The Crush (2 page)

So here I was going to finish off my senior year in a town with a population of about 15,000. Obviously there was something wrong with the town, it was situated right on the gulf, just a short drive to Florida and no one wanted to live there. I had been to visit a few times before and the only thing I ever found interesting was the beach, maybe I’ll just camp out there.

At least I would know one soul, my cousin Collins who was the same age as me. We hadn’t ever been close since we lived so far away but we always seemed to get along well on my visits. I wondered if she changed much. The last time I had seen her was when we were 14 and both in that awkward stage of developing, even then she fit perfectly into the cheerleader mold.

We both had the same honey colored hair and wide green eyes. But that was where the similarities ended. Where I was tall like my dad as my mom told me all the time, Collins was short and petite maybe like her dad too but she never knew him so I could only guess. He had taken off when my Aunt Gracie informed him that she was pregnant and I don’t think she talked about him much to Collins. It didn’t seem to affect Collins much though. Sometimes she was so happy it was depressing.

“Trust me you’ll like Bayside. Their good people there and it has a small town feel that’s hard to find right on the ocean. Most of the time those places are overrun by tourists and people hate to live there. I’ll show you around a bit to some of the places me and your Aunt Gracie used to hang around at when we were your age, I’m sure there all still around. You’ll fit in well enough Wynn.”

She leaned over to tug on my high ponytail that I had haphazardly thrown up after changing my clothes at the rest stop. One thing was for sure I could not wait to get out of this smelly truck.

“If this place is so great how come you left?”

My mom let out a snort that was far from lady like. I noticed she hadn’t been so prim and proper since the ‘incident’.

“I was young honey and stupid. I wanted to get as far away as I could after your daddy passed away, everywhere I went reminded me of him. Richard whisked me away and I never looked back.”

“A lot of good that did ya.”

We hadn’t spoken to Richard since that day and even though he had a lot of pull around the small town we lived in with being a lawyer, mom was still able to get a restraining order against him for the both of us. So I said goodbye to my comfortable life and left Suzy behind. I didn’t want anything that man had given to me. Not that I needed it where we were going according to my mom.

Bayside apparently liked to do things old school and since it was barely more than a blip on the map, the town didn’t even have street lights. A few of the residents had cars but most of them drove pimped out golf carts.

“I know honey, trust me I’ll live with many regrets for the rest of my life. But we get to start fresh, doesn’t that sound like fun?”

Oh yes mom a total blast but I was guess it was better than the alternative.

“Wynnie!” A bubbly voice squealed through my cracked window and I peeled my eyes open against the glaring sun beating down on me through the windshield. My door was whipped open and a small set of arms grabbed me before I tumbled out to my untimely death where my head hit the cement of the driveway.

“Uh hey Collins. How’s it going?”

“I’m so excited you’re here! We are going to have so much fun being roomies!” She squealed again before wrapping me in a tight hug and smacking a wet kiss on my cheek, leaving a sticky swipe of gloss behind while I let my arms hang limply. I was really not into the whole touching thing anymore.

“C’mon, Grams can’t wait to see you and I’ll show you our room.”

She pulled me along by my hand and I was barely able to get a glimpse of my surroundings but I was able to catch the drift of the sea breeze coming in off the coast. Grams and my granddaddy had landed a prime piece of real estate overlooking the gulf before properties started going through the roof. And although their house was no mansion it was still a nice sized beach cottage that I always felt so comfortable in. It would definitely take some getting used to, not having my own space.

“There you are darlin’. Let me take good lookin’ atch ya,” Grams said as Collins pulled me into the kitchen and I was instantly assaulted by the scent of fresh baked peach pie. I knew that smell well, my mom said most of her recipes were ones she learned from Grams and helping out at the small diner that the family owned.

Grams held me at arms length, her clear blue eyes quickly taking in my appearance and I self consciously tugged at the sleeve of my long sleeve shirt. There wasn’t much damage from the ‘incident’ unless you looked really closely. One scar on my lip from where my teeth had cut straight through and another scar on my wrist. Who knows how long the emotional damage would last though, I think that’s something I would live with for the rest of my life.

“Well nothin’ a little lovin’ can’t solve dear,” Grams said in her thick southern drawl before placing a swift kiss on my cheek, careful not to touch any other part of me. Mom most of at least talked to her about the whole touching thing.

 “Now how about you let Collins here show you to your room and you can freshen up before supper?”

“Sure, thanks Grams.”

I trailed behind Collins who led me through the small living room that had a beach theme running through it with white washed paneling on the walls and overstuffed pale blue couches with throw pillows adorned with pastel star fish. Seashells and sandollars covered almost every surface, most of which me and Collins had collected over the years.

“Here it is,” Collins stated with a flourish as she swung the door open at the end of the hallway. I stepped in and took in my surroundings. Definitely not as big as my old room and there would be two people in this one but it wasn’t bad. Two twin beds were stuffed into each corner, separated by an oversized white desk with chairs for each of us. The walls were a sage green and the comforters on each bed matched in a crisp white with small flowers dotted along the edges.

“Do you like it?” Collins asked with a small smile, clasping her hands together like she was nervous about what my answer would be.

“Of course, I just hope I’m not invading your space too much.” It was definitely something I had discussed with mom. What teenage girl would really want a roommate to take over her closet space?

Collins smile grew even bigger and I noticed the way her green eyes lit up at my response. My eyes used to do that too, now whenever I glanced in the mirror it looked like all the life had been sucked out, leaving them dull and empty.

“No it’s perfect. I’ve always wanted a sister and you’re as close as it gets, right? Besides Grams let me redecorate once we found out you were coming, so this is all new. It was a lot of fun to pick out the paint and new bedspreads. I moved some of my clothes aside in the closet so you should have plenty of space and an extra dresser is supposed to be delivered on Monday, so you’ll have that to yourself too.

I’m so excited we’re going to school together. You’ll love Gulf Shores High, everyone there is so nice and I know you’ll fit in perfectly Wynn. You’ll be able to meet up with some of my friends tomorrow too, I figured it would be nice to know a few people before you started school on Monday so we planned to get together at the beach, is that all right?”

Collins finally took a breath and looked back at me with her wide green eyes. Yup still the perky cheerleader I remembered, talking a mile a minute and barely taking a break in between sentences. At least Gulf Shores High sounded nice I guess. I was definitely worried that I would be walking into a scene from
Mean Girls
but I knew Collins wouldn’t ditch me and I bet she was right on top of the food chain at that school.

“Um yeah that all sounds good, thanks.”

After dragging a few boxes of my things in and hanging up some clothes, I took a quick shower in the bathroom that was attached to our room, shoving all of Collins girly scents from bath and body works to one side and making room for my basic body wash and shampoos. The vanity was littered with every kind of makeup imaginable and I sat my small makeup bag on the corner. I slid on a pair of jeans and a black hoodie before heading out to the dining room where Grams, Collins, Aunt Gracie and my mom were already seated at waiting for me to begin dinner.

“Wynn it’s so great to see you, I’m glad you and your mama finally made it,” Aunt Gracie said from her side of the table where she was sitting next to Collins. Looking at her sitting straight across from my mom was like looking into a mirror. They were twins and it was sometimes hard to tell them apart. They both had blonde hair, a petite frame, and matching heart shaped faces. Other than the mole under my moms left eye, a stranger wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

“Now sit down sugar next to your mama, we already got your plate all fixed up. Figured you were hungry after that long journey and you look like you need some meat on your bones.”

Grams took a quick bite off her own plate, closing her eyes to savor the taste. I glanced down at the plate that was heaped to the brim in front of me with a few things I couldn’t even identify. At least I recognized the fried chicken as I picked it up to take a small bite. Mmm heaven.

“Those are grits there,” my mom pointed with her spoon to a white glob that kind of resembled runny mashed potatoes, “and those are fried okra. Try it all, you’ll love everything honey.”

If I started to eat this way every day I was surely going to turn into a blimp and wouldn’t be able to make it out the front door but mom was right I was in love with it all and cleaned every last crumb off my plate before Grams brought in peach pie for dessert. Seriously how was I going to eat that too but there was no way I could pass it up.

“Isn’t it great that all of us gals are here together now?” Grams asked as she passed the dessert plates around and placed a dollop of ice cream ontop of the still warm pie so it melted just a little. Mmm gooey yumminess. “Who needs men around right girls?”

We all nodded our heads in agreement. I was thinking that very same thing before Grams brought it up. Who needs guys after all? I surely wasn’t having one in my life ever again.

“You ready for the beach?” Collins asked as she pulled her cover up over her two piece bright yellow bikini that contrasted nicely with her deep golden tan and perched her oversized sunglasses on top of her head. I looked down at my pasty skin and tried to cover it up as much as possible with my long sleeve shirt.

“Um I have no clue where my bathing suit is, so I think I’ll just wear this.” Collins quirked an eyebrow at me and the corners of her full lips pulled up slightly.

“Really Wynn? You know we’re going to the beach, right? I think sweatpants and long sleeve shirts are banned there or something. I’m sure I have one that’ll fit you well enough, covering everything that’s important for the most part.”

 She began to rifle through her drawers, pulling out about ten different bathing suits. I guess when you lived right ontop of the ocean, your wardrobe consisted of a lot of those.

“Here,” she said as she tossed a wadded up pink ball to me. “This should be perfect, meet me in the kitchen, I’m going to grab our basket Grams made up for us.”

I slowly made my way back into the bathroom and pulled the bikini on. At least it had a ruffled skirt bottom so that helped to cover up a bit of my curves but Collins was definitely a lot smaller than me up top and I tried to pull the pink triangles over as much as I could but there was still some major spillage. I grabbed a tshirt on my way out and pulled it over my top before throwing my hair up into a messy bun.

“Ready?” Collins asked as she grabbed a wicker picnic basket and I nodded my head towing our oversized bag behind us with our beach towels packed into it and followed her through the sliding glass door that led out to a small path of sand lined with tall beach grass, straight out to the beach.

Collins plopped our stuff down right next to two girls who were already sprawled out onto beach towels side by side.

“Hey girls, this is my cousin Wynn I was telling y’all about. Wynn this is Tessa Grimes,” she motioned with her hand to the girl in a bright purple skimpy bikini who had black hair that reached to the middle of her back and an exotic look to her with dark skin and almond shaped eyes. She threw a small wave at me before pushing her sunglasses back down and rolling over onto her stomach.

“And this is Hallie Schick.” The girl with the chin length blond hair popped up and gave me a quick hug before Collins gave her a sharp shake of her head and she pulled back slightly. She must have gotten the talk after attacking me when I got here yesterday.

“It’s so good to meet you Wynn. Collins here has been talkin’ our ears off ever since she found out you were comin’.”

She leaned forward and whispered into my ear so the other girls couldn’t hear some top secret information that she was about to share after only meeting me about a minute before.

 “I’m kinda the third wheel around here with these two,” she motioned with her thumb back to Collins and Tessa who were scrolling through an iPod, sharing a set of ear buds and flipping through a magazine together.

“So it’s great to have you here. C’mon we need to work on your tan girl.”

After some convincing the girls finally talked me into pulling my shirt off, I guess I needed a tan so I could fit in around here.

Collins pulled out chicken salad sandwiches along with chocolate chip cookies for each of us that Grams had made early that morning before heading out to the Wakefield Diner that she owned. Mom had gone with her and Aunt Gracie to see if she could be of any help. I really wasn’t sure what she was planning on doing to support us now.

“So what did you do for fun back home Wynn? Were you involved in any sports or anything like that?” Hallie asked in between sips of her coke and then wedged it into a hole she had dug out in the sand.

“I really didn’t do too much. I basically went to school and back home, occasionally hanging out with friends. I danced for awhile but I stopped taking classes right before we moved here. There really isn’t much to do in Michigan, compared to here.” I answered back, motioning to the wide expanse of glimmering blue water in front of us. I breathed in the salty air that seemed to have a bit of a calming effect on me and knew I could get used to living here pretty quickly.