Back to Square One

“Morning guys, have you seen Hazelyn?” I asked as I walked in first thing the next morning. Hazelyn was not in the room.

“She left early this morning saying she needed to get something,” Stephanie mumbled.

“Yeah, she said she’ll be back in a bit and to not make breakfast. We’ve been sitting here for an hour already and we’re hungry,” Tristan huffed. I nodded thoughtfully.

“You guys seemed to pull it off great last night,” my sister smirked and sat next to me.

“Yeah. You fooled us,” Tristan snorted.

“Sorry guys! Nate and Sandra got in a bit late,” I heard Hazelyn shout in. I walked over to the front door and saw her struggling with huge bags of what looked to be food, as she opened the door. I hurriedly made my way over to her and grabbed the bags from her hands as she smiled at me.

I brought the bags to the table where Tristan and Stephanie took care of it, and went to help out Sandra and Nate with their luggage. “How was the trip?” I asked as I grabbed Sandra’s bag.

“It was okay,” she shrugged. “How’s your stay so far?”

I beamed at her. “Pretty damn good,” I whispered. She laughed at me as she ruffled my hair.

“Nice to see you happy cuz,” she smiled as she followed Nate and Hazelyn back to the kitchen.

I set their bags in another bedroom, a couple doors from Hazelyn’s and I’s, and made my way to the kitchen. I heard them laughing, and one that caught my attention was hers. It was laughter that could brighten the gloomiest day, no matter what.

I walked into the kitchen, seeing them all eating already and Leslie was seated with them. “Wow, and they didn’t bother waiting for me,” I huffed as I took the seat next to Hazelyn.

She put a hand on my leg, and leaned up to kiss my cheek. “Sorry. The food was irresistible,” she smiled at me.

My smile grew wider. “It’s okay.”

“Go on, eat,” she urged as she motioned towards the food.

Nate and Sandra gave us a weird look as Leslie just awww’ed at us.

“When we left, you guys were like cats and dogs. Now you guys are sickeningly sweet again, what’s up?” Nate asked

Hazelyn bit her lip as she looked at me for help, but I didn’t know what to say either, so Stephanie spoke up for us. “Nate, aren’t you glad that they’re like this now?”

“I am. Don’t get me wrong. I mean, it’s just so much change from Hazelyn barely talking to anybody, to this,” he said shaking his head.

“Don’t get your brother wrong Hazelyn, he’s really happy for you,” Sandra said.

Hazelyn nodded, and looked up at me.

After breakfast, we all went our separate ways. Sandra and Nate took the boat out with Hazelyn and Leslie and then Stephanie and Tristan took the jet ski’s, meaning I had the whole beach house to myself.

I decided to just hang out in the room and relax. Something then caught my eye. The shorts that Hazelyn wore yesterday. They were folded neatly on top of her suitcase, along with a shirt.

I looked around and crept towards it carefully, and when I did, I took another look around fully aware that I was the only human on this island at the moment. I reached in the back pocket and felt a small object. I pulled it out, and what I saw stunned me.

It was the ring. The engagement ring from 5 years ago. I saw it with her charm bracelet a few months ago, and now it’s here. Does she always bring it with her?

I heard the motors of the boat come closer, and I hurriedly put it back where I found it, leaving everything the way I saw it. I ran down the stairs, keeping it cool as I grabbed a can of soda and popped it open, taking a huge gulp, looking like I’ve been there the entire time and not messing my ex fiancé’s stuff- who happens to have our ex-engagement ring. In her shorts pocket that she wore the day before.

Holy shit. That’s what I saw her twirling around her finger yesterday!

“We’re back!” I heard her sing.

They walked in with a bunch of bags. They went shopping again. I laughed, knowing that if Leslie was with them, they’d shop.

They continued their conversations and I just sat there half-listening, and half thinking of all the possibilities of the reasons that Hazelyn would keep the ring.

Before I knew it, they were getting up already and I was left with Hazelyn.

“Where’d they go?” I asked.

Hazelyn laughed at me. “They left 10 minutes ago. You’ve just been staring off in space,” she smirked at me.

“OH,” I said dumbly.

“Well, I’m gonna go take a walk. I’ll see you later,” she said before getting gup and leaving me alone again.

I followed her with my eyes until she disappeared. Why did she even stay for that 10 minutes that I dazed off just because? Why didn’t she leave right away?

I shook off my confused thoughts and decided to take a shower. Wrong, my shower took longer than necessary because my thinking session continued on there. Spending a sum of almost 3 hours thinking about it, I haven’t come to a reasonable conclusion. And that frustrated me.

I stepped out of the shower and got into my clothes and decided to go look for something to keep my mind off it. I was walking on the beach, the sun setting, when I saw her. She was facing the water, her arms wrapped around herself, and she was just staring at the open sea.

As if instinctively, I walked up behind her and hugged her by the waist, kissing her shoulder in the process.

“Don’t scare me like that,” she mumbled after she yelped in surprise.

“Sorry,” I whispered to her. She just kept silent and leaned against me.

“I miss these sunsets. I’ve been so busy in the past years that I barely see the sun rising or setting. Sometimes I’m in so many timezones that I have no clue what the time is anymore,” she laughed dryly.

I just kept quiet. “You’ve been working too hard,” I told her.

“I kind of have to,” she whispered.

“Why?”

She turned towards me and shook her head. “We’re getting carried away with this,” was all she said and she stomped away from me, and back to the beach house.

I brushed it off, thinking that it was just a moment thing, but had it all wrong when I came back into the room, she barely spoke to me and stayed at the very edge of the bed.

“Haze?” I called out softly. She just nodded towards me and continued reading her book. I shook my head and went outside to cool off. I was first of all, very confused and second, frustrated.

“What’s up bro?” Nate asked. I didn’t notice I walked out to the deck.

I shook my head. “Your sister is so unpredictably bipolar,” I mumbled.

“What happened?” he asked seriously concerned as he walked closer to me.

“One minute she’s being cold, the second she’s being the old Hazelyn and the next she’s back to being a bitch.”

He laughed dryly. He shook his head as he motioned for us to sit down. Once we were seated, he started speaking. “You do know that you’re dealing with a snowboarder right? A beast snowboarder.”

“I know, but what does that have to do with anything?” I asked with a huff.

“Hazelyn has no limitations in speed, right?” he asked me. I nodded my head in agreement. “Exactly. Hazelyn has never learned to do speedcheck when she’s on her board. She just keeps going, and if she falls, she falls. No matter how hard she falls, she just lets go.”

“Uhuh?”

“Well, in a relationship, you take everything slow first, right?” he asked. I nodded. “In a relationship, when you’re going to fast, you speedcheck,” he explained. “Hazelyn doesn’t know how to speedcheck. In relationships and in snowboarding. She’s just learning it right now and she doesn’t know how to deal with it.”

“Ohhhhh,” I realized, finally getting it.

He nodded at me. “Yeah, so just relax and be patient with it. Hazelyn is a confusing girl, but she’ll be worth it,” he said nodding.



“Hey, breakfast,” was what I woke up to the next morning. I opened my eyes and saw Hazelyn hovering over me. Was I in paradise? “Ryan, breakfast,” she repeated.

I smiled at her as I got up, and rubbed my eyes from sleep. “Morning,” I mumbled.

“Morning,” she smiled back. “Get down there before my brothers do because you won’t have anything left to eat,” she said before leaving the room.

I quickly brushed my teeth and washed my face before I jogged down the stairs and into the kitchen.

“Morning,” I greeted everyone as I sat in between Nate and Hazelyn.

We talked about what to have for dinner tonight and just other random stuff. We all then just spent the day out in the beach.

By dinner, Hazelyn was once again cuddled up next to me in front of the TV. I guess it was because Leslie was here. We all ended up talking about how Nate and Sandra’s wedding planning was going, which Leslie was surprised with because she almost forgot about it. Well, she opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate it.

“Hey you okay?” I whispered against Hazelyn’s neck since she was leaning against me, as she had her legs up on the couch.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she smiled at me as she pecked my lips. I was surprised at the gesture, but I can’t say I didn’t like it.

Our days went like that for a few more days. By the end of that week, I was already used to waking up next to Hazelyn without a change of attitude. Which I was kind of glad for. She woke me up by running a finger from my jaw to my collarbone, and she knew that would wake me up.

“Ry,” she whispered. I just groaned in response. “I’m gonna go make breakfast, kay?” I shook my head and just held onto her waist tighter. “I’m not going anywhere, relax. The guys are already hungry,” she told me. I shook my head still, and kept my grip on. “Fine, 10 minutes,” she huffed. I gave a triumphant smile and fell back into my dreamless state.