Ellie was preoccupied with thoughts of Oliver for the better part of the night. She was distraught over the way her body had reacted to his much-improved aesthetics; she was enraged at the countless revelations he'd bombarded them with; she was amazed at how quickly she was growing attached to her newly-discovered niece. She'd had to take two sleeping pills to quell the mayhem in her head.
"G-great," he mumbled.
"Yeah," she sighed wearily. "Awesome."
It was a grim spectacle. Once the closest of all siblings were now as estranged as two distant relatives.
"Well, I'm... off to the pool," Ellie said. "Nice chat."
She made no more than three steps before—
"Listen, Ellie, I'm... I want to talk to you."
"I'm going to the pool now."
"Can't you wait with the pool for a few minutes? So we c
