So let's pretend we like each other like, ah-ah-ah-ah
This room is so suffocating
Walking on ice, but nobody breaks it
Stuck in this one-way conversation
Guess I'll be here for awhile
- People I Don't Like, UPSAHL

Within a short period of time, Ellie and Jodie grew quite close. Ellie continued to go over to the café almost everyday, helping Jodie with her work and baking together whenever they had the time. For Ellie, Jodie almost felt like a big sister she never had or a young, cool aunt. Since Quinn still went skiing often, Ellie frequently took Pasta to the café. Jodie even bought a little pillow for him to lie down onto and some treats that they gave him occasionally. It seemed like Jodie adored the little dog almost as much as Quinn did.

At the beginning of February, not quite a month after Ellie had arrived in Frostfields, Ellie made the mistake to forget the time. She had spent the day at the café again and today, Jodie had closed a little earlier. She had told Ellie that Liana wanted to take her on a date and that she wanted to bring some cookies. Ellie helped her bake and decorate them when suddenly, she noticed it was already four pm.

"Oh shit!" Ellie cried out, accidentally knocking over a can of sprinkles, "Oh no, sorry!"

"What's wrong?" Jodie asked as they both scooped up the sprinkles that had not fallen to the floor.

"I completely lost track of time!" Ellie said, "And Quinn will be back by now! She doesn't know that I go here so often and she'll be really angry if she sees that I took Pasta again."

"I mean, we're almost done here already, so you can go quickly," Jodie replied, "maybe you'll get there in time."

"But the sprinkles..." Ellie looked at the mess on the ground but Jodie shook her head.

"It's okay. You can vacuum the floor next time you're here as a compensation."

She said it with a chuckle and Ellie laughed quietly.

"Thank you," she giggled. As fast as possible, she put on her jacket, stuffed her beanie and gloves into the pockets — no time for any of that — grabbed her scarf, threw it around her neck messily and stormed out to the front. She grabbed Pasta, scooping him up in her arms and waved Jodie a quick goodbye before she practically ran out of the café. The weather was nice today, the sun was shining and it was not as cold so at least Quinn could not yell at her for exposing Pasta to cruel conditions. Hopefully the blonde girl was not home yet!

Ellie sprinted down the road, up the stairs that led to the house and unlocked the door with the key Janet had given her. As soon as she entered the hallway, she was greeted by an oddly calm voice.

"Where have you been?" Quinn stood in the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of water and side eyeing Ellie. As soon as she noticed Pasta in her guest's arms, she went over to Ellie and took him from her, cuddling the little dog to her chest.

"He's ice-cold, what did you do with him? I came home ten minutes ago and nobody was here!" She asked, still very composed. Ellie knew that Pasta was indeed not ice-cold but she decided not to say anything.

"I just took him out for a quick wee," Ellie lied, taking off her jacket, "didn't you see us?"

"No, I didn't," Quinn replied. It was obvious that she did not believe Ellie for one moment — or that she did not want to believe her — but she did not say anything other than that. Now Ellie also noticed why her host was so weirdly calm instead of throwing her usual tantrums. Behind her on the couch, all of Quinn's friends were sitting, watching TV and looking over to where Ellie and Quinn stood. Of course, the blonde girl did not want to embarrass herself in front of her friends and act unnecessarily rude towards her guest. What a hypocrite! Ellie shyly waved at the others and got a few smiles and waves in return. That was, until Quinn moved to block her view.

"We're having a sleepover tonight," she announced cheerfully before dropping her voice to a whisper, "we'll talk about this when they're gone."

"No, we won't," Ellie muttered back and finally slid out of her boots when Quinn turned around to join her friends. Ellie also got herself a drink and then wanted to go to her room. She was not too keen on spending more time with Quinn, even if there were people present that kept the other girl from lashing out. Quinn's friends had been over a few times and Ellie knew all their names but she had never really talked to them. Most of the time, they just came to pick Quinn up or they went up to her room and stayed there for the afternoon. All of them were probably pretty nice but Ellie did not want to get in the way. Quinn would most likely not be okay with Ellie talking to or spending time with her friends and Ellie did not want to take any chances.

To get to the stairs that led to her room though, Ellie had to walk past the TV and past all of the teens sitting on the couch. She crouched down a little, trying to disrupt their movie-time as little as possible and then went on to disappear when a voice called her back:

"Ellie — it's Ellie, right?"

It was Collin who had spoken. He looked at her with a friendly smile, all the while his face never lost its mischievousness.

"Yeah..." Ellie replied, rubbing her arm.

"Why don't you stay and watch the movie with us?" Collin offered, scooting over to make room on the sofa for another person.

"I don't know..." Ellie said, discreetly looking at Quinn. The blonde girl was trying to conceal her true emotions by looking down at Pasta and petting him as if she did not care about whether Ellie stayed at all but her body language ratted her out: she was on edge, waiting for Ellie to say the right thing, to decline.

"Come on, we're watching Iron Man and we're only five minutes in," Collin tried again, "here, you can even sit next to me if that's what you want."

Ellie could not help but let out a laugh at that one, shaking her head.

"No, I'd rather not."

Lillian smacked Collin on the back of the head, grinning at Ellie.
"Don't take him seriously," she said, "but he's right, you're welcome to sit with us."

Seeing Quinn's face that was slowly turning sour, Ellie was not so sure she was.

"I don't want to disturb you guys..." she tried one last time, "and I really wanted to read that one book, so..."

"Now don't be shy!" Dash spoke up now and by the look on Quinn's face, Ellie was surprised the latter did not yell at her boyfriend on the spot, "You can read your book later. We'll move over — come here baby — and make room for you."

When Dash put an arm around Quinn to pull her closer, the girl tensed up for a moment before relaxing into the touch and moving to sit in Dash's lap. Her face was calm again but Ellie could tell she was boiling with anger beneath the surface. Awkwardly, she went over to the couch and sat in between Collin and Fiona, tightly holding onto the glass in her hand. Lillian handed her a bowl with popcorn but Ellie shook her head, glancing at Quinn one more time before fixating on the TV. It was possible she had never felt so awkward before.

While Lillian was sprawled out on the couch, on leg on Fiona's lap and her arm resting on the armrest and Dash and Quinn were cuddling on the other side of the couch, Ellie was sitting there stiff as a mannequin, knees pressed together and elbows tucked into her side. Her tension did not go unnoticed for long.

"Hey, Relax," Collin said to her, "we don't bite — unless you want me to."

"Ugh, Collin!" Lillian shook her head disapprovingly, "If you continue like this, she'll leave again — it's no wonder she's so tense! Would you rather sit over here?"

She pointed to her spot at the end of the couch. Yes, Ellie thought, yes she would rather sit over there and not in the middle, right between Quinn's friends, constantly reminding her host of Ellie's existence. If she sat on the side, she could lean away from whoever was next to her and try to sink into the armrest. But she did not want to hurt anyone's feelings or make this situation even more uncomfortable, so she just shook her head and gave Lillian a smile. It felt more like a grimace to her, though.

Watching the movie with Quinn and her friends was the most uncomfortable thing Ellie had done in a long time. After a little while, she relaxed physically, leaning back on the couch and also finally allowing her knees to fall open a little bit. Mentally though, she was on edge. Every few minutes, Ellie kept glancing over at Quinn nervously and no matter how hard she tried, she could not focus on the movie at all. Her mind was filled with thoughts about the other girl: surely Quinn would hate her even more now, since Ellie was interrupting her time with her friends and had also taken Pasta again without asking. Quinn had already announced that she would bring all of this up as soon as they were alone again and the fact that Ellie was now sitting on the couch with her as if she owned the house probably was not helping her to calm down.

When the movie was over, relief washed over Ellie. Finally she could go up to her room and stay there. This thought was short-lived though, because as soon as the screen turned black, Quinn's friends started a conversation and tried to engage her in it.

"Have you ever watched this movie before?" Collin asked her, "You seemed really into it."

"I think, maybe a couple years ago," Ellie replied, "but I didn't remember a lot."

"I've watched it at least a dozen times," Dash said, separating himself from Quinn and the kiss they had just shared, "my little sister was obsessed with it when the movie first came out — I think Iron Man was her first celebrity crush."

"Understandable," Fiona chuckled, "he does look good!"

"Hm, depends on the competition," Collin chimed in, "I look way better."

"No, you don't!" Lillian laughed and shook her head in disbelief, "You can't compete with Iron Man!"

"Maybe not on a superhero-basis, but regarding our looks, I'm definitely the more handsome one," Collin ran a hand through his hair with an arrogant look on his face.

"You wish!"

"It's true! I'm sure Ellie would take me over Iron Man any day!"

"Um..." Ellie looked over to Quinn who was avoiding eye contact with anyone, "I don't know..."

"Just say no, Collin doesn't need to get his ego boosted even more, he's already a borderline narcissist," Lillian grinned.

"No! Say yes!"

"Can I refuse to vote for either of those?"

"NO!" This time, they spoke together, making the group erupt in laughter. Even Ellie laughed along with them, until she met Quinn's eye. The blonde girl was giggling as well but as soon as they had eye contact, she seemed to try and kill Ellie by staring her to death. Ellie quickly looked away, her laughter slowly dying.

"I should get going," she said and slowly got up from the couch, "I don't want to bother you guys any longer."

"You're not bothering us!" Collin said enthusiastically, "I have no clue where you're getting those ideas from but you're not going anywhere! Here, you can even choose the next movie."

He offered a box filled with DVD's to Ellie that had previously been sitting under the coffee table. Ellie took the box without thinking about it and then wanted to slap herself for doing that. She could not choose the movie they were going to watch, Quinn would probably kill her for that.

"Eh, I don't think I'd be good at that," Ellie pushed the box back into Collin's lap, "and I don't want to choose a movie that you guys have seen thousands of times already or that you hate."

"Don't worry so much, it's just a movie," Collin grabbed one of the DVD's and read the name before showing it to Ellie, "have you seen this one before?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Well, then we'll watch it right now!"

Collin got put to start the movie. Ellie tensed up again because now the only thing that had been separating her from Quinn and Dash was gone. The blonde girl was still sitting on her boyfriend's lap but her legs that had previously dangling over Collin's lap were now only inches from Ellie's thighs. When Quinn suddenly moved to change her position, Ellie almost flinched. As Collin sat back down, bickering with Dash and Quinn about how much space they were taking up, Ellie relaxed a little bit again, focusing on the screen and trying to ignore the fact that Quinn was probably burning a hole into the side of her head with her angry eyes.

When Janet came home just a little later, Ellie was relieved to have the group split up. Janet began cooking immediately and asked someone to help her — Ellie thought about getting up and volunteering but before she could move, Quinn had already taken that spot, probably glad to finally distance herself from Ellie. The latter had taken the opportunity to act as if she had received an important message and said she needed to call someone. Quickly, she went up to her room and texted Jodie, telling her that she would like to come over tomorrow again.

'Sure!' Jodie wrote back, 'How's the evening going? Was Quinn already home when you came back?'

'Yes, and she's mad at me' Ellie replied, adding an emoji that was rolling its eyes, 'but she can't yell at me bc her friends are here. I think she wants to talk to me tomorrow though. Btw, how's the date going?'

'Well, then you better come over as soon as possible tomorrow! Date is great, Liana's just complaining that the cookies don't have enough sprinkles ;)'

Ellie chuckled at that and messaged Jodie she would come over after breakfast before she put her phone to the side. As she was still contemplating whether or not it would be weird if she did not join the others downstairs again, Janet called for her to come down for dinner.

Ellie had not heard her parents and Philip arrive at the house but they were also there, giving out glasses and cutlery to everyone and joking around. It was obvious that Quinn's parents knew her friends very well. The kids had probably grown up together and most likely knew each other their whole lives. No wonder Quinn got a little possessive over them and their interaction with 'outsiders' like Ellie.

Dinner was quite nice, actually. With all the additional people around, conversation flowed easily and Ellie found herself happily chatting with the others. Quinn was unusually quiet, eating mostly in silence except for occasional remarks. She only started to show interest in the conversation when everyone was finished eating.

"Does anyone want to finish the movie?" Dash asked, leaning back on his chair.

"Eh no, let's just go to my room," Quinn chimed in and began collecting the plates.

"Yeah, we can do that — Ellie, will you be okay living with the dissatisfaction of not knowing how the movie ends?" Collin asked her all of a sudden.

"Um..." Ellie, who had not expected to be addressed so directly, nervously looked up at Quinn who demonstratively turned her back on the table, "sure, I don't mind. Besides, the DVD is always here so I could always watch it some other time."

In reality, she would rather die than make herself at home in the living room where Quinn could interrupt her every moment.

When the others agreed as well, the group went upstairs, Quinn leading them like a haughty queen, Pasta in her arms. Ellie trailed behind on purpose, taking her time to pour herself another glass of water and take a few sips, refilling it, checking the pockets of her jacket to see if she had left anything in there — the little red clay dog was still in one of them and she took him out to take him to her room. She hoped that by the time she would come upstairs, the others would already have closed the door of Quinn's room behind them, forgetting her existence and allowing her to finally relax in her own room.

It was Quinn's room, or at least the guest room of her family, but somehow it seemed like the only bit of privacy and drama-free space that Ellie had left. She did enjoy talking to Quinn's friends as they all seemed very nice but she certainly did not enjoy her host's death stares and how she always made her feel like an intruder.

Unfortunately though, when Ellie walked up the stairs, the door to Quinn's room was open. She and her friends were sitting all over the floor and turned around simultaneously when they heard the wooden stairs creaking.

"Ellie, come join us!" Collin waved her over but Ellie hesitated. Her gaze lingered on Quinn for a moment whose face portrayed a mixture of slight annoyance and forced calmness.

"What are you doing?" Ellie asked hesitantly, even though she really did not want to spend more time in the same room as Quinn.

"Just talking," Collin replied, "and we're going to sleep in here tonight, you can come, too."

If Quinn had tried to look friendly at first, she was now definitely failing. Before anyone except Ellie could notice how her face fell, the blonde girl bent down to pet Pasta.

"Um... no offense guys but I think I'd like some time to myself... maybe another time," Ellie apologized and the other nodded.

"No problem!"

Before Ellie went back to her own room, she quickly glanced over at Quinn another time. Surely the girl would be relieved now that Ellie had distanced herself and would seem a little happier. But Quinn was looking as grumpy and disinterested as ever. Ellie decided not to care about it anymore and closed the door of her own room behind her.

When she went to go to the bathroom a little while later, Quinn's door was closed as well.

In her own room, Ellie put on some quiet music and positioned the small clay dog on her nightstand. Now that she was alone, she could finally relax, release the tension that she had been holding in her body, consciously dropping her shoulders and taking a deep breath.

Why was she always so nervous around Quinn? Surely their dislike for each other played a huge role in Ellie's tenseness but Quinn never seemed to be so hyper-aware of what the other girl did and said. Was she afraid of her host? But that would be ridiculous! It was probably just because Quinn was at home here; she knew the house better than Ellie did, she knew the village, she knew the people. Ellie was the newcomer, the stranger, the intruder. She had never enjoyed change too much on its own and now, everything was even worse. And while the only thing that had changed for Quinn were the three people occupying her house, everything had changed for Ellie. Maybe this made her vulnerable in a way.

Ellie resorted to looking out of the window, just like she had done on the evening of her first full day here in Frostfields. Normally, she would have written something to get her mind off of things or picked up a book to read but she did not feel motivated or able to concentrate on anything. She pulled the heavy curtains back after switching off the lights in her room, she carefully climbed on top of the desk that stood in front of the window, hugging her knees and watching the village below her. It was not that late so Ellie was not surprised when she spotted a person walking down the road, their shoulders hunched up to protect themselves from the cold. It was too dark to identify the person and Ellie watched as they crossed the street and then disappeared in the dark, somewhere behind the restaurant of Fiona's parents.

From then on, the village seemed as though no one was really living here.

Ellie still was not used to the odd silence at night. Even though she did not live in the center of town back in America, there were still the sounds of cars audible during the night, sometimes mixing with voices of people who walked down the street, the barking of dogs that lived in the neighbourhood or the distant sound of music. And it had never been as dark as it was out here. Since Frostfields did not have streetlights, the nights were pitch black dark. Ellie missed the soft, yellow light of the lanterns that used to act as a nightlight for her when she was a kid and the occasional beam of light when a car would drive past their house.

Here, they really rolled up the sidewalks at night. It was ice cold, dark and silent; truly a rather melancholic yet peaceful sight. 

Was there any kind of night life in Lone Pine? Judging by the name, the small town was probably similar to Frostfields but if it had a University and a High School, chances were it was a little more lively at night. Ellie thought that she would quite like checking out the town behind the mountains but she was a little scared that she would miss the last bus home or get lost there — her sense of direction had never been particularly great. 

If she only had someone to go there with her... but Quinn would never agree to that. Maybe she could ask Jodie? Would that be weird? So far, they had only spent time together in the café.

Suddenly, Ellie had to yawn and decided to call it a day. She had woken up quite early because Quinn could not be bothered to try and keep it quiet when she was getting ready in the mornings and the evening she had spent with the blonde girl and her friends had been specifically mentally exhausting. After quickly getting ready for bed, she curled up under her thick, warm blanket and closed her eyes.

Ellie woke up very early the next morning. Since the sun rose fairly late during winter, especially in northern areas like this, she got to experience blue hour as she was still sitting in bed, the blanket wrapped around her like a cape. The house was oddly quiet, maybe Quinn and her friends were still sleeping or had already gone out to go skiing. Slowly, she got up and got dressed quietly, gathering everything she needed and tiptoeing into the hallway. The door to Quinn's room was still closed, just as it had been the entire evening and Ellie carefully walked down the stairs on her socked feet.

The living room and the kitchen were empty and Ellie exhaled audibly, feeling a little relieved. She went to make herself some breakfast and had just gotten a bowl from one of the shelves when she heard the door to the basement swing open behind her. To Ellie's horror, Quinn emerged from the room, carrying Pasta with one arm. Both were wrapped in warm jackets, probably just coming back from their morning walk. And to make the situation even worse, none of Quinn's friends were behind her — the two of them were alone. Ellie quickly turned her back on Quinn, pretending to be very busy with making her cereal while in reality, she was paying attention to everything that happened behind her.

It took Quinn just a few seconds before she could not hold back any longer.

"Do you have no shame at all?" She asked, her voice quiet but nonetheless bitter and harsh. Ellie decided to ignore her. It was most likely not a good choice but she was not really in the mood for a fight; it was way too early and she just did not want to deal with all of this today.

"Seriously, who do you think you are?" Quinn continued without skipping a beat, "Sucking up to my friends as if they were your own? Stealing my dog from me and acting like you own this place? You're pathetic, really!"

Ellie sighed and closed the fridge without getting anything out of it. Her appetite had disappeared and she just wanted to get out of the house. For the first time during their conversation, Ellie turned around to face Quinn.

She pushed past her, slipping into her shoes and grabbing her jacket and the keys.

"You're just salty because your friends — and your dog — actually seem to like me," she said calmly, "I don't have the patience to deal with you today."

It was true. Ellie had sat back and let Quinn continue with her behavior for almost a month at that point and she was slowly but surely getting tired. It was annoying and unnecessary. If Quinn wanted to pick a fight with someone, she would have to find someone else from now on.

As soon as she stepped outside the door, Ellie regretted not putting on her jacket inside. It was freezing cold and by the time she had pulled the scarf out of one of her sleeves, she was already shivering. She closed her jacket and wrapped the scarf around her neck but it did little to nothing to keep her warm. The weather was not helping her either because just a few seconds after she had left the property, it started to snow. It was also way too early to go to Jodie's: the café opened at 11am and it was barely half past eight. If Jodie was not still asleep by now, she would most likely be showering or eating breakfast herself and Ellie did not want to bother her.

Maybe the bookshop would be open already! Ellie was not really in need of new books, she still had one or two from her last visit there that she wanted to read but one could never have enough books. There, she could hide between the shelves, enjoying the warmth of the shop and spend the time with reading until it was time to visit the café.