Calming of the Waves

The first thing Baja felt when she woke up was the urge to vomit. She opened her eyes and started to move to get up, but realized that was probably the worst thing she could do. The room began to swim and she fluttered her eyes closed again. She took deep breaths to ease her stomach. She felt Samantha breathing beside her, and slowly she opened her eyes. Samantha was sleeping flat on her stomach, her arms on either side, and her hair was completely covering her face. Baja smiled.

Sure her sickness had passed on, she slowly sat up, and then stood. She made her way to the bathroom connected to Samantha’s room and looked in the mirror. She blew a breath out, making her lips vibrate at her appearance. Her messy brown hair was in such disarray from the bun she’d piled it into the night before but she didn’t care. Scratching her itchy right side, she leaned into the mirror to inspect herself closer.

Her eyeliner was completely surrounding her eyes, making her look ridiculous. There was a smudge on her right cheek from the stamp on her hand. Immediately, she turned on the water and tried to scrub it away. When her face was washed and pink from scrubbing, she shut off the water and turned to use the bathroom.

Coming out, Samantha still hadn’t moved from her position on the bed. Silently, Baja crept through the room and downstairs. She moved around the kitchen to grab a bottle of water from the fridge and she found aspirin in one of the cabinets. She didn’t even hear the person enter.

“Who the fuck are you?”

Whirling around, a few drops of water dribbled from the side of her mouth as she attempted to swallow. Choking and coughing a bit, she cleared the water from her mouth long enough to stare at the man in front of her. He hadn’t really changed at all from high school, and a smile lit up her face.

“Hi, Mitch,” she said, brightly.

“Bailee?”

She could see the confusion written on his face and assumed that Samantha hadn’t talked to him since they’d reunited yesterday. She smiled as they moved forward to hug each other.

“Holy shit, I haven’t seen you in years!”

“Yeah, it has been a while,” Baja said, smiling.

They were cut off as Samantha trotted her way into the kitchen, then. Her hair was still in disarray as she made her way to the coffee pot. Both Baja and Mitch watched her and chuckled as she leaned her back against the counter to shut her eyes. Eyes still closed, she flipped them off.

“You guys suck.”

“You look like death,” Mitch said, smiling at her.

“Warmed over,” Baja added.

“You guys have been around each other exactly one minute and forty seconds. This is not high school; you can’t gang up on me yet,” Samantha said. Turning to Baja, she drew in her eyebrows. “Don’t you have a lunch or something to go to?”

Baja looked at the clock on the microwave and realized it was close to eleven.

“Shit, my dress fitting. I have to go. Can you give me a lift home?”

“I’ll drive you,” Mitch offered. “C’mon.”



Several hours later, after they’d tried on dresses and made sure everything fit, Evelyn and Baja made their way down the street to an Italian restaurant to have lunch. Baja was starving and she was beginning to have another headache. She rubbed her temple as she looked over the menu.

Once she’d ordered, she took a sip of her water and looked around the restaurant. Her mom was talking idly about nothing in particular so she was free to look around without interruption. She scanned over the crowd in the room, noting the different families and couples.

She couldn’t help but smile at one couple, sitting on the same side of the bench. The guy had his head buried in the crook of the blonde’s neck, and she was smiling like a fool. It was cute, in a way, until the guy lifted his head.

Baja had been staring jealously at her ex-boyfriend and his new…thing. He smiled and took a sip of his drink, the blonde saying something to him. She didn’t know why, exactly, but she suddenly lost her appetite and excused herself to go to the bathroom.

She washed her face off at the sink, dried it and her hands and huffed out a breath of air. Turning, she pulled the door open to leave. She realized she still had the paper towels in her hands and she turned back to throw them away, in the process, running into a body.

She bounced off of them with an “oof” and looked up, her mouth falling into a frown. Ed was staring directly at her with an odd look on his face.

“Baja?”

Her heart did this weird clenching thing at being called her nickname. Sure, people called her Baja all the time. She introduced herself to new people as Baja, and Ekene still called her that, but hearing it come from the boy who’d given it to her made her shiver.

“Hey,” she said with a small smile.

“Holy fuck, what are you doing here?”

She moved, slowly, into his arms as he encircled her for a hug. “I’m eating lunch with my mom.”

“You look great,” he said, smiling at her.

“Thanks,” she said, trying to look anywhere but at him.

“How was Africa?”

“Africa is great,” she said, not even bothering to conceal the accent. “I live on the beach with a friend.”

“Just in town for your mom’s wedding?” he asked, nodding.

“Yeah,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “You got an invitation?”

“My mom did,” he said, shrugging.

Of course she did, Baja mused silently.

“Oh, okay,” Baja said out loud, nodding. “Well, I guess I better get back to my mom, she’s eating by herself.”

“It was good seeing you,” he said, and hugged her again. “I’ve missed you.”

“Yeah,” Baja said and pulled away.

She didn’t look at him as she walked back to the table where her mom was, so she missed the stare Ed sent after her. She missed the look of pain written across his face as he relived some of those memories of when they were together.

He frowned the entire way back to sitting with Gabrielle. He’d been so shocked when he looked up to see Baja in front of him that he almost didn’t believe it was her at first. He’d gone to the bathroom on a whim, and he’d been right. He’d also been shocked to see she was still wearing the anchor necklace he’d given her when he asked her to prom. It felt weird to see her still wearing it, but a part of him was soaring on Cloud Nine because of it.

Slowly, he sat down beside Gabrielle but suddenly he didn’t seem as interested to be there anymore. His sight drifted to where Baja was sitting with her mom. They were smiling at each other; her mom had just said something that was obviously funny because she chuckled.

He was brought back to all the memories he’d shared with her. It had taken him almost four and a half full years to get over her just completely walking away from their relationship, and now she walked back in the door and every feeling he’d ever had came rushing back. He should’ve asked her why he left, but he hadn’t. When he was younger, he thought it had been because of the music, but he couldn’t be sure.

Gabrielle suggested they leave then, and he slapped a bill on the table for a tip. He held her hand loosely as they made their way out of the restaurant. Just before he was through the door, however, he glanced back. Baja was staring at him.