I know it sounds stupid for a 20 year old girl who finished college early, to not take an amazing job just because I want to fulfil my dead sister's dreams. But if I don’t then I don’t think I can ever fully let go of my sister, and I will live the rest of my life with sorrow, and regret.

Ever since I graduated from college a month ago I have been so focused on crossing things off the list I haven’t been a very good friend, and now its starting to bite me in the ass. My two best friends Azalea and Natalie, who I love to death but can be incredibly annoying and persistent, have been trying to get me to do things and participate in the world, instead of sitting on my computer in the dark writing, and trying to find ways to cross things off the list. Today they have already called 14 times, trying to get me to go to the beach with them. Finally when it reaches the 20 call mark I give in and call Azalea for details. “What time should I be at your place?” I ask immediately when she picks up.
“Now, come now. Nat is already here and we are leaving in 20 minutes.” Azalea answers before hanging up. I quickly jump in the shower, the throw my bathing suit on under my clothes. I practically run to Azaleas apartment so it only takes me about 3 minutes. I knock on the door once and am immediately pulled in by Natalie. “She’s here!” Nat calls to I’m assuming Azalea.
“No joke, I thought you were dead.” Nat says looking dead serious, and I know I’m in trouble. The second I see the fiery red hair of my other best friend the room is suddenly filled with screaming.
“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU. HOW CAN YOU NOT CALL US FOR A WEEK. I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD. I ALMOST CALLED THE POLICE. IF YOU EVER IGNORE US FOR A FULL WEEK AGAIN I WILL LITERALLY GO CRAZY. I ALMOST WENT CRAZY THIS TIME THINKING ABOUT ALL THE THINGS THAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED TO YOU.” By the time she’s done yelling our faces are just inches from each other and her face is almost as red as her hair. “I missed you too.” I reply giving her a huge hug.
“I want to be in on this love too.” Nat wines, while pulling us both into an even bigger hug.
“Are you guys ready to leave?” I ask, once we are done hugging.
“Ya, let me just grab my bag.” Azalea says. Once we are all together and ready, we go down stairs and start the short 10 minute walk to the beach. The second the sign welcoming us to the beach comes into view we can already hear the noise coming from the happy people soaking up the sun. When we find a spot away from the people, with not too much sun, we lay our towels down and strip down to our bathing suits. “So what have I missed in your lives?” I ask staring up at the perfectly clear blue sky.
“Not much. I got an email from a hotel in London that wants some of my photos to put up in rooms.” Azalea responds looking very proud of herself. Ever since I met Azalea in 4th grade she has always been obsessed with photography.
“Thats amazing. What did you say?” I asked, truly happy for my friend.
“I said yes!” She says, almost giddy.
“When you give them the photos and they are up we should go see them.” I say, completely forgetting that the hotel is in London, and we live in LA.
“Maybe.”
“So whats been happening in your life Nat?”
“Oh not much. An art gallery looked at some of my work, but in the end they weren’t interested.” Nat replies looking a little sad.
“I’m sorry. Well its their loss because your work is fucking fantastic.” I reply. I know what it feels like to have someone look at your work and then not go for it. I’m in the process of looking for a new publisher for my books. I have looked at about 3 and all of them don’t see enough ‘promise’ in my work, whatever that means.
“Does anyone want to go for a swim with me?” Azalea asks standing up.
“Sure why not.” Nat says standing up.
“I think I’ll stay here and watch our stuff.” I say. They both nod knowing that I’m not much of a swimmer, and turn towards the water leaving me alone. I lay back down enjoying sun, and the quite. After about a minute I feel a presence near me, and the sun is gone. I sit up and look around, ready to yell at whoever is there to move. When I notice a rather hot boy standing behind me with a cheeky smile, I roll my eyes and ask him very nicely to “please move out of the fucking way.”
“But if I did that then i wouldn’t get to talk to you.”
“Ya, and if you continue to stand there you won't get to talk to me either.” I’m normally not this rude, but when you’ve been inside for a week you don’t want no on blocking your sun.
“Fisty are we.” Who is this boy and what the hell does he want? He obviously knows I don't want him here.
“I’m sorry if I didn’t make it clear but I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Yes you do.” he says sitting down on Azalea’s towel (The towel next to mine). Who does he think he is. I decide to just ignore him and lay down. I feel him getting closer and closer until I can feel his legs are touching mine and our stomachs are pressed together.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I ask opening my eyes and moving away.
“Doing what you want me to do.” What the fuck is wrong with him? I see Azalea and Natalie walking back out of the corner of my eyes, and I give Azalea a pleading look.
“Excuse me. What the Fuck are you doing with girlfriend?” Azalea demands.
“Oh, uh, I’m sorry, I just thought that. Never mind.” He says while standing up and walking away.
“Thank you.” I say to Azalea with relief written all over my face.
“Any time.” She replies.
“How many times have you used that line?” Nat asks. Obviously knowing that I’m not dating Azalea.
“More times than I should of had to. Some guys are just so gross.” Azalea says shivering with disgust.
“How was your swim?”
“Terrible.” They both say.
“Why?” “It was so cold.” Natalie says.
“Do you guys want to take a quick walk over to market and get lunch from the taco truck?” Market is what we call an old parking lot that gets filled with food trucks and people on weekends.
“Sure.” Azalea says, and Nat nods. While we walk to the truck we talk a little about work, and make plans to go to Wisconsin soon to see our families. All three of us grew up in Madison, but moved out to LA for college, and the warm weather. When we get to Market the line for the taco truck is kinda long, but we wait on it anyway.
“I know this is a hard topic, but have you crossed anything off the list?” Nat ask. I sigh before responding with;
“I haven’t done any of the things yet, but I know how I can do some of them. I guess I can cross write a book of the list even if my books aren’t published yet. I also was wondering if when we go to see our families you guys could sleepover at my parents house one night. Perrie wanted to have a sleepover with her friends where they sleep in the backyard, so I was thinking we could do that.” I say hoping they’ll say yes.
“I think that that sounds like a lot of fun.” Azalea says, slinging her arm over my shoulder.
“As long as your parent don’t mind.” Nat says nodding. At this point we are next in line at the truck so we all place our orders and step to the side waiting for our names to be called. When we finish our lunch Natalie says that she has to go because an some women from some gallery is coming to her house to see her work, and Azalea says that she has to also get home because she has a date tonight. Instead of heading back to my apartment right away I stop into my favorite little book store. I read there for about an hour before finally heading home. When I get home I check my mail and find a card from the family of the little boy who now has Periwinkles liver. They are such nice people, there always giving us little updates on how hes doing and telling us how thankful they are for what we did. I think they are just the sweetest.
When I get up to my apartment I write for about half an hour before taking a warm bath and deciding to have a movie night.

Notes

Yay, the first real chapter! :) :) :) :) :) :)
Tell me what you think.
Hopefully I will update again today or tomorrow.