Chasing Elliot Grace

No. 13: Honey, Im Home Part 1

" A photograph is the
Pause button of life"
Elliot's POV
"Would you walk please?" I muttered under my breath, talking about the two teen girls in front of me holding up the lane to the airport lobby. Considering its like this freaking hall goes on forever, these two girls are really making me mad. However I really have nothing else to complain about, I mean my under cover mission has gone great. I actually look like my old self. The red wig my manager had got me looked real and without my piercing blue contacts, it took away from people seeing my real eyes. Plus I put concealer on my tattoos just to make sure that, that wasn't a problem either. So if I do say so myself I was pulling this off pretty well. As I turn the corner tears sprang to my eyes seeing my parents standing at the opposite end of the gate. I ran towards them, suit case rolling behind me. "Gracie!" They whispered as I group hugged them. "I missed you guys so much." I said with a few tears. "We missed you too. Let's get home, I know you have to be tired." My mom said smiling. I nodded as my dad took my suit case and started walking towards the exit. "That wig looks so real Grace, I wouldn't have known the difference. I haven't seen you look like you in so long." my dad said as he drove. "I know. Its been forever." I said with a smile. Silence filled the car after that and I found myself with nothing to say. We pulled up in the drive way and I smiled sadly at the house. It was the same, nothing had changed that you could see from the outside. But I knew something had changed, it wasn't filled with the joy and laughter that it was. "Home sweet home." I said as I entered and was patted on my back. "Sweety are you hungry, or can I get you anything?" My mom asked 20 minutes after getting home and changing into my PJs. "No, im good mom, I think im going to get some sleep if that's okay?" I asked. "Of course! Just call me if you need anything." She said walking around the island to me and kissing my head. "Im so glad you're home Gracie." She said and I said me too. I left then to my room, same as it was when I left it two years ago. The blue walls lined with Alice in wonderland canvases and a billboard of pictures filled to the brim with captured moments. Memories of the beach house and Magcon events and trips to the lake. But most of all pictures of me and Hayes. That sick feeling in my stomach twisted thinking about it, the feeling that I had tried to keep away, but had failed at miserably. The feeling that I still was completely in love with him. And I hate it. But it doesnt go away it always is there, in the back of my head, channeling my thoughts, and telling me to let go. Let everything go, and run back into his arms. He's almost done it, and I hate how easy it was for him to break my wall, the wall I had set up and held letting only few people in. Hayes, the boy who took my heart and then broke it, is almost there. At this point, it won't take him long to talk to me and when he does, I'll break, he'll break those walls. You know me though I won't let it get that far. Im a runner, when a problem is sent my way I run, I change, and start over, I've done it before, this time it will just be better. If you couldn't tell by now, I never intended to go back to tour, I would just have my own later. But this time im starting over, completely, from scratch, now one will know where I went just that something happened and now im not living with the girls anymore. It will be hard trust me, I know, but this is my way of saying goodbye, to everyone in the right way. This was always my plan, Spencer thinks im still going off of the one I made but she's wrong, leaving my best friends and parents will be hard, its the worst part of it, but I have to do this. Its what use to, what I've always done. Ran and hid like a coward, and I blame myself for that. Actually no, I don't I blame that stupid guy that killed my parents. He was the one that made Tobias and I have to run in the first place, and then Matt, and now Hayes. Hayes because he broke me, he was someone that I had let in again, without even realizing it, the one that could ruin everything. I continued to look at the images, absorbing the story in each square card. One took me by surprise, I had forgotten about the day as a whole, perks to being depressed for so long. I took the tack out of the picture, hugging it to my chest and I layed down on my big comfortable bed. Thoughts of this day swirled around in my head as I closed my eyes a smile on my lips as the scene in my head developed. And after a while, I don't know at what point, I found myself falling fast to sleep.
"Ladies and gentlemen looks like its going to be a highly hot and beautiful day out today, with a high of 102 degrees. A great day to be at the lake everyone, make sure to wear sunscreen and drink lots of water in this heat and have some fun. This is Stanley Stewart, 98.5." The radio said as we turned onto the road that led to the private beach the Grier's owned on Lake Norman. Hayes sat in the drivers seat nodding his head to the beat of the Luke Bryan song that had just started playing on his radio. I say in the passenger seat watching him with loving eyes, Skylynn in the back seat of his truck caught up in an intense game of ponies. Elizabeth and Johnnie were in the car in front of us driving at the same pace as us, while Nash and Spencer hung back behind us driving slower. Sky, when asked who she wanted to ride with, insisted to come with us, and after moving her booster seat into Hayes' truck, we were on our way. At six years old that kid still is a sass queen, and I can totally see her breaking some boys heart when she's older. Catching me starting at him, Hayes made a silly face, making me laugh, a slight blush coming to my cheeks. He smiled at me then taking my hand closest to him and bringing them up to his lips, my arm brushing his bare chest. "I love you." He said with a brush over my knuckles from his thumb. "I love you too." I said and leaned my head on his shoulder, stretching over the middle component in that separates the driver and passenger seat. "Ewww, Gracie, Hayes has boy cooties!" Skylynn said and I removed my head from Hayes' shoulder, looking back at her. I knew that both Hayes and I were laughing, him looking through the mirror at her. "You're right Sky, he does, ewwww, now how do I get these cooties off of me?" I said looking at Hayes with a fake accusing look. Hayes looked at Sky with a pleading look. "Come on Sky, you don't think I have cooties do you, I mean, you are the one that comes and stays with me when you're scared at night." Hayes looked back at her with a triumphant glance. "Hey that's different, I am smart you know, Hazy. Plus that's gross, you two are giving each other cooties!" She said with complete determination. "Okay Sky, tell me how to get rid of them because that's gross." I said with a hint of a baby voice. "You have to stay away from Hazy and make sure he doesnt touch you for a day! If not you will live with Hayes cooties!" I looked at her playing along, and nodded as we pulled up in the parking place beside Elizabeth and Johnnie. I got Sky out as Nash and Spence pulled up, Hayes mom and step dad already walking towards the lake. As they got out Nash wrapped his arm around Spencer, even if they wouldn't tell anyone together yet, everyone, including them knew they were. Plus, Spencer had told me they were. Spencer snaked her arm around his waist and kissed his cheek, which didn't go unnoticed by the blonde spitfire at my side. I was "staying away from Hayes" as he stared at me from the side with puppy dog eyes. Sky began to call out Spencer as she had me, and Spencer caught my eye and caught on to playing along to mess with the boys. Spence now out of Nash's embrace, walked to Sky and I looking with worry, as she tried to "wipe" the Nashy cooties off of herself. Both boys now standing side to side looked at us with puppy dog eyes and when we kept a straight face started walking towards us with their lips puckered. "Gracie I want a kiss!" Hayes said as he walked towards us, and Nash doing the same to Spencer. "Spency me too!" They walked towards us slowly, like you would to not scare an animal. "Ewww run! They're gonna give us more cooties!" I yelled and Skylynn ran for her parents, Spencer and I not far behind. I knew both boys would catch up to us before we bit the water but when they didn't and disappeared from the path I started to wonder. After requests from Sky, I finally got in the lake with her, just staying in the shallow water while we were the only two in the water. Johnnie was grilling, Elizabeth sitting close by reading a magazine while Spencer say in the doc above where Sky and I were playing mermaid in the water. Both of us were wondering where the boys were as we wanted for the boys to come and join us. Spencer had called both boys, going straight to voicemail. After 10 minutes of us watching Skylynn we started to get worried about our boyfriends who had been missing for almost 15 minutes now. "Where are they?" Spencer asked me impatiently. "I don't know but this so isn't funny anymore!" I said getting impatient myself. As we continued to call them from Spencers phone, loud sounds of motors startled us almost making Spencer scream and drop her phone in the water. I looked over to where the sound had came from to find Hayes and Nash, with innocent looks on their faces, on the jet ski's that had been attached to Johnnie and Elizabeth's car. Sky, now whining about needing to use the restroom went with Elizabeth to the bathroom up the hill, and Spencer, after putting her phone away in the bag on the back of Nash's jet ski, was in the water. As we swam towards our soon to be dead boyfriends, who were laughing may I add, we sent them glares. "Babe that was so not funny, you had me worried sick!" I said swatting his back after getting on his ski. "Sorry baby, but you started it." He said with laughter still clear in his voice. I was cut off from what I was about to say by Nash and Spencer, riding to float in the water beside me. "Hey bro, we should take them to the rope swing bay." Nash said as they did. "Sounds good to me. Race you there." Hayes said as he quickly turned the ski back on. It was a good thing I was holding on because if not I probably would have fallen off the thing in the first place. I squeezed Hayes' torso as he picked up speed, and placed my head on his back. I could feel his soothing heart beat through his chest as he drove, blue green water going behind us as Nash gained on our jet. He smirked at us as I smirked at Spencer. We made it to the bay with Nash and Spencer beating us only by a few seconds. The boys tied the jet skis to a tree that was farther out than the others and I realized why the boys called it rope swing bay. It was small but the bay was cleared and the only thing on it was a single rope swing that had probably been there since Nash was little. We made out way to the clearing, Nash and Hayes both bringing a water proof bag with them to the clearing. As we got there both boys pulled out something from the bag, Hayes a blanket and Nash started pulling out containers of food. I then realize what their whole plan was. They had set us us a picnic. We all sat down, however mainly kept to ourselves. "You and Nash didn't have to do all this you know. " I said with a sigh my head returning to his shoulder. "I wanted to though, you deserve it. " he said placing his head on top of mine. "I didn't do anything though." I said confused looking at him. "You didn't have to, you love me and I love you, that's why you deserve it." He said with a small smile. I leaned in then and kissed him, the same sparks as the first time I had kissed him returning. We only remembered we were not alone when I heard a camera flash and Nash clear his throat. We pulled away both of us blushing. The rest of that day was amazing but that first hour, was one that Spencer had been able to capture. One that I would keep close to me until I left and put it to the back of my mind.
I woke from my dream refreshed, the birds outside were chirping and I realized that I had slept for over ten hours. But I knew what I had dreamed about, I dreamed about that beautiful day a month before I left, and of that picture, that when I woke, I was still clutching in my Hand.
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2431 words
Heyo! I debated on making this a really long chapter bit with the help of bug1314 and Tobiasu I decided to split it into two parts. So the second part will (hopefully) be up tomorrow! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!! Bye loves💕
-Taylor💋