Finding Forever

Chapter 1

 Megan

When I was 16 I made a promise to myself, by the time I was 23 I would have achieved all of the things that I had always wanted to. I would have my own place, my own job whatever that may be, my own money but most importantly my own independence. I wouldn't have to count on my parents for anything. There would be no such thing as having to ask my dad for cash and I wouldn't have to listen to mom screaming at me for leaving things around the house. I  would have seen Europe, bought my first car and with a bit of luck met the guy I was going to spend the rest of my life with. It was a realistic expectation right? I could totally do it.

Currently 21 and the closest I had gotten got to any of those things was 2 months working in a cafe in New York, living in a exceptionally awful apartment, where my only friend was my boss who had, well it had to be said, rather questionable lifestyle choices.Things had started to turn around on my final week there but before I knew it my break for freedom was over and I was soon back in my parents house waking up to the sound of the Santa Monica waves every morning. It was different now though. A lot different...

December 2013

I woke with a start, my head instinctively told me that I had overslept again and the red flashing lights on my clock radio reading 7.15 only confirmed this. I was seriously beginning to doubt that the thing even worked until I realised that once again I had forgotten to set the thing. I dragged myself out of bed and and pulled the red silk dressing gown from the back of my bedroom door. I frowned, two years ago I would have had to search for a good ten minutes through a sea of clothes before I would have found it. My old self would be so kicking my ass right now. The house was in silence, although Josh's bedroom door was open as I passed by. My younger brother was most likely on the beach by now, where he would spend several hours before returning home and spending the rest of the day in his room, doing whatever it was he does in there. Josh isn't a big talker, so it's hard to know what the boy actually likes. Then there's Olivia, at 18 she's two years older than Josh, and where he lacks in the conversation department, Livey makes up for it. Her door was still firmly shut, she was probably up until all hours on the phone to her friends. I shoved the door open, and sure enough she was still in a deep slumber, at least she was until I pulled the curtains back and blinded her with sunlight.

"Megan, what the hell!"she exclaimed firing a pillow in my direction, but it barely made it off the end of the bed.

"nice effort" I teased "c'mon get up, we have so much to do and only two hours to do it". She sat up and glanced at the clock on the wall opposite her, a broad grin swept her face. She could not get out of bed quick enough, and lept at me squealing and hands flapping wildly.

"Argghh I can't believe it, he's actually going to be here, this going to be the best Christmas ever!" 

"I know, I know..but if we don't get moving we won't have enough time to do the banner thingy and go to the store and have breakfast" I warned tugging her in the direction of the kitchen.

"We should wait and have breakfast when he gets here, you know you can make pancakes, the ones with those berries I hate and he loves" Olivia chirped "and we can have coffee and juice and we can sit out on the deck, I bet he hasn't had a proper breakfast in forever, do they even have pancakes there?"

"Honey he was in Fort Worth....it's in Texas, not Iraq, not Afghanistan....I'm pretty sure they have pancakes in Texas".

She didn't answer just shrugged her shoulders and slid onto on of the high stools at the breakfast bar. Olivia was a really clever girl, but sometimes the little things just went over her head. I watched her fiddle with her long blonde hair as she waited for me to pour her coffee. She was effortlessly beautiful, even at this hour of the morning. She had crystal clear blue eyes and a tiny button nose, she could easily have been a model but she had her heart set on becoming a nurse. Both her and Josh, looked just like our mom. Josh was incredibly handsome, he could have any girl he wanted but he just didn't want to know. I however took after our dad, brown hair and eyes and nowhere near as blessed in the looks department as Olivia or Josh. I wasn't exactly hideous but I wouldn't stand a chance against Livey. I decided to go along with Olivia's plan for a welcome home breakfast, and quickly added eggs and flour to the list of things I needed to buy at the store before joining her out on the deck. Our house was right on Santa Monica beach just a couple of hundred of yards down from the pier on Coastal Highway. We knew how fortunate we were to have our home, dad had worked very hard for twenty years to be able to buy it and all the other wonderful things we had. Nice cars, fancy holidays, more clothes than we could wear...but I hated what came with it. At school I was always classed as the rich girl, and while it was fine with my friends that came from money too, I didn't like the way other people thought of me. It made me uncomfortable, that's why I was so desperate to get out on my own and away from my parents shadow. In the end it was only something I would regret. I cast my gaze out onto the white sand and tried to spot Josh amongst the flock of people that had already lined the shores, early surfers and joggers, and I knew he was somewhere amongst them but I knew I wouldn't find him. He knew what today was and he would stay away as long as possible, desperate to avoid the tons of questions thrown at him by Nathan.