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but what I do know, is that I deserve more. I deserve to be treated better.
    After saying goodbye to Grant and Chase, I calmly walk back to the street until I am out of sight. It’s then that I take off running with tears streaming down my face. My feet in thin sandals pound on the hot pavement, taking me to the one and only place where I feel safe. I run down the dock, into the sand, and circle back to sit under it, between the dunes in the shade. I don’t want anyone to see me. I just need to hide.
    I never had any expectations for what a reunion with him might be like, but I didn’t think it would be like this. The way he looked at me was almost frightening. Not once in all the years that we were friends, had he ever given me any type of look that screamed anger or disgust like this one did.
    Shaking, I pull my knees up into my chest, wrap my arms around them, and bury my face.
    Moving away from the island had been the worst experience of my life.
    Dad lost his job, so the plan had been to move into a smaller home on the mainland and rent ours out for a while. With the income from the tourists, we would have made triple the monthly mortgage amount, which would’ve allowed us to pay back the payments missed and leave us a little to live off of. But instead, our home somehow accidentally caught on fire and burned down. With the missed mortgage payments, the insurance company wasn’t being paid either, and they denied the fire coverage and personal content coverage. Our home defaulted to the bank.
    We were officially homeless and broke. My family and I still ended up leaving the island, but due to the circumstances, we ended up leaving Florida too.
    And then, to top it all off . . . I lost Beau.
    At some point I pick my head and peek through the wood beams of the dock. I am shocked to see Beau sitting by himself on the beach. His knees are drawn up too and he’s staring at the water.
    Should I go over to him? Should I try to talk to him? I have questions that I need answered. I want to know why? Adrenaline courses through me as I shift to move out from under the dock. Footsteps suddenly come from somewhere behind me and I freeze.
    The dock creaks as someone walks toward me, over me, and then down to the beach. Peeking through the cracks again, I see that it is Drew.
    “Hey man, what are you doing?” Drew asks him, while sitting down next to him.
    “Nothing,” Beau says, picking up the sand by his feet and letting it fall through his fingers. His voice, it has changed.
    “Matt told me about Leila,” he says.
    “Matt has a big mouth.” Anger seeps out in Beau’s tone. My mouth and my heart frown.
    “Seriously though, tell me what you are thinking.” Drew bumps their shoulders.
    “I’m thinking that I hate her!” he says with such force and utter disdain.
    The air in my lungs stops moving and I feel temporarily suffocated. He hates me? Why does he hate me? I could never hate him. Hearing him say this crushes me. My eyes squeeze shut and my hands fold into my chest. I bend over from the excruciating pain that’s ripping through me.
    After running down here to the Point, and hearing his words, my whole body overheats and flushes. Tears are running down my face and sweat is trickling down my back. Any thoughts I had of confronting him just deflated. Sitting under here in the dirty sand, I know my dress is ruined and I look disgusting.
    “You don’t mean that,” Drew says gently.
    “Oh, yes I do!” Looking back through the crack, I see Beau throw down the rest of the sand and stand up. He starts pacing back and forth in front of Drew.
    Drew watches him.
    “I don’t understand. Why? Why won’t you tell me what happened?” Drew’s voice is pleading and slightly animated.
    Beau stops and stands in front of Drew. “Because! There’s no point. I’d like to just forget it all and forget her,” Beau yells, throwing his hands out to the side.
    Hearing him talk about me this way, I gasp and throw my hands