Page 17 of When Ellie Falls in Love

Sighing, Sadie decided to take a shower to try to clear her mind. She used a lavender shower bomb Charlie had gifted her for Christmas, and it seemed to work. By the time she got out of the shower, she felt more relaxed than she had all day, and her thoughts of Ellie were finally subsiding.

She took the dress off the hanger and put it on again. Sadie tried to find the perfect position to pose for a picture for Trevor, but nothing seemed to work. Giving up, Sadie settled for a selfie that showed off the top of the dress.

And her boobs.

Sadie sent it before she could talk herself out of it. She watched as the arrow changed, indicating he had opened the message. With bated breath, Sadie waited for him to respond. As she waited, she checked her friends’ stories. Ellie had posted a picture of her new comic books, and Sadie sent her a heart-shaped emoji in response.

Then Trevor’s message appeared.

Niiiiice show me with no dress on now.

Trevor sent a series of emojis along with it, and Sadie didn’t know how to decipher them. But she did know what the eggplant meant. She had big enough ears to hear the girls on her softball team talk about what that meant to know exactly what Trevor wanted the picture for. Sadie had no idea how to feel about it.

Even though she knew better than to send those pictures, a part of Sadie felt like she had to in order to make Trevor like her. If she didn’t do what the other girls would do, he’d probably not want to go with her to prom. And Sadie wasn’t ready to face that possibility.

Without thinking about it, Sadie shimmied out of the dress and snapped a picture of her bare chest. Her hands were shaking as she clicked to send the message to Trevor.

And Ellie.

“No,” Sadie gasped. “No, no, no. Fuck!”

Throwing her phone onto the bed, Sadie collapsed onto the bed beside it. There wasno fucking wayshe had just sent a nude to Ellie. Sadie wasn’t sure if she wanted to throw up or cry. Not only did she feel guilty for sending the picture to Trevor, but she felt mortified she’d sent it to Ellie.

With no context.

At all.

Just a hello here’s my boobs right into her messages.

Sadie covered her face with her pillow and screamed into it. How could she have done that? Why did she do that? She must have accidentally hit Ellie’s name when she was sending it to Trevor. Ellie was the last person she’d talked to on Snapchat, so that would make sense.

But it did little to calm Sadie’s anxiety.

“What do I do?” Sadie stood, pacing the floor in front of her bed. “Do I call her and tell her it was a joke? Should I ignore it? Act like it never happened? Oh, my god, I can’t believe I did this.”

Snatching up her phone, Sadie unlocked it and opened Snapchat.

And her stomach churned.

Both Trevor and Ellie had seen the picture.

And Trevor had screenshot it.

“Fuck.”

Chapter 7

Ellie

After a successful trip to the thrift store earlier for new comic books, Ellie had decided to invite herself over to Blake’s house for the night. Well, more specifically, to Alexis’s house so they could read the new comics together. Their nine-year-old daughter Harper was also thrilled with the new selection Ellie had bought. They’d all sat around the living room talking about them while they ate pizza and listened to Taylor Swift.

But as the night wore on, Alexis and Blake had to put Harper and her nine-month-old twin siblings to bed, leaving Ellie alone in the living room as they did so. Curling up on the recliner, Ellie scrolled mindlessly through her phone, checking her various social media accounts to see if anything exciting was happening.

There wasn’t.

Not until her Snapchat notification went off. She checked it and immediately smiled when she saw it was from Sadie. Sadie had sent one of those emojis that looked like the person. It was of Sadie inside a heart, smiling.

Just like Ellie was at the sight of it.

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