After this, there is only one more chapter of Stranded and then the epilogue. I have really enjoyed writing this story and this particular chapter means a lot to me, so hopefully you will drop a comment telling me what you thought. 

CHAPTER EIGHT

 ❝ Endings are sad. But [and I really want to believe this] every ending is a new beginning. ❞

Elle's journal: The Europe Trip, day 13, entry nº5

"Take care, you two," Stelle said as she hugged Elle and Connor.

She had decided to accompany them all the way to the airport, and now it was time to say goodbye.

The snow and the rain had stopped falling, and now the skies where open and the sun was shining and it all looked even more beautiful than before.

"You too," Elle said back, and as she did, she realised just how much she actually meant it. Maybe she hadn't gotten to know Stelle as well as she had gotten to know Connor, but that small eccentric woman that stood in front of her had somehow managed to crawl inside her heart too.

"I know you won't get to go to Venice," Stelle told Elle. "So I wanted you to have this," she said and took her purple Venetian mask from inside her purse.

"Oh, Stelle, I can't..."

"You have to," the woman demanded as she placed the mask in the girl's hands. "Your aunt would have wanted you to take a souvenir from Strand. Even if it wasn't really made here."

Elle laughed. "Thank you. For everything."

Stelle nodded. "One more thing. Family is important, kid. I pushed mine away, and I regret that."

Elle paled. "How did you­–?"

"And another thing. That kid over there," Stelle said as she pointed her head towards Connor, who was handing their bags. "He cares more about you than you think," she finished.

"I don't think..."

"He does. Now don't argue and get that little ass of yours back home," she commanded and Elle laughed.

❄

"So, what's next?" Connor asked, taking a seat next to Elle on the plane. Min-ho sat on her other side, already getting comfortable enough to fall sleep.

"I think he sleeps," she whispered, pointing at the man in the suit with her head.

"Yeah. He seems quite good at that."

"And apparently at his job, too," she said wistfully. "Did you notice he is wearing an Armani suit?"

Connor's eyes widened. "Nice. But you still haven't answered my question yet."

"Sorry, what question?"

"What's next?"

Elle smirked. "I think we both agreed that now he sleeps."

Min-ho shuffled at her side. "Stop talking about me," he grumbled and both Elle and Connor tried not to chuckle.

Once the moment was over, Elle turned to smile sadly at her handsome British friend. "I think now we are both supposed to go home."

"Yeah," he said, and maybe Elle imagined it, but he didn't sound happy about it either. After a while of silence, Connor's knee bumped into hers, getting her attention. "So... was your trip any good?"

Elle smiled, and when she answered, she was surprised by how much she actually meant each word. "I think it actually was. How about yours?"

"Oh, mine was awesome," Connor replied, leaning back on his seat and winking at her.

Elle resisted her urge to burst out laughing. "Awesome?"

"Yeah. Why? You discriminating that word too? Americans say that, you know."

"I know that. And I have nothing against the word. I just didn't picture you as the type of guy who would say awesome."

Connor's smile was unreadable again. Soft and tender and something else Elle wasn't sure she could properly name. "You don't picture me in a lot of ways."

"And you keep surprising me."

"Good. So, now," he said, using something that sounded a lot like a teacher's voice. "How was your trip?"

Elle smirked. "Awesome."

"Good girl."

❄

During the taxi ride home, Elle thought about her aunt.

She remembered when she had been only ten years old and Aunt Jenny had gotten back from her trip. She remembered every single adventure Jenny had told her about. She remembered promising herself she would go on that same trip when she was old enough, and then she would get back and tell her Aunt about all of her adventures.

And soon time had passed and Elle's trip had been only a month away.

But Aunt Jenny and Elle's parents had been hiding something from her for a long time. Aunt Jenny had been sick for a while. And then she got a seizure. And got into a comma. And a week after that, she died. And Elle never got to say goodbye, not properly. All because Elle's parents hadn't told her about what was going on until the comma.

So she ran away. She called the airline, and changed her flight to right after the funeral without telling anyone. And just like that, after her aunt was deep into the ground, where no one would ever be able to reach for her again, Elle was gone.

The problem was she had been expecting to live the exact same things her aunt had. And that wasn't they way things were supposed to be. She had to have her own adventure. Maybe, if she hadn't given up after the first leg of the trip, after Greece, she could have had fun. She could have met nice people in Madrid and later in Venice. She could have gotten to see the carnival her aunt had told her wonders about. She could have visited all the places Jenny had been to.

But if she had, she would have never met Connor, or Stelle, or Min-ho. She would have never gotten to visit the beautiful town of Strand. And she would have never gotten to realize her aunt would always be there, even if she couldn't pick up a phone and call her, because not meeting Connor meant not meeting the person that helped her realize that.

As the car got closer and closer to her home, a new thought crossed Elle's mind.

Her parents were hurting too.

Maybe they even regretted not telling her, just as much as Elle had regretted going on her trip after those awful two weeks. But good things had come from that trip. Great things, actually. And if she thought about it, she wouldn't have changed a thing.

She would have loved her aunt to be alive and get back to tell her all of her incredible adventures, but she would have wanted Strand to be part of them anyways.

❄

Knocking on her door that day was probably one of the hardest things Elle had ever done. It meant her trip was over. It meant admitting to herself that her Aunt wouldn't be on the other side. It meant going back and facing her parents and the secret that had drove her away. It meant admitting she had been wrong, because even if they had hid the truth, what happened hadn't been their fault.

So when the door opened and her mom appeared on the other side, Elle blurted out the words that had been floating through her mind for hours.

"I'm sorry. About everything. I know it wasn't your fault. And it must have been horrible, seeing her like that. I'm so sorry, mom."

Her mom's chin was trembling, her face cramping, her eyes began to tear up.

"Oh, honey. Come here," she said and pulled her daughter into a hug. "I'm so, so sorry."

Elle was crying now too. She held tightly to her mother the way she hadn't done since she had been a little girl.

"I'm sorry, honey. Oh, I'm so, so sorry," her mom kept whispering in her ear, and somehow the words seemed to have the same power they had had years before.

"I missed you, mom," Elle said, because it was true. She had missed that mom. The one that hugged her and held her and whispered nice things into her ear. The mom she had been subconsciously pushing away through the years for the better version, her aunt.

"Oh, honey, I missed you so much, too," her mom said, just as the clouds above them began crying too. "We should get in before we get wet."

But Elle didn't want to go in just yet. She wanted to get wet. She wanted to enjoy the storm. "Actually, how about we stay out here for a little longer? For old time's sake."

Her mom's eyes glistened, and Elle realized in that moment just how much she had pushed her mom away in the past few years. "Sure," she said, and she smiled a smile that looked so much like her own, that Elle promised herself she was going to get to know her mother again.

❄

Mother and daughter sat on the stairs of their porch. It wasn't long before they were both soaking wet, but it didn't really matter. They had their arms around each other, Elle's head resting on her mother's shoulder, and that was all the warmth they needed.

A few minutes passed until the house door opened, the sounds of what seemed to be a tennis tournament on the TV reaching Elle's ears. Then the door closed, the porch went silent again, and Elle's dad appeared at her other side, his eyes glistening with something she hadn't seen in a while too.

"Rain?" he asked.

"Rain," Elle answered with a nod and a smile, and she knew they where both remembering when she was a little girl and they would both play outside in days like that one.

The three of them stayed silent until her dad seemed to remember Elle had been gone without their permission for a long while. "Where the hell have you been, kid?" he asked, but he didn't sound half as threatening as he tried to.

Elle's smile appeared even before she knew what to answer.

"Somewhere awesome."