Notepad

The Star in our Lives (Romance Challenge 12)

Ellie sat on the rock and hugged her knees to her chest. This was one of the longest and coldest nights of her life. The freezing rain that was drizzling down did not help the situation.

She let her mind wander to all the chaotic events that had happened only a few hours before. The crazy events that had left her to call the only person she really, truly never wished to see again.

It had been the night that her band had a party for their first album release. They were a band that produced pop music and had been growing in popularity ever since they had left their home town in Vermont and packed into their tiny green van to move to L.A.

At the party all of her friends had gotten extremely drunk including the designated driver. She hadn't realized that he was drunk until half an hour later and they were driving down a country road. Ellie had immediately told him to pull over so she could drive but they had gotten aggressive and refused to. They did however pull over so she could get out of the car.

Ellie tucked her chin into her knees and let the wind beat her brown hair back and forth. It was a freezing night for California. She sat by a beach she had once visited before with a boy who's eyes were the perfect shade of blue.

She looked up from her bare legs and straightened her tight skirt as an outline of a car appeared in Ellie's line of vision.

His headlights were off so she could clearly see the boy she so dearly dreaded to see.

As the boy, almost a man, pulled into the clearing his heart jumped as he saw Ellie for the first time in four years.

It had been the middle of the night, a night he had planned to study for finals with, when she finally called. He knew from the tightness in her voice that it had pained her to call him, and even he had been reluctant to drive the two hours to finally reach her on this sandy little beach.

As he drove through the night in his red pickup truck, he couldn't help but worry about the way she would have changed.

As he turned off the engine he found it difficult to look at Ellie's appearance. She didn't look like she used to. A girl who was full of adventure and weird haircuts. A girl who wore no makeup and wore bright, loud clothing that she had made. Ellie just didn't look like Ellie he had fallen in love with.

This twisted version of her wore red lipstick and a whole lot of other makeup that covered her perfections that some might call flaws. She also wore a tight, nondescript, skirt that was meant to impress people, especially guys.

He wasn't stupid, he knew that she would have changed in the four years since she dated. He should have known that the wonderful, adventurous girl that had dated a bland nerd would grow up and move on. He was stupid for ever thinking that things could pick up where they had left off.

He realized he had been staring at her and that she was slightly shifting under his gaze.

"Let's get out of here," he said, a bit more unemotional than he intended to.

Great, the first words he had said to her after to so long sounded as if he couldn't care less about her. That was the farthest lie from the truth.

"I'm really sorry Luke," Ellie mumbled under her breath, "You were the only person I knew I could trust to pick me up."

She saw him wince slightly and willed herself not to burst into tears. She knew from Instagram stalking that he had a new girlfriend. What did she think would happen, that he would rush over to her, told her he still loved her and they would kiss until sunrise?

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.

Ellie got in the car and made herself look directly into those beautiful blue eyes.