Reclaimed Hearts: A second chance, forced proximity romance

Shores of Redemption

Iblinked, sure I was hallucinating. No way did Grace and Sean just help me out of there, out of the humiliation from Declan and the Baysiders.

“What do you want?” I shot back, still unable to believe she was here on her own accord. The old Grace would have been.

The new Grace would treat me the same way she did at the pool party. Pretending like I didn’t belong anywhere she was.

The fact was, she lived two blocks away from me. She was a Gennie, not a Baysider. But dating Sean gave her certain privileges that didn’t seem to extend to others. Hanging with the Baysiders had made her into a monster, someone I didn’t recognize.

This Grace though… This was more reminiscent of my best friend. The one who would fight and stand up for me. Who had my back, no matter what.

“Sean, get her bike in the truck, please,” Grace said while still staring at me. “Mars Bar, let’s get you in the car, okay?”

“I can ride.”

Grace sighed, breaking our eye contact and looking down at her long, lean legs and perfect purple pedicure. “You’re staying at Reid’s, aren’t you? That’s on the other side of the island. It’ll take you an hour, minimum, to ride there. And you’re… not in the best condition right now.”

Something hot and wet slid down my cheek, and I could only hope it was tears and not another seagull. I got my confirmation when big pools of water plopped on the asphalt below me.

Grace put her hand on my lower back, guiding me to her truck. It was old and beat up, the door trim rusted, but it worked.

“I’ll go deal with them,” Sean said after I climbed into the passenger side. “That wasn’t cool. I’m so sorry you were chosen as their target this year. They tried to pull the same stunts on Grace, but I intervened. The second I saw you at the pool party the other week, I should have known. I can’t apologize for them because they need to do the apologizing to you.”

His words hit me straight in the heart. When Grace started dating him, she introduced the two of us hesitantly. Sean was one of the few year-round Baysiders that joined the Crescent kids at the private school off-island, so he didn’t associate with Declan and his crew too much. Besides summer parties, that was.

At first, I liked him a lot. He was a genuinely nice guy. But once Grace associated more with the Baysiders and tossed me aside, I lumped Sean in with the rest of them and made assumptions.

I didn’t know what to say, so I just gave him a small smile before he closed the door and jogged around to give Grace a quick kiss.

Grace climbed into the truck and jiggled the key a few times before the engine caught. When she started dating Sean, she had yet to get tangled in the Baysider world. But after the first few weeks, she completely changed, and I no longer was a part of her life. She dropped me like a hot pan, but I was the one that got burned.

The next summer, I started dating Reid, and thought it might have been an opening for Grace and I to reconnect, but all it did was alienate us more. Some of Sean’s friends were the ones responsible for pushing Reid out, and that fact alone separated Grace and me even more.

But this… this crossed the line. And for some reason, Grace seemed to think so too.

“I’m sorry, Mars Bar,” she said, using my old nickname. She called me the name of a candy bar I didn’t even like, which she thought made it more ironic. “This is all my fault.”

I called her Graceland, like the Elvis estate, which I said was ironic because she couldn’t stand his music.

I didn’t pull out her nickname now, though. I didn’t say a word as we drove off. The only sound in the car was the rattling of the loose tailpipe and the turn signal when Grace took a left onto Bayview Boulevard.

Grace parked in Reid’s driveway, turned off the car, and stared out the windshield.

“I know I can’t change things, Mars Bar, but… I also know I was a raging witch with a b to you the last few years. And you didn’t deserve it. It’s just that… when I’m around all of them, I get swept up, you know? It’s a crappy excuse. I just…,” she sighed, dropping her hands into her lap. “I have no excuse. I shouldn’t be making excuses for how I’ve treated you. And you have no reason to accept my apology or be my friend again, but just know I am sorry. I should have stopped them, like Sean said, when we saw you at the pool party. They always choose a girl to mess with, to be the victim of their prank each summer. I thought if I was rude to you that you would leave. But Declan claimed you, and that kind of scared me. They change guys every year, and knowing it was Declan… I mean, it’s Declan.”

She didn’t have to elaborate for me to understand.

I gulped, the lump in my throat making it hard to swallow. These were all the words I wanted to hear from Grace. Except they were almost two years too late.

I never thought I would get an apology from her. I never thought the two of us could be in the same place again without fighting.

But here we sat, side by side, like we used to.

“Thanks for getting me out of there,” I whispered. At this point, I didn’t have anything else to say. I needed some time to think about what she said and how it changed things going forward.

First, though, I needed to shower and get all remnants of seagulls off of me.

I opened the door and slipped out, looking back at my bike in the pickup.

“I’ll help,” Grace said. She dropped the tailgate while I punched in the garage code so she could get my bike into the garage.

Knowing Reid wouldn’t be home for a while, I thanked Grace, and told her I’d be fine, that all I needed was a long, hot shower, and to go to sleep.

It was barely seven, but I didn’t care.

I watched as she backed down the driveway, lifting a hand as she waved goodbye. Then, I turned into the house, dropped my backpack on the floor next to the door, and pushed past the dogs.

They went outside, and I shuffled my way to the guest bathroom, shedding clothes as I walked through the room.

Once the shower steamed up the bathroom, I stepped in, letting the scalding hot water wash over me. I shampooed my hair four times, hoping I got everything out, and scrubbed my body, especially my shoulder and face, twice.

An hour later, the water turned cold. I stepped out, then used a hand towel to wipe a spot on the mirror clear.

Normally, I would comb through my hair and do some skin care, but tonight, I couldn’t bother. I couldn’t even bring myself to look in the mirror. I was too scared of what I would find.

I managed to get a pair of pajamas on, but didn’t have the energy to dry my hair, so I wrung it out with a towel a few times before going to let the dogs in.

Cuddling two fluffy dogs in bed was exactly what I needed right now.

My entire body felt heavy, from my head to my feet. Like the adrenaline and anxiety finally wore off, leaving me with a shell of a body.

I wondered what my friends would do when they got back with Liam and Livvy. Would they all hang out for the rest of the night? Would they invite me over, or would they continue on their own?

Would Reid stay with them? Or would he come home, since he claimed to want to ‘lay low’ for the summer?

I snuggled down under the covers, leaving just enough room over my face so I could breathe. By the weight, I guessed Noodle had made himself comfortable next to my legs, and Fluff tucked herself up against my back. They created a sense of safety and security that I hadn’t experienced in a while.

It also made me absolutely break.

Tears streamed down my cheeks, my breath coming in small gasps, trying to keep up with the sobs wracking through my body.

This entire summer had taken a nosedive, and I was the only person to blame for it.

Crashing into Declan had been one of the most embarrassing things in my life up until now. Falling for his elaborate prank topped the list, even higher than the seagull issues.

At least with the seagulls, people felt bad for me. People being Grace and Sean, but it counted.

I highly doubted anyone felt sorry for me for being played by Declan Storms. They had probably all been in on it from the start. He and his friends hatched this little plan of stringing me along and leaving me out to dry and I fell for it.

I would never trust a Baysider again.

They were nothing but trouble. Even Grace had seen that. They played with people’s emotions for fun, like they didn’t have enough of their own entertainment. They had all the money in the world to do whatever they wanted, yet preying on the innocent occupied their time.

The saddest part was I fell for it all, hook, line, and sinker. Just having someone show me the slightest amount of attention sent me following along like a puppy, chasing after them, begging for more.

That was my problem. I desperately wanted to gain people’s attention, to get them to show any sort of affection my way. I craved it; I needed it like I needed air.

Yet, time after time, I was let down. Humiliated. Left behind. Abandoned. Rejected.

I was Marlowe Mitchell, the girl no one could love.

My tears soaked through the blanket and top sheet now, pooling on the pillow under me. Noodle moved to rest his head on my knees, pressing into my legs, comforting me. It helped.

I sucked in a deep breath, trying to get a grip on my tears, but it was no use. The dam had broken, and I needed to let it all out. The weight of the past few weeks had caught up to me.

Being embarrassed by Declan.

Grandmum, Mom, and Dad all forgetting my birthday—again.

Grace being Grace at the party, yet taking me home tonight and apologizing. That one I needed to replay in my mind when I wasn’t such a blubbering mess.

Even thinking about Eleanor got to me. Knowing I would never see or speak with her again. The scavenger hunt I was pretty sure I was going to fail at.

And most of all… Reid. Seeing him again after not talking for close to a year. After losing him in my life when he had been a constant.

Then there was the one thing I had yet to admit to myself that finally broke through with all the tears.

I still loved him, even if he had broken my heart.

That last realization really cracked everything open. My tears ran harder as my chest heaved with every breath.

Noodle shifted, his body going rigid next to me. I lifted my head just enough to see him staring straight at the door.

“Marlowe?”