(A/N)- EVERYOEN MEETS EVERYONE! Well except Ryan and Rach, but they meet the friends next chapter! I am so excited for you all to meet Nick, Tess, Ben and especially ASHLEY!! She isn't as mean as y'all think! ;) Please vote and comment! I love to read what you think!
-Hannah :)
-Dedication to _soontobebritish because her stories are AMAZING! :)
------------
Evan’s POV:
“Evan!”
“My main man, bro get out here!”
“What’s up, Ev!”
Right when I walked out the door on Sunday morning, I heard numerous greetings being thrown in my direction. Nick practically tackled me to the ground and once he got out of the way I said hello to Ben and Tessa who strolled up hand in hand as usual.
Ashley was behind them and I could tell she wasn’t sure how to act so I decided to be the nice one and say hello first, “Hey Ash.”
“Hi, Evan.”
We both stared at each other and her blue eyes stared right back into mine. For a moment I almost forgot why I didn’t like her anymore, only for a moment though, then I remembered and I could barely stop myself form flat out asking her why she was here.
“Man I am STARVING! Got any food around here?” Nick asked me pulling me back inside.
“You would be the one to just walk into a house and ask for food,” Tessa teased him poking his stomach.
“And I will be the best friend who gladly goes along to get free food!” Ben exclaimed following Nick and his girlfriend into the kitchen.
“How’d I know to make extra eggs and bacon this morning?” I heard my dad joke as he handed each boy a plate, Tessa declined one saying she would mooch off of Ben which led to them bickering over who gets the most bacon.
I leaned against the couch and watched the scene unfold in front of me. I don’t know why I had been so nervous yesterday, my friends really were great. I had been worried they would act differently because we were here, but so far they have been the same old friends I left behind in Wisconsin.
“Hey Evan, can I talk to you for a second?” I heard Ashley ask from behind me. She was standing by the back doors and had her hand on the handle, ready to go.
Not really, I thought, but I nodded yes and told the rest that I would be back to show them around town later.
Ashley smiled thankfully and I followed her down to the beach. She didn’t say anything so I waited for her to start. Who knew what she wanted to talk about, it could be something like how it was such a nice place to be or she could want me to explain why birds fly south every winter. With Ashley, you never really knew.
“I want to apologize.”
Well that was not what I was expecting. “I’m sorry?” I asked, thinking I couldn’t of heard her correctly.
“Evan, I am sorry. About how I ended things between us. We had such a good relationship and then I just left you when you needed me and I felt terrible! I tried to talk to you, at the funeral, you wouldn’t even look at me though!”
“Well could you blame me, Ash? You freaking broke up with me, the DAY AFTER my mom DIED!” I yelled at her and for a second I saw fear flash across her face at the volume of my voice. I sighed and shook my head, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled like that.”
“No I deserve it. Besides you’re right. That was probably the absolute worst thing I could have done. I just felt like I was missing out on life because I was always with you in your room, comforting you because you felt like everything was ending.”
“Everything was ending, Ash! My mom, who I loved and cared about very much, couldn’t even tell me if she was going to be there for my birthday, let alone graduation! And I thought I had you! I thought I had your support! I thought that you would be there for me! And you were! For the most part anyway, you always came when I called. You always knew what to say, or even what not to say. Ashley…I thought we would be together through it all,” my voice was soft when I asked her questions she had probably asked herself a million times, “Could you imagine how I felt when the one person who I thought would be holding my hand through the pain wouldn’t pick up my calls? Could you imagine how I felt when the next day you show up, and I was relieved to see you because I thought you would make the pain disappear, but you only made it a million times worse? Could you imagine how I felt when I realized that I had nothing left?” I stopped walking and turned to look over at Ashley who had silent tears running down her face.
My emotions were running wild. I hadn’t ranted like this, not angry and pissed off like this, to anyone. Last night I had let the pain and sadness overcome me when I told Maria what happened. But this was completely different. This was pure anger, directed at my ex-girlfriend who thought saying she was sorry would fix the whole thing.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what else to say,” she said, pleading with me with her eyes to calm down and forgive her.
“Maybe there isn’t anything you are supposed to say. Ash, maybe all you can do is be sorry and hope one day that I forgive you. But that day sure as hell won’t be soon, I’ll tell you that much. Tell the others I’ll be back by noon. I’m gonna go for a run.”
With that I left Ashley, alone and crying on the beach outside my house as I ran to the one person who I knew could help me figure out everything I was feeling.
~~~
“She literally just said I’m sorry!? That’s it!? Sorry doesn’t fix everything! You can’t just expect people to forgive you after only saying two words, well technically three because one is hyphenated but that’s not the point! The point is that she just- ugh! I don’t even know what to describe her as! I hate her though! I’ll tell you that much!” Maria ranted after I finished my story of the morning’s events.
“Yeah and I got pretty mad at her…she looked at me like she thought I was going to punch her or something,” I said as I fell back from my sitting position on her bed to laying on my back and staring at the ceiling, remembering the look of fear that flashed through Ashley’s eyes before I apologized.
“Evan,” Maria said as she crawled onto her bed and sat criss cross next to me and placed her hands on my chest. “You have every right to be angry at her and I know you would never hurt someone intentionally unless you had good reason to.”
“Yeah, but I still should have had better control of my anger. I guess just seeing her again made all of those feelings come back,” I said with my eyes closed, trying to get the image of Ashley out of my mind.
I felt Maria lean over me but I kept my eyes closed. Her hair fell over my chest and neck and I could feel her breath on my cheek before she whispered in my ear, “Evan Thompson, you are the most kind-hearted person I have ever met despite what has happened to you recently and you shouldn’t beat yourself up for reacting the way you did, okay?” she finished as she kissed my cheek and hovered over my face to see my response.
Without opening my eyes I cupped her face in my hands and brought her soft lips to mine. I tangled my fingers in her hair and uttered, “You always know exactly what to say to make me feel better,” against her lips before asking, “Are you ready to meet my friends?”
She grinned down at me and replied confidently, “Of course!”
We walked hand in hand down the beach back to my house and I laughed out loud when I saw what was going on. Nick was blindfolded and was walking around screaming “Marco!” and waiting for Ben, Tessa, Ashley, Tommy or Jack to reply “Polo!”.
“Are they playing Marco Polo? Outside of the pool?” Maria asked, confused.
“Yep! Hey I have an idea! You go stand right next to Nick, the one with the blindfold on, and say ‘Polo’ the next time he says Marco. He won’t recognize your voice! It’ll be hilarious!” I told her and I pushed her slightly over to wear Nick was feeling around on a chair that Tommy was hiding behind.
Maria walked over quietly and soon Nick yelled out, “Marco!”
She leaned closer so that she was standing directly behind Nick. “Polo,” I heard her say with a sneaky smile on her lips.
I went and stood behind her, trying my best to hold in my laughter at my best friend’s confused face.
“Wait…who was that? Not Ashley, your voice was too sweet…Not Tessa because I am pretty sure she is off gettin’ it on with Ben-“
“Rude!” I heard Tessa call out from her perch next to Ben on the fence.
“See, not Tessa…so who are you mystery girl?” Nick asked.
“Take your blindfold off man and meet her,” I told Nick and instantly he ripped it off dramatically and looked at Maria intently.
“Well hello beautiful!” Nick said taking Maria’s hand and stepping closer, “My name is Nick and I am this bastard’s best friend,” he said nodding his head in my direction. “And who might you be?” Nick asked, turning on the full charm. If only every girl he met realized what a crazy goofball he was; Nick should just spare them the trouble and show them that side when the meet. Maybe that way he could find someone who could tolerate his antics.
“I’m Maria Mancini. It’s nice to meet you,” she said smiling back at him, amused at his facial expression on intense interest in her.
“Nick, Maria is my girlfriend,” I told him, loving the fact that I could say that with so much reassurance, wrapping my arm around her waist and stepping up next to her.
Nick dropped Maria’s hand and took a step back before raising his face to the sky and proclaiming, “Everyone! Listen up! Evan has a girlfriend! A B-E-A-U-T-FUL girlfriend!”
Maria laughed and I had to join in as well. Tess and Ben strolled up and each introduced themselves to Maria.
Tommy and Jack emerged and started telling Ben and Tess about how great Maria was which was the sweetest thing ever. To hear your little brothers adore your girlfriend and want to tell people about it just made me realize how good Maria and my relationship was for everybody, not just us.
“Hey, where’d Ash go?” Nick asked, bringing me back to reality.
“Uh…she probably doesn’t want to see me,” I explained giving my friend a sympathetic smile, but relieved she had retreated off somewhere. Who knows how Ash would take meeting Maria since she wasn’t aware I had a girlfriend when she decided to come down.
“Well, guess she is missing lunch! Let’s go somewhere! I am starving!” Nick announced as he walked back toward the house, presumably out to their car so he could get some much needed food.
We all filed through the house and I told my dad we were off the lunch. He asked where to and Maria suggested we go to Pelican’s Point. I agreed and everyone else said they were up for anything.
“Ashley came through here about five minutes ago and asked if I could tell you that she went on a bike ride. I guess she found an old bike in the garage or something,” my dad told us before waving us off since Nick was getting impatient.
The crew had come down in a van and since Maria and I knew where we were going, I drove and she rode shotgun. Ben and Tess snagged the back seat so they could sit close together and Nick rode solo in the middle.
We arrived soon and when we entered the restaurant we were greeted by none other than Billy. “Maria! Evan! So nice to see you two! Come on in! And I see you brought some friends!”
“Yes Billy, we have some newbies here who need to get acquainted with your fabulous food,” Maria told him giving him a quick hug. “Everyone, this is Billy. He is the owner of this restaurant and he makes THE BEST crab cakes,” Maria told my friends quickly before we were ushered to our table.
“What can I get ya’ll to drink?” Billy asked first, observing Nick, Tess and Ben.
“I would recommend the lemonade,” I suggested, “It’s homemade and delicious!”
“Sure, lemonade sounds good,” Ben stated and Tessa nodded her head in agreement. Nick just nodded half-heartedly as he looked over the menu.
“Alright, I will be back with a pitcher! I’ll take your order when I get back, although I already know half of it,” Billy said with a pat on Maria’s shoulder as he retreated to the kitchen.
“There are so many good options!” Nick exclaimed, overwhelmed with the amount of food listed on the menu.
“Maria comes here a lot and she has a “regular” order that she always gets with her friends. I had some last time and it had plenty of everything. We could get two orders of that if you want Nick. Don’t worry, there will be enough options to keep you satisfied,” I assured my friend.
“Okay, whatever you say man. But if I am even a tiny bit hungry after this, I am blaming it on you!”
“Trust me, you won’t be,” Maria chimed in with a smile.
Billy arrived back with our drinks and Maria ordered two orders of her regular. Billy nodded and said to Nick, “Don’t worry buddy, you will be amazed at how much food will be on this table when I come back.”
Nick laughed and said, “Bring it on!”
The five of us sipped our lemonade and soon Tess and Maria were talking about clothes or something girl related, and Nick, Ben and I were dying laughing over stories of the last time we had all had lunch like this; which was at the local pizza place in town and we had asked for the biggest possible pizza to be made and we would pay $50 for it with all the toppings they had. Needless to say, the pizza took up two whole tables and we were eating leftovers days later.
“Hey, Tess and I are going to run to the bathroom real quick, be right back,” Maria told me, sweetly kissing my cheek and leading the way for Tess.
Once they were safely out of earshot, Ben said, “Dude! Why didn’t you tell us you had a girlfriend!”
“Yeah man, she is smokin’ too! I would brag about her to anyone that would listen!” Nick added, downing his glass of lemonade in one gulp.
“She isn’t something I want to brag about, I want to let her do that for herself. She is “smokin’” as you say Nick and I guess I didn’t tell you guys because it was nice, just getting away and having something special, ya know?”
“I hear ya, Ev. You feel like if you told someone about her it wouldn’t be real, you would wake up from the kick ass dream you were having, right?” Ben asked, leaning back in his chair.
“Exactly! I didn’t want to ruin it,” I agreed.
“Ok! Enough of this talk about “feelings”! Tell me Ev, how is she?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, confused. How is she what?
“You know, how is she? She seems a little young, but the younger the better!”
“Nick what are you talking about?” I asked, looking my best friend in the eye.
“He is talking about sex,” Ben explained with a slight smile on his face.
“Nick!” I scolded my best friend, throwing the paper napkin at him.
“What! I am curious!” He defended himself, throwing the napkin back at me.
“I wouldn’t do that Nick! I just met her!” I told him, unable to contemplate how Nick and I became good friends…sometimes he concerned me.
“Curious about what? And what wouldn’t you do? And are you talking about me?” Maria asked from behind me, sitting down next to me and resting her hand on my knee.
“Nothing! And it’s not like I wouldn’t do it…just not yet…” I explained. Ben burst out laughing at my confession which only confused Maria more.
“Just forget about it Maria, knowing these boys, they could have been talking about flying to the moon or some other crazy thing,” Tess told her giving her a knowing smile. Tessa had hung out with us enough to know when to ask and when to just let it go.
“And that’s why we love to have you around, you tolerate our craziness,” Ben told her sweetly, wrapping his arms around her shoulder and bringing her closer to him so he could kiss her temple.
“Ok, I really need to get a girlfriend! Maria, you got any hot friends?” Nick asked, practically begging.
But before Maria could answer our food arrived and all thoughts on girls were forgotten because Nick had never seen that much food in his life. His mouth was salivating just from seeing it and the whole table cracked up laughing at the look of lust that filled Nick’s eyes when the crab cakes were set in front of him.
We all greedily dug in and we made a sort of game where we all had to try everything once, but that was a hard feat when there was every kind of seafood imaginable laid out before us.
“Evan, try this,” Maria instructed as she held a leg of something up to my face. I snapped at it with my teeth and caught it, chewed and swallowed. It had some sort of buttery garlic seasoning that was to die for.
“That was amazing! Where is that at?” I asked searching the table for more.
“It’s the crab legs; I think Nick has the last plate hidden over by him.
“Nick! Give me some crab legs!” I pleaded, reaching over towards him and barely being able to touch the edge of the dish.
“No! Those are my favorite!” Nick exclaimed, greedily shoving as many legs into his mouth as he could.
“Not fair!” I pouted and turned back towards my girlfriend, who was suspiciously hunched over her plate.
“Maria?” I questioned, knowing she was hiding something.
“Mm-es?” she mumbled, still not looking up at me.
“What’ya got there babe?” I interrogated, sneaking my hand to her plate.
“Nuttin’” she said looking up at me with the final crab leg in hand, about to stick it in her mouth.
“That’s the last one! You made Nick a diversion! Please, can I have it? I only got to have one, and those are my favorite,” I pleaded, clasping my hands in front of me for dramatic effect.
“I thought the crab cakes were your favorite?” Ben taunted me, holding a basket of them up for me to see.
“Ugh! Why does this have to be so difficult?” I cried out, moving my eyes from the last crab leg to the basket with four glorious crab cakes.
“I’d say go with the crab cakes, there are more of them,” Tess tried to help giving me an indifferent smile as she chowed down on the shrimp. She didn’t have to worry because she was the only one that really like shrimp. Everyone else was a crab person.
“I’d agree with Tess,” Maria said as she chomped on the last crab leg and gave me a victorious smirk.
“Way to distract me Tess!” I whined, reaching for my consolation prize, the crab cakes. Ben tossed them at me and laughed along with his girlfriend. They gave each other a high five like their mission of not giving me what I wanted was complete.
Billy came back then with another pitcher of lemonade and told us, “You guys have a good day, the food’s on the house.”
“Billy! That’s not necessary! We can pay it,” she said reaching for her money.
“Seriously Billy, I’ve got this for everyone,” I said pulling out my wallet.
“No man, you’re the birthday boy this week! We are paying for you!” Ben argued, pulling out his own money.
Tess agreed and looked over at Nick who just said, “If someone is paying for me then thanks!”
We all chuckled but turned serious in our efforts to pay for the food.
“No no no, you kids are great and I enjoy having you here, the least I could do is pick up the tab,” Billy said gratefully, backing away from the table.
“Billy! At least take some money…consider it a donation? Give it to charity?” Maria asked, handing him a twenty, only about a quarter of the bill.
“Well…you know I love charity…” Billy allowed, contemplating whether to take it or not.
“We love charity too,” I said, handing him two more twenties and Ben adding in the last twenty to cover the whole cost of the meal.
“Charity,” Billy stated, pocketing the money and giving us all smiles.
“Charity,” Maria and I chorused back.
He thanked us all one last time, giving Maria another hug and me a solid handshake before he left.
“I like him,” Tess stated as we filed out of the restaurant with leftover boxes in hand.
“Everyone does,” Maria told her.
-----------------
When we got back to the house, Ashley was sitting out on the beach just staring at the ocean. The whole group decided to join her and spend the rest of the day lounging on the beach and just having fun.
“Hey Ash, can I introduce you to someone?” I asked, as I reached out a hand to help her up and take her over to Maria who was throwing a frisbee with my brothers.
Ashley took my hand and wiped the sand off of her silently as she followed behind me. “Maria, can you come over here for a second?”
“Sure, what’s up?” she asked, bounding over through the sand. When she saw who was next to me, realization dawned in her eyes and she became a little more hesitant.
“Maria, this is Ashley. Ashley, this is Maria, my girlfriend,” I said, placing my right hand on the small of Maria’s back for comfort and to make my point. Ashley needed to realize that it was over between us, and whatever her reason for coming down here was, it wasn’t going to be us getting back together.
“Nice to meet you Maria. I’m sure you’ve heard all about me, but I have heard nothing about you! Would you like to go for a little walk down the shoreline with me? Get to know each other a little bit?” Ashley asked, all smiles.
Maria looked unsure and looked to me for guidance. I didn’t know what to do. Ashley seemed genuinely interested in getting to know Maria, but she probably had other motives. I looked into Maria’s eyes, trying to convey my message of ‘You don’t have to do this’ but she surprised me when she nodded her head, gave me a quick kiss on my cheek and walked towards Ashley and said, “I’d love to, let’s go!”
I was left sinking in the sand watching my ex-girlfriend and my current girlfriend walk down the beach together. I wasn’t sure if I should be glad they were talking or worried that one would come back crying.
“Evan! Come help us burry Nick!” I heard Tommy yell and when I turned around I saw Ben and Tess pinning Nick to the ground as Tommy and Jack scooped buckets of sand on top of him.
“How could I pass that up?” I joked running over and using my arms as shovels to bury Nick’s thrashing legs.
--------------
Maria’s POV:
“So your Evan’s girlfriend huh?” Ashley asked as we slowly meandered down the beach.
“Yeah…” I wasn’t sure what to say after that so I just let my ‘Yeah’ hang in the afternoon air.
“Somehow I just knew he had met someone. Sitting home in Lake Shang…I just knew he would meet a beautiful southern girl and fall for her,” Ashley said, almost as if she was angry with herself.
“Is that why you came down here? To see if he had a girlfriend?” I asked tentatively. I didn’t want her to think I was prying even though I was dying to know why she came.
“Yes and no,” she said and sighed, “I came because I wanted to apologize—“
“That went well didn’t it?” I said sarcastically before realizing how rude that sounded, “Sorry, I—“
“No, it’s fine. You were who he went running off to, weren’t you?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
“Yeah, I live on the beach a little ways down,” I admitted, pointing in the direction I meant.
“Oh so you’re rich?” Ashley quipped, and turned her all knowing eyes towards me.
“My family has worked hard for the money we have. What does me being “rich”,” I air-quoted, “have to do with anything?”
“Oh nothing,” Ashley stated indifferently.
“Ashley, look. I know you don’t like the fact that I am Evan’s girlfriend, but you don’t know me. I, on the other hand, have heard plenty about you and quite frankly I am surprised I haven’t slapped you yet,” I said, my voice rising and my heart speeding up. I couldn’t believe she had the nerve to talk to me like I was only Evan’s girlfriend because my family had money.
“I don’t like you because you are ruining everything I had! I had Evan and we loved each other. No matter what he has told you about me, I loved him! And he loved me too!”
“Then why weren’t you there when he needed you the most? Why weren’t you there for him when his mom died?” I questioned, tears in my eyes because I hated the fact that she left Evan when all he needed was someone to hold him, someone to tell him it would be okay.
“My parents wouldn’t let me! They told me Evan wasn’t good for me and they LOCKED me in my room! They took away my phone so I didn’t know his mom had passed away until the next day! I swear every day I wish I could have been there for him, you have to believe me!” She pleaded, and slowly I felt my anger fade away. Something about the way her eyes were looking at me made me believe she was telling the truth.
“Why didn’t you tell him that?” I asked cautiously, not quite sure what she was going to say next. We had stopped in our tracks and were at a standoff in the rising tide.
“I don’t know…I guess I was embarrassed? I mean, my parents had always loved Evan, treated him like family and I didn’t think he would believe me if I told him they hadn’t let me come see him. But there was another reason…” she trailed off and somehow I knew that reason was worse.
“What do you mean?” I questioned softly, seeing a single tear fall down her tanned cheek.
Her blue eyes rose up to meet my brown ones and in that one look, I had no doubt she really did love Evan. It was written clearly on her face. All the pain Evan went through in losing his mom and Ashley, Ashley went through the same pain of losing him.
“There was another reason I broke up with him, and that is that I felt like my parents were right. That night when I was alone in my room, I read a book, and it was just the fact that I could read a book and not be worried about whether or not Evan was going to start crying next to me. The fact that I was free. I could do whatever I wanted. I could sing and dance and be happy. I hadn’t felt like that in awhile because of the way Evan’s life was going. That night I looked up a therapist that I thought Evan could go to, at that point I hadn’t known his mom had died yet, I just thought the therapist could help him deal with his pain, and I printed off his card. I thought I would be helping Evan, by breaking up with him. Somehow I thought he would be better off just focusing on his family and I would be better off without him dragging me down. Now I realize how stupid that was and I hate myself every day for doing it,” she finished and two more tears made their way down her cheeks.
I was thoroughly shocked. I had never thought off how Ashley would have felt through the whole mess. The fact that her parents kept her at home that night just made it that much worse.
“I’m sorry,” was all I could come up with as reached out and gave the petite girl a hug. She gave me a quick hug before she stepped back and said, “I’m sorry too. I should have known he would meet some amazing girl. I mean you clearly care about him. For a second there I really did think you were going to slap me,” she admitted with a short laugh.
“I thought about it,” I joked, laughing with her. “No seriously, I’m sorry for judging you. I should have known there was some reason behind what you did and it was wrong of me to be so angry at you when I didn’t know the full story,” I apologized giving her a weak smile.
“No it’s fine! I would have reacted the same way! Besides, you seem like a much better girlfriend to Evan then I ever was,” she admitted as she pulled me back towards Evan’s house.
“Why do you say that?” I asked, intrigued by her statement.
“Oh just the way you act and the way Evan is. You two are alike and have the same morals. It fits you guys to be together.”
“Thank you. I know you don’t really know me and that must be hard to say to your ex-boyfriends new girlfriend,” I said gratefully.
“You’re welcome, but can you do me a favor?”
“Sure, what is it?” I agreed willingly. We were approaching the rest of the group and Ashley stopped me by grabbing my forearm.
“Can you keep this whole conversation between you and me? I want Evan to know the truth about why I wasn’t there and why I broke up with him, but I want him to hear it from me. Do you think you can do that for me?” she pleaded.
“I’ll try, maybe I’ll even put in a good word for ya or something,” I told her with a smile. She seemed a lot sweeter than I originally pegged her to be. I only wish this was really her and not some façade she was putting on to get me to like her.
“Thank you! Now let’s go see what these dimwits are up to!” she said taking my hand and running with me back to where Nick was completely covered in sand so only his face was above and everyone else was laughing and taking pictures with him.
Evan was looking as hot as ever without his shirt on and chasing after the twins who stole his phone. Somehow I had ended up spending my summer with him and his friends. I knew that tomorrow Ryan and Rach would fit right in and we would all have a wonderful time together.
Thank you again for reading! PLEASE comment and tell me what you thought!! good or bad!! :)