Falling In

After three hours kayaking, and after we drove home to change and get ready for Erica’s brother’s graduation party. No, I’ve never met him, but we were invited. Plus, Veronica and the girls will be there. It’s a chance for me to see them too.

I got into my jeans and a loose dressy top, not really knowing the theme of the party. Whether it was formal or not, so I decided to go for a little bit of both, just in case.

“Are you ready yet?” I yawned, the exhaustion finally catching up to me.

“You’re done?” my cousin asked as she fixed her make up.

“Uhh… Yeah?” I mumbled.

“You’re just gonna go like that? No make up? No accessories?” Kathy asked me incredulously.

“You guys are seriously planning on turning me into a girl this weekend, aren’t you?” I asked, since I wasn’t as girly as they were. I didn’t spend half my money on make up and accessories. I spent it on sports equipment and shoes. Though, I do like heels. But hey, who doesn’t?

They looked at each other wickedly. “We weren’t thinking of that, but now you gave us an idea,” my cousin laughed evilly.

“Oh fuck, I’m screwed,” I mumbled.

We left the house with no major damages other than they put earrings on me. But they were no ordinary earrings. They were dangling earrings that reached my shoulder.

We drove the 20 minutes to Erica’s house, and while we were driving, I was fumbling with the hooks through my ears and the ridiculous accessory that I didn’t know weighed so much. We parked outside, and we again were astounded at the size of it.

“Should I call Veronica?” my cousin asked nervously.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “We don’t even know the people in there and we’re just gonna waltz in. We don’t even know the freaking graduate,” I laughed nervously as I fumbled with the earrings some more.

Diana nodded and dialed the number and talked, while something hit me. I’m gonna meet new people. I’m gonna meet new people looking like a person that I’m really not. I took of the earrings, shoving them into a safe place in my bag, and put my hair down like I usually do.

“What are you doing?” Kathy asked me.

“I’m not brave enough to face these people looking like that,” I told them sternly, making them both roll their eyes, failing at their mission.

“Whatever, let’s go. Veronica’s on her way out,” Diana said.

We got out of Kathy’s Nissan Altima and instantly saw Veronica coming out of the side door that probably led to the backyard. The closer we got, the louder the music was.

“Nika!” I squealed and tackled her in a hug.

“Gracie!” she squealed back at me.

As you might’ve noticed. I’m the youngest in my group of friends. Back home, I really was. Most of my friends were 18 and over. My cousin was one of my bestfriends, whom is friends with all my friends as well. Veronica was 21, her sister Victoria was 19. Then Gabrielle was 19, and her sister Gillian was 22. Erica was 23 and James was 24. Daniel and Diana were the same age. See? I really am the youngest. By at least 4 years.

“Come on guys, come in. Most of the visitors left already, but there’s still lots of people inside,” she smiled pulling us by the arm to the backyard. The backyard was jawdroppingly beautiful as well. It had a gazebo at the very back, the pool several meters in front of it, and then there was a Jacuzzi attached to it on the side, and then there was a small tent on the side. And of course, lights and speakers everywhere.

“Stella Grace Descenzo, hello,” Victoria laughed, giving me a hug.

“Victoria Dayton,” I smiled.

We immediately got to talking after saying hi to everyone else we knew. I met a few more people from the area, and met Daniel’s cousin, Brian. Victoria and I had crazy times while snowboarding when they went up last winter to join us for a few days on the mountain and of course around the city. We even went down to San Francisco to hang out for a day.

We were in mid conversation when I heard familiar lyrics, going along to a familiar tune on the speakers, but it wasn’t a familiar voice. I looked over to the gazebo, and saw a guy, awkwardly hunched over his guitar, playing the song that I liked so much. Haven’t Met You Yet by Michael Bublé. I smiled at how natural it looked for him to move his fingers through the frets, and how raspy and manly his voice came out of his mouth.

It wasn’t the same, the way that he sang it. But it sounded beautiful. Possibly even more beautiful than the original. When he finished, I heard him take a deep breath and slowly let it out as people applauded. He looked up from his guitar and caught my eye. He was only a few feet away from me, clear enough for me to see the color of his eyes. Hazel.

I smiled at him, letting him know that I liked the song, and turned back to my conversation with Victoria.

“Hey guys, we kind of have to go, we wanted to stop by to get a massage before we call it a night,” Diana interrupted us after a few seconds.

“Oh, that’s nice. Well, we have to go too. We have an hour drive home and we have to get up early tomorrow,” she frowned.

“We’ll see you tomorrow right? For lunch at La Jolla beach?” I asked her.

“We’ll be there. Bring a volleyball. We’ll bring a volleyball net,” Victoria smiled.

“We’ll bring body boards too. Kathy has been waiting to body board,” my cousin added.

“Good. We’ll contact you tomorrow and stuff. See you guys! Good to see you girls,” Victoria smiled.

We bid everyone goodbye, and before we left, I turned back to look for the awkward boy with the angelic voice, but he was already talking to another girl, who had her arms around his shoulders. Probably his girlfriend. We were in the car, when I realized something.

We went to a graduation party, yet we didn’t even meet the graduate.

The memory of the first time that I met the boy man hit me like a pile of bricks.

“You guys know each other?” Patrick asked as the both of us stared each other down. Confusion was evident in our eyes and of course, shock.

“I have to go,” I quickly said. “I’ll get back to you on this. I need to take care of some stuff,” I hurriedly gathered my stuff, and rudely pushed passed them into the hallway and out to the elevator, frantically pushing on the button that pointed down.

I had mixed feelings about it. I for one was confused as to why Ethan was here in Florida. Shouldn’t he be back in San Diego? Having a comfortable and happy life? What was he doing 3000 miles away from home. From her?

I was in shock. Out of all the people I could work with, why did it have to be him? Why the fuck did it have to be him? I took this job for a reason. I took it to avoid him and it.

Then it hit me. I was going to spend two weeks with him. Where I was supposed to relax and enjoy my vacation. I was supposed to lay under the palm trees, got to the amusement parks alone and enjoy it alone. I wanted my alone time. That’s when anger had managed to push it’s way past confusion and shock.

The anger was overwhelming that tears were threatening to come out of my eyes. I took a deep breath and stepped into the elevator that seemed to take forever to get up here, and frantically pushed the button that had been labeled ‘1’.

The doors were about to close, but somebody managed to slip between them. Somebody that I never wanted to see again in my lifetime.

“Stella, we have to talk,” he stated sternly.

“Oh? Do we have stuff to talk about?” I asked innocently.

“I haven’t seen you in three fucking years, the hell we have shit to talk about,” he shouted at me, making me flinch back a bit. “I’m sorry I snapped at you,” he sighed, reaching for my hand, but I recoiled, avoiding his touch. He hung his head low, and looked at me through his eyelashes, his orbs making me want to cave in. “Why have you been avoiding me, Stella Grace?” he asked me, misery in his voice.

I shook my head at him and walked away, out of the elevator and out of the building, leaving him without an answer.

I opened the car, and just sat down, looking out the windshield- a blank look on my face. I shook my head and screamed out loud.

“Fucking hell! Why does this have to fucking happen?!” I screamed.

I dialed the familiar number, my eyes fuming with anger as I waited for the woman to answer.

“Hey Stellsy. How are you doing?” she cheerfully greeted.

“You bastard. Why did you partner me up with Ethan?” I asked her.

“Ethan? I didn’t partner you up with Ethan,” she said.

“Then what the hell is he doing in the same state as me! What the hell is he doing, living with me for two weeks?!” I yelled.

“I’m so sorry, Stells! I know I forgot to tell you that you were gonna be partnered up with somebody but Patrick didn’t tell me that he was a guy, much less that it was Ethan! If I knew, I would’ve said no and wouldn’t have let you go and just made up something so that you didn’t have to go to that weekend with them,” she apologized.

I sighed, and took a deep breath. “Kyla, you are so fortunate that you and I are bestfriends. Because damn, if we weren’t I would’ve killed you already,” I growled.

“I love you Stella!” she sang.

“Leave me alone,” I grumbled.

“Now that’s clear. What?! Ethan’s there?!” she yelled.

“Late reaction much?” I huffed. “Yes, he’s here. I’m supposed to work with him for two weeks,” I mumbled.

“Are you sure he didn’t plan this to see you?” she asked softly.

“Why would he want to see me, Kyla?” I asked her.

“Maybe he wanted to talk?”

“Well he can talk to the fucking wall, because he had his chance three years ago,” I spat.

“No he didn’t. You were gonna castrate him if he got within a 50-foot radius fom you,” she defended.

“Yeah, well I’m about to castrate him right now,” I mumbled. “You’re no help. I’m gonna go call Deegan. I know he’s gonna be mad,” I mumbled.

She just laughed at me. “Honey, the more you keep fighting it, the faster you’re going to fall,” she told me, and hung up before I could say anything.

The hell I’m going to fall for that bastard. I’d rather jump off a cliff that fucking fall in love. What kind of bullshit is love? It’s just a stupid headache that I never want to deal with. It makes people giggly and happy and at the end it makes them cry a river and eat a bunch of food and makes them wanna lock themselves up in their room. NO. I do not wan that. With love comes hurt, and the hell do I want to get hurt.

I decided to start my exploration of the city. To at least ease my mind. I looked at the time, and saw that it was only 3:30. I had a season pass to all the theme parks, and thought that I should start with Universal Studios. It was nothing big since we had the real thing in California, but like a child, I was excited to check it out.

I paid for the parking, and drove up the ramp to the ‘preferred parking’ area, and parked my car surprisingly close to the escalator. I got out, making sure that my camera was all set up and made sure that I had everything that I would possibly need. I put the camera bag behind my seat, and grabbed my purse, putting the camera around my neck and locked my car.

It took a good 10 minutes to walk from the parking lot to the City Walk. I grinned and started snapping my pictures from left to right. From the couple that were cuddling to the side, to the little children running around. I finally moved on to the Element store, my giddiness getting the best of me as I snapped the pictures and practically ran into the store.

After I’ve spend a fair amount of time inside, I decided to move on and after an hour or so, I was finally at the gates of the amusement park that was my original destination. I took the pass out of my wallet and walked to the gate, showing the guard my pass as he allowed me to walk in.

I started off with the “Rock It” rollercoaster that I’ve been stoked to go on. I haven’t had an adrenaline rush in quite some time, so I was super psyched to be here. I spent the rest of the night, walking around and taking pictures around the park. I stopped a few times to grab a bite to eat, and also to watch a couple shows.

As I sat down in the last showing of their animal show, I had my camera in my hands, ready to snap the pictures.

“Is this seat taken?” a guy asked me. I looked up at the brunette with a dashing smile that looked down at me. I shook my head and gave him a small smile back. “Do you mind?” he asked. I shook my head once again, scooting over to make room. “Are you here alone?” he asked me with a genuinely curious expression. I smiled at him as I nodded my head. “Do you talk?” he asked cautiously.

“Yes, I do. Sorry,” I answered with a chuckle.

“You have a nice voice,” he complimented.

“Thank you,” I laughed as I looked back on the stage, where they had started the show.

“What are you doing here alone?” he asked me as I snapped my pictures. I only needed a few, but I wanted the cute ones to myself.

“What are you doing here alone?” I asked back with a smirk, taking a glance at him whom had an amused smile on his face.

“I’m here with a couple friends, but they decided to go hit up some other rides before the light show,” he told me.

“And you decided to watch animal actors?” I raised an eyebrow in his direction.

He grinned at me and shrugged. “I have a soft spot for animals, I guess you could say,” he answered. “So, what about you? What are you doing here alone?”

“I’m actually here for work,” I told him. “Photographer,” I explained.

“That’s cool, that’s cool,” he nodded. “So, where are you from?”

“California,” I told him.

“Me too,” he said. “You snowboard?” he asked. I scrunched my eyebrows, and moved back a little further from the guy. His face turned into confusion, and his eyes widened. “Oh no, I just saw your charm bracelet. It spells snowboarding,” he pointed.

I looked at my wrist and bit my lip. “Sorry,” I mumbled, making him laugh.

We talked for awhile and watched the show together. I found out that his name was Kyle and he too was a snowboarder and he lived in Portland. Lucky bastard. They always have snow.

“Well, it was fun to kind of hang out,” he said to me when we got up to leave.

I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, and it was nice to meet you,” I told him.

“Do you think it’s too straightforward to ask for your number?” he asked me nervously.

“It depends on you intentions,” I said after a couple seconds.

“I swear my intentions are only for friendship. You seem awesome and it’ll be great to be friends with somebody like you,” he said, honesty in his voice.

I smiled at him and gave him my number as he gave me his. “I’ll see you around?” he smiled at me.

“Sure will,” I grinned as we walked our separate ways.

I had a smile on my face as I drove back to the loft, but it immediately disappeared when I saw a car in the driveway. Well shit. I forgot that I had to live in the same house with my damn problem.