you over anything?

•3•

"Can we go home now?" Ellie complains as we continue to walk down the sidewalk.

"Yea we can," Edwin says.

Zion yawns and I giggle a bit. It has been a long day. It's now dark out and we have been here all day. I don't want to leave though because I want to look at the city at night with all of the city lights.

"Lets bead back," Austin says.

"Uh actually. I'm going to stay a bit longer," I say. "I want to see the lights at night. I'll take an Uber back."

"No," Brandon says, "You aren't staying out here alone. This isn't like back home."

We all stop walking and Ellie rolls her eyes, "Why don't you just stay with her then," she complains.

I look away and I bite my lip, "I'm fine. Just go back, Brandon. I'll be home later."

"I'll stay with you," Nick says. "You guys can go home. I'll stay with her."

I can see Brandon's jaw clench and I don't know why. Why would he be mad that Nick and I are staying? He could stay with me if he wants, but all my sister does it complain and he has to make her happy first.

"Thanks, Nick," I say with a small smile. "We will see you guys in a little bit."

Nick and I walk away from everyone and I look back to see Brandon still watching us as everyone else walks away. I look in front of me and I roll my eyes. He could just stay. It's that easy. But he won't. He will go with Ellie.

"So where do you want to go?" Nick asks me as we keep walking down the sidewalk.

"I don't care. Wherever you can go to see the lights the best," I say.

"I know exactly where to go," he says while taking my hand into his. "Let's go!"

We walk super fast on the sidewalks and we make a few turns. After a minute or two we end up at this cabin.

"What is this?" I ask.

"It's a ski lift place," he says. "It takes us super high in the air and you can see everything."

I smile, "That sounds perfect."

We go inside the cabin and Nick pays for us to get on the lift. Once we are ready we get on our cart and it takes us super high in the air.

I look out at everything and it looks so beautiful. There are millions of lights everywhere. From car lights to street lights and lights on buildings. It all looks so amazing and so unreal when you are high in the air.

"This is amazing," I say while still looking out at the city. "I never imagined it to look this pretty."

"It really is beautiful," he says. "I remember doing this the first time I got to LA. The boys and I did this to see the city from up high. It was so amazing."

I smile and I continue to watch everything. There is lots of movement that I can't really tell what it is. There is just movement. Probably cars. People. Bikes.

"So one question," I say giggling a bit, "Why is there a ski lift in California."

He laughs, "They used to have fake snow and people would ski here, but now people just ride it for the fun."

"Ah, that makes more sense," I say laughing.

He smiles, "You should tell me about yourself while we are up here."

"Yea, sure. Well I'm 20 years old and I'm the youngest child. Ellie is obviously the oldest. I've lived on the very outer edge of Arizona my whole life, so we have always been decently close to California. I've been best friends with Brandon since we were literally born because of our parents. Ellie and I have always lived with our mom, but I'm looking to move out soon. Not sure where though."