Living With Boys

Chapter Seventy-Seven: A Slap to the Face by Reality

Chapter Seventy-Seven: "A Slap to the Face by Reality."

"CAN ANY of you see them?"

"Who?"

"Lacey!" I pout. "I've said it three times now."

"Yes, Brooklyn, but you're the only one who knows what she looks like." Carly mutters.

"Yeah, it's not like you showed us a picture or anything." Liam says sarcastically under his breath.

"Relax, we'll find her soon." Landon reassures me, grabbing onto my hand as I scan the area for my friends. "I'm looking for her. You've shown me enough pictures of you two that I can differentiate her from others in a crowd."

Out of the 4 months Landon and I have been together, he's seen her a lot but not actually in person. Lace and I haven't FaceTime'd as much as we had hoped because of volleyball season, and every time we have talked, Landon wasn't near. He knows enough to point her out if it came down to it.

"She'll come soon." Liam says, sounding more understanding than before. "And if not, well, we wasted a half hour our lives for no reason at all."

"You're not helping." I grumble, turning back to the view of the doors entering the building.

"Well you're not helping yourself either just standing around hoping they'll magically appear." he retorts. "You know, just go inside and get ready and I'll let you know when they arrive, alright?"

"But you don't know what they look like!" I protest, finding any possible excuse to not leave my seat.

"Brooklyn." he says in his best authority voice, which actually has no authority at all he just thinks it does, and places his hands on his hips. "You raced down here without even getting dressed. Go upstairs and Landon will wait down here with me."

"But–"

"Go."

"Okay, okay." I whine in defeat, sighing heavily and rolling my eyes at him before walking past him and Landon and heading back upstairs to get ready.

When I get to the room, the girls are already dressed and in their summer clothes, while I'm still wearing what I had on earlier. Carly is dressed in a plain black two piece with a halter that definitely makes her boobs pop, while Becca has on a gay pride one piece with an open back. She's been dying to wear it for the few weeks she's had it.

"Here! No time for us to diddle dally around for you to take forever to choose an outfit to wear. I already knew this was going to happen with you so I picked out a cute red bikini for you. It has some confusing straps in the back so just be careful when you put the halter around your neck, okay? It might get caught and rip the material, or worse, it might actually get caught in your hair and I'm very sure that that is something you do not want to happen." Maya says, throwing a two-piece bathing suit in my face and shouting at me to go and change. "Landon's gonna love you in that, Brookie!" 

"But, I already have my Canadian one set out!" I complain, internally weeping about the fact that I can't wear my sexy bathing suit. I really enjoy it, but I've never had a chance to wear it because of certain things that I'm sure you can catch onto living in the Great White North.

"Brooklyn, you aren't wearing that when we meet your friends. You're going to wear that out when it's just you and Landon!" Becca states to me, rolling her eyes and packing a few towels in to a bag for all of us. "Should we bring alcohol?"

"No!" I protest. "It's illegal."

Becca rolls her eyes and points to me. "That's why we have your boyfriend and his brother. Lance is over nineteen therefore, he can supply and we can demand."

"Guys, we are so busted if the cops raid the beach." I say with a sigh. I've had enough police interaction to last me a lifetime. I never expected to go to jail–let alone prison on top of that–and I have personally experienced enough to be okay with not wrecking any havoc for the rest of my life. Sure I only went down for a month give or take a few days... or weeks... but it was still a very long time in my mind and that's time I really do avoid having to take again.

"Okay guys, let's go get wet!" Maya exclaims excitedly, grabbing her phone and running to the front foyer to get her shoes on.

I drop my head into my hands and shake it very slowly. "That was a very bad analogy, Maya. Please don't ever do that again unless you want me to hang myself."

***

"There!" Carly chirps.

"Where!"

"Over there! Is that her?"

I look over behind me, seeing a huge group of people. I  can't distinguish faces, but I notice a couple girls in there. "Maybe," I hum, squinting to see better but with my vision nowadays, nothing helps except for my glasses. "I don't know. Let's get closer and find out."

 Carly, Maya, Becca and I all start our way towards the group of teens. It's been a while since I've seen the gang, but from what I'm seeing, they may be my friends, which starts to boost up my heart rate. I really, really miss them.

"Should we try getting their attention? They look busy." Becca suggests, looking a little uneasy at approaching a huge group of strangers.

"No, let me just get a glimpse of one of their faces and I'll be able to tell." I reply, rubbing my glasses on my chest to rid a smudge that has formed along the rim.

"But that means we need to get like twenty feet closer." Maya points out.

"Look, I'm sorry that I'm not as far sighted as I used to be, okay? It's not my fault some troll wanted to blind me." I snap back, but I'm not actually upset. I've become accustomed to being dependent on glasses, and Annabelle and Mary will get what's coming to them eventually.

As we approach, I notice it immediately. No, not Lace.

Taylor.

"Fuck!" I exclaim, immediately turning around so my back is towards the group. 

"What?" Carly asks, extremely confused by my reaction to them. "What's wrong? Do we have the wrong people?"

"We have the wrong people?!" Becca says with a bright face. "Thank God."

"No... it's the right group," I sigh heavily, a huge lump struggling to go down my throat. I haven't talked to Taylor since I left for LAX, and I really didn't plan on speaking to him after that. What we had is done and gone and I just want to forget everything. He's the number one contributor to my past, but now that my other friends are here, I can't avoid him. They don't know anything about what happened when I left for the break. Only Landon, and God forbid I don't know what is going to happen when they meet. I hope it's civil...

"Brooklyn." Maya says sternly. "What is it?"

"My ex."

________________________________________________________________________________

So this chapter is extremely short but that's only because I felt guilty for not updating in forever. I promise, I'm trying to get myself together to start writing again, but my writers block is still horrible, and this chapter is the reason why. I couldn't think of anything for it and the plan changed. Chapters from here on out should be much better, much longer, and hopefully the updating will become more frequent. Christmas Break is right around the corner so I plan on writing a lot during then.

Hope you enjoy this chapter!

What do you guys think Landon will do when he meets Taylor for the first time? Will they be civil, or will possessiveness be an issue? Comment your thoughts!

Kisses,

Ellaina