A/N- once again, the song is Before I let You Go by Freestyle


Chapter Seven

Letting love go is never easy
But I love you so
That's why I set you free
I know someday, somehow
I'll find a way
To leave it all behind me
Guess it wasn't meant to be

"Elizabeth!"

Someone screamed my name. At five-thirty in the morning. On a Saturday.

"What!" I yelled back, not bothering to open my eyes.

"Get down here, now!" I pulled myself out of bed with a groan, still trying not to open my eyes. I felt my way downstairs, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

My stepsister, Maria, was in the kitchen, half way dressed and looking way too pretty for five o'clock on a Saturday morning. She had a cup of coffee in one hand, and a binder in the other.

"I have my internship interview in two hours and it takes two hours just to get to the office building! Make me some breakfast, now. I have to go finish my hair and go over my notes. I expect a vegetarian omelet on my plate by the time I get back, with my vitamins lying next to it," she snapped, throwing her binder on the table and running down the hall to her room, which had been my mom's yoga room two months earlier.

My mom had started dating my now-stepfather, Jay, the summer before my senior year at Beach View High. He was a fairly tolerable person. He had sucked up to me while he was dating my mom, buying me anything and everything. He even tried to buy me a better car, but I remained loyal to my Mustang.

The second month he had been dating my mom, he had introduced me to the devil. No joke. Maria was a devil from hell as far as I was concerned. She had been there, done that, and has the horns and spiky tail to prove it.

She was pretty, which made it that much harder to like her. She was originally from Texas, so she did not have the blonde hair that me or my mom, or any of the other native Californians had. Her brown hair had some natural auburn highlights in it, and it fell in wavy curls down past her shoulders. Her bright green eyes contrasted her alabaster skin nicely and she had the body every girl dreamed of, curvy in all the right places, and naturally skinny. And to make it worse, she was five foot eleven and had killer legs, especially while wearing heels. Oh, and she was a senior, just like me, which meant I had to endure her wrath during school, too. But one good thing had come out of this spur-of-the-moment Vegas marriage. And that someone was padding into the kitchen right now; her blanket snuggled up against her chin.

My other stepsister, Jessica, was the cutest thing to ever walk the earth. She had very curly black hair that went to her shoulders and dark brown eyes that when you stared into them, you could practically see her soul. She was five years old and spoke with the slightest southern accent, though it was much cuter on her than her sister. Her tan skin was much prettier than her sister's pale skin and she was much nicer.

"Ellie?" she whispered to me. "Why are you up?" She rubbed her eyes sleepily, and then yawned.

"Why are you up Jess?" I whispered back, reaching into the fridge for eggs.

"Maria was shouting."

"I know, but everything's okay now. Go back to sleep."

Jessica shook her head. "I want to stay out here with you. The air is being mad."

I smiled. The air was on full blast today and the vents in her room creaked and groaned when the air was on this high.

"All right. Go get dressed then come out here, I'll make you some eggs too." As Jessica waddled back into her room, blanket in tow, I scraped the omelet onto a plate and set a cup of orange juice in front of it. I had just started an omelet for me when Maria stormed into the kitchen. She was now fully dressed, a black business suit on, and her hair was straight and pulled in a side ponytail. She sported lip-gloss and a hint of blush.

"Forget the omelet, I'll just stop at Panera Bread on the way to the office," she growled. She grabbed her duffel bag and purse and rushed out the door. I barely heard her Lexus' peel out of the driveway, I was so glad she was gone- for an entire two days.

Jessica came back in the kitchen, this time in overalls. I smiled to myself. She was in the phase where she wanted to dress herself, and it didn't always work out.

"All right, Jessie, let's see. Your egg is on the table, do you want to help me make mine?" She nodded, so I dragged over a kitchen chair and she stood over the pan, poking at the egg with a spatula. I guess I was having scrambled eggs this morning.

As we sat eating, I told Jessica I was going running this morning. I did need to stay in shape for the track team, as we had a meet this weekend. She wanted to come, so I agreed, as long as I helped her pick out a different outfit.

Fifteen minutes later, I was dressed in my track warm-up shorts and a sweatshirt, since it was only 70 degrees at six 0'clock on a Saturday morning. Soon it would become over 80 degrees, but for now it was considered chilly, especially by California standards.

I had Jessica put on shorts with a t-shirt and a jacket and her hair had been restrained by two braids. I knew she would be cold, so when I pulled out the old jogging stroller that my mom had used with me when I was little, I put a blanket overtop of my stepsister.

Another five minutes later, I had put my cell phone and wallet in the stroller's pocket and left a note for my mom telling her where we were and when we should be back.

I had no idea where my feet were taking me, as I ran with the stroller, I just zoned out and ran on the deserted street. A little while later, my feet hit something soft. I focused my eyes for the first time since I had started running. My feet had taken me to the beach.

For the first time since Dad died, I had yearned for the ocean. My senses took in everything while I just stood there, looking at the faint pink tinge in the sky were the sun would soon be rising, and the waves crashing peacefully against the abandoned beach. I smelled the salt water and the leftover scent of suntan lotion. I felt the cool sea breeze and the slight humidity that was already forming. I could practically touch the mist that was brought by the wind. It was amazing.

Sure, I had come to the beach since Dad died, but not very often, only once or twice a month, and never to be in the water, even to swim.

Jessica broke the serene atmosphere. "Wow," she said in her tiny voice.

Since Jay had brought his two daughters from Nevada where they had been staying with an aunt (yes, their aunt had lived in Las Vegas, but on the outskirts), they had never been to the beach. Jay was very pale and he burned easily, so he hated the beach, which is why Jessica had never gone. Maria hated the sand and the whole thought of it getting in her bathing suit, so she had only ever stepped foot on the beach.

It was during a date, the first and only time she had been to the beach. She had just moved into our house and a guy from school asked her out. A week later, the guy had planned a nice, romantic walk on the beach and a dinner at the boardwalk café, thinking that Maria had been a Cali girl all her life and loved the beach, like almost every Californian. But, as soon as Maria had stepped in the sand in her designer sandals, and felt the hot sand messing up her shoes and salty sea breeze frizzing her newly permed hair, she had freaked. She came home only twenty minutes after the date had started, all messed up. We never saw the guy again after that disastrous date, and it was the end of Maria's beach experience.

"Do you want to go in the water?" I asked her, gingerly maneuvering the stroller over the sand. I had unconsciously moved closer to the water.

She nodded. I stopped the stroller a few feet before the water started and pulled her out. I took off our shoes and held her hand as she pulled me towards the water.

Jessica had a great time, splashing around and getting both of us quite wet.

When I finally pulled her out of the water, the sun had risen, and it was nearing seven. I used her blanket to dry us off as best as I could and I put her back in the stroller and started for home.

Halfway there, I changed my mind. I took a left instead of going straight, and I pulled out my phone, sending a text to Cassidy.

Twenty minutes later, I was seated on a bench with Jess on my lap and my best friend next to me, watching a fountain in the middle of the mall get cleaned.

"So…Why am I here this early again?" Cassidy teasingly, taking a sip of her latte. I handed Jess her cup of juice that I had bought for her and took a sip of my own latte before answering.

"I've been thinking…" I started, while Cassidy looked on encouragingly, "that I want to go to the beach later."

"That was what you pulled me out of bed at seven thirty on a Saturday morning for? To invite me to go to the beach with you?" she asked incredulously.

I shook my head. "No," I said, putting Jessica down so she could throw her cup away. "I want to go to the beach. To surf."


Review please! i know its short, but the end is coming soon and i want to drag it out ;) new chapter coming soon, i promise!