5) Surprises

"Pillow fight!"

I woke up to my two twin sisters, Amy and Anne, throwing pillows at me.  I laughed, and joined in on the game.  Soon, my whole bedroom was in a shambles.  We all fell to the ground, laughing.

"Did you have fun at Lizzies' house?" I asked about their next door friend where they had slept over last night.

They both shook their heads, making faces at me.  I smiled at my funny nine year old sisters.  They both had dirty blond hair, big blue eyes, and were missing some front teeth.

"Oh?  Why didn't you have fun?"

"Lizzie snored," Amy answered.

"Yeah," Anne agreed.  "And she was being mean to us."

"What did she do?"

Amy answered matter-of-factly, "She likes to dance, and she told us it's fun.  Well, it's not.  We did it all day.  It was awful."

Anne nodded, her eyes round with seriousness.

I laughed, and threw a pillow at them.  "Well, how about we get dressed, and eat an early breakfast?  Do you want to go pick some seashells for your collection?"

"Oh, yes!" Amy squealed.  Anne clapped her hands in agreement, and they both hurried off to find their matching outfits.

~*~

After I quickly explained to my parents I'd take care of Amy and Anne today, we raced over the dock.

"Look over there," Amy shouted, "it's a huge, beautiful shell." 

I smiled when I saw that the "shell" was a bright orange colored crab.  

"I'm afraid that's just a sea crab, Amy."

"Oh," she said, and hurried to find more shells. 

Soon they forgot about their collection, and pranced around in the waves, getting me soaking wet.  I laughed as they frolicked around like frisky fawns.

Amy soon stopped, staring off in the distance.  "Who's that man?" she asked seriously.

I followed her gaze to see a familiar, tall, young man standing on the sand dunes,  looking down on us.  It made me feel self-conscious.

"Don't stare, Amy.  It's not polite" was all I said, and turned back to picking shells.  I forgot about the strange man until I turned around to pick up my flip flops I had thrown into the air without a care in the world.  I bumped right into Ashton Harper.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said, hurriedly wiping off the sand on my clothes.  "I didn't see you there."

He smiled.  "No problem.  Your friend, Jordan, told me about it here, and I never really have time to go, but now that it's summer--" His voice trailed off.  "Well, I'm sorry."

I laughed softly, shaking off the tension between us.  "It's fine."  Then I remembered Amy and Anne were standing beside me, summing up the tall, handsome man.  "Oh," I said, and looked back up at Ashton, "these are my sisters, Amy and Anne.  I promised to take care of them for the day."

"I see," he said, and ruffled their hair, bringing a smile to their faces.  "Then I wish you all the best of mornings."

He was turning to go when I surprised myself by stopping him.  "Wait!  Um-- I was wondering-- um-- if you could direct me to the nearest park around here?"  It was a stupid question.  I had been living here most of my life, and easily knew my way around, but I felt like I needed to stall him a little longer.

He smiled wide.  "Sure.  It's sort of hard to point out, so would you mind if I show you personally?"

I nodded quickly.  "That would be perfect.  I'll just call Jordan, and tell her where we are."

~*~

Jordan was all too right.  Two weeks passed, and he asked me if he could take me to a casual restaurant for dinner.  What did I say?  How did I feel?  The first thing that came to my mind was that I had to accept!  It was too much an honor to pass out, but, deep down in my heart, I wondered if it was best to be starting another relationship.  That day, I shoved away old boxes of all the letters Austin had written to me, and the familiar photographs of us.  It was the hardest thing I had ever done, but I knew it was time to forget everything.  I told Ashton I accepted, and, after talking it over with my parents, they agreed that he seemed like a fine man, and they would be pleased to have him escort me.

I didn't sleep well that night because I knew there was one thing I hadn't done yet.  There was an old metal box of Austin and mine that we had hid in the sand dunes.  It was filled with random things, like a checker piece, firecracker, and little things that reminded us of each other.  I knew that I had to get rid of it-- throw it away or something, so that I could never find it again.  I flew back the covers, and walked out on the shore in the middle of the night, following my memory to the top of the sand dunes where two sticks were crossed in the letter of an 'x.'  I began to dig with my hands until my knuckles hit the rusty metal.  I slowly pulled out the chest, wiping off the grains of sand.  It was old and rusty now, but still in good shape.  I closed my eyes, and slowly lifted the lid.  What I expected to see surprised me.  A bunch of handwritten letters from the year Austin and I had broke up were laid inside with my name written on it.  Was I just imagining things or had Austin not forgotten this place, and wrote me saying-- what?  I tore open the letters, my eyes scanning the page.  What I saw broke my heart into a million pieces.   

Author's Note

Hope I left you at a cliffhanger.

Fun Fact: Did you know that Michael W. Smith met his wife, Debbie, by seeing her come out of the restrooms, and didn't let her leave until she said yes by going out with him? Well, three weeks later they were engaged. That sort of gave me an idea with Ashton and Jackie. :P

Anyway, hope you liked this chapter! :)

Reviews

[Krystal Nicole]

I liked this chapter. I think you have a really sweet story line going here and grr, I hate cliffhangers, only because I have to wait to read more. Lol, btw, I LOVEMichael W. Smith and I honestly didnt know that about him. I think it's funny though. The restrooms?

[~Lizzy♬]

Sorry I didn't review on the others... I was too into the book. :) I love the plot line because it makes me feel the reality inside of it. You're an amazing writer. I can definitely see your writing progressing with more details and conversations/actions of the characters. The book is going to be very good, I can tell. (Not like it's not already, but you know what I mean.) Also, you are a great cliffhanger maker, like me! xD

~Lizzard~

Luv ya Kelly!!! :p