There was a moment of silence and I waited, like I always did, wondering if this time he’d finally say it back. It’s not that I ever doubted that Flynn loved me. He showed me in a thousand, beautiful ways how he felt about me.
But a girl couldn’t help but want the words. Particularly a girl who had never heard them from anyone else.
“Bye,” he said after a beat and I couldn’t squelch the tiny stab of hurt.
“Bye,” I repeated and hung up the phone before my disappointment could ruin my good mood.
I walked into the grocery store and grabbed a basket. The store wasn’t very crowded, and I gave a cursory glance around, thankful when I didn’t recognize anyone.
I had no idea whether any of my former friends were still in Wellston. I hadn’t thought much of Stu Wooten, Shane Nolan, or Reggie Fisher over the years. We had never been the sort of friends to send letters and exchange Christmas presents. We had been the hard partying, get busted together sort of acquaintances.
I had a strong suspicion that one, if not all, had ended up in jail at some point. Especially after what Jeb had told me about Stu, I didn’t expect to see him out in general population.
But Dania was a different story.
Before I had left to go to school she had shown glimmers of becoming someone better. Someone less selfish. She had just signed over her parental rights to her newborn son after he became a ward of the state. Having been born with a severe heart defect as a result of her chronic alcohol and drug use, social services had placed him on protective custody only hours after being transferred to the Intensive Neonatal Unit.
It had been the first time Dania had made a choice that was about someone else and not about her. I had been proud of her. Despite the horrific situation she had created, she was finally accepting responsibility and doing what was best for the little boy who had never been her priority.
But after I had left Wellston I had purposefully left Dania Blevins and her mountain of drama behind me.
There were times I felt guilty for the way I had dropped her. But I also knew that out of everyone, she was the one person who could take me back to that place I never wanted to be again. She was my link to the old Ellie. She made it all to easy to be that girl.
And I hated that girl.
But I wasn’t thinking of Dania, or Stu, or Reggie, as I started shopping for ingredients to make dinner. I decided to make a simple lasagna.
Flynn was picky but I knew he liked pasta.
I was in my own little world, not thinking about much beyond my upcoming job interview and of course Flynn. I felt happy as I stood in the middle of a grocery store in the last place I had ever wanted to be again.
But the thing about small towns is that you could never escape the very people you hoped to avoid. So it was with a predictable certainty that I was confronted with the unfortunate reality of what it meant to make my life in Wellston.
“I didn’t realize you were back.” I startled at the voice, freezing for a moment.
I thought about ignoring her. It’s what my instinct told me to do.
But instead I found myself turning around to see the person I hadn’t spoken to once in the three years I had been away.
The person I had left behind in my efforts to put distance between myself and the horrible person I had been.
I didn’t want to see her. She reminded me of the pain. Of the ugliness.
Of the truth.
So I didn’t smile the way I once would have. I didn’t pretend that I was happy to see her. Because I wasn’t.
But I found myself greeting her all the same.
“Hi, Dania.”
Dania’s once long, dark hair was now short, just above the shoulders. She had put on some weight, mostly in the hips. Long gone were the booty shorts and halter-tops that had defined her wardrobe the entire time I had known her.
She was dressed simply, dare I say, matronly, in a long jean skirt and plain white sweater. She wasn’t wearing any make up and her eyes looked tired, ringed in dark circles.
But not from drugs. She didn’t seem strung out or high. She just looked exhausted.
And then I saw the reason why.
