by Sarah Turtle
Willa glared at the overly excited Megan through heavily lidded eyes. “Take it down a notch, Meg. I’m just here for some lunch.”
She could feel the scrutiny as Megan took in the current state of her appearance. Willa hung her head over the menu, pretending to be occupied with a decision, although the menu hadn’t changed at all from how she remembered it. She was all too aware of the fact that her wavy hair was a disheveled mess that a hair tie couldn’t even tame, and her clothes were riddled with wrinkles, obviously because she had slept in them.
“Oh honey, you had a rough night, huh? Don’t worry, I can fix you up with a good meal, and that will give me plenty of time to talk you into making a grand appearance at the school tonight.”
“Ugh, if you say it like that, I definitely won’t go. I want to remain as unnoticed as possible.” Willa rested the weight of her head in her hands. “Is the reunion really going to be held at the high school?”
“Of course. Where else would they be able to fit us all in one place in this town? They wouldn’t spring for the cost of renting a location for us to use.”
“I’ll take the club sandwich with an orange juice, and you’re going to have to do a much better job of trying to talk me into going, because it just keeps sounding worse by the minute.”
Megan jotted down the order on a pad of paper and delivered it to the kitchen staff before returning to the bar. She filled a glass of water with ice and handed it to Willa. “There must be some people that you want to reconnect with after all these years.”
Willa shrugged. “It was nice talking to both you and Shannon again.”
“You’re referring to Dr. Martin, right?” Megan exploded with laughter. “I told her that just because she went to school for eight more years than I did, so that she’d be qualified to stick a plastic tube in my private parts, does not mean that I’m going to stop calling her by the name she had written on her desk in kindergarten, sitting next to me.”
Willa joined her in laughter, and by the time her stomach was hurting from bursting with happiness, she was already feeling the effects of the medication easing out of her system. “Shannon said that I should go tonight too,” Willa mentioned after the giggles subsided.
“Well, there, you have the recommendation from a doctor. If a bartender can’t convince you, listen to the professional.”
“Let’s say that I did decide to go. I didn’t really pack anything appropriate to wear for the occasion.”
“Oh please, you’re from New York City. Your pajamas are more glamorous than my Sunday best, and you have to admit that half the guys there will walk in wearing flannel shirts and smelling like lobster bait.” Again, the two women erupted into belly rolling laughter that echoed off the walls of the bar.
Megan took off behind the kitchen door and came back balancing a tray with a plate of food and fresh squeezed orange juice. Willa reached for a fry before the dish could make it out of Megan’s hand. “I should just open up a tab for the week, because I know that I’ll be eating here a lot.”
“Are you planning on staying for a while?”
“At least until I get my father’s house ready to put on the market, and at the rate I’ve been going, it might take longer than I expected.”
“If there’s anything I can do to help, just ask.”
Willa felt her chest get tight in a way that it would when sadness started to creep in, but this time she felt as though feeling like someone genuinely cared for her brought it on. Sure, there were people in her life that she knew would come to her rescue if she called on them to help her out, but most of them were acquaintances in the book or film industry who relied on her creativity for their own careers to thrive. She couldn’t help but wonder if they would be so quick to help her if she weren’t supporting their paychecks. This woman in front of her, though, was willing to offer her time and support without anything in return, and that meant more to Willa than she could ever begin to express. “I wish we had been closer friends back when we were in school.” Willa tried to hide the emotions welling up in her eyes by adjusting the layers in her sandwich so that they stacked up perfectly before taking a bite.
“Let’s make a fresh start tonight, back at the same building where it all began. Of course, this time I won’t need to bribe you to write my English papers for me.”
Willa nearly choked on her orange juice. “I almost forgot. You tried to offer me rides home on that old rusty electric scooter for a month, in exchange for a five-page paper.”
“Hey, it was a good deal, at least until Griffin and Brynn found out about it. How was I supposed to know that they’d be so insistent on walking you home from school every day?”
Willa felt overcome with loss as she looked back on all those years of walking home with the Reed twins through the sun, rain, and snow. Her favorite memory was in the pouring rain with Griffin carrying her backpack while she and Brynn huddled under an umbrella together. Despite their efforts, all three of them were drenched by the time they reached Willa’s house. Her dad had mugs of hot cocoa waiting by the fireplace for them when they stumbled in, dripping wet. She came out of the daydream, realizing that Megan was still staring at her, waiting for a response back. “Yeah, we’d been doing that ever since middle school.” She took a bite of her sandwich. “I heard Griffin put an end to your offer.”
“You were nice enough to help me with the paper anyway, but no, it wasn’t Griffin. Brynn approached me in the parking lot and told me that there was no way she’d ever allow you on the back of my scooter. If I remember correctly, she referred to it as a death trap on wheels.”
Willa smiled as she tried to picture the more docile and laid back one of the twins, being protective of her. She closed her eyes for a moment as she slowly chewed the last bite of her meal, in hopes that Megan would leave her alone for a little while to reflect on the new angle of the memory that she had always perceived so differently in the past. Her assumption must have been correct about Megan’s ability to read people and recognize that she needed some space, because Megan stepped aside to wipe the bar clean even if it didn’t need it, and to refill the old man’s beer. By the time that Willa was ready to talk again, it was getting dangerously close to the time that Craig might show up, so she pulled out her wallet from her purse to pay her bill.
Megan rushed over and placed a hand over Willa’s to stop her from taking out the money. “I thought we had a plan to keep an open tab for you while you’re in town?”
“Sure, if that’s okay. It won’t get you in trouble with your boss, will it?”
Megan’s face lit up with a giant grin. “I am the boss. I bought out the original owner a few years ago when he opened a new place in Portland.”
Willa looked at Megan with a nod of pride. “Good for you. This place has the most history in the Cove. I’m glad that it’s in the hands of someone who will honor it well.” Willa dropped her wallet back in her purse. “We will definitely be seeing a lot of each other this week then,” Willa added as she stepped down from the barstool.
“That doesn’t sound very hopeful for you planning on going with me tonight.” Megan added a pouting lip to her conclusion.
Willa let out a deep breath as she seriously considered what she should do. “I’m scared about how Griffin will react to me being there.”
Megan contemplated Willa with a concerned expression. “Are you sure it’s not Brynn that you’re really worried about?”
Willa’s face scrunched up in a grimace as she held back the pain she had been attempting to conceal. She bobbed her head up and down when the words didn’t come out fast enough. Then they escaped from her lips in a whisper, “Yes, I believe you’re right about that.”
Megan threw the towel she was holding down on the counter and made her way around to the other side of the bar. She stood in front of Willa and placed a grounding hand on either one of her shoulders until Willa lifted her head to make eye contact.
“You need to do this, for both you and B
rynn. I promise that I won’t leave your side while we’re there unless you want me to, okay?”
Willa reluctantly nodded in agreement. “Thank you, Meg.”
Chapter Six
Willa left the bar feeling mildly unconfident in the choice she made at the last minute to join Megan at the reunion. Sure, she had thought almost nonstop about it over the past two days, but the fears she had about going far outweighed the reasons why she wanted to be there. The idea crossed her mind that she could always come up with a valid excuse to cancel; she was still grieving the loss of her father, after all. Although, the idea of letting a very excited Megan down seemed to be a much worse consequence than anything that might possibly happen at the party.
The best course of action, she decided, was to ease herself slowly into the concept of seeing Brynn again. The Laurel Cove High School gymnasium was quite large, but there was a huge possibility that they would see each other at least from a distance. Willa didn’t want a repeat of yesterday’s panic attack in front of anyone, especially Brynn. If she could somehow see Brynn without interacting with her, then maybe she could control her emotions better when facing her in person.
Griffin and Brynn’s mother, Jackie, owned the fitness center on the island, Mussels by the Sea. Willa’s father had informed her that years ago, Jackie moved to Florida, like most of the retired Maine residents seeking warmer weather in their later years. The twins had taken over the business in her place. Mussels was a state of the art workout facility both inside and out, equipped with an indoor pool and outside ball courts overlooking the ocean. Many of the residents of Laurel Cove had a membership just to have access to the private beach on the fitness center’s property. If there were one place that Willa might possibly get a glimpse of Brynn, it would be there.
Willa started walking in the direction of the gym, thankful that she had ventured into town by foot instead of taking her car, which would be easily recognized on a road rarely used by anyone not traveling there specifically to use the gym. As Willa wandered further down the cove, land filled with tall trees separated the distance between the houses. The architecture of the houses became more elaborate as well as larger, and exclusively summer residents owned many of them.
As she passed by one of her favorite houses on the road, a tall one constructed of stone with a widow’s peak rising up in the back, she was brought back to a time when she used to stop in front of it with the twins. They would make plans to come back to the island with fortunes amassed after college and careers launched, then they would pitch in to buy the gigantic house to live in together. This memory hit Willa like a punch in the gut. She had done exactly as her dreams planned out, and could easily purchase any one of the homes along the cove, but her friends were lost to her and that hurt more than any amount of money could fix. The remainder of the walk became a bittersweet flashback of memories as she recalled every twist and turn of the road where conversations took place, hands were held, and songs were sung aloud.
When she rounded the bend where the tall wooden sign with Mussels by the Sea engraved into it came into view, Willa paused behind the trunk of a thick oak tree to observe the yard. Griffin’s pickup truck, which she recognized from the other day, was parked in the lot, but he was nowhere to be seen. From the looks of it, the building had expanded in size since she had last been in it. The interior of the fitness center had been comprised of multiple rooms, and she was sure that he would be wherever the weightlifting equipment would be located. Another major difference was that the parking lot was now paved and there was a concrete ramp leading up to the front door at the entrance to the building. It brought a wave of nausea to Willa to think that she was the reason why those changes took place.
She stood in the same spot for many minutes while surveying the activity around the gym. Her hands, supported against the tree, were now sticky with sap and had imprints from the bark marking her palms. Every now and then, someone would walk by the large windows in the front of the building, but she was too far away from the building to recognize the silhouettes that passed.
Just as she was about to give up, Willa picked up on a sound that was out of place. Between the crashing of the waves on the shore, there was a consistent pounding beat like a ticking clock but with longer pauses spaced out in between at times. Willa followed the tree line to stay just out of sight, but made her way to the other side of the fitness center building. The wide-open space was sectioned off with wire fences for basketball courts and tennis courts. The pounding sound was coming from the tennis court where Brynn was playing against another woman.
Willa found a spot to settle in unseen behind a row of pine trees. From this point, she was able to observe Brynn, who was fast in her wheelchair, able to spin on a moment’s notice to hit the ball from every possible angle. Brynn’s muscles protruded from under the straps of her tank top as she stretched the racket out to reach the ball. She had been strong back in her high school years compared to the other girls, but now she had matured into a perfectly sculpted body that mesmerized Willa. She couldn’t help but keep her eyes glued to Brynn’s biceps that glistened with sweat in the heat.
For the most part, Brynn’s back was to Willa, but with every spin that she made, Willa held her breath, wondering if that would be the moment when Brynn might catch sight of her. It never happened, of course, because as in all things sports related with Brynn, her eye was always on the ball. Nothing else surrounding Brynn mattered but the game. Willa never cared much for sports, but watching either of the Reed twins in their element made the mundane act of a game exhilarating to her.
The tennis match stopped briefly as the woman who Brynn was playing against put her hands on her knees to catch her breath. Brynn used that time to wipe her brow with the band on her wrist, but she was practically bouncing with energy in her wheelchair and ready to continue. Her tennis partner went to the corner of the court, rolled out a machine to take her place, and turned it on before walking away. The machine shot out perfect serves to Brynn and Willa once again found that she couldn’t help but be enthralled by the pure strength that emanated from Brynn.
Just when Willa started to come to terms with the idea that she might possibly be able to handle being at the same event with her old friend, a shout broke through the serenity of the moment. “Did you really think that no one would see you hiding there like some sort of creepy stalker?”
Willa spun around to see the woman who had been playing against Brynn on the court. She had been so focused on Brynn that the other person hadn’t mattered to her, but now that she was closer, Willa immediately recognized her as Cassidy, a former teammate of Brynn’s for multiple sports in their school days. Cassidy now stood with her tall, yet stocky stature in front of Willa, causing her to back up towards the direction of the courts and out from the cover of the trees.
“I was just watching you play, that’s all.”
“There were rumors of you being back, but you have no right to be here of all places. Stay away from her.”
Another voice rang out from behind Willa and it made her jump to hear it.
“Cass, it’s okay. Leave her alone.”
Cassidy discovering her was one thing, but the embarrassment of Brynn catching them during their altercation made Willa take off in a rush to escape. She breezed by Cassidy and didn’t slow down until she reached the end of the road. With every step, she thanked herself for the decision to slip on her running shoes that morning. By the time she finally came to a stop and looked down at herself, with wrinkled clothing, sap covered hands, and messy curls falling around her face, she wondered what Brynn must have thought about the disaster that she represented both outside and in.
The remainder of the walk back to the house gave Willa too much time to analyze the interaction between Cassidy and Brynn. Cass had been Brynn’s other half in all things sports related. In softball, they were pitcher and catcher, in basketball they were center and forward, and in soccer they were the strikers. Willa had spent all
of her afternoons watching either Brynn or Griffin in some sort of sporting event, but she was always the one cheering them on from the bench. She was way too awkward when it came to physical games and preferred to be a spectator, often times with her face buried in a book while in the stands. Even after Willa and Griffin became a couple, she sometimes found that she was ever so slightly jealous of the teammate bond that Cass and Brynn had on the field or court. There were moments after an all-out battle in overtime when they would run to each other in elated exhaustion and embrace in an almost painful display of clashing together, which Willa secretly wished she could be a part of.
Seeing that Cass was still playing sports with Brynn twenty years later was frustrating enough, but to have Cass get in her face to defend Brynn was just plain insulting. Willa began to get angry with herself for missing out on years of friendship with Brynn while her competition had apparently never left, and most likely took her place for the title of best friend. As this thought crossed her mind and others took form, Willa stopped dead in her tracks. Could it be possible that Brynn and Cassidy were a couple now?
Willa kicked at the gravel on the side of the road in envy and then just as quickly, got mad at herself for getting upset about that idea. She should want happiness for her friend whose life she had destroyed in a drunken state that would haunt her for the rest of her life. Cass had been there to support Brynn for every catch, pass, and save for all the games they played and it only made sense that she be there for her as a romantic partner as well. She attempted to come to terms with the likelihood of Brynn and Cass being together as she finished her walk back to the house, but it just left her feeling irritated. Stepping into the house filled with the scents of her childhood long past gave her a different kind of sadness to revel in and she couldn’t decide which one hurt more right now.