Reclaiming the Sand(4)
Author: A. Meredith Walters

But then the guy stopped and looked back at me.

And I froze.

I knew that face.

It was a face I had hoped I’d never see again.

The face I hated, blamed and missed in equal measure. A face I hadn’t seen since that night six years ago when my entire life changed.

Why had he come back here?

I didn’t really care.

All I knew was that Freaky Flynn was back in Wellsburg.

The man who had ruined my life.

2

-Ellie-

My head felt like it would split in two. Welcome to hangover hell. I rolled over in bed, the small action making me groan. Every. Single. Part. Of. Me. Hurt.

Seeing Flynn Hendrick last night, after six years of trying to forget him, had served as a catalyst for some good ole fashioned self-destructive behavior. Something I was extremely good at.

I had closed up JAC’s and headed to Woolley’s bar, where it was packed with the drunk and stupid crowd. Of which my friends were the leaders of the bunch.

Dania was slumped over in a booth, her pregnant belly poking out from underneath a shirt that was way too small for her growing body. Her eyes were closed and a bottle of beer had tipped over into her lap. Craig, the sleaze, was nowhere to be found. I guess he had gotten what he wanted and f**ked off. Such was Dania’s way with the opposite sex.

I had joined the rest of the group, my nerves jangled and my anger piping hot. Shane Nolan, the guy who had taken my virginity when I was fourteen and had been trying to get in my pants ever since, was making out with our friend Regina, aka Reggie, Fisher on the other side of a passed out Dania.

I had sat down beside Stu Wooten, a guy with a police record to rival mine¸ and stole his beer. He didn’t blink, only raised a hand to get the waitress’s attention and ordered us a round of shots.

I got drunk. Really, really drunk. And then I had gotten rowdy. Shane, once he realized I was there, had shoved Reggie away and spent the rest of the night groping my ass. I had ended up punching him. Reggie and Stu laughed, I had shrugged it off, and Shane had left Woolly’s with a black eye.

The night had deteriorated after that. Some chick had claimed I was flirting with her boyfriend, so I had yanked a chunk of hair out of her head. Reggie had joined in and the place had gone nuts. The boyfriend had tried to pull me off his girlfriend and Stu had jumped him.

The police were called. Stu had thrown a barely conscious Dania over his shoulder and we had taken off out the back door and down a side street to evade arrest.

We had ended up back at my place where the party had continued. And by the time I had helped Reggie finish off a bottle of vodka, I had forgotten all about Freaky Flynn’s return.

I sat up in bed, squinting into the darkness. My mouth was dry and my throat was on fire from dehydration. I crawled over a body sprawled out beside me in my bed. I had to look closely to see who it was and was relieved to find that it was only Dania. She had thrown up at some point in the night and the putrid smell of sick hung in the still air.

I started to heave and barely made it to the bathroom before I emptied the contents of my stomach in the toilet.

Why the hell did I do this to myself all the time? You’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now. Alcohol and Ellie McCallum did not mix.

Shit! What time was it?

I stumbled to my feet and lumbered out into my tiny living room. I turned on the TV, ignoring the moans of protest from Stu and Reggie, who were passed out on my floor.

Crap. It was already nine thirty. My appointment at Black River Community College was in a little over an hour. I looked around at the state of my home and cringed. The place was trashed. And that was definitely puke on the carpet.

I kicked Stu’s leg, a little harder than necessary. “Get up!” I yelled. I yanked open the curtains, letting the morning light stream in.

Reggie screamed like a banshee and covered her face with her hands. “Close the curtains!” she shrieked. I kicked Stu again and he smacked my leg.

“Get up! I have somewhere I need to be!” I called out. I turned up the volume on the television, blaring it. Stu finally opened his eyes, glaring at me. Most people would be intimidated by the level of malice rolling off the tattooed guy with the buzzed head.

Most people weren’t Ellie McCallum. It would take a lot more than a glare from Stu Wooten to make my blood run cold.

“You need to make me some coffee,” he demanded, his voice sounding like he had been gargling broken glass. Reggie sat up, wearing only a bra that barely covered her boobs. Her short, brown hair stuck out from the side of her head and it was obvious by the dried funk on her face that she was one of the people who had vomited on my floor.

“You know where the coffee pot is. Make it your damn self. I have to get in the shower.” I headed back down the hallway toward my bathroom. “Reggie, put some clothes on and get Dania up. You all need to be out of here in twenty minutes.”

I slammed the door to the bathroom and turned on the shower, letting the steam fill the room.

I rooted through the medicine cabinet and found a bottle of pain reliever. I shook out four capsules into my palm and swallowed them. My head was pounding and I felt as though I might be sick again.

I hurried into the shower and sighed as the hot water hit my back. This time of the day, under the warm flow of water, was the only point I could really relax. Before my day could begin and screw up everything. I liked mornings. They made me almost…optimistic.

My mind flashed back to the sight of Flynn’s face yesterday. It had shocked me to see him again after all this time. Over the years I had almost convinced myself that he didn’t exist at all.

My denial was useful at times.

But seeing him had been like a fist to the gut. It had taken me back to a time I had tried hard to forget.

He hadn’t changed much. He looked a little older. But he still had that same out of control brown hair. He was still on the thin side and shuffled his feet when he walked. He still carried himself like he wanted to curl into a ball and hide. And it was more than obvious his people skills hadn’t improved any.

He was still a freak.

So why did my heart flutter madly in my chest as though it wanted to break free? And why did my body buzz at the memory of a boy who I hated to remember?

My feelings toward Flynn were more complicated than ever. You would have thought after all this time the intensity would have faded into non-existence.

But every tangled, ugly, wild emotion was still there. And they slashed me open all over again.

I wondered if he had recognized me? Unlike Flynn, I had changed a lot about my appearance since I had left Wellsburg High School during my junior year.