Every girl always loves to go for the bad boy, but why not this time give the good guy a chance?
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Aurora Blanchard loved to catch every wave and live life to it's fullest. But when tr...
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AURORA
Life was quite a simple thing. Although it differs dramatically from person to person, it's core being is the same. Your born, you live, you die. That's it. It's the choices that yourself and others make in their lives that cause them to be different. Some have it easy, some not so much.
I used to be a glider through life. We weren't overly well-off to make life easy, but I had everything I needed. I didn't just live life to live it, I enjoyed life.
Born in Maui, Hawaii I was a water baby from the beginning. My parents, both originally from Malibu, moved to Maui to escape the hustle and bustle of life. And we did. We lived in a small bungalow three hundred yards from the beach front. It was small for the five of us but we made do. We moved back to Malibu when I was fourteen, but home for me was wherever the ocean and my family were.
My two older brothers were my best friends. Growing up we did everything together. They were faster than me then, always running off from our parents despite their protests. In our home videos you'd see them run off, as a mass of blonde curls bounded behind them to keep up.
Beckham was the eldest. He, like I, was drawn to surfing, except he chose the discipline of big wave surfing. Like our dad, he was a superstar in all the ways you could imagine. He won every competition he entered, with sponsors quite literally knocking at our door but what he loved was learning. Nobody would've guessed it, with his handsome looks but he was the smartest person I knew. So smart he gave it all up to go to Columbia. Despite being happy for him we were shocked to say the least. He was one of the best on the island and one day just decided to throw it all away. We supported him none of the less.
Beau was the middle child. Although training in bodyboarding for years, Beau was obsessed with basketball. He towered over all of us at a height of 6'4, and the majority of his teammates from even a young age. He was brilliant. A starter on his team at Duke, Beau was loved both on and off the court. Unlike Beck, he enjoyed college less for the academic and more for the social life. I had him strictly warned to not be a ladies man, but his striking blue eyes made me think otherwise.
And then that left me. Little Aurora. I spent every moment I could in the water. And when I wasn't in the water, you could find me within arms reach of my piano. When I first started out, my brothers used to bang on my bedroom walls to shut me up, but as the years went on my family began to ask me to play, rather than to stop. I was a daddy's girl through and through. Being a pro surfer back in the day, he loved that he could then pass on all his tricks to his little girl. And he did. I wanted to win every competition I could, and a lot of them, I did. I wasn't a big name in the surfing world but I was certainly up and coming. I felt at home in the ocean.
Today, sat in this cafe at the peak of the daytime, I looked out the window as everything around me buzzed. My ears tuned in on everything, focusing on the detail. From the shouts of orders from the counter, to the bell of the door chiming every time someone entered. It wasn't until two familiar faces appeared in front of me as my eyes focused.
My best friends. The two girls who I survived freshman year of college with. The girls who I laughed with, cried with, partied with, and most importantly, the girls I loved so deeply. Now sat in front of me however, they felt like two strangers. That's what happens when you don't see people for years.
Cassidy White was your typical blonde sweetheart. Her short hair made her stand out, exaggerating her sharpened features. She had a warm heart which showed since the girl never stopped smiling. She was a glass-half-full kind of girl, always looking on the bright side of life.
The second member of our trio, Sophia Ramirez, was the comedian. She was the funniest person I knew. Even in the worst of situations, she would always find a way to make people laugh. What I liked most though, was her fierce loyalty. She would have our backs no matter what, never afraid of stepping up to defend her friends. Girl could be scary when she wanted to be, despite lacking a few inches in height.
They both stared at me delicately. I had seen these girls once in nearly three years, and I wasn't exactly in the best of mental states at that time, considering the circumstances.
"How are you?"
I was broken out of my thoughts by Cassidy who looked at me with a sympathetic smile. Of course.
"I- um." I stuttered. Was I okay? "Better than I was." Was all I could reply. That was a heavy question.
A silence followed as the two nodded. I hated this awkwardness. I was the one who asked to meet yet no matter how many times I had rehearsed what I was going to say, I couldn't find the right words. But I was alone in this world now, and I needed my best friends more than I had realised.
"I'm sorry." I blurted. The pair looked up in shock, meeting my eyes. "I didn't make an effort until now and I'm sorry for that. I wanted to. I did. It's just been hard, you know. And I thought you guys might..." My words trailed as my own insecurities crept in. "That maybe you felt it was too weird to see me."
As my rant drew to a close I could feel my lip trembling, biting back the tears in my eyes as my chest tightened in anticipation. It was a lot to deal with. I wouldn't blame them if they didn't want things to go back to how they were.
But I t was Sophia who made the first move. She reached across the table and grasped my hand tightly, followed by Cassidy grabbing the other.
"Aurora you have nothing to apologise for. We're here for you." Sophia pleaded. "Always."
"When you were mis—" Cassidy started before stopping herself. I knew what she was going to say. Missing. "When your were gone... we did everything we could to help. We were devastated." Tears welled in her eyes as she choked out the rest. "You were our best friend and then you were just gone. And everyone just expected life to go back to normal but it wasn't. It wasn't normal without you here."
That brought out a smile in me, Cassidy always was the most emotional out of us all. "I really missed you guys." I laughed, trying not to let the tears which had welled slip.
The conversation after that moved quickly, time flew by me as if I had never missed a day. It was only more of a confirmation that these girls were people I wanted to have for the rest of my life. Even after over two years apart, we spoke like we had never had a day apart.
After we were finished, we made our way back to the dorms and departed at the elevator. It turned out I was two floors above Sophia, and three above Cassidy so I was left on a lonely walk to the end of my corridor. I had tried to make it as homely as possible, with time I had learned that helped. Pictures also helped a lot. The walls were lined with photos from my life before.
The mirror held my favourite pictures up, the ones which were most precious. It almost felt as though every time I looked in the mirror, they were standing beside me.
On the other wall was my tapestry, the colours curling and merging beautifully. It never ceased to amaze me. The ceiling was lined with fairy lights glowed peacefully in the darkness.
I lay down on my bed peacefully as I felt my eyes getting heavier. For the first time in a long time, the butterflies in my stomach were non-existent despite the day ahead I faced.
