Past Transgressions - Mature 18+

Chapter 1 - Returning Home

She stared out over the water watching the sun go down, enjoying the familiarity and calmness of it, Brace hoped she wasn't making a mistake by coming back here. She hadn't been back in over two years but when she got the call that the nightmare was over , her first thought was of home. Seeing her parents, her over-protective brother Jake, her best friend Topaz and the rest of the crew again. On the surface it looked exactly the same, like nothing had changed but that was just on the surface. Like her underneath the facade, things were so very different than they used to be.

Closing her eyes and breathing deeply, she shoved those painful memories back. It was going to be enough of a challenge to get through tomorrow, starting university at one of the top schools in the country, with new people and friends from her past, trying to appear as normal as she could be after 2+ years of just up and disappearing on them. Nope, she was going to enjoy her last night of no drama and no complications before the chaos was sure to start. Unfortunately as fate would have it, she had other plans in mind...

"Brace?" says the cocky and arrogant voice, too familiar still,  from her past that haunted her dreams.

Not being able to stop her heart from reacting, even now over 2 years later, slamming against her chest and picking up a rapid pace that would have done the best race horse in the last quarter mile proud. How she wished she could be immune him, to his husking voice that always sent chills down her spine and an ache deep inside of her. Slowly opening her eyes, she turned towards him coming face to face with the boy that, whether he was aware of it or not broke her heart, and set her whole world into orbit and the shit storm that resulted from it.

"It is you!" Lex said as he engulfed her in a huge bear-hug, squeezing so hard that she almost couldn't breath. He quickly stepped back from her to look her up and down, his eyebrows raising and eyes widening in shock.

"Wow Brace! You look fantastic! Who knew under all those baggy shirts and jeans that you were  hiding all of this?"

"I guess I do look a little different than I did when you last saw me" she replied.

"A LITTLE??!!"

"OK! A lot different! She couldn't resist grinning, having forgotten that Lex wasn't big on subtle, tending to lean more to the blunt responses. Oftentimes people mistook his bluntness as rude responses but he just had a limited bullshit tolerance so didn't bother to mince words.

"So, are you back to stay?" Lex asks.

"Umm... Yeah I am enrolled to start university tomorrow."

"Wait, you're going to Winston's?"

"Yup, I won't be a freshman, I took some courses where I was at before so those credits transferred over so I get to come in as a junior."

"That's great! Anyone else know you are back?"

"Nope, you're the first, I haven't really ventured out in social scene of Bolton yet."

Just then his cell phone started to buzz in his pocket, taking it out he quickly read the message.

"Shit, sorry I gotta jet. They need these parts back at the shop for a job they are finishing up. Do you need a lift?"

Brace knowing her peaceful night was shattered, knew there wasn't much point in hanging around any longer.

"Sure that would be great, thanks!"

"Right this way then, milady" he said with a smirk, the kind that makes women's hearts melt.

As they walked towards the parking lot it starts to feel a little too familiar, too much like the old them and she couldn't go back to that, that door has to stay firmly closed, not sure she could with-stand that again. She broke the silence, it was too dangerous to let that connection grow again.