Like I expect, he smiles apologetically but moves swiftly past me to Kristen, extending his hand out to her, and I stare at his strong forearms emerging from his rolled-up shirt, my eyes reluctantly falling on the secret scrawling of my initials as he leads her to dance.
I sigh, turning away before he can see whatever emotion chooses to appear on my face. Right now, there is so much I’m feeling that I can’t pinpoint the overruling one. None of them are good.
I feel too much here, it’s confirmed.
I turn completely around, heading back to the table to find it empty of friends but holding my beer bottle. I’ll take it.
Care to dance? I think as I approach the beer, rolling my eyes as my fingers wrap around the neck of the bottle, and I take a seat so I can watch from the most depressing perch ever.
I even notice Cam and Tyler, who must have picked out girls earlier in the night, twirling about on the dance floor.
Although I’m glad everyone is happy at an event that could easily be so sad, it feels like there’s a huge drill making its way through my chest, and the painful hum vibrates out to my limbs as my eyes drag over the dance floor. I hate that it all falls in rhythm with the live band. Could this pain not have a soundtrack, please?
I rub over my chest knowing that it’s my heart causing this mess. I was bound to have a moment like this. I had anticipated so many scenarios before I arrived, and this was just one of the many. Still sucks. I was working through how to cope with my mom, but then there was just no way for me to truly be prepared to see Caiden with another girl.
I sip my beer, mulling it over as I stare at them hand in hand, twirling, dancing, and smiling.
I just wish she wasn’t so nice. It would be easier if she was rude to me, or mean, but she wasn’t. She looked me straight in the eye and flicked her hair with an air I’d never be able to achieve, and a sincerity that I wish I could despise. Did I mention she’s pretty, like, super pretty? Her perfectly straight brown hair gleamed against her skin and only brightened her hazel eyes. Goddammit, why couldn’t she be hideous?
Maybe I could accidentally push her off a cliff in my next book. That would make me feel better.
“Hailey?”
I leap up off my seat as if being caught committing the actual murder.
Fiction, Hailey, you write fiction…
“Eep!” I squeak.
A soft but deep, unfamiliar chuckle hits my ears, and I watch a face I don’t think I know sit across from me at the picnic table. He knows my name, but I don’t know his. Or maybe I do.
“It’s been a long time. You probably don’t remember me.”
I place my beer on the wood table, squinting as I scrutinize his clean-shaven face, but the lightest of dark stubble manages to show on his chin, my eyes only noticing because his long fingertips strum over it as he watches me with heavy blue eyes, and I want to say I know them.
He laughs again, and that pang of familiarity hits me once more, but I shake my head. “I’m sorry…”
He sighs, placing his elbows on the table, his muscular arms emerging from a faded Colorado State University t-shirt.
“Figures. I probably wasn’t the nicest of guys, let alone one of your favorites in high school.”
His eyes dart to the dance floor. I turn around, following his line of vision to see Brandon and Caiden already staring even though they’re blindly dancing with their dates. They don’t look happy, and for some reason I like that.
“Huh,” I huff, eyeing him again, and I note that from Brandon’s look of hatred and his natural inclination to fight ever since I’ve known him, and Caiden’s loyalty to his best friend, it hits me. I scrutinize the man in front of me again. His slicked-back hair doesn’t fit with his worn shirt, but his well-rehearsed smile that looks like he’s been charming women, young and old, since being out of the womb, becomes clear. Because I remember his baby face getting into lots of fights, too.
“Gabe? Are you Gabe Samuels?” I laugh, covering my cheeks, because I sound terrible. “I mean. I’m sorry. I should know this. I just haven’t been around for a while.”
His belt of laughter causes delightful crinkles to appear at the corners of his eyes, and I want to like him even more. “Yeah-yeah, it’s me. What gave it away?”
“I think I remember you fighting Brandon all the time, and Caiden, too.”
“Oh yeah, too bad those are the only memories I’ve got left. A contact sport will do that to you, though.”
I nod, flooded with memories at the comment. I lift my hand, pointing at him. “Oh, I totally remember you now. Quarterback, jock, cool guy… I was in the land of misfit toys—”
“You totally were not,” he snorts.
I find my lips twitching curiously as I watch him squirm, and I’d go as far to say that he’s almost embarrassed.
“I was invisible in high school, Gabe. You definitely were not.”
“Since I’ve never been lucky enough to chat with you like this, even in high school, I’m just going to forget you said that. You’re kind of a big deal, Hailey Elwood.”
He even knows my whole name, and then I remember my family owns the diner, and that knowing my name isn’t something I shouldn’t like so much, but I kind of do.
“So Gabe, are you a resident of PineCrest still? I think I remember hearing about you getting a full-ride scholarship.”
I’d never let him know that I remember this part clearly. Brandon wanted that same scholarship, but the Colorado State football scout chose Gabe over him, and I remember the fight that ensued at the homecoming game our senior year. The irrational oafs. I tilt my head, examining Gabe a little more closely, and see that he’s naturally a big guy, but leaner than a football player would be.
His smile distracts me, and my thoughts must be written all over my face because he says, “I don’t play football anymore. I ended up quitting sophomore year at State.”
“But you had NFL all over you.”
“Oh, so you do sorta remember me.”