I Remember The Day She Told Me It's Over

The whole ride from LA to Huntington Beach together was an awkward one. Bailey never spoke a word. I thought she would about leaving LA, but she didn't. She simply looked out the side window taking in the scenery as we passed. Though I wasn't helping the situation much, I didn't know exactly what to say either.

"I miss living here."

I glanced over at her. She was still looking out the window, her big sunglasses covering her eyes, keeping me from seeing the real emotion in the green pools of her soul.

At least, her eyes use to be green. She was probably wearing contacts now that allowed her to match or accentuate her outfits.

"You miss living in Huntington?" I asked as I stopped at the red light. She nodded slightly, "where do you live now?" I asked after I realised that though I knew her, I knew nothing about her.

She finally tore her eyes away from the window long enough to look at me. "In Hombly Hills. It's nice, but not like here," she smiled softly. "There's a sense of...freedom here. Everyone is so accepting and nice. I just love it."

The light turned green and I stepped on the gas again. "I thought you moved upstate?" At least that's what her 'break-up letter' had said back in highschool.

I saw her shrug out the corner of my eye.

"I lived in Oakland for a while with a friend."

"A boyfriend?" the minute I asked, I regretted it. Her personal life was none of my business, she'd made sure of that.

Surprisingly she just pushed her sunglasses further up the bridge of her nose then looked at me again. "Yeah actually," she looked out the windshield. "I lived there about a year then moved back to Los Angeles with my sister."

A smile crawled across my lips. This guy she was living with in Oakland was probably the guy she'd left me for. As much as I hated to admit it, it felt good to hear that not everything went her way.

"Smile all you want."

I glanced over at her, she looked like she was staring out the window but the sunglasses were deceiving. She'd probably been watching me the whole time.

"I was a stupid kid, who wanted everything, thought I deserved everything, and was going to make sure that I got everything."

"You don't have everything?" I asked curiously as I turned right into a small parking lot. "I have everything I ever wanted."

She never answered but simply smiled when she looked up. Tuna Town was a place that everyone loved. Plus us guys enjoyed supporting our friend's restaurant.

"Have you ever eaten here?" I asked as I parked and shut the car off.

"Yeah," she undid her seatbelt. "Silveria invited me to come eat when the place first started. I think he wanted the thumbs up from a friend, and the publicity."

Silveria. David Silveria from Korn, owned Tuna Town. It surprised me to hear her refer to them as friends. She must've sensed my curiousity because she offered up an explanation.

"David and I met at a party like, I don't know, a few years ago anyway. We've kept in touch since then."

"That's cool," I grabbed the door handle and let myself out of my car. I was a little confused actually. David had never mentioned her before. Or even mentioned that he knew her. I ran my hand over my face and hit the lock button on my keys when she closed the door. It didn't really matter anyway, Bailey use to be a part of my life. I didn't plan on making her a new slot.

* * *

Ashleigh gasped, "no fucking way."

Syn pulled a chair out from the table in his and Ashleigh's kitchen and sat down, "yeah, she showed up to the signing, and Zack took her somewhere."

Ash popped the lid back onto one of the containers she'd pulled from the fridge, "do you think she wants him back?" she opened up the fridge and disappeared behind the door a moment before emerging again.

"I don't know," Syn stood up and moved up behind her, examining the salad she'd just made. "But it kinda looks that way. I mean, they haven't seen each other in five years," he snatched a few pieces of lettuce and popped them into his mouth. "So why would she make such an effort to come see him if she didn't?"

Ashleigh batted his hands away. "I'll make you one if you want," she grabbed her bottle of salad dressing and shook it lightly. "Maybe she just wants to see him. It has been five years."

"But she hated him remember?" Syn grabbed a can of red bull from the fridge. "I dunno, whatever, as long as she doesn't fuck Zack over."

Ashleigh nodded in understanding. "Yeah, poor Zack. He's had his fair share of heartbreak." Her cell phone rang and she wasn't surprised when she answered it to hear M. Shadows' girlfriend Emily. "Hey," she said cheerily.

She took her salad to the table where Syn stole it along with her fork.

Ash sighed, "what's up?"

"We're going out to Johnny's bar tonight, and Matt just wanted me to make sure you guys knew about it."

Syn grinned devilishly as he began to devour her lunch. She smacked him playfully before retreating to the living room. "Sounds good. Besides, we have some new stuff to talk about."

"Really?" Emily asked, "about what?"

"Zacky," Ash replied. "And Bailey."

"Oooh," Emily giggled. "Sounds fun. So we'll meet you guys there."

Ash nodded like Emily could see, "of course, later chicky."

"Who was that?"

Ashleigh turned around to see her boyfriend standing in the doorway to the kitchen, clearly enjoying his stolen lunch.

"Emily," Ash approached him. "We're going out tonight."

"Sounds good," he moved by her and headed into the living room. Ashleigh sighed and returned to the kitchen. There was no point in fighting for what was left of her salad.

* * *

I was surprised at how well lunch with Zacky went. I paid for it because he drove. From the look on his face I'm sure he thought I was going to make him pay for everything.

"I could have bought that," he repeated again for about the fifth time as we walked through the parking lot back towards his car.

"I know," I smiled as I slipped the strap of my purse over my shoulder. We both went silent again. The only sounds were those of vehicles driving by in the dimming sunlight, and the sound of my heels against the paved parking lot.

Back in the car Zacky wasted no time in starting it up and getting back onto mainstreet. I was fixated on the pinks, yellows and oranges painted in the sky at the end of the street. "I forgot how pretty the sunset is here." It slipped through my lips as an accident more than anything. I really hadn't seen the sunset since I lived in Huntington, but I wasn't keen on letting Zacky know that. Him and I use to go to the pier around sunset all the time together.

When no one was around. We'd share the odd hug, maybe a light kiss. But nothing more than that. I'm sure he thought I was being a frigid bitch, and I definately came off that way, there was no doubt about it, but the truth was, I was scared.

"Yeah well, I haven't really watched one in a long time either," we stopped at the next set of traffic lights, both staring off to the end of mainstreet where the pier seemed to be calling us.

I turned my head to ask, a sudden wave of confidence hitting me, but he spoke first.

"Wanna go to the pier?"

I couldn't help but laugh. Him and I use to share the same wave length from time to time. It seemed we still had it. Though the look on his face wasn't one of happiness. I quit laughing.

"No Zack, I'm not laughing at your question." I assured him and corrected myself. "I'd love to go to the pier. I just found if funny that I was going to ask you the exact same thing."

"Oh," he glanced back out over the hood as the light turned green again. Instead of turning right we continued down mainstreet.

That cast another awkwardness between us. I crossed one leg over the other and opted to just watch out the window. It was weird, but I felt...normal around Zack. Thus far, he hadn't treated me like a celebrity and I tried not to treat him like one. I think that helped. We'd avoided talk about work, and talk about the past over dinner, and that helped immensly. Instead we talked about different, abstract things, from what kind of shampoo smells better to what certain fish looked like before they were turned into something we eat.

As the pier neared I heard Zacky clear his throat, I glanced at him and he offered me a small smile before maneuvering us into the parking lot. The empty parking lot. We both got out at the same time. A gust of cool, salty ocean breeze flowing around us as we shut the doors. The lights on the beach that lit up the pier made it that much more inviting. Like it was illuminating a world set apart from everything else.

"The pier, or the beach?" he asked as I slid my sunglasses up to my hair, looking out over the vast palette of blues and greens that made up the ocean.

"Both," I said confidently, "If that's alright?"

He nodded and waited for me as I walked around the front of the car. We walked slowly through the sand, making it really difficult for me to walk in heels. I noticed Zack rolling his eyes and it made me stop.

"What's wrong?" he sighed, knowing exactly what the problem was.

I bent down and unbuckled them, holding them in my hand as my pedicured feet sunk into the cool sand. "Nothing," I replied as I began walking again.

I heard him chuckle from behind me before he caught up. "Didn't think you'd like to get your feet dirty," he smiled over at me, sinking his hands into his front pants pockets.

"Yeah, well," we stepped up onto the pier and began walking down it underneath the lights. "I don't think I'm the same person that I use to be Zack. And hopefully you'll realise that."

He never replied. Just walked beside me, gazing over the edge of the pier to the cold water lapping against the pillars below. We walked to the end of the pier. Resting our arms on the guard and looking out over nothing but ocean and the sun slowly disappearing. The breeze ran through my hair, which I'd curled, swaying it to one side. It caught my large earrings too, causing them to swing gently from my earlobes as I crossed my arms over my chest, shivering slightly.

"You're cold?"

He'd been paying attention enough to notice.

I shrugged, "I'm fine."

I could see he wanted to roll his eyes but he refrained. "We can go back to the car if you want."

"No, Zack, I'm fine," I repeated. This was going to be hard if he continued to teach me like the pamperd bitch he expected.

"I wanna go boating one day," I said in an attempt to get his mind working beyond what he thought of me. Preconceived notions were a bitch.

"Like, on one of those cruises?" he stood up straight. "Or like a little yacht type deal?"

"A yacht," I spoke softly. I had a fascination with the ocean and it's power. We were nothing compared to it's vastness.

"Matt's parents have one," he replied, never quite looking at me. "You'll have to come with us some time."

I could tell it was a suggestion more than an actual invitation. But that was okay. He was trying.

A cell phone rang, breaking the sounds of the ocean. Zack pulled one from his pocket and answered it, subjecting me to only hear half the conversation. I watched the water climb up over the beach, smoothing the sand beneath it then retreating. I longed to walk in that freshly smoothed sand and have my foot prints washed away behind me.

"Hey," Zacky spoke loudly, breaking me from my trance, "you want to go out tonight?"

I raised my eyebrows. Zachary Baker was asking me to go out with him tonight?

"Just to Johnny's bar, you remember that don't you?"

I nodded. As soon as we were old enough for fake I.D's. We all posessed them.

"The guys are going tonight, and their girlfriends, and - "

I held up my hand and cut him off, "it's alright Zack, you can go, I'll just catch a cab."

He frowned, then laughed, "you're going to get a cab from here, back to Hombly Hills?"

"Yeah," I nodded. It was stupid, not impossible.

"Do you realise how much that's going to cost?"

I nodded again.

"Bailey. I can drive you home right now if you want."

I didn't wanna be the cause of him not going out with his friends. "No really, it's fine," I smiled softly. "I wanna take a walk on the beach first, then I'll call a cab."

He didn't look impressed.

"I'm serious Zacky," I began walking back down the pier towards his car. "Go with them."

We walked quicker back down towards his car.

"Bailey I - " I cut him off again by shaking my head.

"Serious, Zack, get out of here. We'll hang out another time," I'd given him my cell number at Tuna Town. I was leaving the option up to him. If he wanted to call me, he could.

He bit his bottom lip and watched as I waved before heading down the beach through the sand. I heard his car start but refrained from looking back as I moved directly to the water's edge, making footprints and having the cool water wash over my feet and make them disappear just as quick.

I felt so at ease here. I didn't have to think about the stress of work or paying the bills. Meeting up with people I didn't wanna meet and signing things for people who'd only know me by my body. This place actually made me enjoy life. If only I could live right on the beach, to wake up every morning, and have my lawn chair in the sand, giving me the option of soaking up the California sun or cooling off in the Pacific ocean.

"Bailey!"

I turned around quickly and couldn't help but laugh as I saw Zacky jogging awkwardly in the sand towards me, "I'm not leaving you here," he breathed heavily.

I quirked and eyebrow, "gonna walk with me?"

He nodded and fell in step beside me, "then we're going to Johnny's, and then I'll take you home."

"So you're not going to drink?" I asked him curiously.

He hummed and hawed about it for a moment, "if I drink, you can stay at my place, and I'll take you home in the morning."

"Zack, I - " I guess it was his turn to cut me off, because he did.

"No, we're not negotiating," he looked over at me and smiled. "What were you thinking about?"

I grinned. Hopefully this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.