Because of Sydney (33 page)
T.A. Foster is a Southern girl whose heart and spirit are connected to the beach. She grew up catching rays and chasing waves along the North Carolina Outer Banks and now resides in the state with her husband, three children and canine kiddo.
T.A. has an undergraduate degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a graduate degree in Educational Psychology from Texas A&M University. When she’s not chasing her two-legged and four-legged children or trying to escape for date night, you can find her reading, writing, or planning her next beach trip.
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Get started now on the Kissing Eden Series
“M
iss, you need to go ahead and turn off all of your electronic devices.” The flight attendant smiled while she shoved an overly packed bag into the compartment over my head.
I powered down my phone, and tucked it in the front pocket of my backpack before pushing it under the seat with my feet. The man next to me edged me off the armrest with his elbow. I sighed, realizing the three-hour flight to Houston from Raleigh would not be a comfortable one.
This was not how I pictured the start of my senior spring break. I blamed Brett.
I admit it was slightly reactionary to chop my hair into a shaggy shoulder-skimming do, and maybe I didn’t think through my options as carefully as I should have, but I knew Brett loved my long hair. He would tangle his fingers through it, and beg me to pull it down every time I sported a ponytail. I lashed out at him with the only silent weapon I knew he would notice. Writing take-me-back letters, stalking, crying, or begging weren’t my style.
“I think we’ve grown apart. We’re not the same people we were when we first started dating.” He said that. He actually said those words to me after dating for three semesters, one summer, and a Christmas break.
It was probably the shock of the conversation that kept me from pummeling him in my room. I thought we were going to grab some takeout and watch a movie. We had been planning a trip for spring break. I hadn’t packed a single thing, and we were supposed to leave in three days.
“I thought it was the right thing to do. You know, tell you now instead of trying to make it through a trip together. It’s time for us to end this.” He said it with a smile as if he was doing me a favor.
“Is there someone else?” It was the only question I could put together. My brain tried to wade through the muck of Brett’s words.
“Not exactly. You know, I just want to keep my options open.”
I didn’t know and I was tired of him implying that I understood what he was talking about.
He leaned over and patted me on the back as if I was one of his fraternity brothers. “You’ll get over this, Eden. You know we’ve run our course. It couldn’t last forever.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve gotta go. I’m meeting some of the guys back at the house.”
I could have tried to stop him, but rather than drag out a long breakup discussion, I let him walk out of my room. It was clear there wasn’t anything left to fight for. I walked straight to my bathroom and picked up the scissors.
“You from Texas?” the armrest hog asked.
“Uh. No. Visiting.” I shook the breakup from my mind.
“What part?” He was leaning closer, which I didn’t think was possible with the proximity of our seats.
“South Padre.” I desperately wanted to retrieve my phone and pretend I was busy.
He chuckled. “Yep, it’s that time of year. You must be a spring breaker.”
“I am. I’m meeting lots of friends there.” I paused. “And my boyfriend.” I had to force the last word from my mouth. There were no friends on the other end of this trip and certainly no boyfriend, but he didn’t need to know I was suddenly single.
He reached for the in-flight magazine and flipped through the pages. “Well, have a good time. It’s a week you’ll never forget.” He stopped on an article and his attention shifted away from me.
I didn’t know what I expected from this trip. Solo vacationing had never been my objective and something I had never done, but I wasn’t going to let Brett and his wishy-washy, keep-his-options-open plan stop me from experiencing my senior spring break at the beach. I had let Brett take the reins for way too long.
My parents had paid for my plane ticket as a Christmas gift, and I couldn’t waste it because of him. Of course, now I wish we had planned a spring break with my other friends, but Brett’s cousins had talked him into South Padre. They said the spring breaks on the Texas island were legendary, and Brett wouldn’t pass it up. I could be in a car on my way to Myrtle Beach or Daytona with all the girls, but instead, I was on a plane to Texas, alone and squished next to a nosey, space-invading man.
I leaned back as we taxied to the end of the runway, closed my eyes, and waited for the plane to launch into the air, toward spring break.
Once we landed in Houston, I pulled my backpack from underneath the seat and turned my phone on. I had three missed calls from Brett. I didn’t want to talk to him. My anger toward him suffocated any creeping curiosity about why he was calling after three days of utter silence.
I still had one puddle jumper flight to Brownsville. From there, I would hop on the resort shuttle that would take me to South Padre.
“You be careful, young lady. Those Padre spring breaks can get a little out of control,” the man next to me warned. He had not taken any of my subtle hints.
I smiled, scooted down the aisle, and walked off the plane.
I had enough time between my flights to call Taylor, my roommate at Carolina for the past four years. It was a gamble to go potluck for roommate matching my freshman year, but the only girl from my high school I knew who would be there was the class know-it-all, teachers’ pet, who had no social skills. With the thousands of girls attending Carolina, I was willing to try for a roommate who at least knew what Facebook was. My parents had barely had time to close their car doors behind them before Taylor and I were on our way to Franklin Street for pizza. I knew our friendship was going to last longer than our college years. She was like the sister I never had. I tapped her name on my screen and waited for her to answer.
“Eden! How is Texas? Are you there?”
“Hey. I’m in Houston, waiting for my next flight.” I observed the passengers walking past me. I had never seen so many cowboy boots worn in one place. Everyone had them on.
“We just checked into the hotel and we’re headed to happy hour. You doing ok?”
“Happy hour?” It was only two o’clock. I questioned my usually conservative roommate, who never surpassed a self-imposed two-drink limit.
“It’s spring break. I think it’s happy hour all the time this week. How are you doing? Have you heard from Brett?”
I didn’t want to talk about Brett, but Taylor was worried and I knew she would keep pestering me about him until I could satisfy her concern. If the roles were reversed, I would do exactly the same thing. “He called three times when I was in the air, but I haven’t talked to him. I don’t want to.”
“I get that but, what if you run into him in Padre? Don’t you two need to talk?” I could hear girls screaming in the background.
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“I know you’re being strong, but you don’t have to pretend for me. You’ve got to be worried about seeing him. Admit that at least.”
I wasn’t willing to admit anything. My emotions seesawed between numbness and anger. Taylor had tried to talk me out of the trip, but it didn’t work. I needed to focus on something to keep me from thinking about what Brett had said. Packing, boarding a flight, and making my way to my spring break destination kept me from fixating on what happened between us.
“I’m fine. Stop worrying about me. South Padre is going to be the perfect vacay to get over that asshole. I couldn’t dream up a better way to forget him.” I smiled into the phone.
“He is
such
an asshole. Do I need to write a list for you of all the stuff he did? It might be just what you need. I read in a Cosmo article somewhere that if you make a list of all of the bad things in your relationship it will help with closure. If you need me to start it, I’d put how he backed out as your plus one for your cousin’s wedding right at the last minute as number one. He was probably the worst boyfriend ever.”
Taylor always had my back whether or not she liked my relationship with Brett. “Thanks for the offer, but I have the memories, unfortunately.”
“I bet you could still change your flight. Why don’t you fly back and we’ll spend our senior spring break together—like we should have planned all along before Brett hijacked it. It’s just not the same without you here.”
Taylor’s words struck a guilty nerve.
“I have to go. My flight is boarding for Brownsville. I just wanted to see if you made it to Myrtle Beach. Tell the girls I said, hey.”
“Ok, but call me when you get to the resort. And good luck.” She hung up, and I stood facing the gate, realizing for the first time that the flight was full of other spring breakers.
While I was on the phone with my friend, the small waiting area had accumulated college students from all over the country, with only one thing on their minds: a weeklong party.
I found an open seat and waited for the desk attendant to call my row. I only needed to make it through this one little flight, and then I’d be on my way to the resort. I could sort things out there. The beach, sun, and a fruity drink were calling my name.
At home, it was still cold and I was tired of wearing scarves and hats. A week at the beach was the perfect escape from the dreariness of March and the memories of Brett’s breakup. Taylor was right. I could fill an entire page of all the disappointing stunts Brett had managed to accomplish while we dated.
“Passengers waiting to board flight two-two-eight-one with nonstop service to Brownsville, we apologize for the inconvenience, but the flight has been overbooked.” The murmurs around me were almost loud enough to drown out the rest of the announcement.
“If we call your name, please step up to the podium and we’ll help you make arrangements to reach your final destination.”
I reached for my ticket and clutched it in anticipation for the list of bumped passengers.
“Alice Monroe, Eric Franks, Jennifer Gonzalez, and Mark Humphries, please approach the ticket desk.”