Outtake #5 - "Borrowing Trouble"

So Chapter 30 had quite a few bits and pieces cut out of the overall chapter, which meant more for the blog! Here's the second of two outtakes.

"Borrowing Trouble - Outtake #2"
Takes place after the Thanksgiving picnic on Chuck's bed

“Ellie’s doing something odd with the apartment today.”

“The Turkey Toss?” Chuck asked.

“Yes, that. She’s not…actually planning to throw a turkey around, is she?”

“No.” Chuck grinned. “She just cleans the place from top to bottom every Thanksgiving weekend. She started when she was thirteen. My dad and I used to call it the Turkey Toss. I didn’t know she still did it.” Abruptly, he felt the dark edge of depression begin to form at the corner of his mind. There were so many things he had missed with Ellie, and with Morgan, and with his life. Five whole years of Turkey Tosses and Thanksgiving dinners and little moments like having coffee in the morning with friends and…

His cell phone buzzed. Chuck blinked and the depression snapped away, lingering but mostly gone. He glanced at the viewscreen and gave Sarah a confused look as he picked it up. “Hello?”

“Hey. Quit that.”

“Uh, okay.” He scratched the back of his head. “You’re calling me when you’re standing right there, why?”

Sarah hung up her phone and pushed it into her back pocket. “It was fun? Besides, you’re the one that answered it.”

“Because you called—never mind.” The call had been a success. He could already feel the depression fading away, but it was still an odd move. Still, he mustered up a smile. “You’d better get going before Ellie decides to clean your room and find your stashes of knives.”

Sarah’s eyes widened. Apparently, that thought hadn’t occurred to her. “I should clean the table before she finds out what I did to her table legs,” she said, and hurried toward the stairs. At the top, though, she turned.