Scarred Cliff

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Dylan

I thought I saw a ghost when I found Mia standing at the edge of the cliff like that, her dark brown hair wild around her and her jacket snapping in the wind. Like she was a manifestation conjured up in a fever dream or something, not real, definitely not real. But when she turned around and I could see her face, I knew it was her, even if I didn’t dare to believe it at first.

My heart went into overdrive, trying to break out of my chest, both from her being here as well as the place she was standing, and I suddenly felt like a teenage boy trying to talk to the girl he’s always had a crush on all over again. But we’re no longer teenagers, even when Mia still seems to be impulsive, we’re definitely no longer teenagers. The pain in my chest as I caught sight of the dark circles under her eyes, or the sadness in them, proves that these last years haven’t been easy on any of us...

“I think it’s easier if you leave the suitcases in the car.” I park at the empty parking spaces near the pub. The people who usually come here all live nearby, in the town, and now that it’s no longer summer, there won’t be many lost tourists who accidentally end up here. “We’ll get to them later.”

“Sure, Mr Bossy.” Mia’s got some colour back on her cheeks, now that we’re out of the cold. She looks much healthier even from the short drive here. Then she gets out of the car, into the pouring rain, and dashes for the door of the pub, waiting for me there.

I turn the car off, making sure I’ve got everything I need with me, and then I follow her, the rain coming down in buckets and almost soaking my jacket through even in the couple of seconds it takes me to get to the door.

As I open the door, I’m really close to Mia and I suddenly realise how badly I just want to hold her, still having a hard time believing she’s here, suddenly, out of nowhere. And if I hadn’t wanted to see the storm come in, I wouldn’t even know about it.

“Dylan?” Her voice is soft, and I realise I’ve stopped moving.

“Sorry,” I whisper, getting us into the small hallway and closing the door behind me.

She shakes her head, her eyes warm, and then her arms snake around my waist as she steps closer. I put my arms around her and pull her against me, a shuddering breath leaving me, so many conflicting emotions flooding through me. It feels weird, to have her back again, and she still fits against me so well, like a perfect fit...

“Dylan! Don’t crowd in the hallway, come inside,” Sophie chastises me, and when I glance up, she’s looking out of the small kitchen, an amused smile on her lips.

“It’s not like anyone wants to come out here anyway.” I stick out my tongue to her and then let go of Mia. “Let’s find a place to sit.”

Only then, Sophie realises who I’m with. “Mia? Oh, wow! It’s really you. I haven’t seen you in ages.” She dashes out of the kitchen, taking Mia in a tight hug. “Is he keeping you all to himself? The guy never changes.”

I hold up my hands at her accusing glare. “I just found her a couple of minutes ago, at the cliffs, watching the storm come in. I had no idea she was coming over either.”

“Come, you can sit here. It’s warm and these are the best chairs we have.” Sophie gets us to the same table I always sit at, and when I raise my eyebrow at her, she just shrugs as she grins. “What would you like to drink?”

“Hot chocolate?” Mia smiles as she takes her jacket off, revealing a tight shirt, which is all wet from the rain, and it isn’t doing anything to hide her beautiful body. How can I still be crushing on her? I should be over that...

Sophie looks at me. “You?”

“Same.” I sit down and keep glancing to the side, at Mia, still finding it hard to believe she’s here.

“Coming right up.” And Sophie is off to the kitchen again.

“This place hasn’t changed.” Mia is looking around, softly smiling, leaning on the table, her fingers playing with the ends of her wild hair.

“They fixed a leak in the ceiling a couple of years back, but other than that, yeah, it’s the same.” I grin.

She flashes me a grin back. “I’m not surprised.” Then she looks down at her hands, and her face falls, a sadness returning to it that I want to take away immediately. “Everything seems to be the exact same.”

I take a deep breath. There’s something I need to get out of the way first. “I’m sorry about your grandma. We all loved her very much.”

Tears spring to her eyes as she nods. “Thanks.” Her voice is so soft I can barely hear it over the rain against the windows. “I couldn’t believe it myself when I heard. It was so sudden. Too sudden.”

I take her hands, and she grips me tightly, shaking a little. Maybe that was a bad topic to talk about... Time to change the subject. “Do you have a place to sleep tonight?”

She glances up, confused. “At Grandma’s place. I thought I said that already?”

“I thought you meant you’d be dropping your things off there and sleep somewhere else.” I blink, trying to remember if she said something. “I don’t think it’s a good idea if you sleep there tonight... The house is cold, and if the heating isn’t on yet, then it will definitely be much too cold to sleep there tonight.”

Mia sighs. “I can handle it, you know. I’m not frail.”

“There won’t be any food, or anything to drink. And I don’t know if all of the rooms are waterproof. She had a lot of problems with leaks last winter.” Hey, just because Mia didn’t come here anymore doesn’t mean that I didn’t drop by her grandma’s place from time to time, she was cool.

Mia looks my way, almost amused. “Or, you could just say that you want me to crash at your place, you know?”

“I didn’t mean...” I look up and Sophie is coming over with our drinks, right on time. “Sophie has a couple of rooms above the pub, she rents them out for the night. If you’d be interested. I didn’t mean to imply...” What kind of situation did I get myself into now?

“You don’t want her to sleep at your place?” Sophie is looking at me like she doesn’t believe me as she puts the drinks down. Yeah, my crush on Mia wasn’t really a secret around here...

Mia lets out a light laugh, the first real one I’ve heard from her, and my heart skips a beat at the sound, making me relax. “I’ll crash at yours for the night, since you offered so nicely.” She looks my way, her eyes warm, a twinkle in them.

“That was not what I meant,” I grumble, taking the warm mug of hot chocolate between my hands. “But you’re welcome to sleep at mine.” It’s not like I don’t have the space for it or anything... Even though I only live in a converted garage, I don’t have much stuff and I have a couch which can turn into a bed, for when someone stays over.

“Good.” Mia smiles. “Now, what have you been doing since I stopped showing up?” The happy feeling starting in my stomach crashes to a halt, and she must notice it as she takes a quick breath. “How is Alex? Do you still talk to him?”

Alex, well, that’s easier... “He goes by Mal these days, from his middle name. He says it’s ‘cooler’, that it fits his ‘image’ better. And he’s got these horrid shirts he wears with ‘Mal-adjusted’ on them. Like it isn’t clear from his hair and piercings and stuff how poorly adjusted to this world he is.”

That makes her smile, slightly rolling her eyes. “Sounds like him.”

I nod. “He plays guitar in a band and is a producer. He makes enough money from it for renting a place to practice and his equipment and everything, and even to tour, but somehow he never seems to be able to make enough to pay rent. So he crashes at people’s places.”

“He’s living the wild dream, then?”

“He definitely is.” Mal always wanted the life of rockstars, ever since he was young, and he made it too, in a way.

“And Tom? Did he become a carpenter? Does he have his own company yet?” Her eyes are warm, and my heart sinks when I realise she doesn’t know... Oh, f**k. This is definitely not a talk I want to have here. There are so many things that she doesn’t know about, and once we start... Yeah, no.

“He did, both of those.” I nod, taking a sip from the still too hot drink in front of me, scorching my tongue.

“But?” She’s looking at me, getting cautious at my tone.

“I’ll tell you later. Not for now, not here.”

“Dylan?” Her voice drops, and I dread the next words already. “What happened to him? He’s still alive, right?”

I nod quickly. “He’s alive.” My voice is all gravelly, and I clear my throat. “He’s alive and well. I promise. Just... This is not the right place to talk about it.”

“Okay...” She glances down at the mug in her hands. “Okay.”

I wish I could just tell her, but I know what will happen if I do, and I’m not ready to deal with that right now. So close to the date that... To the date when things went wrong for him, for Mal, for all of us. I can’t tell her here out in the open. Because she’ll fall apart, like we all did, and we need to be somewhere safe for that, somewhere where half the town won’t see us.

I carefully reach out, putting my hand on her arm, trying to sound more upbeat. “But I can tell you about the big-chain grocery store they tried to open here a couple of years back and how that failed miserably.”

She slowly smiles, placing her hand over mine, squeezing a little. “I’d like to hear that. That sounds like a great adventure. Who thought that was going to be a good idea?”

“The county.” I shake my head, glad to talk about something a little lighter, even when I know that we’ll have to have a difficult talk later...