Re: log: joey & ella, gatsby
Nobody in Gatsby was going to run away with her baby or threaten a girl surrounded with brothers like petals on a flower. Nobody in Gatsby was going to burn anything down or scorch away safety, and Ella liked pretending. She'd learned how, to smile nice and say we're doing fine any time someone from church asked after her mother when her mother was stay-in-bed sad after a holiday and the house was empty. She'd learned the difference between the kind of pretending that was rotten at the core and the kind of dress-up that was Gatsby. It was momentary, like all the worries she carried around could be set down by wriggling into a dress with a little fringe and Joey, he looked like he could do with setting some of something down.
So she didn't need air. She didn't need to leave the table, but she would, slide her way through people with the fringe swaying against her knees and an excuse me and touch of the elbow to people who didn't move on over. She knew people well enough who didn't want excuses, who wanted you so far pretending they didn't need a thing that you were convinced, and she smiled like sunshine when he said he'd come on with.
"You'll keep me company?" and she didn't leave the question out to be answered, she stepped out, all fringe and sway and the gloves forgotten, balled on the table-top to come back to later.