warde d through al l the

commercial s. Bu t I di d notice he lau ghe d at al l the right times. I thi nk good
comedi c timing is one of the most impor tan t thi ngs ab out a person’s
personal ity. Ever y time he lau ghe d at your jokes, it made me feel better ab out
sneak ing hi m into my ho use. I do n’t know why. May be becau se if he ’s ac tual ly
someone I could be friends with, it’d mak e me feel less guilty.
He left right af ter your sho w was over. I wan ted to as k hi m if he neede d to
use our sho wer ag ai n, but that would hav e cut it real close to time for my

parents getting ho me. The las t thing I wan ted was for hi m to hav e to run out
of the sho wer an d ac ross my bac kyard nak ed.
The n ag ai n, that ’d be kind of hi larious an d aw esome.
—Li ly

Dear Ellen,
Come on, woman . Reruns? A full week of reruns? I get that you need time
of f, but let me mak e a suggestion. Instead of recordi ng one sho w a day, you
sho uld record two. That way you’ll get twice as much do ne in hal f the time,
an d we’d never hav e to sit through reruns.
I say “we” becau se I’m refer ring to Atlas an d me. He’s become my regular
Ellen- wat chi ng par tner. I thi nk he might love you as much as I do , but I’ll

never tell hi m I write to you on a dai ly bas is. That might seem a little too fan -
girl.
He’s been living in that ho use for two weeks now. He’s tak en a few more
sho wers at my ho use an d I give him food ever y time he visits. I even was h hi s
clothe s for hi m whi le he ’s he re af ter scho ol. He keeps ap ologizing to me, like he ’s
a burde n. Bu t honestly, I love it. He keeps my mind of f thi ngs an d I ac tual ly

look for ward to spendi ng time with hi m af ter scho ol ever y day.
Dad got ho me lat e tonight , whi ch mean s he went to the bar af ter work.
Whi ch mean s he ’s probab ly going to instigat e a fight with my mothe r. Whi ch
mean s he ’ll probab ly do somethi ng stupid ag ai n.