Page 2 of Just Try, Again and Again

Nick looks more confused now than he did before. By the way he is pinching the bridge of his nose, I can tell he is trying to analyze what I said word by word. “But I moved back to Elsham Cove shortly before senior year of high school started. I’ve never heard of you. Not once. Did you guys get married as teenagers or something?” He laughs while saying the last sentence, as if it would be the most ridiculous thing on Earth. When he realizes that his girlfriend is cringing and I’m not saying anything to dispute the fact, his hazel eyes widen some more. “No fucking way.”

“Misspent youth and all that,” I joke, trying to make the situation less chaotic. It’s not helping. This is why my marriage to Bryce is a secret that I don’t share with a lot of people. I’m pretty sure Bryce doesn’t broadcast it to the world, either. Why would he? It was the stupidest mistake of our lives. A mistakethat once felt like the best decision of our lives.And sometimes, after one too many drinks, it still feels right in my bones that we did it.

“So, anyway, what brings you here, Haruki?” Lily asks, trying to simmer down the awkwardness that’s filling up her living room. It’s always like this when the nameBrycegets brought up in a conversation. This needs to end once and for all.

“I’m here to ask Bryce for a divorce.”

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Bryce - 18 years old

Summer Before College

Iturn on the flashlight on my phone and put the car keys in my hoodie pocket. The streetlights are so dim I can barely make out objects that are right in front of me, but I like it like this. I like the darkness. The peace. The feeling that I’m the only person in the world awake at this moment. The sound of the ocean being the only thing that is audible.

Walking along the beach, my mind starts replaying the absurd dinner I had last night with my dad and his new fiancée. I can’t believe he just sprung that on me. My dad hasn’t introduced any of his girlfriends to me until now, and my mom has been dead since I was two. So the fact that I met Astrid Lee last night, and they’re already engaged, means she’s here to stay. This is real.Get used to her, Bryce.

Something about that woman just fucking grates on me. Not only did they meet only four months ago, and he’s already proposed, but I have a feeling she is going to make my life helland turn it upside down. It’s a good thing by the time the tourists leave Elsham Cove at the end of summer, so will I. Shame on me that I didn’t choose a university farther away than the Radinger Institute of Technology. If I had known, I would have gone somewhere else that’s not within a thirty-minute drive radius. Fucking Alaska, maybe. Unable to control it, angry, pathetic tears start to fall from my eyes.

My steps come to a halt when I see another bright light coming from the opposite direction. Someone else is here. Odd, since it’s three in the morning.

“Hello!” I call out. The other person stops walking. I continue to walk toward the source of light, and whoever is there starts fidgeting and panicking. I can tell by the way the light keeps on moving left and right like laser beams in a club that this person is frantically trying to avoid me and find an exit strategy.

“Don’t be scared. I promise I’m not going to bother you. I’m just here for a walk!”

“That’s what a murderer would say,” a feminine voice with a slight accent answers, sounding frightened, and I can’t help but laugh at what she’s saying.She’s not wrong.

“How do I knowyou’renot a murderer?”

She doesn’t answer my question. “I’m a tourist. If you kidnap or kill me, the media will hound you.”

“Just take one of the big rocks from the ground and bring it with you. If you pass by me and think I’m going to hurt you, you can defend yourself.”Theoretically, I just gave this person an idea of how to attack me. Maybe that was a bad idea.“But I really wish you wouldn’t throw the rock at me. I swear to God, I’m just here for a walk.”

Seeing how the light moves, I can tell that she’s crouching down, probably to get the rock she’s going to use as a weapon, and then stands back up again. She’s coming closer and closer, and I stand where I am, not wanting to intimidate her more thanI already am. By the time she reaches me, we are both squinting from the brightness glowing from each other’s phones.

I move my phone farther away so we both can get a better look at one another. It looks like she was telling the truth, after all. The girl standing in front of me is a five foot two, frightened Asian tourist, clutching a rock to her chest. If the big camera dangling from her neck doesn’t give her away, the Elsham Cove T-shirt she’s wearing does. None of the locals buy the garbage they sell at the gift shops.

“Are you lost or something?” I ask, trying to figure out why she would be out here all alone so early in the morning.

She takes me in with her dark eyes, hesitating to answer before she finally opens her mouth. “I want to take pictures of the sunrise.”

“You’re at the wrong spot.”

The girl looks at me, confused, somewhat offended, and I can’t help but smirk. All the summer tourists take photos of the sunrise and sunset from the town’s main beach. So generic. Snap a pic and then go home, claiming to have been to Elsham Cove without actually going to Elsham Cove. With the bottom part of her hair dyed green and the fact that she dares to even wander around alone at this hour, I have a feeling she’s anything but basic.

“If you want to get the best shot of the sunrise, this is not the spot. The beach near the high school is,” I elaborate.

“Elsham Cove?” she asks while tilting her head to the side.

“Yep. The one and only,” I deadpan while pointing to the logo on her chest. “Have you been there?”

“No. It’s pretty far from the town center.”

She doesn’t say anything after that, one of her hands still holding onto her phone and the other one to the strap of her backpack. She must have dropped the rock at some point and I must have not noticed.I was too busy focusing on her. Anyother person would say goodbye now and continue walking, but I don’t. It’s like a magnet is keeping me in place in front of this girl.

She starts staring at me from the corner of her eye. She’s probably wondering why on Earth I am still here. She’s probably regretting having dropped that rock. The girl mumbles something to herself and awkwardly waves her hand at me, taking a step in the direction that I was coming from, and leaving me here alone.

“You want me to take you there?”

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