Chapter 10
June 16

"What are you doing today?" Jason's voice came over on speaker phone.

"Not sure…." Elli drifted off, trying to decide what to wear today. "Why?"

"Do you want to do something?"

Elli picked out a white sun dress with blue flowers on it. "Actually, I was thinking about spending the day with my girls…."

"Oh…alright." Jason's voice was somewhat disappointed.

"I'm sorry," Elli offered.

"No, that's okay. I totally understand." Jason assured. "Uh, about my sister…."

Elli whipped around and stared at the phone.

"I've lit a fire under the police."

"What do you mean?" Elli asked.

"They're re-opening her case. And my parents are flying in tomorrow afternoon."

"Jason, oh my god that's great! I mean…not great in the sense that you're going to have to think about this but that you might finally get some closure."

"Yeah, well see I was thinking, would you maybe…come to the airport with me to pick them up?"

"Of course," Elli answered immediately. "Are yo9u sure? I mean should that be kind of a special time with your parents though?"

"Well I just thought my parents should meet the most important thing in my life right now."

Elli smiled. "Well what would I wear? I want to look good. I mean what if they take one look at me and-"

"Elli, Elli, Elli!" Jason laughed. "Just wear what you're comfortable in, okay?"

"Alright." Elli chuckled. There was a knock on her door. "Oh, I gotta go Jason, sorry. Shannon and Amber are here and we're going out for smoothies."

"Alright, I'll call you later."

"No, I'll call you. I'll probably have my phone shut off anyway."

"Alright, love you." Jason said casually.

"Love you too," Elli answered back as she opened up the door. She hit end and smiled at her friends.

"Hey, ready to go?" Amber asked.

Elli nodded and they headed out of the room.

"So, do you and Jason have plans tonight?" Shannon asked.

The girls were all in Shannon's lime green convertible. Elli was in the passenger seat and Amber sat in the middle.

"Shannon, we don't have to talk about Jason. I know you don't like him." Elli sighed.

"No, I want to talk about Jason. If you love him, then I want to hear about him."

Elli chewed on her cheek, wondering if she should change the subject. "Well, not tonight. But his parents are flying in from Australia tomorrow and I think I'm going with him to the airport to pick them up."

"Why are they coming?" Amber asked.

"Jason got the police to re-open Christy's case and his parents want to be here."

"So what does that mean?" Amber asked.

"Well, there's this rock…by where her bracelet was found. Jason's always had this nagging suspicion that Christy is buried under it."

"Ew, really?" Shannon made a face. "I didn't mean it like that…but…"

"No, I get what you mean. You're right. It is pretty gross."

"Why would they even want to look under there?" Shannon asked.

"Well what if that was me? What if you thought I was under there? Wouldn't you want to know if I really was there?"

Her friends shifted uncomfortably in their seats. "Yeah, I guess." Amber finally sighed.

"But anyway, I'm just really nervous about it. I mean…what if they don't like me?" Elli ran her fingers through her hair. "I don't know…he had dinner with my parents last night."

The car came to an abrupt halt; luckily, they were at a stop light. "What?" Shannon and Amber shrieked.

"Yeah…."Elli widened her eyes. "Was that bad?"

"You tell us!" Amber's eyes were wide with shock.

"Well it was really bad at first. My dad wouldn't even shake his hand." Elli sighed.

"Yikes," Shannon said.

"Yeah, but I talked to my mom about it in the kitchen and she went off on me. So I just walked out and went back to the table. It was really awkward because no one was talking. But Jason just stood up and was like 'I'm going to approach the big elephant in the room', blah, blah, blah. And my dad agreed to listen to him."

"What did Jason say?" Amber questioned.

"He apologized for the…well, you know." Elli looked out the corner of her eye at her friends. "So I guess they're…okay with us."

"Really? Wow, you're parents are cool." Shannon turned into the mall parking lot.

They all got out and headed into the big building. As they entered, Elli had only one thing on her mind. She wanted to get a summer dress to wear to meat Jason's parents.

"Can we go into Charlotte's?" Elli asked. "I want to get a really pretty dress for meeting Jason's parents."

"Sure," her friends agreed.

Her friends picked out a few dresses for her to try on, but none of them were working out. Most of them were too big or too small or too baggy. Finally, Shannon came in the dressing room with a dress that looked like an Elli dress. It was cream colored on top and black on the bottom with blue and pink flowers on it. It was spaghetti strapped and super cute. It fit Elli in all the right places and she absolutely loved it. They decided that that was going to be the perfect dress to meet Jason's parents in.

They went into Jimmy Choo's next to look for a pair of shoes. And sure enough, there were shoes there that matched the dress perfectly. Throughout the day, Elli and her friends hit several stores. And when they stopped for milk shakes, Elli sat and listened to Shannon and Amber rate the guys that walked by on a scale of 1 to 10. Elli wasn't looking, but she enjoyed their enthusiasm. After that, they went to the nail salon to get manicures and pedicures
On the way back to the hotel, Elli pulled out her phone and started to text Jason.
"Texting your Romeo?" Amber asked.

Elli giggled. "Yeah, I told him I'd text him when we were getting back to the hotel."

Hey, we're pulling in right now. I'll call you when I'm up in my room.

Elli put her phone back in her purse and stepped out of the convertible. The girls walked up the steps of the building and entered the big doors. Anna was at the front desk, smacking her pink bubble gum. Her black hair was pulled up and her deep black eyeliner covered half of her lid. She had black lipstick on as well.
This certainly wasn't the Anna that Elli remembered. And every time she saw her, the more her heart ached. Elli was closer to Anna than she was to Shannon or Amber.

"Guys, I'll see you later." Elli smiled. She turned for the front desk and started walking.

"Hey, Anna." Elli smiled.

Anna looked up from the tattoo magazine she was reading and gave Elli an annoyed look. Elli smiled again. Anna sighed, rolled her eyes, and closed the magazine. "Can I help you?"

Elli shook her head. "No, I was just wondering…how you're doing?"

"Fine?" Anna's eyebrows pulled together. "Is that all?"

"Anna, what happened to you?" Elli sighed.

"I grew up. I became an individual….Unlike yourself I see." Anna looked Elli up and down. "I see you're still sporting the Gucci and the Prada."

"Anna, we were best friends. What happened to that?"

"You left." Anna snapped and walked into the back room.

Elli ran to the elevator and hit the button.
Once in her room, she jumped on her bed and pulled out her phone. She dialed Jason and put the phone to her ear.

"Hey, Elli!" Jason's voice rang.

"Hi," Elli could already feel the butterflies in her stomach. "I'm back,"

"Great, because we never finished talking about my parents."

"Alright, tell me what I need to know." Elli rolled over onto her stomach.

"Well there's actually not much, but their flight comes in at 2:15 tomorrow. I want to take them out to dinner later that night, would you be willing to join us?"

"Absolutely!" Elli smiled. "I'd love to."

"Great. So, can I come over tonight?" Jason asked.

"Hhmm…I don't know…" Elli trailed off.

"Please," Jason laughed. "I haven't seen you all day!"

"Oh, poor you. Get over yourself." Elli laughed.

"Elli," Jason whined.

"Jason," Elli whined in a mocking tone. She laughed and sighed. "You're not going to see me until you pick me up tomorrow to go see your parents."

"Fine." He muttered. "Well in that case, I'll see you at about one thirty?"

"See you then."