ONE

DELILAH

"I should have known that this is where you'd be." I glance over my shoulder at my best friend Tessa, while pushing my dark sunglasses back up on my nose. "Have you been out here alone all night?"

The waves crash down in front of me while I sit with my long tanned legs crossed at my ankles and my freshly painted toes in the sand. She sits down beside me grinning from ear to ear. She knows something, her blue eyes full of gossip. Her long blonde hair pulled up in a stylish messy bun, dressed in her favorite band tee and skinny jeans.

"You've been keeping secrets from me." I state bluntly as I eye the shirt she's wearing critically and scrunch my nose up in disapproval. "Nice tee by the way. Did they pay you to wear that?" I say sarcastically. She smiles at me lips pursed as I return my gaze to the emerald blue water crashing in front of me.

"Nothing wrong with supporting a local hot boy band. I assume you saw that they are home then?" She questions patiently as she puts down her favorite faded denim jacket beside me on the sand.

I nod and take a long drawl off of the bottle of rum that I snatched from my dads cupboard earlier, then tilt the bottle in her direction in offering. She takes a sip nodding to herself in approval. I'm not usually a drinker, but after the day I’ve had I've made an exception.

"It would have been nice to have a little heads up," I sigh fiddling with the bottle label. "I'm sure I resembled a deer in headlights when I ran into him at the pier earlier, before I scrambled off to hide here, that is." I begin absentmindedly drawing shapes in the cool sand with my finger and glance back up at her.

"I had no idea either, Delilah. Tyler didn't mention it the last time we talked. The guys are certainly getting everyone's attention here today though. All the girls are swooning. It's a bit ridiculous how hot they are now." She giggles. "It's obvious that they have been working out the entire time they've been gone. Ashley said they have muscles everywhere. I wouldn't mind investigating those claims. Know what I mean?" She wiggles her eyebrows suggestively and we both laugh. "They are even hotter in person then on those magazine covers you've been secretly hoarding."

"What magazines? I don't hoard any magazines." Deny. Deny. Deny. She's talking about our ex best friends Tyler Blake and Liam Anderson and their bandmates Noah and Luke. And she's not wrong. They are drop dead gorgeous. That doesn't mean I want to let anyone know about my little guilty pleasures though.

I may have skimmed through their I*******m pages a time or two since they’ve been gone. There is most definitely a stack of magazines hidden in the top of my closet with their faces gracing the covers. However, I'm very careful not to like any of their social media posts. I wouldn't want it to get back to Liam that I secretly still care about him and I definitely don't want to contribute to their already gigantic egos. Lord knows their heads are big enough already without my help.

I roll my eyes and sigh loudly. "You can't be seriously thinking of hooking up with any of them. Hot or not, they are giant asshats. I know you remember just as well as I do what happened the night that they left. What are they doing back here anyway? Shouldn't they be busy touring the world or hunching something? Seems to be their MO these days. There was literally a different girl in every single picture taken of Liam last week. Not that I'm paying attention." Who am I kidding? I pay attention. Very. Close. Attention.

Tessa eyes me curiously and I quickly avert my eyes back to the sand in front of me. "Hmmm... If I didn't know any better Delilah, I'd think you are jealous. Is there something you're not telling me?" She questions accusingly while taking the bottle of rum back from me and casually taking a sip.

Am I jealous? I gulp and laugh nervously, "Pshhhh, jealous? Nope. Definitely not jealous. Just over it all really. Liam hasn't said a single word to me in, I don't know, give or take 15 months. Why should I bother with him now? He didn't even say bye to me when he left, Tess. He just left. Poof. Gone."

They left our small beach town of Rock Haven, South Carolina the summer before our Junior year of high school, exactly 15 months ago. Their band "Gladstone" became popular literally overnight from a viral youtube video and a record company quickly took notice. They were whisked away on a private jet across the country and I haven't spoken to Liam since. To say that fame changed him, would be an understatement. After 15 years of us being nearly inseparable, he didn't even say goodbye. The boy I knew and loved, gone.

"Well," she starts cautiously, "the rumor mill is saying that they are back to finish their senior year with us."

Excuse me. "You're kidding." I scoff, grabbing the bottle back from her aggressively and taking a big gulp. If she's not kidding, I'm going to have to find a better way to cope and soon.

"I'm not." She smiles, carefully taking the bottle from my hand. "So, here's what's going to happen. We are going back over there to say hi. You might as well bite the bullet and get this reunion over with now. No sense in starting the year off with enemies. This is our senior year, Lilah, we should spend it together with all of our friends. The way we planned since we were in kindergarten. The way that it was always meant to be."

I look at her as if she's gone insane and laugh loudly, pushing my long dark curls behind my ear. She must be joking. "That's a good one Tess! For a minute there I actually thought that you were serious."

She scowls. "I am serious. Besides, you are smoking hot tonight and you clearly already have some liquid courage burning through those veins. I can't think of a better time to show him that you've been just fine without him and Tyler doesn't deserve this treatment anyway. He has always kept in touch, especially after what happened with your mom."

"You don't understand," I frown, fumbling with my mom's gold bangle bracelet that I never leave home without and look over at her sheepishly.

"Huh? What am I missing?" She asks, shaking her head. I take the bottle from her and hold it to my lips, throwing another shot down. I have probably had enough considering I don't normally drink, but to be honest I wasn't sure I could get through this reunion sober.

"I may have failed to mention some important details.” She raises an eyebrow and motions with her hand for me to continue talking. "Before Liam left, we were hanging out." I mumble, hoping that little admission would be enough to get her off my back.

She narrows her eyes, confused, clearly not getting the meaning behind the words I just said. "What are you talking about Lilah? Of course we were hanging out. We've been hanging out with them for the last 15 years."

"No, I mean-" I fumble with the wrapper on the rum bottle some more, peeling the edges off nervously. "I slept with him. More than once. We were sneaking around for months. And then, he just left."

There's silence for a moment as she processes what I've said. I look at her nervously waiting for her response. "Wait. Delilah Jane, are you kidding me? You lost your virginity to Liam, and you didn't tell me!" She squeals, hopping to her feet and pacing around me flailing her arms about wildly. "Oh my God! OH MY GOD! I knew it! I knew something was up! Tell me everything. Every single thing. Now." She stares down at me, her blue eyes wide, before pacing some more.

"Please no. I can't Tess. Not tonight. Don't make me talk about it, please. It's painful. I'm such an idiot. He clearly used me for practice or something. It obviously meant nothing to him or he wouldn't have ghosted me like he did. I don't know why I'm making such a big deal about it. He's probably forgotten all about me anyway, seeing as he has a revolving door of beautiful girls throwing themselves at him these days." I mumble holding my face in my hands to hide my embarrassment.

She stops pacing, dusting the sand off of her skinny jeans and shakes her head. "Forgotten? Yeah, I don't think so. Liam has always been crazy about you Lilah. We have all been waiting for him to make a move for years."

She pauses and holds her hand out to me to help me up. "Regardless, you my love, look ravishing in those ripped black skinny jeans tonight. He will literally be drooling. If nothing else we will show him exactly what his dumbass missed out on.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea…” I start but she continues talking.

“And you know that he hasn't had a single steady girlfriend while he's been gone. Maybe there's a reason behind that. Obviously none of those other girls made the cut. You know none of his girls last more than a day or two, if that." She says pulling me up and hooking her arm through mine.

I scoff, "Hundreds of girls Tessa, HUNDREDS of them. And I see those wheels turning in your head. Whatever you're planning, you can get the idea out of that pretty little head of yours right now. He literally left without even saying goodbye and hasn't even bothered to send me a single text, or a freaking postcard since he's been gone. There is no coming back from that. Besides, all those girls he's been with, I can't compete with that. I don't even want to try."

It'll only end in my heartbreak and he's hurt me enough already. I barely pieced myself back together after he left. Not to mention the various extra curricular activities I've engaged in to get him off my mind. Things that my dad doesn't even know about. That he would not approve of.

"I don't know what you're going on about Lilah. You are way prettier than any of the girls in those pictures. I mean come on, your mom was a supermodel. A literal supermodel. And you, my dear, look like her carbon copy. It's not fair really. I'd kill for those legs." She says and I laugh uncomfortably. It still hurts when people mention my mom. It's been three years since she passed away and I would give anything just to talk to her again.

Looking down the beach I can see the huge bonfire burning about a mile away in the distance. At the end of every summer, before school starts back up we have a full moon party on the beach. There are bonfires, dancing, and giant glow in the dark mason jars mixed full of 7 different flavors of rum. We start walking in that direction, "I didn't realize they'd be playing tonight." She whispers, squeezing my hand, and laughing excitedly.

"Please. They'd never miss an opportunity to show off for the ladies." I roll my eyes at the rows of screaming girls in front of them. I wonder who he'll choose to take home tonight, probably Alicia. She's so pretty, I could never compete with that. I pull Tess back before we reach the crowd, and hold her hands pleading with her. I don't want to see him hookup with someone right in front of me. My heart can't handle that.

"Tessa, you can't say anything okay? Not to Ty and especially not to Liam. Obviously, it meant more to me than it did to him. You've seen all of the gossip columns. He clearly gets around. I don't want him to think that it meant anything to me at all. It was a mistake and it's better if we leave it in the past okay?" I beg her not to say anything. I've been able to keep my fling with Liam a secret for 18 months already, I can't have Tess telling everyone about it now.

"A mistake?" She eyes me skeptically, "You haven't dated a soul since he's left. You barely even look at other guys. But don't worry Delilah, I'll keep your dirty little secret for you. Just for the record, I think you're wrong though. Liam wouldn't purposely lead you on like that. You were best friends. You grew up together. That has to count for something. Maybe he has a good reason for what he did."

"Ghosting me? What reason could he possibly have that would be forgivable?" I scoff.

"I don't know, maybe he was scared. You know he's always had issues letting people in, especially since his dad left." She explains then excitedly points to the edge of the crowd by some tall palm trees, "Ooo look, there's a log over there in the shadows. We can watch the show and they will never even see that we're here." There's no way they'd be able to spot us in this crowd of girls anyway. We quickly walk to the piece of driftwood and sit down, eyeing the crowd of teenagers screaming at the band to come out on stage. I roll my eyes determined not to enjoy myself.

After a few minutes of chanting, four guys start walking out onto the small stage. The crowd goes absolutely wild. I squint my eyes to see if I can spot Liam. Sure enough, he is front and center, guitar in one hand and adjusting the microphone stand with the other. "Hey everyone," he smiles at the crowd and I swear I see a girl faint in the front row. Absolutely unbelievable.

I roll my eyes again for good measure. "Give me a break," I mumble to no one in particular. Not that anyone could hear me over all of the crazed high pitch screaming.

"As you probably already know, we are Gladstone and we are going to play a few songs to kick off this year's full moon party. Does that sound good?" His voice is like a cold glass of sweet tea on a hot summer day. I've missed hearing it and I want more. I shiver with need. They start playing one of their songs and his eyes begin to search the crowd as if he's looking for someone. Probably his next bed partner. This night can't end soon enough, although Tess seems to be enjoying herself, her head bopping along to the beat.

Although I refuse to like their music, on principle alone, I do have to agree with the whispers going around of their insane hotness though. Clearly, 15 months away has done him good. His gorgeous hazel eyes sparkle under his thick eye lashes. Tess wasn't lying, he's definitely been working out. I can see the outline of his abs through his tight black tee shirt. His biceps flexing as he pushes his messy dark brown locks out of his eyes and keeps singing their biggest hit. The crowd is singing along. Tess is also singing along, the traitor that she is. He walks to the opposite side of the stage strumming his guitar and blatantly looking for someone in the crowd. I look in that direction. Who is he looking at? He smiles at a girl in the front row who now looks like she is going to hyperventilate at any second. Maybe she is the one he was searching for I think, frowning at the thought that he may like her.

He comes back to the center of the stage as the song finishes. I'm not sure why everyone is so crazy about their music. I mean it's catchy I guess. He smiles at the crowd, putting the microphone back into the stand, still scanning the crowd for something or someone. "This next song is a cover song. One of my favorites actually. It's always been a hit with the ladies." He winks and I roll my eyes stciking my finger in my mouth fake gagging exaggeratedly. Behind him the band starts playing the opening keys for one of my favorite songs, "Hey There Delilah", and I freeze, suddenly unable to catch my breath. Why would he play my song? It has to be a coincidence.

Tessa grabs my hand squeezing. "Are you freaking kidding me?" She yells at me pulling me from my daze.

"It's just a coincidence," I state, or some sick twisted game that he's playing. "It's a very popular song. You heard him, it's obviously a panty dropper and he's clearly into that sort of thing now." He's crooning in the background and perhaps I underestimated his ability to melt my frigid heart. I need to leave. Like now. "I have to get out of here." I tell Tess, standing quickly, looking around for an escape route through the crowd. Unfortunately, those gorgeous hazel eyes catch mine and I'm frozen like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar.