Falling In

I was jumping from rail to rail and table to table and whatnot when I heard the guys talking in the corner.

“You wanna try the ramp?” Luke asked me pointing towards the play structure.

“Let’s go,” I grinned at him as we made our way up the platform we’ve made. Luke went first and landed his trick and I popped off my back leg and approached the jump.

I was in mid-air when I saw it. They looked up at me, and my fears were confirmed. He was here.

“Stella!” I heard Luke shout. My head snapped towards his direction, but the snow that I was lying face down on blocked my vision. There was a shooting pain through my shoulder and my arm and I growled at the pain.

“Stella!” everyone chorused as they ran towards me.

“Stellsy,” I heard Luke’s worried voice.

“It hurts,” I groaned as I clutched onto my right arm.

“What happened?” Scotty asked.

“I obviously fell, dimwit,” I growled.

“Okay, go get the first aid kit. Got it,” Louie said and I heard his footsteps retreat.

“Are you okay Stella?” I heard the dumbass’s voice.

“Go away!” I groaned.

“You know each other?!” the guys asked, shock in their voice.

“It’s complicated,” I explained to him. “Just make him go away,” I almost cried.

“Stella, it’s okay,” Luke hushed as he sat me up and placed me on his lap. I looked up at him and he pulled me up to the bench on the other side of the park.

“What are you doing here?!” I hissed at him.

“I’m here to do the photo shoot,” he told me. “Look, are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m just fine. My shoulder’s just a bit,” I paused and popped my shoulder back into it’s socket. “Better,” I sighed. Ethan looked at me, eyes wide and mouth agape. He then smiled at me and grinned.

“I’m gonna punch that grin off your face,” I hissed at him.

“Chill out tiger. I’m here to work, not for you,” he shrugged as he walked away from me. I must’ve stood there with my mouth agape.

I sat out for the rest of the session and watched the guys land their epic tricks and looked at Ethan working his magic with the camera. I dozed off a few times, thinking of what the hell went wrong between us. What the hell happened all those years ago.

“Hey, let’s get you back home?” Luke asked softly.

I nodded and he helped up on my feet. He led me to the car and had me sit in the front seat, having Scotty drive.

“Deegan invited us to eat at his place,” Jack announced looking up from his phone.

“Let’s go!” Mason yelled out and they all piled into their designated cars.

I hopped off the truck, and reached to the back of the truck to grab my backpack and board but realized that my right shoulder was swollen.

“I got it,” Mason said as he grabbed my stuff for me and I followed after him. Front the corner of my eyes, I saw Ethan’s eyebrows furrow, but he followed us anyways.

I rang the doorbell, and Deegan greeted the guys with a hug and handshakes as I plopped myself on the couch.

“Ethan?” I heard Deegan’s voice full of shock.

“Mind if I join your party?” Ethan greeted him with a smile as they gave each other a handshake and a man-hug.

“Not at all. It’s just been a long while,” he said. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Likewise,” Ethan replied.

“Come on in. Food’s in the kitchen. Must’ve been a long day, yeah?” Deegan welcomed as he closed the door. All the guys went into the kitchen to grab food and eventually ended up back in the kitchen to watch TV.

Deegan came in and saw me on the couch, probably looking weak and tired, so he sat next to me and gave me a hug. “Hey,” he smiled.

“Hey,” I smiled weakly at him.

“You okay?” he asked me, knowing that part of the reason of my foul mood was because of Ethan.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Dislocated my shoulder earlier, but I’m fine,” I smiled.

“You dislocated your what?!” he yelled, making me flinch back.

“Relax, I’m fine,” I sighed.

“Stella Grace, go get ice right now, and please go change into something more comfortable and breathable,” he sighed.

I stood up, feeling Ethan’s eyes burn through my back as I walked into Deegan’s room and dug through the closet, grabbing the clothes I needed and jumped into the bathroom. As I finished, I got into the clothes I’ve gotten from earlier and walked out to the kitchen to grab food.

“So, you and Deegan came a long way,” Ethan’s voice said, startling me and causing me to spin on my heels and hit my right shoulder against the fridge.

“Ah shit!” I groaned, gripping onto my shoulder. Ethan rushed over to me and grabbed my hand away from my arm.

“Keep it steady,” he said. “Take a deep breath. Look at me,” he told me. I shook my head as I kept my eyes closed and my head bowed to the floor. “Look at me,” he said a bit more sternly.

I finally did what he told me to do and looked up at his green eyes. My muscles eased down from their tense state and took deep breaths.

“Is it okay now?” he asked me. I nodded and he slowly let my hand go and set it back down to my side, careful not to hurt me.

“Thanks,” I smiled softly at him.

He nodded at me, and turned to the fridge to get a drink. “So, you and Deegan. You seem happy,” he said.

I laughed. “Yeah, Deegan and I are helping each other get through this fucked up life,” I scoffed.

He nodded at me and gave a soft smile. “Well, I’ll be on my way now. I still have to set up for tomorrow.” I nodded at him. “Good luck tomorrow, Stella Grace,” he smirked.

“Thanks,” I smirked back. We walked out to the living room as he said bye to everybody and I led him to the door. He walked down the stairs and he was halfway down when I called out his name. He turned back to me with an eyebrow raised. “If I’m not able to compete tomorrow, I’m gonna cut your balls off,” I warned.

“Your loss, Descenzo,” he winked before walking the rest of the way to his car.

I walked back into the house where all the guys eyed me carefully. “What’s up guys?” I asked as I plopped down next to Deegan, and laid my head down on his shoulder.

“That was totally weird,” Scotty shook his head.

“Agreed,” was chorused all around the room.

“How do you know each other?” Mason asked me.

I looked up at Deegan whom was biting down on his lip. “It’s complicated,” I told them.

“Oh? Uncomplicate it for us,” Scotty smirked.

“Let’s say we were acquainted years ago,” I told them as I thought back of the past.

Stella Grace Descenzo ; June Of 2005

“Stella Grace Descenzo! What in the fucking planet are you wearing?!” my cousin yelled once she saw me emerge form the bathroom.

I rolled my eyes at her. “Clothes, Diana Kowalski. Clothes,” I answered her, irritatedly.

“Why the hell are you wearing Capri’s?!”

“Because! What the fuck am I supposed to wear? We don’t go to the beach! We live in front of a damn lake, Kowalski. A damn lake where it gets hella cold at times,” I growled.

She huffed once again and went through my luggage this time, but she failed to find something more revealing. She again went through her clothes and threw me a pair of jean shorts.

“You’re kidding,” I frowned once I examined the pair.

“Nope,” she smiled proudly.

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“I’m your ride home,” she said.

“My parents would kill you,” I told her.

“I could talk my way out,” she shrugged and turned her back to me and went back to the bathroom to cake more make up on her face.

An hour and a half later, we arrived at the beach that seemed to be so packed for a Monday. We called up James and Andrew- whom was another friend of theirs that D and I were yet to meet- and they told us they were set up close to the volleyball courts.

We instantly saw them and waved, and began walking on the hot sand towards them. I pulled the shorts down, because I felt that it was too short. I felt like it only covered what was supposed to be covered and showed everything else.

“Hey!” we greeted all of them.

“You guys can get set up over here, we’ll be in the water,” James told us. We nodded and waited for the rest of the gang.

30 minutes later, almost everyone was there except for Daniel whom they said had a few more people with him. I was talking to Victoria when a group of guys were walking towards us. One was a guy about 5’9 with a buzz cut and he looked like he spent a fair amount of time at the gym. The other one was a guy about 5’6, the shortest one of the three. He was a bit lanky, with eyebrows that I wanted to pluck. The third guy was the one that caught most of my attention. He stood tall at 6’0 or 6’1, but he towered over the two. He too looked like he spent a fair amount of time at the gym, but he seemed a bit awkward, which just made it cute.

“He’s kinda cute,” I said to myself.

“Oh, who?” Tori asked me.

“That-,” I paused when I saw Daniel walk behind him and waved over to us. “Those guys that walked by,” I said quickly, realizing that they were part of our group and they were the guys that we were yet to meet. I glanced back at the group, and the guy stared right at me, his eyes wide. I tore my gaze away from him as if I just caught his eyes in a quick glance. I hope I didn’t stare a second too long.

“Hey guys,” Daniel greeted giving us fist pumps and high fives.

“What’s up?” the 5’9 guy greeted the group.

“Sup Gerald,” everyone chorused.

“This is my friend Mike,” he said pointing at the bushy eyebrows guy. “That’s Veronica, Victoria, Gabrielle, Gillian, you know my sister and my future-brother-in-law, James,” he smiled widely, making the two blush and the rest of us laugh “And you guys already know Ethan,” he said pointing at the awkward boy whom had a smirk on his face. They all chorused ‘sup’s and ‘how you doing’s.

The guys all went out to the water to body board with James and Andrew leaving us girls to lay out in the sun and talk. We brought out the ice cream that we had bought in San Francisco on our way here, and surprisingly it wasn’t melted. We had a good cooler.

We were down to a gallon of ice cream (out of two) left when the guys came back laughing obnoxiously.

“What?! Ice cream?! And nobody called us?!” James pouted.

“It’s okay babe, there’s still a lot left in the cooler right there,” Erica smiled giving her boyfriend a kiss. “Hi,” she greeted.

“Hey,” he greeted her softly.

The guys starting hooting at them, and James threw them a dirty look.

“Let’s go play volleyball!” Diana called out as she grabbed the ball from beside me and ran towards the courts that were just a few feet from us.

I got up and followed her as did everyone and took their spots. We had made three full rotations just diving for the ball on the sand, something that we usually couldn’t do on a regular court.

“I suck at this,” I huffed as I took a dive and got a mouthful of sand. “I’d much rather eat snow. It melts in your mouth,” I mumbled as I got up.

“Hey! Volleyball game? And nobody called us?!” Ethan’s voice emerged from where we had our stuff set up. He had on blue board shorts that hung low on his hips that showed off this abs and had his surfboard on his right hand. How hot did that look?

Smokin’

“Go on their team,” Daniel called out from behind me.

He took the spot behind Gillian, and we began our game once again. We rotated once more and I was face to face with Ethan.

“Guys, this isn’t fair! I cant even reach the net!” I huffed as I looked up at the tall guy. He grinned cheekily at me.

“Nah, I like this spot. I can block your hits,” he smiled. I rolled my eyes at him and continued the game. Diana served the ball towards me and I dove for it, missing by a foot and a half. I grabbed the ball while I was on my knees and stood up, dusting the sand off.

“That was a good dive. You missed by this much,” he laughed as he pinched his index finger and thumb down to an inch.

I rolled my eyes at him and threw the ball back to Diana. The second time that he and I were in front of each other, I let out an exasperated sigh. “You’re my bad luck,” I frowned.

“Bring it on,” he taunted.

He spiked a ball down at me, and I quickly hit it, a reflex because I didn’t want the ball to hit my face. I looked up and saw that it had landed a foot or two away from the giant, and everyone stifled their laughter as his jaw dropped.

“Dude, she just pwned you,” Gerald laughed at him as he gave his bestfriend a pat on the back. “What’s your name?” he asked as he approached me.

“Stella,” I smiled as I held my hand out.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Gerald,” he smiled as he shook my hand. “You seem cool. Why haven’t we met before?” he asked.

The game basically ended at that and I was standing with Gerald, Ethan and Mike. I was fidgeting and biting my lip at the nervousness being in such close proximity with him. ‘Relax, Stella Grace. They’re just guys. Relax,’ I kept telling myself.

But one is a really cute guy, was my mind’s counterattack, making me even more nervous.

“Do you wanna go jet skiing with us? Ethan brought his and I brought mine,” Gerald offered.

“Yeah, sure,” I piped up. I loved jet skiing. When I’m not doing homework, I go out to the lake and jetski. The waves get pretty crazy over there too.

“Let’s go!” Gerald fist pumped and ran towards the water in a superman position, making me laugh. Mike followed suit, making me laugh even more.

“Sorry, their crazy,” Ethan told me.

“It’s okay. I have a crazy brother too. If he was here, I’d be doing the apologizing,” I chuckled.

“Brother? You have a brother?” he asked. I nodded as I walked towards the shore with him. “You said you were Diana’s cousin? Are you in any way related to Jacob Descenzo?” he asked.

“Yeah, he’s my brother,” I informed him, raising an eyebrow. “Do you know him?”

“Are you serious?! You’re Jacob’s sister?” he asked, mouth agape.

“Is it because I act more of a human than a chimpanzee?” I asked with a playful grin.

“You’re definitely not related. You have a sense of humor,” he laughed.

….And that was the day that I officially met Ethan Jay Versace.