Ella's pov:

"You're such a cheater!" He yells at me as I roll my eyes at him for the millionth time in the last minute.

"It's not cheating, it's called having skill. Something that you clearly don't have." I smirk as Zander glares at me.

"There is no f*ckin way that this is your fourth strike." Zander says picking up his bowling ball, he rolls it down the alley but it just goes straight into the gutter, not even knocking down a single pin.

"You guys need to chill out, you all are acting like children." Ashton says, Julie laughs from beside him and kisses his cheek.

"I wouldn't be talking Ashton, you're in last place." Julie says standing up to get herself a bowling ball.

"What?!" Ashton quickly looks up at the screen to see me in first, Julie in second, Zander in third, and himself in last.

And it was surprising because Zander... wasn't the best at bowling.

"Damn't!!" Ashton curses out loud which causes Julie to whip her head around and squint her eyes at Ashton.

"Did I say Damn't? I meant.. uh... want donuts? I know I do!" He jumps up quickly and goes to the concession stand.

"And I am the child?" Zander laughs to himself as he lays back on the seat beside the specific lane that we were in.

As you could probably guess, Zander, Julie, Ashton, and I are at the bowling alley.

It is a Friday evening and Zander decided to come and stay the weekend in town.

His college is about two hours away whereas Ashton's is only like thirty minutes.

But that doesn't stop Ashton from deciding to use his own bedroom for the weekend.

I felt bad because I am sleeping in Julie's room and I felt like I was intruding on their privacy or something like that, but Julie always says she likes my company because of midnight girl talk, which happens a lot by the way.

But it makes me wonder, Julie is going back to school in a few weeks, what will happen then?

I try not to think about it though because I just think of it as a problem to be dealt with in future time.

Plus right now, something else has been invading my thoughts more often.

Luke.

Ever since the park, he has been... different.

Let me put it to you this way, I told myself that if he didn't like me back...

that way...

I wouldn't be upset with him.

I can't force someone to have feelings for me, it just, wouldn't be fair to them.

But now, he's always busy.

When I ask him if he wants to talk, or hangout, he's always busy with her.

Usually we would text each other maybe at night pretty much everyday about who knows what, but now, he suddenly isn't interested.

It's like I don't even matter anymore.

I knew that he thought the world of her.

I just didn't think I would be his nothing.

And the funny thing is, when it first happened, all I wanted to do was cry.

I didn't want to be around anyone, well except Julie, she is truly the greatest.

She stayed with me while I cried, and watched sad movies with me on the couch.

...

Okay fine, Disney movies, lots and lots of Disney movies.

Luckily, Julie's parents and brother didn't mind, in fact, they say they love having me around.

I'm not exactly sure though what Julie told them about me, or why I am staying here, but they didn't try to kick me out so I just don't think of it as a concern.

Which by the way, the thing with my parents trying to search for me.

News came around that they, along with all these investigation people, now know I did indeed run away and I was not kidnapped.

Which honestly, I wasn't that upset about.

I guess I would feel kinda bad if they thought I was murdered by a serial killer.

And plus, maybe they now know that they were bad parents.

They made their child run away for crying out loud, what do you think that tells you?

So since then, thankfully, the search wasn't as big because I guess there is a big difference between getting kidnapped and running away.

Since I am above sixteen, it was an 'optional' something something something...

Look I read it somewhere, it's been a while.

But it didn't mean that I wasn't careful now and then, I always keep a close eye for specious activity, police cars, people who looked like they were undercover from the movies.

...

But anyways, before my mind started to drift, like I said, Julie has been with me through it all, everywhere I go, she comes with.

And it made me realize, what am I doing?

Why am I mourning over him.

Heck, in the past month, I have been through so much.

I wrecked my moms car, I was in a coma, I snuck out from my house to do what normal teenagers do... have fun, I drove into a fence and got chased by security guards, and finally ran away from home.

As much as I would love to think I wouldn't be here without him, because it is true, I'm not going to just throw my life away.

I have worked way to hard to just sit around and mourn over a guy who threw me away like I was nothing.

But every time I try to forget about him, he just comes and takes over my thoughts.

Making me remember about all the good times we have had together.

So many good times.

"Rigged! This game is f*ckin rigged!! Where's the manager?! I want a refund!!" I hear a voice that scares me out of my previous thoughts.

I laugh as Zander's ball goes rolling through the gutter, again, hitting zero pins, making him an easy target to getting last place because Ashton was next with only one point behind him.

"Zander, stop being such a... pinhead." Julie's eyes widen as she starts to laugh at her own pun.

Zander looks at her and shakes his head, "Julie, you do this every time we go bowling."

"Why do you have to be such a downer, can't you just spare me a pun or two?" She says laughing again.

I watch as Ashton comes back with a donut in his hand as he looks at Julie curiously.

"What did I miss?"

"Nothing much, I just like bowling, it's right up my alley." Julie laughs even louder, wiping the tears in her eyes as it was now Ashton's turn to shake his head at his girlfriend.

"Not again." Ashton whispers more to himself.

"Excuse you, this is just how I roll."

"Ashton it's your turn to bowl." Zander says crossing his arms, looking up at the screen because if Ashton gets at least two pins, Zander will be bumped to last place.

Which is exactly what happened.

Ashton rolled the ball and surprisingly, it hit three pins, which knocked Zander down to last place.

Zander throws his hands up in disbelief as his mouth opens in shock, even though it was only three pins, that's how far behind the boys were from mine and Julie's scores.

"Don't be upset Zander, bowling just takes..."

But before she could finish, Ashton walks up behind her and puts a hand over her mouth. "Don't say it."

I giggle as Zander lets out a breath of relief as Julie nods her head.

Ashton lets go, but it wasn't able to stop the words from coming out of her mouth.

"Bowling just takes balls." Julie suddenly falls to the floor, holding her stomach as she laughs.

There wasn't like anyone here, only the workers.

But watching Julie laugh, I watched as Zander started to laugh, along with Ashton, and next thing I know, so was I.

It took probably three whole minutes for us to stop, as it was Julie's turn to bowl.

That's how pretty much the rest of the hour went, bowling and just having fun in general.

Since there was a little bit of light outside, we decided to go for ice cream.

Ashton and Julie went in one car, while me and Zander went in his.

Which it wasn't Ashton's or Julie's idea surprisingly, it was Zander's.

And that made me scared.

"So...." I say awkwardly as Zander pulls out of the parking lot near where we were just bowling.

"Okay I wanted to ask you sooner, but Julie wouldn't let me..."

But I instantly knew what he was about to say before the words came out of his mouth.

"What really happened with Luke? Julie said you guys only had a fight... but I know that isn't the real reason. What did he do?" Zander asks.

"I.. uh.." is all I can say as I try to put it into words, but I didn't have to.

"He didn't." Zander says unbelievably as I give him a confused look.

"Don't tell me that bitch denied liking you, I'm about to mess him the f-..."

"No! Well, wait." I rush out before Zander had the chance to finish his sentence.

"He... likes someone else. But it's okay-.."

"Please don't tell me you're about to say he got a girlfriend." Zander says gripping the wheel of his car so tight that I was afraid it was about to break off at any second.

"But it's okay, really, I'm not even that-..."

"Don't even finish that sentence Ella, friend and all, I can tell when someone is not okay."

I couldn't help but look down ashamed.

He's right, of course I am not okay, I lost my best friend.

Well more specifically, I lost my best friend to someone who could provide Luke more than I could ever have.

I mean, look at me, I have been broken all my life, I have family issues, I get anxiety from just thinking about going back there, all I seem to be good at his crying.

"What should I do?" My voice cracks as I look up at Zander.

As we stop at a red light, Zander looks over at me, giving me a small smile, trying to make me feel a little better.

"Depends, what do you want Ella? Do you want to make things better with him, or do you want to... move on?" Zander's voice pauses slightly.

But I couldn't tell what it meant.

Although it did make me realize something.

I started to develop feelings for Luke that I couldn't control.

But now, maybe it's just for the best... to let him go

Because I am not going to chase him, when I know that I won't ever be able to catch him.