Zack should have been excited that the band only had a few more shows before they were able to head back to Huntington Beach for Christmas. He should have been more engaged in the earlier conversations with his bandmates as they drove from Miami to Jacksonville. He also should probably be sleeping, since it was nearing two in the morning, but he was wide awake and silent in the passenger seat of the van. If he was being honest, he was trying his best to ignore Matt at the wheel. Zack knew his friend’s apology from hours earlier was just a pleasantry for Ellie’s sake, and that Zack was in for a stern talking to in a more private setting.

“You can’t ignore me forever Zee,” Matt said, catching Zack’s side eye in the dark of the van. Matt knew he had been out of place by starting that fight with Zack, but it was the only thing that he could think of at the time. Matt was privy to information that neither Zack nor Ellie knew and if the pair fell back into their old habits, it would complicate things. He felt guilty for keeping his friends in the dark, which was why he was deciding to let Zack in on what he knew.



“Matt, I’m really not in the mood for this,” Zack started, keeping his eyes trained on the passing scenery outside as he leaned his right temple against the glass of his window.

“Zack, look, it wasn’t a coincidence that I ran into Ellie on Thursday night,” Matt trailed off, glancing between the road ahead of him and his friend to his right. Zack’s focus instantly switched to Matt, his eyes trained on the side profile of his friend.

“If you fucking tell me you’ve been in contact with her all these years, I will fucking kill you, Matt.” Zack seethed. He knew Matt and Ellie had been inseparable growing up and if he was truly being honest, he was a little jealous of how close they were, but he and Ellie had grown closer prior to her move. Zack felt there was no reason that she would cut of contact with him and keep in contact with Matt.

“Relax Zack, Thursday was the first time I had talked to her in years,” Matt said as he switched on his blinker and merged into the fast lane on the highway. “I ran into Ellie’s dad before we left for tour. I mean, he actually had a real conversation with me for the first time in ages.”

The mention of Ellie’s father made Zack angry, especially since learning that he had cut off all contact with Ellie when she moved to Miami. Zack almost wanted to tell Matt to save it, that he didn’t want to hear anything about the man, but his concern for Ellie outweighed his distaste towards her father. Something else had happened to Ellie that she wasn’t letting on, and Zack was determined to figure it out.

“He gave me the name of the club that Ellie works at, told me to stop by and catch up with her. He knew we had fallen out of contact and he said that it would be good for her to see us all again. It kind of took me by surprise if I’m being honest, but I just figured my parents had spoken to him and mentioned we had shows booked in Florida. I was just lucky to actually catch Ellie on a day she was working, which is why I didn’t mention this beforehand. I didn’t want to get your hopes up,“ Matt continued.

“Matt, Ellie hasn’t spoken with her father since she left Huntington Beach,” Zack said. “They had a falling out, which was the reason that she ended up leaving California in the first place. She’s in Miami and going to school to try to appease her father.“

Matt was visibly surprised by Zack’s words. When he had spoken to Mr. Brandt there was no indication that his relationship with Ellie was nonexistent, particularly since he was aware of her workplace. It was hard for Matt to believe that something so terrible had happened that they were no longer speaking. Ellie and her father were very close growing up. Her teenage years put some stress on their relationship and Matt would be the first to admit that his friendship and influence on Ellie may have contributed to that, but there was nothing that Matt knew about that would cause a rift that deep between them. Ellie was all that her father had. He was an only child, his parents deceased, and his wife had left when Ellie and Matt were young. Matt didn’t have any memory of the woman, who had been his neighbour while still married to Ellie’s father. Ellie pretended that the woman didn’t even exist.

“That doesn’t make any sense Zack, if they aren’t speaking, how would he know where she was working? Why would he want us to reach out to her?”

“I have no idea. She was a wreck this morning though Matt, I’ve honestly never seen her that upset over anything. She handled her move better, though that was laced with the promise of many return visits and calls that never happened,” Zack’s tone turned sour as he finished his sentence.

“What the hell happened that made her so upset?” Matt asked, his voice getting louder and defensive. Zack gave Matt a knowing look, which cued the stern talking to he had been expecting.

“Fuck sakes, Zack, really? The first night you see her and you have to sleep with her?”

“You can save the lecture Matt, she made it very clear that having sex with me was the biggest mistake of her life,” Matt couldn’t help but laugh at Zack’s comment; partially because he had a hard time accepting the relationship between his friends and partially just due to the sheer immature ego shot of a woman regretting having sex with Zack.

“Laugh all you fucking want man, but something fucked up happened to her. Something more than what she let on to me about. She’s not the same girl she was when she left California and it’s killing me that she’s closing herself off about it.”

“That’s her choice Zack, maybe she really has moved on,” Matt said, shrugging slightly from the confines of his seatbelt. Zack, however, didn’t believe that for a second. He was determined to figure out why Ellie was so hurt over her past. He had meant it when he said he wasn’t letting her go a second time.

---

Brunch came way too soon for Ellie, who barely slept at all the night before thanks to the million and one thoughts that flooded her mind. All she wanted to do was spend her Sunday sulking in bed, but she knew she couldn’t break her promise to Katie. Reluctantly, she showered, tossed her hair up into a messy bun, and caked her face in concealer to hide the dark circles and stress-related breakouts that had unsurprisingly made themselves present on her face.

How Katie hadn’t noticed the sour mood Ellie was in on their walk to their favourite brunch restaurant remained a mystery. It wasn’t until Ellie ordered her second mimosa before her Eggs Florentine had even arrived that Katie began to press her friend for details.

“I just need you to keep an open mind on this, okay?” Ellie asked before thanking their server for her second glass of champagne spiked orange juice. Katie furrowed her brows slightly but nodded as a prompt for her friend to continue.

Ellie started at the beginning. She told Katie about how she had lived beside Matt for her entire life. Their birthdays were just over a month apart. She made a quick note that her mother had actually left her and her father and was not deceased, as the excuse she used whenever the question of her mother came up, lead people to believe. She never understood how a woman could leave her child without any remorse, but left her feelings at that.

Katie then learned about how close Ellie and Matt were. They were the cliché story of best friends and neighbours. Once they hit middle school, Ellie was eventually introduced to the friends that Matt had made, whom Ellie divulged were the current members of the up and coming metal band, Avenged Sevenfold. Katie was unaware of who the band was, which was unsurprising as she loved music that mirrored the likes of her hometown favourite, Kanye West.

Their food arrived, which caused a brief pause in Ellie’s story. Two piping hot plates were set down in front of the pair. Once their server was satisfied that the girls didn’t need anything additional to enjoy their breakfast and left them alone at their table, Ellie continued.

Ellie highlighted the fights that they got into in high school, how they all had spent the entire month of May in an after-school detention program in their junior year. Ellie recalled the biggest at school brawl, which was the reason for the May-long detention, where Matt honestly held his own and fought a whole hoard of people before the rest of them could make their way through the crowd and help their friend out. She smiled as she talked of the time Zack was held and questioned for the theft of the microphones used at a show with his former band MPA, or Mad Porno Action as the acronym stood for, though it was just something stupid that had come out of his mouth and held no truth to it. She was there when the boys got their first tattoos and picked the name of their band at school one day.

Katie was quiet the whole time that Ellie spoke. She nodded and chuckled along with the stories, but had finished her meal before Ellie had finished half of her dish. She simply smiled as Ellie continued: Ellie laughed as she recalled the first few weeks when Johnny joined their group and highlighted that the younger boy was infatuated with her for a solid month until it was very well known that Ellie and Zack had begun sleeping together. Johnny didn’t make a move on Ellie ever again, as he was afraid of the wrath of the older boy.

Ellie shifted uncomfortably in her seat before she began to enlighten her friend on what inevitably became the events that lead to her leaving California behind. She began with how she had started to fall for her best friend once they started high school; which was information that Matt wasn’t given until Ellie’s father was out of town one weekend, and the pair spent the weekend in Ellie’s basement with a 40oz bottle of Jack Daniel’s split between them. Recalling these events was an awkward conversation for Ellie to have since she hadn’t told anyone the story before. Both she and Matt had been attracted to each other, their teenage hormones making their friendship more complicated than it needed to be. It was a week before Halloween and Ellie lost her virginity to her best friend at fifteen. They never told their friends and they never pursued a relationship; they remained inseparable and no one was the wiser. Both of them lied and cited random parties as to when they lost their virginities whenever the questions arose.

Ellie advised Katie that having a summer birthday in California is the biggest blessing. Ellie wrote the last of her 10th grade exams on the morning of her sixteenth birthday and then proceeded to leave the school, her friends by her side, to spend the rest of the day at the beach. She remembered the day fondly, despite the copious amounts of alcohol she downed throughout their celebrations. As soon as their feet hit the sand, Matt picked Ellie up bridal-style and ran into the water with her. Ellie remembered laughing as Matt struggled to keep moving forward with Ellie in his arms and the water becoming increasingly deeper. Once he was in so far as his waist, he threw Ellie into the waves, and ran like hell back towards the shore. Ellie had taken a few moments to enjoy the warm Pacific waters before returning to land. It was Zack who had walked down to the shoreline and greeted her with a large beach towel and a plastic bottle of Coke that was spiked with the group’s favourite whiskey. Once Ellie had wrapped herself in the towel, Zack engulfed her in a bear hug. He had simply whispered a 'Happy Birthday' before taking a step away from her and making his way back to the rest of their group, but it had given Ellie goosebumps.

“You know, now that I’m actually thinking about this, I think that was the moment for me when I realized I actually had feelings for the guy,” Ellie laughed, somewhat ironically, as she pushed around the remaining food on her plate with her fork. “I had always just chalked us sleeping together up to how drunk I was that night, and then how comfortable the habit of us hooking up became, but Zack had always cared. It may seem as simple as grabbing me a towel and a drink, but the rest of the guys would never have done that; they’d have laughed their asses off while I drip dried. Zack always made sure I was happy. How am I only realizing this now?”

“Hindsight,” Katie shrugged, “If Zack always made you happy, why were you so eager to leave, and so hesitant to reconnect?”

“I’m going to need another mimosa or two for that story,” Ellie laughed. Before she had finished her sentence, Katie had signalled for another round of drinks to be brought to their table.

Ellie took a moment to figure out how to continue with her story. She found it most logical to give Katie a little bit of background on Jessica, who had been friends with the guys briefly around their middle school years. Not that they had ever been super close, but she had very obviously wanted to be a part of their group. The guys eventually had iced her out, mainly because she was a handful and started a lot of confrontations amongst the guys themselves. From there on out, she liked to cause any trouble that she could. Most of her issues were aimed at Ellie directly since she was the only girl the guys kept around at that time.

Deciding to skip the boring stories of the fights and drama that was created from middle school until the end of high school on Jessica’s account, Ellie went straight to the night her life had changed. It was an uneventful Friday night where the boys were hiding out in Matt’s parents' garage working on their music. Ellie had decided to attend one of the start of summer parties she had heard about with some friends that weren’t in her immediate friend group. Ellie, admittedly, had far too much to drink that night. She couldn’t remember what had been said or how it had escalated so fast, but she remembered running into Jessica, who angrily threw the first punch. Ellie didn’t take that lightly and threw punches back at the girl until she was unconscious. Ellie had to be pulled off of Jessica that night; she was in a blind rage as she defended herself from the girl’s now violent confrontation.

Jessica was taken to the hospital. Ellie was taken to jail. Jessica thankfully made a full recovery, and Ellie’s father was able to have all charges against his daughter dropped, undoubtedly because of his reputation as a well-established lawyer in the area. When he drove Ellie home from the police station that morning, he had given her the ultimatum: she could go to Miami for school, or he’d cut her off entirely. Fearing the loss of her relationship with her father, Ellie agreed to attend the same school her father had. How she was able to secure a spot so late in the summer, Ellie could only assume was due to a charitable alumni donation to the school from her father. She didn’t know, however, that her relationship with her father had already been ruined beyond repair by that point. Ellie confessed to Katie that all of the holidays she had said was spent back in California with her father were really spent in Miami, where Ellie continued to work and study to become the best academic that she could be.

“Let me get this straight,” Katie paused before continuing, making motions as she spoke with her hands that mimicked pointing to the various branches of a mind map. “The important takeaways from that story were: you were a badass troublemaker who spent a lot of time in detention. You grew up beside Matt, your best friend. You eventually started sleeping with one of his friends, whom you eventually fell head over heels for. You also ended up fighting some crazy bitch, while defending yourself from her no less, and almost had charges pressed, but got off scot-free thanks to your lawyer father, who has now disowned you due to your rebellious streak. Then you moved to Miami where you lied your ass off about your past, have given your life a complete overhaul, and have become the best of friends with yours truly. Is that everything?”

“Essentially,” Ellie nodded, stuffing the last few bites of lukewarm egg into her mouth “My father’s not the only reason I left California though.”

Their server appeared with another round of mimosas for the friends, making this Ellie’s third and Katie's second alcoholic beverage before noon on a Sunday. Katie was patient as Ellie took her time to finish her meal and nurse a few sips of her drink. To be honest, Ellie had become so focused on finishing her meal and keeping her emotions in check as she thought about the last part of her story that she didn’t even realize her phone screen light up, indicating she had an incoming call.

“714?” Katie questioned, noticing the area code on the number that flashed on the screen.

“That’s Huntington Beach,” Ellie almost whispered, suddenly nervous at the thought of having a conversation with who was on the other end.

“You’d better answer that,” Katie said with teasing grin dancing across her lips. Ellie nodded and swiped her phone off the table, before stepping outside to answer the call.

Notes

Well, would you look at that! Two updates this week!

About time Ellie divulged some of her past, wouldn't ya say?

xx