The first thing I notice when I wake up is the smell. It's like pine needles. I peel open my eyes to see a familiar mess of red hair. Elise stands before me, back facing me, spraying a small bottle around my room.

"What are you doing?" I croak, voice still heavy with sleep. She whips around startled but ultimately smiles.

"Morning. I didn't meant to wake you."

"Well you are in a room so..." I didn't mean to be rude but hey she ruined the most precious thing to me, sleep.

"Sorry, I originally came to wake you up because you were sleeping too long and and I wanted to get a start on the day. But when I got here I sensed so much stressful energy so I'm spraying eucalyptus."

"Ecu-what?"

"Eucalyptus. It's a destresser." Elise explains sitting on the edge of my bed.

"Uh huh. So what are you doing here?" I ask sitting up.

"Well I had so much fun with you that one time and when your father had to go to Ireland for his movie I was like hey, why don't I go visit Ashley." I can't help but smile. To be honest I have missed Elise. Her overall spontaneous and free-spirited energy has been lacking in my life.

"So what do you have planned?"

"It's a surprise!" She says popping up from the bed. "Get ready and meet me downstairs." She gives me a firm nod and leaves my room. I smile as I get out of the covers and go into the bathroom to take a shower. As I wash myself I think back to the night before with Drew's family.

Kora was fun and Darbi, well Darbi was interesting. I still don't understand why their mom looked so weak and needed help getting up. Maybe she's sick.

I can't help but blush when the memory of waking up on Drew's chest comes to mind. I wonder how long I was there. I wonder why he didn't move me.

After I've dried off I change into a lavender t-shirt and white scarf with washed jean capris. Once I finish French braiding my hair I meet Elise downstairs by the front door.

"Ready?" She asks grabbing a large bag off the floor.

"Yeah. What's with the bag?"

"Oh nothing." Elise answers mysteriously. We go outside to a yellow Jeep Wrangler parked on the street.

"Nice truck." I tease.

"Thanks!" I can't help but love Elises spunk. Bright red glasses, bright yellow truck, there's no limits. I hop into the passenger seat as Elise puts her mystery bag in the trunk. Once in the driver's seat, Elise puts the car in drive and gets onto the main road.

"So where are we going?" I ask. Elise makes a zipping her lip motion over her lips. Not getting any answers out of her I pull out my phone and answer a text from Quinn. Elise looks over at me and smirks.

"Texting your boyfriend?"

"What?" I look up confused. "I don't have a boyfriend."

"Well I saw that guy with you on the Internet and I just assumed." Elise trails off.

"Drew?" I ask biting back my laughter. "Elise, since you're dating my dad you should know the media rarely holds the truth." Unless you know for a fact it's true. I think to myself.

"Right, I should have known. So what were you doing with him?"

"We're working a project." I say mindlessly twisting my hair around my finger.

"Oh."

"How's your book coming along?" I ask.

"Great. I'm almost through one chapter." I let out a laugh.

"Elise I wouldn't exactly call that great."

"It takes a while for the perfect book to be made my friend. I consider one chapter great progress. And we're here!" I look outside at our surroundings. We're on a busy beach with stores and shops and restaurants lining the sidewalk. People are everywhere being it is a Sunday.

We walk onto the sidewalk after Elise parked the car, leaving behind her mystery bag.

"Oh look that that!" Elise squeals pointing at a cute bikini, with bright colors in the window of a store

"It's cute." I agree.

"Come on!" Elise drags me into the shop, I can't help but laugh as she gets overwhelmed with all the choices.

We spend the next couple of hours shopping around. By the time we take a break at a cafe outside my arms hurt from holding all the bags. I let all of them fall onto the floor and sink into the seat.

"I'll go get the orders. What do you want?" Elise asks.

"I'll just have a mint cooler." Elise disappears into the cafe leaving me alone. I observe the people around me. They all just look so happy and care-free; the girlfriends with their boyfriends arm around their shoulder, the little kids on roller skates or walking with their parents, the elderly trying to get their "exercise" in. I wonder what my life would have been like if I was raised in a regular home with no cares in the world.

"I'm back!" Elise says putting my cooler in front of me.

"Thanks Elise. Hey, I have a question." I say sipping on the refreshing drink.

"What's that?" Elise asks biting into her deli sandwich.

"Why did you say earlier that you felt like the stressesd tension in my room?" Elise pauses before answering.

"Because as soon as I walked in I felt like an argument had gone on or something that made you angry. I don't know, I guess I just sensed it after taking my reiki classes."

"And reiki is?"

"Don't worry about it. So I was right about the stress?"

"Kinda. I well, just thought I could trust someone I couldn't. But I'm over it now." I say running my finger over the table. At first when I thought back to Ryan I would just get upset that this keeps happening to me and that I thought I could trust him and but now I just get sad. I'm at a time where I should just not be expecting anything more than all of the guys I have dated before. Never again, never again, never again.

"Now I won't make you tell me what happened but I can tell you that trust is a hard thing to earn. Maybe it should be something hard to give too. Than you wouldn't be getting your heart broken. I am not saying that all people are bad, just need to be given a foot before they can be given a yard." I let Elise's words sink in.

"You're right." I respond.

"It's about time you figured that out." She says flipping her hair over her shoulder.

"Way to be modest." I say laughing. "So tell me why we came here, because I don't think it was to seek wisdom on my problems."

"Of coarse not." Elise says carefully. I eye her.

"Elise?"

"Just finish your drink and I'll tell you the plan, stan."

□

"So I'm putting on what's in the bag?" I ask skeptically eyeing the mystery bag?

"Yup, I have to grab one more thing out of the trunk and I'll meet you here when your done." Just as I'm about to protest Elise runs out of the public bathroom. I groan and roll my eyes. Why did my dad like the weird ones?

In the bathroom stall I open the bag and pull out overalls, big green sunglasses, a beanie and cowboy boots. She has got to be kidding me. Reluctantly I put on the clothes and glasses. What in the world does she have planned with all this stuff. Are we going to go running around retelling we're hobos?

"Ashley are you done?" Elises voice comes from behind the door.

"Yeah." I stuff all my clothes into the bag and open the door. "So I'm not really sure why I'm wearing this but-" I stop talking when I see what Elise is holding.

"Surprise!" Elise squeals holding up my guitar case.

"Why I you have that?" I demand.

"You my friend are going to sing for the people!"

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