At First Hate (Coastal Chronicles)

Tears came to my eyes, and I squeezed them shut to stop them. No. I would not let him take a part of me. After all these years of anger, I didn’t think that I could hate him any more. But no… I had been wrong. Because I hated him now more than ever.

I dialed Gran’s number without thinking. She answered on the first ring.

“Chickadee, congratulations! Gramps and I watched your national championship win last night.”

Then, I burst into tears.

“Oh, oh, sweetheart, what’s wrong?” she asked, so calm and concerned. “Are you okay?”

“I made a mistake,” I sobbed into the phone. “I made a huge mistake.”

“That’s okay. You’re allowed to make mistakes. Tell me what happened.”

I hiccupped. “I… remember that guy in high school that I kissed at the Halloween party? We had a big feud?”

“The Ballentine boy?”

“Yes. He goes to UNC, and we’ve had a bet the last couple months over the games.”

“I see,” she said uncertainly.

“And it got heated. Last night, we…” I swiped at my eyes to try to stop the tears. “We slept together.”

“Ah,” Gran said.

“And he bailed this morning without a word.”

“Have you spoken with him?”

“Yeah. He was a dick.”

“Language, Marley Sue.”

“He ghosted me and then treated me like I was the idiot for not realizing, Gran! He was a dick. I made a huge mistake. I never should have given in.”

“Okay, breathe. Just breathe. And listen to me. You didn’t make a mistake. You liked this young man?”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“And you believed he felt the same?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“And you’re not pregnant?”

I laughed in horror. “No, Gran! I’m not pregnant. Oh my God!”

“There. Then, you’re okay. Your heart will hurt for what could have been, but it wasn’t a mistake. The only mistake made was on him walking away from my brilliant girl.”

I sniffled and let the tears dry up. “Thanks, Gran. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

We spoke for a few more minutes until I could carry on a conversation without crying more. I felt better and not better at all. All I knew was that I’d have to put Derek behind me. Nothing good could come from having feelings for him. I knew who he was. I wouldn’t soon forget it.

16

Savannah

Present

“I can’t believe that you agreed to go out with Derek again,” Maddox said from Gran’s old chair.

“Me neither,” I admitted.

“He’s the enemy.”

“Yep.”

“How do you reconcile what he’s doing to us with seeing him?”

I shrugged and adjusted my dress in the mirror. “I try not to think about it mostly. They were going to contest the will either way. The fact that Derek is representing them is frustrating, but it would have been someone even if it wasn’t him.”

“I guess,” he admitted.

“You could come out with us. Bring that girl you’re seeing.”

He tensed. “I’m not seeing anyone.”

“From what I hear, you’ve been seeing a lot of someones.”

He arched an eyebrow. “So?”

“Got a bit of a playboy reputation, little brother.”

“You’re thirty-seven minutes older, Mars,” he groaned.

“Still counts.”

“Do you really want to talk about my sex life?”

I pointed at him. “Fair. No. Gross.”

He laughed. “Have fun with your ex.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “This is about Ash.”

“Don’t have fun with Lila’s ex,” he said with a smirk.

I smacked him upside the head and called the Uber to take me downtown. I’d just been picked up when my phone rang. Derek’s name popped on the screen, and I tensed, wondering what he could want. I was already on the way to see him against my better sense.

“Hey,” I said when I answered.

“Change of plans. Game is still on. Meet us at Dub’s.”

“What game? Duke has a bye week,” I said with a grin.

He huffed. “The only team that matters, obviously—UNC.”

“How’s it going?”

He didn’t say anything for a few seconds, which said all I needed to know. “Tense. Just get here, Mars.”

Then, he hung up the phone. I giggled at him. The game must have been going really poorly for him to slip up and call me Mars. I hadn’t heard that name from him in years.

I leaned forward and asked the Uber to change the destination to Dub’s Pub on River Street. It was a large sports bar with pool tables and ping-pong tables, which were primarily used for beer pong. It’d been a few years since I’d been there, but nothing had changed. I found Derek, Amelia, and Ash seated at the bar. Derek was yelling at the screen. Amelia had her hands over her eyes and was shaking her head.

“What did I miss?” I asked as I approached them.

Ash had a shit-eating grin on his face. “Mars, you have to check this out.”

I glanced at the screen and then began to cackle. “Oh. My. God. Is UNC losing to App State?”

“Shut it,” Derek growled.

But I couldn’t stop laughing. Not that UNC or Duke were particularly good at football. We were both basketball schools through and through, but Appalachian State was a crap team. They’d pulled an upset over Michigan when I was in college, but they’d moved back into obscurity since then.