Eighteen- Ally

I’d been living with them for about five weeks now. It felt like I’d lived with them for my whole life, everything else in the past just faded away slowly and I was here with people who mattered.

They helped me put flowers on Caleb and Lesley’s graves and even brought me to town to pick up some new clothes for me so that I didn’t have to wear Ashley’s.

 Everything was falling into place.

One afternoon when the sun was unbearable and the house was all steamy they decided to take me to a special place where we could cool off.

 They didn’t tell me where they were taking me and even blindfolded me so I didn’t see where I was headed only this time it was in fun more than anything else. Chris carried me the whole way.

After about half an hour walking through the forest (me being carried) we were at our destination. I heard water…lots of it.

Chris set me down on a rock and told me to get ready for the most beautiful place I’d ever seen.

He took the blindfold off revealing a large waterfall with a pool at the bottom. The waterfall looked like a rather rocky flat water slide!

All around me were trees and birds and plants and flowers that I had never seen in my life. He was right; it was the most beautiful place I’d ever seen.

Everybody took off their clothes and changed into bathing suits.

Kat was in a blue one piece while Ashley was in a lacy green bikini.

 Ash walked up to me and handed me a bag, “Here, this is for you. We all picked it out and it’ll look amazing on you I promise.”

I opened the bag and saw tie-dye. This intrigued me. I pulled the item-or items out of the bag. It was a bikini. The top tied around the neck and the bottoms tied on the sides. It was gorgeous.

I quickly changed into it and thanked them all. I still wasn’t used to their kindness.

We splashed about in the warm water for an hour or two, pausing to lounge here or there on the large rock in the middle of the pool. I was resting there, catching the sun when I felt eyes on me. I looked over to see what was up and I saw Chris glance away as soon as I looked at him. He looked lost.