So Far Away

“I think we need to stop doing this,” I mumbled more to myself than Zack as I climbed out of the bed with the sheet wrapped around my body. I grabbed a fresh set of clothes and went into the bathroom to get dressed. When I emerged again, Zack was sitting on the edge of the bed with everything but his shirt on.

“Let’s get this packing started.” Zack had driven us back to my parents’ house where I had been living to pick up my things. I found it pretty pitiful that I barely had enough stuff to fill the trunk and backseat of his car.

“That’s the last of it.” Zack shut the trunk and I turned to face my parents. My mom was already tearing up and my dad pulled me into a hug that squeezed the breath out of me. I groaned in protest and he let me go with a chuckle. “I’ll miss you both,” I said softly and let my mom kiss both of my cheeks. At one time in my life I wanted nothing more than to be away from them but they’d helped me through so much in the last two years and I had gained a new level of respect for them.

“This was meant to be your birthday present next week, but since we won’t see you then..” dad trailed off and handed me an envelope. I ripped it open to find two plane tickets and a resort reservation confirmation for a week's stay.

“Hawaii? Are you fucking serious? Oh thank you so much!” I squealed and pulled both of them into a hug.

“We know you’ve had a tough couple of years so we wanted to give you a chance to relax.”

“I will never be able to thank you both enough for this.” I rubbed my eyes hoping to stop the tears of gratitude that threatened to fall.

“The only thanks we need is for you to enjoy this,” my dad said.

“And lots of pictures from the trip!” My mom added. I gave them both one last hug and then Zack and I were off.

“You’re coming with me to Hawaii right?” I asked Zack excitedly.

“That’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever asked me, of course I’m coming!”

“We leave on Thursday, the day after my birthday.”

The drive back to my apartment in Huntington passed quickly and Zack practically dragged me back out after unpacking everything so we could go to Johnny’s bar.

-x-

“What’s this?” I asked Zack as we walked inside. The usually overflowing bar was nearly deserted. The guys were all there save for Matt as well as a girl clinging to Brian’s side. Johnny also had a girl next to him. I had never met either of them.

“Your welcome back party!” I couldn’t help but smile as the guys all let out a cheer and swarmed me.

Johnny lined up shot glasses while Brian seized a bottle of tequila and began filling them. “Slow down guys! If I start there I’ll be passed out in the corner within the hour.”

“Don’t tell me you turned into a pussy on us,” Brian said with a smirk.

“Fuck you!” I cried and snatched up a glass, drained it, then downed a second shot. Maybe I’d regret it later, but at that moment it seemed like the best way to celebrate being back where I belonged.

I lost track of how many shots I’d taken before Zack dragged me over to the dancefloor. We were both well aware of the fact that neither of us could dance so we just started doing all the stupid moves we could think of or invent. I was laughing my ass off at how ridiculous Zack looked that I didn’t notice who had walked up behind him.

“Jerrika can I talk to you?” the voice of the last person I wanted to talk to tonight said from behind me.

“I told him not to come,” Zack murmured as I stepped around him with a heavy sigh.

“What?” I was being rude, but he deserved it after the things he said the last time we spoke.

“Alone?” I tried to turn back to Zack but he had disappeared, the fucker. I was really left with no other option.

“Fine.” I pushed past him and went out the front door. I leaned against the wall and Matt joined me a few seconds later.

“I'm sorry for what I said to you the other day, it was really shitty.”

“You're damn right about that.”

“Look, can we just be civil towards each other? We're both going to be around the guys a lot, it will affect everyone if you can’t stand to be in the same room as me.” I knew he was right, but I’d rather pull out my own teeth with a rusty pair of pliers before admitting it. Instead of answering, I pulled a cigarette from the back I’d slipped into my pocket and lit it, relishing the instant calming effect.

“I’ll try to tone down the hatred a bit.” Much to my surprise the man next to me had a small smile on his lips instead of the usual scowl. “What’s got you all amused?”

“Why don’t you just go ahead and forgive me? It would save both us a lot of time and energy and you’ll just end up forgiving me later on.”

“What makes you so sure about that?”

“If you really hated me you wouldn’t put the effort into actually talking to me. Plus, I’m just going to pester you until it drives you to forgive me just to put a stop to it.”

“Sorry to inform you of this, but it will take a hell of a lot more than that.”

“Well then, game on.” He pushed off the wall and before I could blink he disappeared back into the bar. I didn’t like the sound of that.

Notes

22 days? Shit. I didn't realize it's been that long, sorry!! I've been in such a rut lately, it's been hard to actually get anything written. But here's an update, hopefully it doesn't suck too bad.