Ella's POV:
I stared out the window on the drive back to my home in Florida. I've been gone for 3 and half years and I've missed it everyday since I left. It's not that I missed living here I just missed my one and only friend, Ashton. He was the only person that was there for me, my mom was always working or she never really had time for me.
"Ella, Hun, we're here." My mom smiled.
"Huh?" I said as I pull my headphones out looking around at my surroundings, we made it home. "Oh okay."
"Go show Townes his new room please." She gave me a small smile.
"Of course mom." Townes was my step brother. My mom married his dad about 3 years ago after we moved to North Carolina. My mom told everyone we had to move there for her work, which was a lie. Luckily we got to move back because my step dad got a promotion at work and had to move here for it. I was excited that I got to come back home at first but on the drive here I started to have mixed feelings and became nervous. What if Ashton hates me? What if someone finds out the real reason I left in the first place? I can't have either one of those things.
"Townes," I shake his shoulder to wake him, he eyes open quickly and he screams in shock, "Come on I'm going to show you your room." I laugh as I exit the car.
Townes was my age and we got along just fine. We actually met at school in North Carolina and our parents met at a school function, so we kind of introduced them to each other. Townes was my only friend in North Carolina. We never really fought either. It was weird at first having a boy in the house but i got used to it pretty quickly. It's also kinda weird having a dad because my real dad divorced and left my mom and I when I was 3, I never meet him though, he was always gone on business trips or working or something and I guess that's why they got a divorce, he was never around. It's always been just me and my mom and I wasn't really up for sharing her at first. But my step dad was alright I guess. And I even if he wasn't I still had to like him.
When we moved to North Carolina my mom let people rent out our house and now they were no longer renting it. I'm glad that I didn't have to move to a completely different and new house though. Also Ashton lived 3 houses across from me so I can go apologize for leaving so studden and last minute without saying goodbye.
"Hey can we get something to eat before we unpack EK?" Townes asked as we walked into the house.
"Yeah sure, um there used to be this really good burger place next to the pier when I used to live here. We can go check it out and see if it's still there?"
"Sure that sounds fine." He shrugged.
"Hey mom, dad? We are going to get some food and I'll show Townes around alittle. You guys want anything?" I yelled up the stairs.
"No, we're good you two have fun, be safe!" She replied.
"Let's go." I grabbed Townes's hand and pulled him out the door.
Lucky for us we only lived 5 minutes from the beach so we could walk there. We walked in silence the whole way there.
"Oh yes! It's still here Townes!" I was super excited at this point. I grabbed onto Townes's arm looking at him.
"Wanna go in? I'm starving."
"Yeah yeah but can we get it to go?" I looked at him
"Wh- oh yeah sure." He knew I didn't want anyone noticing me. I was thankful for him.
We got our food and were on our way back to the house.
"Hey when am I gonna get to meet this Ashton kid?" Townes asked.
"Oh well I don't know if your even going to." I sighed and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.
"Why not?"
"He probably hates me and I'm not really ready to find out if he actually does."
"Oh come on Ella! Why would he hate you?" He laughed.
"Because I left him behind and I haven't talked to him in 3 years I never even gave him an explanation as to why I left him and I never got to say goodbye, if I were him I would be pretty pissed, wouldn't you T?" I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He knew I was right.
"You had a pretty good reason as to why you left and it was personal plus you guys were best friends and I'm sure he would understand if you just explain yourself."
"Ugh this is going to be so hard." I groaned
"Well you have to do it sooner or later and I would do it sooner so he doesn't get more angry at you." He laughed
"Shut up." I whacked him in the arm as I laughed. We got home shortly after that. I went up to my room with my to-go box and drink to start unpacking. I also showed Townes his room which was the one right across from mine. I changed into a big sweatshirt and some spandex and put my hair up in a bun and sat on the floor and began to unpack.
It was 11pm now and I haven't even made a dent with unpacking. I was going back and forth from my closet to my bathroom to my dresser. My mom opened my door.
"How's it coming along?" She asked.
"Not even close to finishing." I laughed.
"Well you should go to sleep and finish tomorrow. I forgot to tell you that you have orientation tomorrow for school. It starts at 4 okay?" She gave me a weak smile.
"Ugh mom don't make me go." I groaned.
"It will be alright, plus you have Townes with you, and since it's the start of a new school year maybe people will think your a new student, Townes is." She shrugged.
"Gee, thanks mom." I said scarcasticlly and rolled my eyes. She basically just said I was invisible to everyone when I used to live here.
"You never know! I'm going to go tell Townes, get some sleep okay."
"Night mom"
I didn't sleep that much that night. I tossed and turned all night just thinking about what Ashton's reaction would be if and when she saw him again.
