Reunited

The minute Shea had gotten off work she rushed back to her house, yelled hello to whoever was home, which she guessed was no one because nobody said hello back. She ran upstairs and shot open her closet. Luckily, since it wasn't just a break from college, she had brought everything home. There were still boxes upon boxes of her stuff. She had come home with more things than left with, her room at college being a mess constantly.

Shea opened a few boxes where she had put dresses from when she was in her sorority. She had a million dresses from all the different social gatherings the sorority constantly went to and had. She had others peoples dresses and other people had hers, but it mad her look forward to maybe seeing her sisters again, and hopefully that would be soon.

Not finding any luck in the boxes, Shea moved to her closet and began moving things out of the way until she saw her favorite dress. It was a laced, open back, black dress, and it went perfectly with her red wedges, they gave the dress that edge that every girl was constantly looking for. Knowing that she had a day before she had to actually put the dress on, Shea decided to wash it, not knowing exactly what she had been doing in it last.

Once she had the dress in the washer and her shoes thrown into some random box so she wouldn't trip over them, she headed downstairs to see her brother laying on the couch.

"How long have you been there?"

"Uh.. I don't know.. like three hours." Jason said not even bothering to look up from his phone.

Shea frowned, "And you didn't even bother to say hi to me when I came in and yelled hello?"

Jason just shrugged his shoulder before saying, "I was busy."

Jason had graduated from high school two years before Shea, and yet here he was still living at home. He called it "sitting back and having a beer because who needs to be an adult anyway?" but his parents called it "mooching off your parents until they die." He was an expert at both. She looked away from her brother, who still hadn't looked at her since she had come in, and saw her other brother, Mike, coming in the door.

"Hey Shea!"

"At least someone says hi to me," Shea said hitting Jason on the head before walking into the kitchen where Mike was setting his stuff down. Shea picked up a couple books that she had purchased back when she was going to college, she offered Mike hers but he had said that he wanted to do everything on his own, including buying his supplies. Mike had just graduated from high school that year, he was the youngest, between Jason, Shea, Shea's younger sister Kate. Kate was also in college, her second year, she was coming home in a couple weeks, but her friends had offered her and nice beach house for the first month of summer and she had decided that seeing her family wasn't as important as seeing hot, tan, shirtless boys all day, everyday.

"So I see Jason hasn't moved since I left," Mike said pulling out ingredients for a sandwich. He raised his eyebrows in question as if to ask Shea if she wanted one, she nodded her head yes before looking back over at Jason, still on his phone.

"He's like a robot. He never stops using that thing. I mean I understand the whole "not wanting to be away from society" but how about civilization?" Shea said blowing a piece her hair out of her eyes, looking back at Mike.

He blinked, looked over at Mike and replied to Shea with a whisper, "Lets throw him in the lake…" Shea raised her eyebrows in question, her little brother was such a goody two shoes and he looked up to Jason like he did to his parents. He had never once gotten in one Shea and Kate's pranks against Jason, scared Jason would no longer have him under his wing. But now looking at her little brother giggling like a little kid in a candy shop, she could see he just wanted to spend as much time with his family and do as many stupid things with them before he wouldn't see them. Shea nodded her head, her face taking up the same expression Mike had on.

They tiptoed over to Jason. They could of been as loud as a herd of elephants and Jason still wouldn't of looked up from his phone to see what was causing the ruckus. Shea positioned herself behind the couch next to Mike. Both of them crouching and putting their hands over each others mouth so they wouldn't laugh and blow the whole thing. Shea took her hand away from Mikes and held up one finger, then two, finally three, and then they were both up grabbing Jason. Shea threw his phone out of his hand, onto the couch and then grabbed his arms, while Mike was grabbing his hands.

"What the hell are you guys doing?!?!" Jason's face was red, he looked like a red balloon five seconds away from popping.

Mike and Shea did their best to open up the door that lead towards their deck and then down the set of stairs until they reached the grass near the lake. They walked past the fire pit, and pool, and then out onto the dock. Jason had finally understood what they were doing, and he was trying to shake himself out of their grips, but Shea and Mike were determined. They had already made it this far and if they lost him now they would forever be tied together with failure.

They reached the end up of the dock, the siblings all looking at each other, before Shea counted to three and then she threw her arms up and heard the cursing Jason had done before she heard the loud crack his body made when he impacted the water. Mike put his hand over his mouth, knowing that would have hurt like hell, but then he started snickering.

Shea had missed her family.

Jason came up for air laughing, thank the Lord. Shea was scared Jason would have been totally pissed and not talk to either her or Mike, but he chuckled knowing full well himself that he needed that. He told them to jump in, the water was nice, and then he saw his brother and sister look at each other before cannonballing into the lake.

He hadn't lied. The water was comfortably warm, and their parents had gotten rid of the seaweed that had always surrounded their dock, making it hard to swim without feeling slim all over your body. It was a sunny day in Cole Harbour. Shea was glad Andy had let her off at work before the afternoon had ended.

"So did mom tell you about the Crosby's party tomorrow?" Jason said floating on his back. Mike said yes through the water, it came out more like a yesgah but it was a yes nonetheless. Shea nodded her head, swimming over to get a noodle from the boat parked at their dock. Her mom hadn't exactly told her, but she knew about it and had no interest in seeing the looks her brothers would give her when she told them Sidney had personally invited her, "We gonna go?"

Mike and Jason both looked at Shea. She was the deciding factor. Their parents would go either way, not wanting to be rude just because Shea had a small issue with seeing their soon, but her brothers would stay loyal and not go just to stay home and watch movies with her.

"I mean I miss Trina's food so why not?" Shea said shrugging her shoulders, looking at her brothers raise their eyebrows in surprise, "Don't give me that look guys. There are many different ways to ignore him, and you guys will be there. It will be fine." Her brothers nodded their head in agreement.

They talked a little bit about each others school life, not having a chance to since Jason and Shea had gotten home. The older siblings mostly wanted to hear about Mikes final year in high school and answer questions about college. Mike tried to play it off like he wasn't scared but Shea had seen that look in Jason's face, Kate's face and even her own when she looked in the mirror after graduating high school. It was scary at first, moving out, being on your own. But each sibling had been independent since the day they were born, and their parents also helped a little by showing that they would be there no matter what.

The sun had started to set and the kids decided that they were pruned enough before getting out. They all still had their dripping wet clothes on when they walked into the house and saw their parents making dinner.

Her mother looked up from the stove and said, "So I see you guys went for a swim." They chuckled, and their father went to grab them towels so they wouldn't drench the carpet when they went upstairs to change.

They all came back down at the same time, laughing and playing with each other. Shea looked up and asked her parents what was for dinner. They said Lasagna at the same time before getting back to work.

Trina Crosby had chocolate cake, but Shea's parents had italian food from their experience in Italy before settling down in Cole Harbour. They had told Jason that he was actually conceived there when they talked about living there with their kids one time. All the other siblings had cringed but Jason puffed his chest out and put his fists on his hips, it had somehow made him superior to the others.

The family sat down and ate their meal. Each talking about their day, what they had planned tomorrow and the subject of the party tomorrow. Shea's parents had the reaction her brothers did when she told them she would be attending the party. But instead of just nodding their heads, Shea could see her parents smiling at each other, for whatever reason they were she had no interest in knowing. They knew better than to try and make a plan with Troy and Trina to try and get Sidney and Shea to have more than a one minute conversation. Shea chalked it up to them just smiling at each other.

But the truth was they were happy to have their daughter back, not the daughter that had been totally crushed by Sidney's departure but the daughter that she was when she was with Sidney.

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Shea smoothed out her nice, clean black dress and quickly zipped up the back of her wedges. She walked over to her full length mirror one more time. She looked classy, but not trashy. The dress was modest. The open back was the only racy part but knowing Trina and Troy they would tell her she was the best dressed person at the party, but then again they said that to everyone.

Mike walked into his sisters room to tell her they were ready to leave. He was wearing khakis and a collared polo shirt, Jason wearing the same thing of the sorts. Shea walked downstairs and saw her family smile at her. Her hair was it's natural wavy self, a couple strands tucked behind her hair.

Shea was distraught. The whole walk to the Crosby's was a solid two minutes, and the whole time she had knots in her stomach. Scratch that, the whole day she had knots in her stomach. They used to be butterflies, she didn't remember when they had changed.

Jason could see the strain in his sisters face. He was proud of her. He knew just as well as anyone else that she had loved Sidney, he had loved her too, but he loved his dream more. Or that's what it looked like at least. He grabbed his sisters arm and linked it with his before leaning down to her ear and whispering, "You're gonna blow him away." Shea looked up at her older brother, thankful she had him. She smiled and he leaned down to peck her head.

Like she said before, she had missed her family.

She was thankful she had Jason to hold on to, otherwise she might not of made it up the steps to the Crosby's. She could hear the bustling in the back yard, and the normal music they had at their parties. She even heard Andy's laugh. That made her relax a little.

The front door to the house was open. Shea could already smell the killer food that she had been waiting for since this morning. She could hear Trina yelling at Troy to get more alcohol outside to the seventy or so guests that had showed up. Now Shea knew that it would be easy to hide from Sidney.

"Oh my god you look amazing."

Shea turned around to see Taylor. She had grown up the last time she had seen her, but she was Taylor nonetheless. Shea smiled and shrieked a little, causing Trina to look over at her friends. She yelled at Shea's parents, saying hello and kissing them on the cheeks, before grabbing her mom to help her with the food. Shea's mom had been looking forward to it. Jason went over to the fridge and grabbed himself and Mike a beer. But before Mike had a sip, his dad was taking it out of his hand and drinking it himself. When he put it down he said, "Good one kid." Mike pouted.

Taylor was going on and on about the festivities and how many people were here to see Shea and Sidney together. Shea laughed nervously. She knew Taylor was kidding, but there was something that made it seem as though everyone would be watching her the whole night.

That was then she saw Sidney. He was wearing a long sleeve collared shirt, with the usual dress pants. He was smiling and talking to a family friend, laughing, smiling. Then he looked away from the guest and scanned the room. His eyes landing on the only person he was excited to see tonight. She looked gorgeous, but then again when didn't she. He had always loved those red shoes on her.

Shea and Sidney made eye contact, despite Taylor still going on and on about something Shea didn't know about, the kept looking at each other. Like everything ever needed to be said between the two was being said at that moment.

But Shea had had enough. She excused herself from talking to Taylor, before running off the bathroom. She knew she had left Sidney, and their families staring at her but she needed a minute.

When she got in the bathroom she locked the door and slid to the ground.

How the hell am I going to get through this night?

Notes

Longer than the others but I wanted to introduce Shea's family. Don't worry there will be plenty of drama at the party.

xoxo