Toe the Line(40)

“Long time no see!”

Huh? I turned to find two teenagers walking toward us. It took me a second to realize they were Holly and Henry, the Disney movie twins, all grown up.

I stood and reached out to hug our old neighbors. “Oh my goodness, look at you guys. I hardly recognized you! I can’t believe you remembered us.”

“Well, Dawn, the realtor, is a friend of our mom,” Holly said. “She told us you guys were here and asked if we remembered you. That’s what tipped us off.”

Archie stood and clasped hands with Henry. “Never thought you’d be big enough to beat my ass.”

“No more movies on the lawn?” Holly smiled.

We chatted with them for the next several minutes. They told us stories of some of the wild parties renters had thrown here over the years. It seemed our old home had turned into quite the party house for college students and the like.

“What are you guys up to tonight?” I asked.

“We were just heading to the beach to meet up with friends.”

Archie and I shared a knowing smile.

“I guess that’s still all there is to do around here at night, huh?” I said, bursting with nostalgia.

Holly nodded. “You guys should come!”

I shook my head. “Not sure we’d fit in down there anymore.”

Archie looked over at me with a gleam in his eye. “I don’t know. Might be fun. Wanna go for old times’ sake?”

That sounded a bit crazy, but it might have been exactly what we needed after this tense day. I shrugged. “Why not?”

We walked with Holly and Henry down to the beach and joined the swarms of teenagers and college students converging on our old stomping grounds. We were still in our twenties, but Archie and I seemed ancient compared to them.

Unlike the kids who had to smuggle their alcohol in Gatorade bottles, Archie and I legally bought beers from the clam shack and took them down to a spot on the sand.

I stared at his profile as he looked out toward the ocean, once again noticing how Archie was even more heartbreakingly handsome at twenty-eight than he had been seven years ago. I hated that my body never stopped reacting to him, especially when he was physically close like this.

He sipped his beer and looked around. “I don’t think I realized how much I needed to be back in this place, to connect with that carefree feeling I had before everything changed.” He shook his head. “Even if it’s not real anymore, it feels good to bask in the memory of it, you know?”

“Yeah,” I whispered. Except I wasn’t basking. I was drowning. Drowning in the nostalgia of that summer. And drowning in the pain of how it had ended.

Suffocating.

? ? ?

Mixing alcohol with nostalgia, it turns out, is not always the wisest choice.

When Archie and I returned to the house that night, we didn’t know what to do with ourselves. Neither of us was tired enough to sleep. But the alcohol from the beers at the beach and the wine he’d opened once we got back home was going to my head fast. I could no longer be trusted with my words.

Archie took out the chocolate cake he’d made earlier and placed it on the counter. We both began eating it—with our bare hands. It was a mess, and I likely had chocolate all over my face. So this is how it ends, huh? I suppose it could be worse.

“I had so much fun tonight,” he said with his mouth full. “You?”

“It was awesome. Reminded me of the old days.” I licked chocolate off the corner of my mouth.

Archie’s eyes fell to my lips. “Seven years ago sometimes feels like yesterday, and other times like forever ago, doesn’t it?”

When I felt my eyes starting to well up, I knew that was my cue. I never wanted to leave Archie’s side, but I needed this weekend to be over before I lost it in front of him. “Anyway, we’d better go to bed,” I told him. “We both have early flights in the morning.”

I hopped down from my stool and rushed over to the sink to wash my hands. I hadn’t intended to make eye contact with him again because I didn’t want him to notice my eyes. Then again, he was a little drunk, too, so not sure how perceptive he would be.

Then I felt his presence nearby.

“I have so many regrets,” he said from behind me.

I turned to face him and swallowed. “Regrets about what?”

He had chocolate cake on his face, but somehow he’d never looked hotter.

“Everything,” he whispered. “With you.” He paused. “What we did and what we didn’t do. The way that summer ended. Everything.”

“Why are you bringing this up now?”

“Because I’m fucking drunk, I guess. I don’t know.” He pulled on his hair. “You look so goddamn beautiful right now.” His eyes were hazy as he murmured, “It hurts to look at you.”

My tears felt ready to fall. I couldn’t let that happen. “Keep that shit to yourself,” I muttered.

“We never talk about it, Noelle. We talk about everything else except the massive elephant in the room—the things we did that summer, what almost happened before—”

“Stop.” I sniffled. “You’re only bringing it up because you’re drunk. This is not a healthy way to discuss anything.”

“Maybe.” Archie leaned against the center island and placed his head in his hands. He went silent for a long time. “You were with Shane for like…forever. I thought you were gonna marry that guy. And I thought you were happy. I never thought you’d break up with him.” He looked down at the floor. “I kept waiting and…”