We Are Tidal

Chapter Twelve - Reluctant Reunion

Chapter Twelve

Reluctant Reunion

After I watch Damien drive away, my heart does not sink quite as low as I had once imagined it might. Not when my body still writhes from the sense of his gaze as he unzipped his jeans at the side of the road. It wasn't that I wasn't attracted to Damien, I was and always had been - since we'd met, in fact. He had helped me move on from Arthur in a lot of ways, especially physically. 

Our attraction had been an instantaneous kind of feeling, a rush of blood... But lately, sex wasn't the only thing that seemed to matter to me.

If I was being honest, I knew why this was. I didn't need Dr. Poynton to point this out. Since the Heavers had come back, my mind has been distracted and thrown. Damien has never liked when my attention is divided and had been open about his dislike for Arthur during our relationship. His demands for attention and sex had always been heavy. Still, how he had spoken to me was enough for me to want to punch a wall and pull my hair out at my stupidity. How could I have expected better? 

A small, nasty voice in the back of mind was whispering that Arthur would never have spoken to me like that. No matter what I had done. 

I wait at the side of the road, perched on the tarmac for Gab. The rain had stopped, but I was still soaked through. Still, I couldn't bring myself to care. I braid and unbraid my hair over and over as I wait, tapping my foot against the earth, trying to fight the miserable sensation sinking into my bones that usually had me scurrying to my bed. Misery and nerves riled in my veins. 

Several cars stop, asking if I need a lift. I wave my hand at each of them, pretending to be waiting for my parents. 

Although Gab had only text me about practicing our dance routine at his house, I was nervous. Where one Heaver was, they all were, particularly at their house.

Gab didn't take long. I hop to my feet as his pick-up truck pulls up. The sun is beginning to set, it glances through the side window as I approach. I shield my eyes with my palm and grin at Gab.

"Get ditched?" He inquires, turning off the central locking system and waiting for me to get in. My grin immediately falls and I send a scathing look in his direction. 

"Something like that," I mutter, opting to avoid the anger that was slowing gathering in my chest at Damien. For a moment, Gab just locks his eyes on my face, a line of concern deepening between his brows. Despite his giddy exterior, Gab had always been an empathetic friend. Second only to Arthur. 

I roll my eyes, rejecting his kindness. 

"Just drive, Gab." 

And he does, smiling slightly at my use of his nickname. We take the scenic route, traveling along the coast towards the Heaver house. It's Saint's Beach, the local beach closest to the university and my own house. 

The Heaver's college home is not really their home, so much as a second house, the family owns outside the city. The boys' parents bought it when the boys were young as a house for them during college, predicting at least one of them might go to a local university. Due to their relative wealth, it was nearly twice the size of the house I inherited after my parents died last year. 

I know every single room of the house, from the expansive driveway to the light yellow paint on the front of the house, contrasting the multi-coloured stain-glass door. 

Maria Heaver had designed it, relishing in the fun of it with wide smiles and eager eyes that looked like each of her son's. She had once shared blueprints of her new passion project - an expansive glasshouse - with me over hot chocolate at the kitchen table at their house in the city. Unexpectedly, I feel a pang of sadness for the woman who was a second mother to me for a year. Part of me wants to ask Gab if their father ever got around to finishing the glasshouse. I decide not to, not knowing how he might react.