AN: This is a triple update, please read 46 and 47 first

one week later

"Are you ready?" Chase asked from beside me. I looked up at him as he spoke, the smile that was plastered on his face and the excitement that was practically sparking through his skin.

He was about to show me the finished product of our photography project, it was due today. I still hadn't seen it, as he had done the bulk of the work load by himself. I tried to help, of course I had, but he said he wanted it to be a surprise.

"I'm ready," I giggled out, the way he was so genuinely passionate about this was the reason for my smiles today.

Sometimes I was jealous of the way he had found something he loved so much. And, he even had two things to be passionate about. His singing, and his photography.

I didn't have anything that spoke to me like that. I didn't love anything the way Chase loved singing, or taking pictures. My love only resided in people, but maybe that would be enough.

I could love the people around me in a way that made my life worth living, right?

"Okay, close your eyes," Chase instructed me, his dimples showing though his cheeks.

I wanted to roll my eyes, but I didn't. I did as he says, closing my eyes and turning my world dark on itself.

I listened to his movements, hearing the thump of the leather binder he had been carrying all day land on the table. Next, I heard Chase take a deep breath, as if we was nervous to show me the project.

I wanted to shake my head at him. Didn't he understand? He had no reason to be nervous around me, not anymore. All the secrets were let out, and we were only left with the solid understanding that we were equally and unmistakably, crazy about each other.

"Okay," Chase said softly, and I felt his fingers graze my face, just beside my right eye. The feeling was like feathers, tickling me in the best way.

I opened my eyes slowly, pointing them down at the table in front of us. I blinked, allowing my eyes to focus in their newly lightened surroundings.

The leather book lay open in front of me, and I was stunned as I took in the single picture displayed on the first page. My fingers dropped down on it, tracing the outline of my body as I devoured every detail.

It was the first picture we had taken. On the beach, in the secluded cove that Chase had led me to. I was sitting in the water, my red dress swirling around me. I looked into the distance, there were tears running down my face that mixed with the black makeup on my skin. I could practically feel the emotion coming off the picture, and it wasn't just because I had lived it.

My face was about to crumble, the simple pain radiating off me. Heartbreak. It was the day I found out Evan had been cheating on me. It seemed like years ago, instead of only months.

I titled my head as I flipped to the next page, the change of emotions almost startling me.

I laid in bed, my hair wild around me and my face free of makeup. The orange glow of the sun was behind me, the beautiful sunrise clear through my window. It was the first time Chase and I slept in the same bed, the day he called me beautiful. A small smile was on my lips, my cheeks faintly pink. But the real emotion was in my eyes- and I don't have a word for it. I could only describe it as the embodiment of butterflies.

I flipped to the next page, my stomach sinking as I recognized it. Though, I only recognized the pictures, the landscape. I didn't recognize myself.

It was the first picture we took after Isla died. The sunrise was behind me, and it looked beautiful. And, I guess I did as well, but a different kind of beautiful. While the sunrise's beauty spoke for itself, my face looked like a graveyard. Sure, it holds a twisted sense of wonder, but it really only held a haunting sense of death. My eyes were empty, my cheeks were hallow, my skin was pale. I was empty of most things, left only with pain.

I blinked a tear out of my eye as I flipped to the next picture. Feeling the change of emotion so suddenly once again. It was the day I yelled at Evan, the day I realized my own grief was turning into anger. I could still see the death in my face, but I could see that anger in my eyes. It was complimented by the red of the sunset behind me, the vastness of the field I was in.

I flipped again, the difference in the quality of pictures was obvious, though that wasn't the only thing that was obvious. It was the cellphone picture Bella had taken me the morning after. I stood in front of the beach, the sunrise in the background. The biggest change was in my face. It was alive again, and I knew why. It was the morning after our first kiss.

I flipped again- it was the picture Chase had taken in the parking lot of the hole. I looked alive again. I was looking at him with wonder in my eyes, and maybe something else I hadn't even realized. It was hope.

I turned to the final picture, losing my breath at the sight.

I stood on my balcony, the sunrise glowing around me. The wind was blowing through my hair, the white sheet swirling around me as it grasped it's way around my body. My eyes were closed, my face tilted up towards the sky. But, there was a serene smile on my face. A smile that was unlike all the other smiles I had worn in the pictures.

This smile, it was clear what it meant to me. I was free. Free of the shackles of grief I had been prisoner in. I was flying, again. Like a bird that had been let free from its cage, stretching open its wings that had been cramped for so long, feeling the free air touch me once again. The free air I wondered if I would ever breathe again.

"Do you like it?" Chase asked me, his voice was nervous like it had been the first day that we met.

I looked up to him, not worrying about the tears that were pooled in my eyes. They weren't painful tears, however. They were tears of awe, of wonder. Wonder of how Chase had managed to completely capture the last months of my life so perfectly. The stages of my life, the stages of my shattering and the stages of my healing.

They were a documentation of my journey of love, to lost, to death... and back to love again.

"It's beautiful," I told him.

Chase took my hands in his, he pulled me towards him, planting a small kiss on my lips. I let my body relax into him, allowing myself to be calmed by him, as always.

"I'm going to hand this in, you need to meet Bella," he told me, reminding me of what our plans were for the rest of the day. "You'll be late."

I nodded, pulling him in for a final kiss. I let our lips linger together, feeling the same pull in my stomach that I always get when our lips meet.

He pulled away first. He gestured with his head towards the door, and I took the hint. I offered him a final wave. I wasn't happy to be leaving his presence, even though I knew it wouldn't be long until he was with me again.

I walked quickly towards the exit, but a swift glance towards the time on my phone prompted me into a jog. I moved towards my car, seeing Bella leaning against it. There were two dress bags in her hands, as she looked at me in a way that made me feel sure she was about to roll her eyes.

"Cutting it close?" She asked me as I unlocked the door. "I bet I know what you were doing. Indie and Chase... sitting in a tree..."

"What did I ever do to deserve you?" I asked her, as we slid into my car and buckled our respective seatbelts.

"I don't know," she smiled as she said it, "but you're stuck with me. Till death do us part."

Her voice dropped as she said the last part, repeating Isla's words from so long ago. We both knew why, it was the reason we were rushing right now.

"We'll have to change in your car," she continued, looking out towards the window. "Are your parents going to be there?"

"Yeah," I told him, a small smile coming to my lips. "They'll be there."

My words had seemed to take root in them, that day I yelled at them. When I came back from Chase's, they told me that they had cancelled all their trips for the future, and that the only international flights they would be taking for the time being would be ones that all three of us went on, plus Bella.

I pulled into the parking lot of the beach, taking a breath as I did so. I could see Isla's parents already on the sand. They had her urn in the hands, they looked like they were speaking to her.

Bella and I both pulled on the yellow dresses from the bag. It was Bella's idea of course, for us to dress in yellow for the memorial. She said it was pure, just like Isla was. A pure soul, and I couldn't argue with that.

After we were dressed, we left the car. We both hesitated when the parking lot met the sand, knowing that neither one of us had stepped foot on the beach since it happened.

I felt Bella's hand on mine, and together we took the first step. We sunk into the sand, and instead of it being painful, it was the opposite. Like we were that much closer to being whole again.

We walked towards Isla's parents, but we waited a few moments until they were done. When their heads finally snapped up, they looked towards us, smiles on their faces.

"Girls," Isla's mom said softly. She held her arms out towards us, and we walked into them. She grasped her arms around us both, holding us in a comforting hug. She pulled away, the same soft smile on her face. "It looks like everyone is here."

She gestured behind us, we turned. I saw Chase and Asher first, they were leaning against Chase's car. I saw my parents next, they were standing beside Bella's. None of them made any attempt to move closer, and I appreciated them for it.

This was for the people that Isla loved, and the people that loved Isla back.

Isla's mom and dad moved towards the water. Bella and I followed, the cool water greeting our legs as we entered into the calm ocean waves. Like we were being baptized, the rise of the fresh water starting us anew, whilst ending and freeing the pain we held.

Isla's parents moved further out, and Bella and I held back. I felt Bella's arms around me as Isla's mom opened the lid of the urn. I turned towards her, throwing my arms around her shoulder as I pulled her into me.

Isla mom titled the urn, and instantly Isla's ashes filled the air. They danced with the wind, like they were seeds of a dandelion being released at long last. They blended into the sunlight, twirling around the ocean mist that was surrounding us.

We all watched them as they tumbled around, the emotions were mixed in my chest as I'm sure they were with everyone else. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression.

Acceptance.

The ashes seemed to retire their show, finally free-falling into the ocean waves as if they were always meant to be there, as if they belonged in the tumbling waves, just like Isla had.

I heard Bella's sob as she buried her head into my shoulder. I tightened my grip on her as my tears released themselves into the same ocean that Isla now belonged to.

"It's okay," I told Bella, my voice like a breath. "It's okay. She's home now, she's where she belongs. She's somewhere better. She's on a beach, Bella. She's on a beach with white shores with waves that never calm. She's got her surfboard..."

I inhaled, before continuing, knowing what I was saying was the truth. "Isla's on her surfboard, she's riding the ocean waves. She's chasing sunsets."

The End

AN:

This sweet but bittersweet ending of a story and a world, we meet once more.

Thank you to the readers that took this journey with me. This story was hard for me to write, as I'm sure it was hard for you to read. I tried to portray the perfect balance of healing and love, heart break and butterflies.

Please, if you feel motivated to, I'd love to hear what you felt about this story and if you enjoyed it, so I can put them at the beginning page.

Seriously, I love you guys for reading my rambling thoughts and metaphoric words and for loving my characters as they were meant to be loved. Especially for those who voted and commented, you know who you are!

Stay tuned for an epilogue!

With love,
TELLA