Back To December

He runs his hand through his hair, which is the first sign that he is frustrated, and turns to look at me.

“Damn it Elle. Why do you keep doing this? I am working my ass off to make this work, but you don’t even seem to be trying. I have no idea what you want from me.”

“What do you want me to do about it? All we ever do anymore is fight. I am up to my eyeballs with work for my classes, and when we are together all you do is complain your practice was hard and you’re stressed, but you don’t even think that I am stressed too. This is my future on the line here and can’t mess that up. So I am sorry trying to make time for you isn’t first on my priority list!”

“SO that’s it I am not important to you or our relationship! Why are we even in a relationship then? Obviously you don’t care so why should I keep trying to make this work when clearly we are on two different pages. I’m done trying Elle; I can’t do this anymore it’s over.”

“Fine, go! If that’s the way you feel then go! I don’t need you!” I cry out as I collapse on the couch.

He doesn’t say anything else; just shakes his head, turns around and then walks to the door. Seconds later the slam of the front door vibrates throughout the room.

My eyes shoot open and I take a couple breaths placing my hand on my racing heart. It was just a dream, a dream about the fight that ended our relationship. It is kind of ironic that I dreamt about how we ended on the day I met him four years ago. I run my fingers through my wavy long chocolate brown hair and sigh. I need to stop thinking about this it’s summer and I am determined to have a good time with my friends and not dwell on the past. Well since I know I won’t be able to go back to sleep I guess I should just get up it is the first official day of summer.

I throw the covers off my body and then pad my bare feet into my attached bathroom to shower. I reach over to pull the knob to start the shower then I quickly undress and hop into the steamy hot shower.

Fifteen minutes later I return to my room and walk over to where my still packed suitcase is and grab my black and silver bikini and a pair of Hollister jean shorts. After I put on my outfit I slip on a pair of black Hollister flip-flops and walk out of my room to the kitchen where my two best friends are sitting eating cereal.

“Well, well, well, look who decided to join us this morning.”

“Bite me Lana.” I say to my dark brown haired best friend.

She scrunches her nose and replies, “Ewe no thank you, I rather not.”

Then I turn to my sandy blonde haired best friend and say, “Please tell me there is still coffee left, Callie?”

“Yep, it was just waiting for you to get your ass up.” She cheekily replies.

I smile and walk over the counter where the coffee maker is to grab the pot and pour the hot liquid into my mug I grabbed from one of the cabinets. I feel Lana’s eyes following my every move and know she knows that something is wrong. I close my eyes and wait for her to ask what’s wrong, knowing that we are about to have the same argument we had for the past three years. As I put the right amount of sugar and milk into my coffee I hear Lana sigh.

“Elle what’s wrong and don’t tell me nothing because you know I can read you like a book. I have known you since we were in pre-school so don’t lie to me.”

I sigh and tell her, “It’s nothing; I just had a dream about the fight, being back here brought back the memories and everything.”

“Elle, maybe this was a bad idea, coming back here for the summer.”

“No! Coming here for the summer has been our tradition since ninth grade and we are not about to change it just because it brings back memories about being with him. Now I am going to the beach and have the best summer as of yet.”

I slam down my mug with nearly any coffee on the counter and stalk over to my beach bag and throw it over my shoulder and say, “I am going to the beach with or without you; so are you guys coming?”

Lana shakes her head knowing the conversation is over and walks over to where her beach bag is and grabs it.

Callie chuckles and follows suit.

A few minutes later we reach the beach and start to look for the perfect spot.

“Lana, Elle, over here it is prefect!” Callie calls from a few feet on our right not too close to the water or the kids running around the in the sand, exactly like she said, perfect.

“Not bad Cal, not bad at all.”

Callie smiles and said, “I know I rock, huh Elle?”

“Yes, yes you do. Now I say we put our beach blanket down and get our tan on.”

They chuckle while I pull a huge blanket out of my beach bag and together we set down the blanket down on the nice, hot, Californian sand. I drop my beach bag in the center and Lana and Callie follows suit, with Lana on my left and Callie on my right. We take off our flip flops and put them on each corner of the blanket just in case it starts to get windy and take off our shorts then plop ourselves down on the blanket. We get situated, with Lana lying on her back listening to her I-Pod, Callie lying on her back with her head propped up from her beach towel and her legs bent balancing the latest book she is reading, and finally me lying on my stomach with my iPad on Netflix trying to catch up on shows I had missed while studying for finals and preparing for graduation.

I smile thinking about how I would be lost without them and how perfect it is being here with them knowing they will always be there just like we have been since pre-school. I think about how different we are but at the same time how much we are so alike. When you first look at Callie people think a typical blonde, but don’t let her looks deceive you. She is effortlessly beautiful or what most people would say a natural beauty, but would rather read a book than go out to party every night of the week. Now that doesn’t mean she is a prude because she likes to go out a let loose every now and then. To top it off she is really smart and wants to be a writer. She is brutally honest something that I love about her because she is never afraid to tell you how it is and she is one of the nicest people I have ever met. Callie almost always has a smile on her face and when I am having the worst day ever she tells me something funny and smiles at me, I can’t help but laugh and smile with her.

Then there is Lana, the fashionista of our trio. She literally eat, sleeps, breathes fashion, her dream is to be a writer at Marie Claire and/or work for a high-end fashion designer company and eventually start her very own fashion line. Never let her five-foot-one height fool you, she is a total spitfire when she wants to be along with her long dark, almost black, brown hair that is always styled perfectly. I swear that she knows me better than I know myself sometimes. Now just because Lana loves fashion doesn’t mean she isn’t book smart because she graduated second in our class out of two-hundred-fifty plus students in high school. Callie was actually was first in our class and I graduated fifth in our class, so I guess you can say we are all smart. Lana and Callie are the closest things as to being sisters to me.

“So what are you watching?”

I pause the show, pull out my earphones, and turned to look at Callie and say, “Just catching up on some Supernatural. How’s the book?”

She sighed and said, “Amazing, Nicholas Sparks always writes amazing books.”

I smile and tell her I would have to read it when she is done with it, which most likely will be by the end of the day.

It truly is funny how the world works. There are always reasons as to why a person is the way they are; things that have happened to them that have shaped them into the person they are today. No one in this world is perfect and I will be the first person to admit it that I know I am not perfect. I look at it this way, I rather be imperfect than be perfect. It is hard to believe that this our last summer before its time for the real world, having that we all just graduated a couple of weeks ago. I can safely say that my life was not perfect. My dad left my mom and I after she had a miscarriage, she was five months along, I was only six, I guess he could not handle the pain and everything; I haven’t heard from his since.

After my dad left my mom had a little bit of a hard time with losing a child and her husband leaving her when she needed him the most, but a few months later she finally got herself together and realized that she had me to raise and needed her. Never once was money an issue, see my mom came from money and so did my dad, I had a trust fund since before I was even born. Now just because I am rich that I am some kind of stuck up rich girl, because I am not. My mom instilled the importance of being independent to me. Since I was sixteen I have been working at this quaint little diner not far from the beach house the girls and I live at during the summer. I absolutely love it there it is my safe haven; the owner Luke is like the father I never had.

Callie and Lana’s parents are also wealthy but they made sure to keep them grounded as well. Lana works at the clothing boutique down the street from the diner and Callie works at a book store right next door to the diner. We all started working at the same time and have the same shifts during the summer. To each of us where we work are little safe havens to us to get away from the drama of the real world.

It is hard to believe that in about four months our summer will be over, ready to face the real world; and that is will maybe the last summer we will work at our safe havens.

Enough about that, it is time for me to shut off my brain and just relax on this glorious first day of summer.

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“HEADS UP!!” Those were the words I heard that had awoken me from my brief slumber. Seconds later a volleyball lands right on my head. What a lovely wakeup call (please note the sarcasm).

“Oh my, I’m so sorry. Are you alright?” A feminine voice asks me.

“I’m fine. Really it didn’t hurt that much” I smile at her.

“Nice going Mal. What are you trying to kill some poor unsuspecting bystander?” A male voice calls out from one of the three people at the volleyball net not far from the where I was laying.

“Shut up Will!”

“I’m sorry again. I’m Mallory, but you can call me Mal.”

“Elle, it’s nice to meet you under these circumstances.” I chuckle and Mal chuckles along with me.

“Are you here by yourself?”

“No I’m here with my two best friends, but it appears to be that have disappeared during my catnap.”

“Cal, I think she is talking about us behind our backs”

“I think you are right. I mean we just went to go grab some food and tried to wake your ass up, but you were dead to the world. I mean maybe we should bring back the food we brought her.”

“NOO!! I want the food!”

“Mal these are my two best friends Callie and Lana. Guys this is Mallory she oh so kindly woke me up by hitting a volleyball on my head.” I tease.

“Note to self any time we want to wake up Elle, hit her with a volleyball.”

“Bite me Lana.”

“Didn’t we have this conversation already? The answer is still no. It’s nice to meet you Mallory”

“Yes it is, and we learned some valuable information on how to wake Elle here up.”

She giggles and replies, “Its nice meet you ladies as well.”

“Mal, are you done socializing? We have a game to get back to!” Will, calls out.

“I’ll be there is a minute, relax! Well I better get back; it was nice to meet you guys and you are more than welcome to come join us while we are here.”

“Thanks we will keep that in mind, bye Mal.” I reply and then she runs off to join the three people by the volleyball net.

“Well she seemed nice.”

“Yeah she did. Oh yum grilled cheese, you guys are the best!”

“We know.” They reply at the same time. Trust me after knowing each other since we were in pre-school we practically share the same brain and always know what the each other are thinking.

After our giggling fest dies down we settle back into our previous positions. A few hours later we gather up our things and head home to shower and get ready to go to the diner for some dinner.