So, this is one of the new stories. I hope you will like it..
And now I can thank Chris for editing this! :)
Endings
"No, I prefer Mike." Mia said as she applied the nail polish to another finger nail.
"And I like Brad. The rest of the boys are just stupid." Kate agreed blowing at her fingernails that were already painted in bright pink.
Meanwhile, Ana smiled because she knew she did not need any these guys, when there was only one boy she liked.
"Thank God Ana does not like any of them." Mia smirked, and of course her best friends knew who she liked.
The big brother of Mia Grey. Christian Grey.
Even when she was just ten years old and he was almost eighteen she liked him. Though she had only seen him a few times, she had a huge crush on him.
"Mia will marry Mike and Kate will marry Brad, while I..."Ana dreamed.
She would grow up into a beautiful woman. She would have a huge house with a pool and a beautiful garden. She would wear a beautiful white gown when she marries the boy of her dreams, Christian Grey.
"While you marry my brother." Mia laughed as she finished Ana's sentence.
"Haha, exactly. One day, we will marry each other." Ana said.
Little did she know that Christian only saw her as one of his sister's friends, he even thought her name was Anya.
Why would he think otherwise? She was just a little girl. All he saw was his sister and her friends doing their childish girly play date when he opened the door to Mia's room to say hi.
"Christian!" Mia squealed as she went to hug her big brother.
"Ew, what's that smell?" Christian asked.
"We are painting our nails. Look!" Mia waved her hand near his face.
"Look at Ana's!" Mia led him to the girl in the short skirt that showed her thin legs and body hugging top that showed off her... well nothing.
Ana wanted to grow up and look mature enough for Christian's liking. But he only saw her as a little girl.
Ana's cheeks became red as Christian took her hand in his and looked at her fingernails.
They were not painted well, Christian had to admit. Just as Ana's face had some too bright make up on it.
But he smiled at her and said that her nails looked cute.
And if he only knew in how many ways she repeated that as she walked back home.
"Your nails look cute." She said for the last time, smiling brightly as she came into the house.
"I am tired of this! I want a divorce!" She heard her mom, Carla yell towards Ray, her father.
"Carla, calm down! It is just work."
"Just work?! I am tired of hearing that! That's all I heard for the last year! I have been thinking about this, Raymond. I love you, but we just..."
Ana ran to her room before her mother finished her sentence. She could not bear to hear her parents arguing. She did not want them to divorce. She could still hear her parents arguing and she started to cry.
Ana forgot about what Christian had said earlier that evening. Instead, she repeated a new line in her head.
"I want a divorce."
Ana loved her parents. Even though Ray was not her biological father, she loved him. She loved him more than all the other girls in her class loved their real fathers.
But that night she realised she had to face the truth, as Ray came into her room to say goodbye.
He kissed her goodnight and told her that he loved her before he left to his old house in Montesano.
And that was the time when she started to become the Ana she was now.
That was when she started to deal with life.
After her parents divorce was finalized, her mother remarried.
Carla's new husband, Bob moved into their home shortly after they got married.
After a few months, Ana told her mother she wanted to live with Ray in Montesano because she and Bob did not meet eye to eye.
Even though her mom and Ray had divorced, Ray still loved her and saw Ana as his own daughter. Ana felt that same about him. Ana did not know her biological father. She never met him. He had died the day after she was born in an accident.
As Ana started to pack up her stuff, she thought about Christian. What were the chances that she could ever be with Mia's brother? Especially now, that she would no longer live with her Mom who lived a few houses away from the Grey's.
"Bye, Mia. Bye, Kate." Ana said as she hugged her two best friends.
"Bye, Ana! I hope you will come back for a visit." Grace, Mia's mother, said as she approached the girls.
"Bye, Mrs. Grey." Ana said but then heard two voices she knew.
One she knew very well.
"...And then I told her I was seeing Diana. At first she was all like why and asked other questions, but then she left and I think she is okay now." Christian said to his brother, Elliot as they came in the yard.
"Elliot, Christian! We were just saying our goodbyes!" Mia said.
"Oh, bye Anya!" Christian yelled and waved to the girl as he walked into the house.
"It's Ana." She said, but he could not hear her anymore.
"Okay, Ana. Time to go." Carla said.
Ana hugged hugged Kate and Mia for the last time and said their final goodbyes before Carla drove her to Ray's.
She stared out of the window and looked around. This is was it. She was moving on with her life. A life with her father.
Thirteen years later
"Ana, I just want you to know I still love him. Trust me, now that I think of my past, Ray was my favourite husband. God forgive me how it sounds. And it hurts to know that I will never see him again." Carla said as she sipped her wine.
"As if you were interested in seeing him." Ana murmured as she looked out of the window and sipped her much stronger cocktail.
"Ana, you know how it is. Ray and I have been divorced for thirteen years. But now, I regret I didn't see much of him while he was still alive."
Ana did not respond.
She just watched the raindrops fall - on the cars, on the ground, in the grass. She watched as the lights in the house turned off. She tried to not think about anything else but the rain. She tried to count how many waterfalls fell on a petal of the flower that was out of the window.
But then her brain came back to reality and she just broke down, she couldn't hide her emotions anymore.
"I miss him so much." She said between her sobs as she hugged her mother. "I can't, I can't live without him."
"Ana, you need to. That's life. We lose our loved ones. One day, we all will die. He was a happy man. He loved you so much, he had a good life."
"But why couldn't God make him live a few more years at least?"
"Who knows, Ana? Maybe he has another mission now? Maybe he has something more important to do in heaven right now." Carla said, softly caressing Ana's back.
"Ana, honey, put away that cocktail and go to sleep. Ray would not have wanted to see you like this. You need to be strong, you need to move on. We both need too. Now that I think about my life, I think about what if I had stayed married to , Ana..."
"Let me live here for a while, Mom. I can't go back to our house. I can't go back now that Ray is not there anymore. I just can't..."
Ana remembered herself before she started her life together with her Dad.
She had lived in an illusion.
She lived in her happily ever after dream with her best friend's brother who was seven years older. She was in love with someone who did not even know her name.
She had thought life was about growing up, marrying someone. Then later on having kids. She thought of being a housewife - taking care of the household and the children along with preparing dinner while her husband was at work.
Just after her parent's divorce, she had realised that life did not always have a happy ending.
It was almost never that way.
But that did not mean that life was bad.
Ray had showed her how good life could be.
He had helped her grow in so many ways. He had made her the woman she is now. Strong and aware of what life was.
Ana loved her mother and friends, but if she had kept living like this, she would probably be like Mia or Kate who spend their parents money on what they needed or wanted, spending more time having fun then working .
She loved them, but she was not like this. She was independent. She did not rely on anyone but herself.
Ana was okay with the fact that she was just starting out into the adult world. She was okay that she did not have a high paying job. She had been happy with living with Ray. She had been okay with her life as it was.
And as for her childhood dreams, Ana thought it was funny that for the past five years her mother has been mentioning Christian Grey, Mia's older brother. Ana's childhood crush.
Her mother, Carla along with Christian's mother, Grace had wanted to try to set them up together. They both thought they would be perfect for each other.
Once that would have been Ana's dream. But not anymore.
The last time she saw Christian had been that day she left her Mom's house to go live with Ray.
The last time she saw his face, was a few days ago when she saw him on the cover of Forbes magazine.
Soon after moving to Ray's house, she had forgotten about her childhood crush. It was a new school, new class, new boys.
As it turned out, it was normal for girls to fall in love and dream of the happily ever after with many guys before they meet "the one."
But soon after, Christian and all the other crushes she had were forgotten, as she had started her college years.
That was when she had a few boyfriends which did not result in a happily ever after.
The only man she loved besides Ray, was Jose.
He was perfect – good looking, smart, funny. The only problem was that he also loved men.
When Ana started college, she and Kate went on to live as roommates and were still best friends. It was just like yesterday when they were painting their nails at their friend Mia's home.
They studied together, ate and prepared meals together. Sharing an apartment had been great.
But then things had changed again and Ana moved back to Ray's. She was working from home, editing articles for a gardening magazine. Kate moved back with her parents and Jose had started a career as a photographer and had his own apartment.
She and Ray had never had any disagreements or had always had a perfect relationship.
"Stay here for as long as you want, Ana. You know I love you and I would really love it if you stayed here for some time..." Carla said and wiped away Ana's tears.
"Now let's go to sleep, Ana. Remember what Ray said, if you think everything's bad and the day is horrible, just go to sleep. Who knows what tomorrow brings?" her mother said.
Ana continued to watch the rain – just now from her bed as she lied in it.
Who knew what tomorrow would bring? She thought to herself.
Yesterday was gone, and so was the rest of her past.
She did not expect to feel good or to be happy again overnight, but she thought she could just try to face the fact that her dad was gone. And maybe somehow start living again.
