Epilogue

"Okay," I choked out, barely able to contain my laughter, "I give in, stop before I pee myself." Brett let out a laugh and sat back in the booth; satisfied he had made his point.

"So you are ticklish," he said. "Even if you don't think you are."

"I hate you," I grumbled, not really meaning it, as I reached for another slice of pizza.

Cassidy slapped my hand away. "Leave some for everybody else," she scolded, reaching for the piece I had just let go of.

"What did I miss?" Tanner slid into the round corner booth next to me and kissed me on the cheek.

"Well we just proved that Ellie here is quite ticklish," Cassidy said with her mouth full of gooey cheese.

"Yuck. I don't want to see that, Cass," I said. She stuck her tongue out at me, but swallowed before continuing.

"I tried to tickle her, but she tried to bite me, so Brett did the tickling while I held down her hands."

"It was horrible," I moaned. "I think my ribs are bruised." I turned to Tanner. "How was work?"

"Boring. Until some kid puked on the beach right in front of the store," he said, a thoughtful look on his face. I made one of the trainees clean it up before it could scare away any customers. Poor guy." He chuckled.

I laughed and slipped my arm around his waist as he reached for the last slice of pizza.

"Who finished off all the pie?" he asked, staring at Brett.

"Don't look at me man, look to your right," he said, grinning at me as Tanner turned to stare at me.

"You ate all the pizza?" He couldn't keep the amazement out of his voice.

I rolled my eyes. "No. Brett's being a jerk. He ate all of it. I just had two pieces. Teaching little kids how to surf is harder than it looks. I'm so exhausted I could fall asleep right now." I looked at my phone. "But right now I gotta go. I've got class in two hours and my roommate is in the middle of an ex-boyfriend crisis. And I do not want to be driving in the dark," I said as I glanced out the window and noticed the setting sun. I gave Tanner a nudge to get out of the booth, and Cassidy and Brett went out on the other side.

"I'll walk you to your car," Tanner said, and hooked his thumb into the back pocket of my jeans.

Cassidy came over to me with Brett in tow, unclasping their hands long enough to give me a hug goodbye. "I will see you in a few weeks when I'm home, okay?" she asked. "We will go out for dinner, just the two of us. No obnoxious boyfriends allowed." She gave me a small smile. "Call me when you get there, just don't talk when you're driving."

I groaned. "You sound like my mother." But I promised her, hugged Brett, and walked with Tanner out to my car.

A few weeks after the competition and the scholarship money was deposited into my bank account, I headed off for college, a small university in California that was well known for marine biology, which I was currently studying. Even though I lived an hour or so away, the scholarship money covered room and board, so I was required to have a dorm there, which I shared with a girl named Laura, who was almost as good a friend to me as Cassidy. I came home every other day, the days I didn't have classes, to spend time with my boyfriend and family.

Tanner was living at my place and owned his own surf shack on the beach, working there when he wasn't taking classes at the local university.

Maria had shipped herself off to an exclusive private college in Europe, and my family rarely heard from her, which I am starting to believe was as good of news for Jay and my mom as it was for me.

My mom and Jay were better than ever, and had accepted the fact that I wasn't going to be moving in, even though we were past our disagreements. I was in college now, and we all agreed that it was time for me to leave the nest anyway, so there would be no sense in me moving back in.

Cassidy had hooked up with Brett a few days after the party for the competition, and was one of those on-again-off-again couples that were always more on than off.

She was currently going to school at Johns Hopkins and studying medicine, hoping to do some work with orphans in third-world countries when she finished school, and coming back every few weeks to visit me and Brett, who was still working at the magazine, only as a full-time employee instead of the lowly position he used to have.

Everything had worked out in the end, I thought to myself as Tanner pushed me against the car and gave me a kiss goodbye.

"Who said an ordinary girl can't have her own Prince Charming?" I asked, as Tanner pulled me in for a hug.

"You are no ordinary girl, Ellie," he said, opening the door to my Mustang and tossing my bags in the backseat.

I smiled and put on my blinker to turn out of the parking lot, waving to Tanner without looking back as I drove towards the setting sun and the ending of another chapter in my Cinderella story.


A/N- i cant believe im done! thank you to everybody who read (and reviewed) my story and waited patiently for all the updates, it means a lot knowing all of you stayed with me :) i am working on getting my story edited and possibly published so i will put another chapter (well update) on here if i do manage to get it out on shelves :) review and let me know your final thoughts, anything you would change, etc. thanks again guys!