Elizabeth's Journey: Finding Who Belongs Chapter1

Chapter 1 1

"Do you have to have the party here?" I ask my mom that Friday afternoon. 2

My mom has decided to host her annual work party in our house. Normally, this would be okay with me. Except our house is a ROYAL mess. My brother, Steven, just had a bunch of guys over to celebrate his 18th birthday. And when you get a group of more than ten teenage guys all together...it's crazy. 3

"Elizabeth, just work with me here." she says in a stressed tone. "Go call Steven down here." 4

My mom tends to get stressed out about work, allot. We have all learned to just give her space and do what she tells us to do. 5

I walk over to the entry way and step on the first stair. "Steven!" I yell. 6

No answer. 7

"Steven!" I yell again. 8

Still no answer. Instead of yelling again and risk making my mom mad, I jog up the stairs. I walk past my bedroom door and reach Stevens door at the end of the hall. I lightly tap on the door. 9

No answer. 10

I put my hand on the doorknob, turn it and push open the door. I see Steven lying on his bed stretched out on his side, facing the wall. I tiptoe over to his bed and put my hand on his back. 11

"Steven." I say softly. "Mom needs us to start cleaning the downstairs." 12

he turns around and faces me. Still half asleep, he mumbles a few words. 13

"Steven." I say again. 14

This time he pops open his eyes and just stares at me. 15

"I never knew being 18 could make you so tired." he says. 16

I laugh. "Well then, I guess I should be glad that I’m still 16." 17

he sits up and nods his head. 18

"Mom needs our help cleaning. She decided to have her work party here and it is in the morning." 19

"dang it! I can’t deal with this right now" he puts his hands on his head. 20

"Are you okay?" I ask in a worried voice. 21

"no." 22

"is that all you’re going to tell me? Or do I have to drag the rest out of you?" I stand up and get ready to attack. 23

This makes him laugh. "It’s me and Ashlee." his voice changes to a serious tone. 24

"Oh gosh. Please don’t tell me that you broke up with her Steven. She is like a sister to me. What did you do?" 25

Ashlee used to come over all the time and hang out with Steven and me watching movies all day and acting all childish. But lately Steven has been acting weird about her and she has come over less and less. This makes my mind wonder if they are still okay. 26

"wow." he puts his hands up to stop me from talking. “Why does the guy always get blamed?" 27

"well I know you Steven. You forget things." I tap his shoulder. 28

"Yeah I guess." 29

I wait for him to continue. 30

"So what happened??" I finally ask. 31

He takes a breath. “I forgot that we were going to go out before the guys and me for my birthday. So she calls me while I’m with the guys at the dance hall and she starts yelling at me that I ruined her surprise for me. And everything else. I said I was sorry but she hung up after that." 32

"did you at least try to call her back?" 33

"yes. But her phone went straight to voice mail. I think she turned it off." 34

I hit his arm. "Why did you do that? 35

He grabs his arm. "Gosh. I didn’t mean to. I was going to go over there this morning but I guess not now. Man I’m so tired." 36

"well you better make it up to her. Let her know that you are sorry." 37

"I know. I know." he says in a flat tone. 38

"You like her still don’t you?" I question him. 39

"Liz, let me explain a little something to you. We have been dating since freshman year. I am now a senior. You do the math." he taps my arm. 40

"Okay okay. I was just making sure. So what happened yesterday anyway?" I ask hoping I can get all the details about his night. 41

I have to tell you...I am very nosy. I always listen to peoples conversations even though I know it isn’t the right thing to do. But I guess that is just what you have to do in order to be informed with everything that goes on in my school. 42

School. I thought. In three weeks I will be back in school. A junior. Where was I the past two years of high school? Its seems just like yesterday my parents dropped me off in front of the best school in town, Chapman High. Now, I’m a high school Junior. I managed to keep my position as School photographer for this next year. Which I guess I am excited about. 43

I remember last year at the football games. Wow. So much fun. Not to mention, I got a lot of attention from the guys at the games. Which I guess is a plus for this job. They all wanted to be in the yearbook. Or they all wanted their picture to be plastered on the front of the school newspaper. I can’t blame them, I mean anyone who had their picture on the front of the school newspaper had to be important. Or at least that’s what everyone thought. 44

Steven had his picture on the front of the newspaper last year. It was a picture I took of Him and Ashlee sitting on the couch in my living room. The news paper was doing a special article on the best couples at Chapman. And since they are the couple who everyone idolizes they were of course the first choice. 45

The article was so romantic that it made everyone at Chapman want a significant other. Everyone was going around like crazy trying to find their one true love. I even remember interviewing this couple around Valentine’s Day. 46

"We want to be a couple just like Steven and Ashlee. They are so in love, and have been together for almost four years." the couple announced to me. I jotted that down then dropped that part of the article. I mean why can’t a guy just be his own self? Why does he have to be like someone else? Why does he have to want to be like my brother? 47

There is nothing wrong with my brother. I mean I love him and he is so much fun to hang out with but when every guy at school wants to be like him, I couldn’t see myself dating them. I think I turned down at least 20 guys last year. I didn’t want to risk them being like my brother. I just couldn’t date someone like that. 48

The one guy I did give a chance to was Danny. Danny, like all the other guys asked me out right away. But when I said no, he was the only one who asked me why. I explained to him that the only reason guys where asking girls out right now was because of the article that was in the newspaper last month. He said that was mainly true but that if we wanted to get to know each other and just hang out like friends do he would be fine with that. 49

I of course took that offer. We hung out all the time. We would go to the local coffee shop and just sit down to talk. Sometimes we would find ourselves sitting there for over three hours. He was just always so easy to talk to. Not to mention he was easy on the eyes as well. He towered over me at a whopping 6 foot 4. He has amazing bright green eyes, which I catch myself staring into all the time. His spiked blond hair was cute on him. And I love his choice of style. He rarely wears t-shirts. This is nice because he is so cute in that button down polo’s. 50

It wasn’t until the end of the school year when he finally asked me out. It was the most romantic thing any guy had every done for me. He took me out to dinner, which wasn’t a normal thing with us just being friends and all. Then after that we took a stroll on the beach and picked up seashells. He stopped and moved in front of me. He told me to put down the seashells then grabbed both of my hands and put them in his. I remember him telling me that I was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. That right there melted my heart. Then he went on and on about how he has falling in love with me over the year. As soon as he said the word LOVE I started shaking. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Elizabeth, I want you to be mine. Will you go out with me?" 51

It didn’t take me long to answer that question since I had been admiring him for a long time. And now, we have been dating all summer. It has been really hard on us though. He had signed up to be a kid’s camp consoler all summer long. So I haven’t seen much of him. But he has called me every day. 52

I quickly snapped back into reality and realized Steven wasn’t in the room. I start to get up when he comes in the door. 53

"Okay, I’m back. What did you ask me before I left?" 54

"oh, um." I couldn’t remember."Oh yeah, what happened last night?" 55

he sits down on the bed next to me. “Well, the guys took me to that dancehall down on Timberwood Street. We met up with a bunch of girls from school. Ashlee was supposed to come as well, but considering our fight, she didn’t show up. Then we danced for a while, said goodnight to the girls, and went to longhorn cafe for dinner." 56

"only the best Restaurant in town. Other than grumpys of course." I laugh. 57

"Yeah, true. Anyway, after that we came back her for the real fun. We stayed up all night and played video games then watched a whole bunch of action movies." 58

"when did the guys leave? I didn’t see them this morning." I ask. 59

"Oh, they left at like 6 in the morning. They all thought that if they went to sleep they wouldn’t wake up. So they all went home except Cameron. He stayed and we watched more movies." 60

"oh, that’s cool." 61

Cameron is my brother best friend. They are on football together. Cameron is the Quarterback and Steven is the Star running back. The Sports news even said that he was the Best running back in all of San Antonio. It’s pretty cool actually; we see I’m on the news all the time. And even get stopped in stores while people ask him questions or give him high fives and praise about how great he did at the last game. This of course means I go to all the game, even the ones out of town. Steven really doesn’t give me a choice. He said that if I’m not there and he doesn’t see me, then he can’t play. I guess I’m his lucky charm. This is kind of a nice feeling. 62

"Elizabeth. Steven." I hear my dad yell. "You two get down here." 63

"I guess we have been up here too long. Mom is probably freaking out about how messy the house is." Steven says to me as we walk down the stairs. 64

I run down the stairs with Steven following me. 65

"Hi dad." I say as I give him a hug. "How was work?" 66

"great actually, I got the Fillips loan." he says with a smile on his face. 67

My dad is a Branch Manager for a loan company. He has been trying to get the Fillips loan for a while. I don’t quite understand all of what that means but I show my happiness to him anyway. 68

"That’s amazing dad. Good job." 69

"okay kids." my mom says. I can tell she is getting ready to go on a cleaning frenzy. “Steven I want you to pick up everything in the living room. Liz I want you to clean the kitchen and bathroom. Oh and Steven, do the yard." 70

~~~*~~~71

We cleaned everything she asked us to. But when I finished the kitchen and bathroom she politely asked me to vacuum the rugs in the entry way. After I finish vacuuming I go over to my parents. 72

"Hey mom, dad. Is it alright if I go out with Danny tonight?" 73

"Liz, it’s almost ten." my mom says. 74

“I know but I haven't seen him like at all this summer. And he is coming home tonight." I look at the clock. "Actually he is like home right now." 75

my parents look at each other. "Well, I guess it’s alright. We know that we can trust Danny so yes. It’s alright. But you know that you have to be home by midnight." 76

"oh that’s okay. But thank you so much." I give them hugs. "I’m just going to take a quick shower. Then I will leave." 77

"okay dear." my dad says. 78

I run up the stairs and hop into the shower. I don’t think I have ever showered that fast. I ran some moose into my hair and left it wet. I threw on a pair of jeans and a sweat shirt Danny gave to me which smelt like him. 79

I look around my room for my phone when Steven walks in. 80

"looking for this?" he asks me holding up my phone. 81

"Actually, yes." I laugh walking over to him and taking the phone. 82

"Where are you going?" 83

"to Danny's. He just got home today." I smile. 84

"Well, I don’t think you’re going anywhere." 85

my smile fades. "Why not? Mom and dad said I could." 86

"There is someone down stairs who needs to talk to you." his voice is flat. 87

My heart speeds up. "What? Did I do something wrong?" 88

"Liz, just breath. I don’t think mom and dad will be that mad." 89

I run out of my room and down the stairs. When I reach the bottom of the stairs I see Danny standing there with his hands in his pockets. 90

He looks at me and a wide smile spreads across his face. He takes his hands out of his pockets and starts to walk over to me. 91

I turn on my heel, run up the stairs and over to Stevens room. 92

I swing open the door. "You are so rude. That was not funny." 93

it obviously was funny to him because he couldn’t stop laughing. 94

"Sorry, I couldn’t help myself." 95

I run back down the stairs and Walk over to Danny. I wrap my arms around Danny. 96

"When you ran back up the stairs after you saw me I thought you were Mad." he whispers into my ear. 97

I explain to him about what Steven said upstairs. 98

"I missed you so much." he says as he bends his head down and brings his lips to mine. 99

"Ahem." I hear someone make a noise. 100

It was my dad. 101

"Hello Sir." Danny says as he sticks out his hand to my dad. 102

"Danny. Nice to see you. What are your plans for tonight?" 103

I look at Danny and he looks at me. We both smile. 104

"Go to the coffee shop." we say at the same time. 105

"Okay. Well you two have fun. Danny, have her home by Midnight." 106

"yes sir." 107

we say goodbye then walk out to Danny's truck. He opens the door for me and I hop in. "thank you." I say to him. He gets into the truck and turns to look at me. 108

"What?" I shyly laugh. 109

"Your so beautiful." he stares at me. 110

He pats his hand on the seat in the middle. "Scoot over." 111

I slid over next to him, put my arm around his waist and lean my head against his shoulder. He moves my head with his hand and leans down, kisses my cheek, then drives to the coffee shop. 112