Flirting With Fire

Chapter Twenty One: Making up

  RECAP

Whitney heard the beep from Lila’s phone and waited patiently while her friend pulled the mobile away from her ear to check the message. She heard the subsequent gasp from her friend and had a sinking feeling at the pit of her stomach.

‘What? What is it?’

‘Georgia just texted me… She said Robbie’s in a fight down at the beach… with Riley.’

Chapter Twenty One

Whitney remembered the day her dad tried to explain why they left Willow so suddenly. She was so angry with her parents she barely listened and definitely didn’t hear their desperate tones. All Whitney could see in her mind were flashes of Robbie and Lila how upset they must have been, heck, how upset she was!

As soon as she realised she’d never see them again, she knew she loved him. It was like a short stabbing pain in her chest, her body filled with dread and unbelievable sadness. She missed Robbie. If he were here right now she wouldn’t feel this way and even if she did, he’d snap her out of her funk with a simple grin.

She missed him like only a lovesick teenager could. Desperately, irrationally and furious with everything around her.

She hated her parents.

For those first few months she barely said a word to them, she stopped eating, refused to go to school. They sent her to counselling as a result and she remembered her mother begging her to be reasonable.

‘We had no choice baby.’

She heard those same five words over and over again from both their mouths. Whitney never bothered to find out the real reason why, it never occurred to her they actually had no choice, that their lives might have been in danger. No she was going through heartbreak, and to a teenage girl nothing else really mattered.

Three years later she sat on the beach cross-legged facing her old flame. Robbie’s face was badly bruised, his black eye already starting to form. He had splashes of blood along his shirt and Whitney badly wanted to know what Riley looked like after their fight.

‘Why did you arrest him Robbie?’ She asked gently.

He let out a long sigh and she waited patiently while he played with the sand silently. He was still the same boy she left those years ago, same boyish features and personality that made her nearly pee her pants with laughter. He just looked kind of defeated.

‘You coming back really screwed with my mind Whit,’ he said finally sending her a pleading look. ‘I took ages to get over you, I really fucking missed you.’

Whitney felt her eyes well up with tears as some old emotions surfaced seeing him so raw and honest.

‘Look at me!’ He said sounding disgusted with himself. ‘I’m an officer of the law, I have fantastic friends, and soon to be a father and I fall to pieces when an old girlfriend comes back to town.’

‘Rob, honey… We were more than that!’ Whitney pleaded with him. ‘It’s ok to be jealous. I shouldn’t have flaunted Riley around the town, that was mean of me.’

‘That’s all it is though, insane jealousy,’ he laughed a little bitterly. ‘Seeing you made all those unresolved feelings come back, and then seeing you getting along so well with him screwed with my mind. I’m sorry Whitney, I arrested him in a jealous rage. I was coming by to see if you were ok after Lila told me what happened then I saw his car in your driveway. I just flipped out.’

Whitney frowned, ‘It’s ok, this is my fault!  We should have had a talk sooner about what happened, and our feelings… Truthfully I felt the same when I first saw you too. I just realized I’d changed, and you changed.’ She left out the whole baby reason to spare him some pain.