Uncharted

Expertly, I maneuvered through my parent’s house avoiding my parents, my aunts, uncles, cousins, and all of the questions they had been throwing at me. I don’t think I’ve ever made it to my room as fast as I did that day. All I wanted to do was sleep for the rest of the night. However, I remembered Des not so nicely telling me to call Cooper once I got home.

“I’m not dead.” I said as soon as Cooper answered the phone.

“Good. Is Des? I haven’t heard from him or seen him all night.”

“I don’t know. I don’t associate with him any more than necessary.” I said, taking a flying leap at my bed. I rolled around on it, inhaling the scent of freshly washed sheets. My laundry always smelled better when mom washed it.

There was silence on Cooper’s end of the phone and I thought we got disconnected. Then he spoke again “Except for that one night…”

“You’re an asshole.” I retorted, any miniscule amount of good spirits had been drained from my body at the mention of that night…the one where I fucked Des.

“Ollie, he’s a good looking lad. If you think he’s sexy it’s okay. Understandable. All the girls love him.” Cooper said, clearly amused by my lack of amusement.

“You are so lucky there is an ocean standing in the way of me punching you right in the face.” I growled. I was even more irritated when Cooper insinuated that Desmond was desirable. He wasn’t. He was mean, miserable, and just generally unpleasant. Desmond just happened to also be so good looking that sometimes it hurt to look at him. That’s all.

“Aw c’mon, love. I was just joking around. Besides, you can’t even reach my face, shorty.” He began laughing loudly again.

“I’m hanging up.” I stated, keeping my eyes trained on the television in the corner of my room. I couldn’t wait to turn it on and watch all of the trashy American reality television I could before I would pass out and sleep straight until the morning.

“Try to be happy, yeah?”

“Yeah.” I said and rolled my eyes before I ended the call.

&&

Two days of dealing with my family and I was ready to stab myself in eye. I resisted the urge thinking about how much a damper that would put on Christmas Eve for the members of my family that I actually liked. Instead of staying inside and contemplating ripping my own eyes out of my head I decided to go outside and get some fresh air.

My parents were, to put it lightly, extremely wealthy. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with being wealthy because there’s not…unless you acted like my parents. They had spent a disgusting amount of money renovating the backyard. Which sounds like it could be reasonable but it wasn’t considering they had just renovated it a few years prior. I occupied myself by wondering around the backyard, checking out the new changes that had taken place.

I was investigation the new hot tub when I heard the familiar ‘beep beep click’ sound which meant someone had entered the code to open the back gate. I spun around expecting to see my sister or one of my cousins but never did I expect Dylan to be standing there. My eyes narrowed at him, remembering all of the times he had to put in the code because I had been too drunk when he brought me home.

He kept his blue eyes locked on me, smiling faintly while he walked toward me. I couldn’t believe he had shown up at my house like he belonged there. He didn’t even go to the front and knock. He just walked through the back gate like he owned the place. I wanted to run at him and just kick him in the balls as hard as I could.

“What’re you doing here?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

Dylan shrugged and kept walking closer. “Wanted to see you.”

“Well, I don’t want to see you, so you can go.” I said breathlessly. I felt like I was going to pass out, he was making me so nervous because I knew how capable of sweeping me off my feet he was. I know I didn’t want that to happen. I just wanted him to go away so I could go back to not giving a shit, being Scrooge McDuck, and hating Christmas. Which sucked even more considering he had shown up.

“You’re catching onto the accent pretty quick.” Dylan smiled at me, which was a really low blow considering he knew how much I loved his smile. Plus, I didn’t think living in Ireland for a few months had any effect on my speech. No one else had said anything about it.

“Can you just go?” I asked impatiently, which must have been a shock to him because I never used to snap at him like that.

“Come on, Ol. I don’t want something like this to come between us after everything we’ve been through. Can we look past this?” Dylan’s voice was so gentle and so sweet that I almost caved. Almost. I guess I had changed while I was in Ireland because as soon as he brushed his fingers against mine I reeled back and punched him in the face. Hard.

“What the fuck, Ollie?” He screamed, doubled over in pain while holding his hands over his face. His hands didn’t do enough to conceal the blood that I think was coming out of his nose.

“What the fuck to you!” I screamed back at him. “You can’t just walk in here like you belong and tell me you don’t want you fucking some girl come between us! Are you serious, Dylan? How do expect me to look past that?”

“Alright. I know it was a mistake but-“

“Then it shouldn’t have lasted a fucking year!” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Just fucking go.”

“One day, you’re going to regret this.” Dylan threatened before he exited the backyard the same way he had entered.

I stood still, looking after him. When I realized he was gone for good I ran inside and collapsed on my bed and cried. It was like our break up all over again, only this time it felt more finalized. There were no hopes of us ever getting back together. Plus, I felt shit for punching him in the face. I shouldn’t have because he was scum sucking manwhore…but I did. He wasn’t always a douchebag; there was a time when I was convinced he was the man I was going to marry. I was pretty sure I would never find another guy who would even consider marrying me.

What Dylan said was correct. Eventually, I would regret not getting back together with him. If I had gotten back together with Dylan then Desmond Gallagher wouldn’t have ruined my life. If I knew what I know now, I would run into Dylan’s arms and ran off to Vegas to get hitched.