Holiday homes had always been easy to find in that little town. Holly hadn't been overly attracted to the idea of staying on friends sofas, even though she knew she could have, so she rented a little cottage away from the sea. To have been able to sea it through her window would have been too much, but the fact she could smell the clean salty air as a light breeze floated in through her open window in the morning...it was a sweet subtle reminder of days gone by. Thinking that made her feel old. She rolled over in the double bed of the main bedroom. Her bedroom for the foreseeable future. It was strange to have so much room all to herself. She was used to waking up squashed into one corner of the bed by her great hulking fiancé Matt. Matt. She really ought to let him know where she was some time soon. After a week away from him, she was feeling liberated, he would be feeling as though she were getting cold feet about the wedding. He didn't know her feet had taken a trip to the North Pole since before he'd even asked her.
Holly got up and padded bare footed across the pale laminate floor towards the bathroom. Her blonde hair was behind her in a waved mass. As she pulled a brush through it she caught a glimpse of her old self. Holly. White sundress. Well, nightgown now, but it looked about the same. That necklace. That necklace. She took it in the palm of her hand and read it aloud. "Love is Love, True is True, All my love, Belongs to you." Eric's words still rang softly, but distantly, in her memory. When Matt had asked her where she got the necklace, she'd lied, as she did to him practically every day, saying it was from a yard sale somewhere once or something. It was flippant and non-commital, but it had to be. She couldn't have ever let him know how she felt. As her mother had told her in the first few months after the move, she couldn't keep brooding over the past. It had, afterall, passed.
Back in her bedroom Holly tied her hair into it's uniform bun and pushed a pen and pencil into it; for safe keeping. She leafed through the outfits in her wardrobe. It contained a mish-mash of things which she'd thrown into her overnight bag quickly before driving home and things she's picked up at the stores around the town. Home. That's what it felt like. A wash of relief through the car, carrying away the tense, stressed, feigned atmosphere she had felt for over two years. Home. It was the most strong and gentle relief she had ever felt.
She chose a red sundress. Red had never been a colour she considered, until Matt had bought her a red dress to wear to his father's house. It hadn't been a perticularly flattering dress, but the colour...
Dressed Holly took to the kitchen. From the fridge she took a box of grapes and sandwhiches which she had prepared the night earlier for a quick getaway. She took a banana from the microwave. She'd read somewhere that keeping them in the microwave made them last long. As she was about to leave the kitchen she snatched her notebook from the kitchen table, which had been appointed as her desk, and took off for the front door. After locking it, unlocking it and locking it again to be sure, she wandered through the small empty morning streets to reach the harbour and as she had for the last six days she took the path to the outermost docking platform and parked herself on the stone bench which was set into the wall and she watched the waves rippling across the surface of the ocean. Internally she pleaded that Eddy, that idotic moron she never had enough chance to get to know, would break through the waves and swim back to the dock. She knew that it would never happen. She knew the chances of them finding him alive after the wreckage of his boat turned up, were slim to none, but her hope would never desert her. It never could.

The door squeaked as Tamara pushed her way quietly out of her parents house, her suitcase in her hand before she legged it to her little black Audi, throwing her case into the boot and sliding smoothly into the seat and kicking the car into gear, spurning the car out of the drive and out towards the holiday homes. A quick call told her that she still had an hour till she could move into one of the rooms, cursing her annoying parents she changed course towards the pier, quickly finding a parking spot in the early morning. She sighed softly as she slid out of the car, turning her head around slowly to let her shining green eyes take in the surroundings of her childhood till her eyes lightened on the figure of a girl seated on a bench made into the stone wall her blonde hair somehow familiar in Tamara's memory. Locking her car and pushing her keys into her pocket she set off towards the girl, leaning over the wall above her and looking down "Who you waiting for?" she asked, waiting for her to jump.

Holly jumped, not so much from the shock as it was that she was awaking from a day dream. A day dream where Eddy swam strongly into the harbour, bruises and cuts wracking his skin, but nothing more. She imagined taking his hand to help haul him up the ladder. She remembered Eddy of five years ago. She remembered the thick, beautiful eyelashes, his strong defined jaw and slightly elongated chin covered in a soft, downy coat of blonde hair, the fringe that flicked into his blue eyes, blonde too, never styled. She remembered the light tan colour of his soft skin, his medium build and swift, gentle ways. By all accounts he was extremely feminine, but those touches of definition in his bones and muscles made it certain that he poses the Y chromosone. He posessed an almost Herculean strength too, she remembered, from when his arms had wrapped around her from behind and propelled her towards the pool in her sun dress. Even with her weight and the momentum he kept an iron grip on her, barely letting her slip an inch as he swung her back round to place her gently back on the floor. She was impressed, she didn't even get a bruise.
A face stared down at her from the wall. A lost familiar face from the days which she spent not pretending to be happy. The days when she had actually been happy. She wondered how to reply. To say she was waiting for a man she hadn't seen in five years, who was missing pressumed dead by all, that was crazy talk, but if she simply sat there and replied nothing, that was even crazier.
"I'm waiting for the past."
Cryptic answers never seemed like a good idea to Holly, but it was the only thing she could think to tell the girl. Holly had realised as she drove home that nothing would be the same as she left it, no one would be running from their doors to envelope her in their arms saying how their lives hadn't been the same without her; she wasn't that kind of person, but she had hoped for more of the past to remain in that place than she had found so far. The cruiser that they had sailed on lay dormant in the harbour with it's edges rusting and the ropes which tied it into port green with moss and fraying. Holly knew that not long after they sailed the ship had been retired and left there since no one knew what to do with it.
Holly remembered the grandeur of the ship's dinning rooms, the gourmet food, the night Eric gave her the necklace...She remembered a lot from that holiday and to see a part of it laid to wreck and ruin made her heart sink. It caused her to wondered if, in everyone else's memory, this was what had happened to their holiday.
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Matt paced the living room to his two bedroom apartment for the fourth hour on end. Unable to sleep, he was plagued with worry for his fiancée, Holly. She'd flown off on little shopping jaunts to London, Rome and Milan before; city scapes he had no interest in with shops which held no value or meaning. Everything had a value to him, such as Holly. He had boasted to her friends of how he took over half of his savings to purchase the 3. carat diamond that adorned her finger. He wanted to show her the value of her love to him just as he had wanted with every trip he paid for and every impromptu present he bought. Well, he funded. As a sports writer, he knew nothing of fashion flowers or jewellery, but his PA did. He'd give her an amount and a message for the card and she would shop. Whatever she bought, Holly adored, and his PA received a bonus for the effort.
It was three weeks until the wedding. He'd tried Holly's cellphone, as had her mother, but it was always switched off. He had nightmares of dire situations where his wife-to-be was trapped on desert islands unable to contact him, but he knew she hadn't flown anywhere; she left her passport in the wardrobe. Matt knew a guy that could have traced her car by the plates, but it felt too obsessive. He knew, or at least hoped, that if Holly were getting cold feet she could talk to him and not just run away, but that was part of the reason he loved her. She never got into all the emotional crap and she was mysterious, not like all the other girls he'd dated. He liked that there were more levels to her than just the surface.
The dress shop was calling him every other day to find out when Holly would be present for her next fitting. At the rate of things, everything would be ready for the wedding, except Holly.

Jason climbed out of his sleeping bag and dragged the nearest clean pair of sweat pants from the canvas that provided a floor. After pulling them on he walked over to the tap at the corner of the camp site and washed. He rubbed a hand over his chin and decided that he could last another day without shaving. It wasn't like he was going to be giving anyone beard burn. The open road was his only partner.
Of course, he was interested in women, and they were often interested in him, but he couldn't stand the ties of marriage and the possibility of children springing up from here there and everywhere, so he more often than not, kept to himself as a sort of, self preservation.
He filled his water bottle, slipped his hand through the hole in the middle and pulled on a shirt. As he did every morning, whatever the weather and where ever he found himself, he took off on a morning run. His watch bleeped at ten minute intervals, giving him a minute to do 100 reps of sit-ups, push-ups or leg ups.
He wasn't like everyone expected. They saw the motorbike and the tattoos and expected a middle aged fat guy going through a crisis. What they got was early twenties, muscular and concerned by his health and free from the normal constraints that make men go off the rails. He was free.

As he reached the dock he saw two women. One sat staring into the ocean as the other towered over her. He flicker of recognition hit him like a gun shot. He knew he was coming back to a place he called home. He'd planned to take a boat out into the sea. He knew it was stupid. He told himself it was just to see what Eddy saw, but he knew really, of course he knew. He wanted to see if he could find Eddy. Dead or alive, he would rather know. He and Eddy had been great friends. On the ship they had run laps together in the morning, racing constantly, competing over girls.
That was before though. Five years before. Eddy was the only guy that Jason ever bothered to keep in touch with. It wasn't religious or anything, just any time he got an internet connection with his laptop, he'd drop the guy an email or read the messages Eddy sent back about his kid. Eddy's kid. Eddy had a little girl a few towns over from his. 'What a bottle of vodka at a frat party can do to you man.' Jason remembered the email from Eddy announcing Layla's arrival with the little bundle of joy. He sent her packing, but then he also sent her half his pay check every month, so Jason wasn't sure he was any better off not living with her.

Jason jogged up to the girls, who seemed to have only just joined each other as well. "Well if it isn't...HTV is that really you?"

Jason couldn't believe that it really was Holly wrapped neatly into a little red sun dress that flattered her tiny figure. He spotted the rock on her finger in an instant. "You and Eric are getting hitched then? I hope I'll be getting an invite, though if it isn't soon, I don't know where I'll be."
He turned to look at the other girl. "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met, I'm Jason, but you may call me Jase."

OOC: (Means out of character by the way, Skittz) I love you Skittz. :)

IC: (In character, S) Holly looked back towards where Tamara was standing to see that she had been joined by none other than Jason Hunt. He was tall, as ever, good looking and well built. It seemed his routine on the ship had stuck and he was taking care of himself. He had a rugged sort of look to him, which could have been because he'd only just got up and hadn't bothered to shave or style yet, but it suited him. His semi-slopey personality and gravelly voice made him the complete package of the puppy on a leash waiting to be training.
"No one has called me that in years Jason," Holly looked at the floor and managed to serupticiously wipe a tear from the corner of her eye thinking back to the time she spent with Eddy and Jason during the endless days and ceaseless stretching nights of the cruise. She tried to remember if she ever spent any time sleeping, but knew she must have since she remembered waking up to the sun beginning to beam into her room. She remember a hundred sunrises in just one memory frame. She thought of the morning she woke up with Eddy and Jason sleeping on the floor beside her. One was against her bed, the other against the wall, she was curved like a baby between it's parents, huddled close to both.
Holly took a deep breathe, preparing to deliver the news to Jason that she and Eric were no longer, and she felt her heart beat strangly in her chest. Even after all this time, admitting it to someone else made it more real, and the nightmare of her looming wedding seemed to draw closer and closer until it would consume her. Not only that, but it would become her life. Her mother and Matt had already laid out the plan. There was the wedding, the honeymoon, and over the course of the following seven years, the plan was to have four, maybe more, children. Holly would stop working and tend to the children, leaving Matt as the sole breadwinner for the family. Holly hated the plan, but she couldn't speak out against any of it without fear of making everything collapse. Her life was a lie, but it was the lie she started. She had made her bed, she had to tuck herself in for the long haul.
"It wasn't just you who left after we graduated Jason. I left too. Eric and I, we tried emailing and things at first, but, I don't exactly know why but we just kind of stopped. I was dating Matt for two years, so he propossed and it seemed like the right thing to do. Get married. It's what people do, isn't it? So, let's stop with all this talk, it's depressing." Holly jumped up from her seat and spread her arms to engulf Jason, "I want my hug. After all this time you owe me at least one." As Jason pulled her into his iron grip Holly felt a little more of her sense of home returning. "So, what have you been up to then?"
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Matt paced into the kitchen and fixed himself a bowl of porridge. His brain swam with ideas of where Holly could be until he settled on one spot. The place where she grew up. Matt didn't know why he never thought of it before; hadn't considered the boyfriend that broke her heart as a threat to their marriage. He had to find her before she spoke to him, or did something even more stupid. If he saw her now, and realised what he had thrown away. Matt threw his spoon down into his bowl making the skim milk splash onto the glass table.
He couldn't let that happen. Half an hour later he had an over night bag in the trunk of his car and was speeding down the motorway, over twenty miles an hour faster than the speed limit. He was going to find Holly, he'd find her, bring her back. It was the only option he could see.

OOC: (Thank you L) I love you too L. I think your little chick friend went all AWOL. Hope I didn't offend or crash the party or somethig....
Anywhoos...

IC: Jason wrapped his arms around Holly tightly. "Sorry to hear that cupcake." As Jason held her tightly he realised that, although in the last years of high school she'd gotten to be pretty tall and everything, not much else about her had changed. She was still rather shy, quite beautiful but she dulled it down by pulling back her hair and wearing jeans all too often.

He considered what she had said for a moment before replying. "I guess it's what most people do yeah, but I dunno. I've always been the one to run against the norm so I wouldn't really know. Well anyway, after graduation I took off with Harley and I'm married to her my tent and the open road." He liked to call the bike Harley. For one thing, it actually was a Harley, for another, it made him seem less available to women he didn't like. It wasn't that Holly was a woman like that, although with a rock like that on her finger she wouldn't look at him twice even if he wanted her that way, it was just that she was like a sister to him. They'd been reasonably close, just like he'd been close to Eddy.

"So what is this guy that he's paid to put Jupiter on your finger anyway? And seriously, when's the wedding? I want an invite kid."

OOC: Learn to spell mong face! Something has an n in it.

IC:
"He's a sports writer with a obsession with training for...something. I don't know. He never says what he's training for. And Jason, Jupiter is a gasious planet, not a rock." Holly wasn't trying to be pedantic, but quips about the size of the ring were starting to get on her nerves. A lot of them were acting like it meant something. Like the amount of money he spent made her lack of contentment and his lack of commitment alright, but of course, that was all behind closed doors. The one was not meant to know about the other, but she knew of both, unlike he, who lived under a veil of ignorance believing she would always be the doting girlfriend, then wife and finally mother to him and his clan of arrogant toffs running around with their silver spoons stamping on the lives of those beneath them.
Of course, he pretended to be different. A big show of look, I'm going to build my own life, with no mention of the multi-million dollar trust fund his great grandfather left him that floated his bank balance to way above the working class, no mention of his mindless self indulgence with shopping trips, fashionable fast cars, holidays to all the places it was good to be seen or to be seen as going to. No one totted up the figures of how he managed to spend a month in New York, a week of which was plagued with booze, girls and grand hotels. Holly had left him alone for his week long bachelor party, but she felt as though she had left her eyes in that room. She could see him with them all, smelt them all on his shirts as she threw them into the wash before they stank out their apparentment. No one seemed to realise that all his partying and expenditure, let alone their penthouse flat, was not financially covered by his job as a sports writer.
No doubt, he was high profile, good at his job earning thousands a week, but he could spend thousands in a couple of hours, but no one noticed. No one cared in that world to look beneath the surface of it all. After all, looks were everything.
"The wedding's in three weeks. I'll make sure you get an invite Jason, even if it's by email. Where about's are you pitched at the moment?"
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His hands throttled the wheel as he navigated his way, first down highways, then just ordinary roads, then black top gave way to cobbled streets and the tires bounced with enthusiasm. It was a pretty small town, just as Holly had described. He looked at the school as though remembering it from years gone by, but knew it was just because of the vibrance, colour and reality of Holly's description. The small cottages that lined the harbour would have been deemed as picturesque by his collegues in travel. No doubt the little town would have turned into a mini version of the Hampton's within weeks of publication.
That was far less than he needed. All he needed, all he wanted, was to extract Holly from whatever fantasy land she had been sucked into and take her back home. As he thought the word his phone buzzed. He slammed it into it's craddle and hit speakerphone. His dad's voice barked down the line.
"Matthew, what is the meaning of this? There is a bedraggled harpy at my door claiming that she is carrying your child and if I don't pay her to keep quiet, she will ruin the wedding. What have you done?"
"Hold up Sir, who is she? She could have gotten my name from anywhere!"
"Her name is Shona. She has a picture of the two of you together that was less than savory to go with my afternoon tea. She said she met you in New York!"
Matt swore under his breath. "Tell her I want a DNA test." He clicked the red phone and ended the conversation. As he switched the car into park, he spotted her in the arms of another man, another girl at their side. He exitted the car and made a B-line across the dock towards them.

OOC: I'm sorry Skittz, bad couple of days.

Her eyes gazing out to see she laughed quietly at the girl's comment, Zoning out as she saw her leave the corner of her eye, slowly starting to wonder whether her parents had noticed she'd disappeared yet, slowly coming back to the real world as she looked down at her watch and round to the two people now stood next to her, her eyes widening as she stands up sharply trying to remember when the girl had returned and a guy had turned up. Slowly her eyes slid down the males body and returning back to his face, halting for a moment at the sight of the muscles, a slight smile on her lips as she reaches it. He was attractive in a gruff sort of way, and in her own words 'Hot' she would have to make sure she got to know this guy and she moved a little closer to the pair

She listened into their conversation for a moment finally picking up their names Holly and Jason, slowly remembering the days on the boat, the names especially Holly, recalling finally where she knew her from. She smiled as the pair discussed Holly's wedding, her eyes watching off into the distance sharply as she heard a car approach in the quiet town, watching quietly until it pulled up and a tall black haired male climbed out of the car and started towards the three of them, she tapped them both on the shoulder and pointed towards the approaching male 'Did we do something wrong? He looks a little...well annoyed' she asked flicking her eyes from one to the other, before smiling at Jason.

OOC: Don't worry Kee, Cupcake will get over it.

IC: Holly looked over in the direction Tamara had gestured to see Matt's black Range Rover, and him striding away from it. She jumped quickly away from Jason, as Matt stomped up the peer. "Oh God," she said, quietly enough that her lips barely parted, but she knew Jason and Tamara would hear her and realise. Matt had arrived.
His brow was dented with deep wrinkles as it always did when he was angry. It made him look much older than he was, but Holly knew never to mention it. It would have just made him more angry and then they would only deepen. As he approached, she shrank back into her normal personality. Shy, quiet and broken.
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Matt reached the peer as Holly stepped back from the pair.
"Well here she is, my run away fiancée. Care to tell me exactly what you were thinking running out on your mother and I so close to our wedding. No note. No call. What on Earth were you thinking? Your dress maker has been calling practically every day about fittings and other things she wants to add. I can't organise all this for you Holly. You're beginning to make me question if this is what you want at all." His rant over he relaxed a little, but glared at her hard so she knew she was not forgiven yet. "And who," he gestured to the pair that stood on his opposite side to Holly, "are these two might I ask?"

"These two," Jason gestured to himself and the girl at his side, "are friends of Holly's."
Jason took Holly's wirst and tugged her gently until her hip bumped his leg and he slid an arm around her waist. She was inches from Tamara, who was blocking Holly's path to the wall which she had been sat on. If things got ugly, he knew he could push Holly backwards and put himself between the girls and Matt. "I don't quite know who you think you are, but I wouldn't be a friend of Holly's if I didn't say no fiancé can speak to a woman he loves like that. You have no right."
Jason stared into the eyes of the man Holly had met when she was isolated from the group. It was true, he hadn't seen Eric in years either, but he guessed that the boy they had always known wouldn't have turned into a man with dark hair, evil eyes and more love for his image than his fiancée.
He saw the necklace dance against Holly's dress, the inscription still deep in the coral which Eric cut it into. 'Love is love, true is ture, all my love belongs to you.'
Jason knew there had to be a reason Holly still wore the necklace and as far as he could see the reason was standing in front of him. He guessed that Matt didn't know of Eric. Never knew how much Eric meant to Holly. Jason wanted rid of the guy, and fast. He wanted to find a way of reuniting the youngsters. They had ben young on the boat, and a contrast to the other couple famous throughout the ship, Illy and Ethan. Illy and Ethan were more like adults. The idealistic view of a perfect realitionship (OOC: Yes my little pair of babes, I have read some of your old roleplay) whereas Eric and Holly were the stage before.
They were pure romance, they were young love, but he could see it in the way they were. The beauty and innocence in their relationship made they seem naive, but that was what made they so special to him. They knew. They knew the reality of relationships lasting, but they tried anyway, which was something he was too scared to do.

OOC: Ewww, I'm sorry for being a slobby mac-slob slob. I've had some stuff on my mind. EDIT!: Editting now. Jeez, a while wooshed past and I didn't even notice. Sorry kids. :(

IC: Holly cowarded behind Jason, knowing Matt would react badly. EDIT! He never seemed to react well when she didn't tell him where she was going. He wasn't violent or anything. She knew that if he had have been she wouldn't have stayed around for so long, but he did get angry, argue and then sleep on the sofa to show his disapproval of her actions. She prefered him sleeping down there really. She had more space, mentally and physically, and it meant she didn't have to listen to him snoring into her neck as he slept and her mind wandered.
After the holiday, Holly didn't really do anything impulsive or adventurous. She never really put herself out on a limb. Things were never, complicated for her, unless she made them be so, which mostly she avoided. With Matt, she had an easy simplicity that she stuck to.
As Holly slipped behind Jason for his protection, she could feel the muscles in his arms tighen and tense up as though he was preparing for action. She squeezed his shoulder gently to try and disuade him as she knew that Matt wasn't one to play fair if he thought there was something going on behind his back.

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Matt realised that he was finally starting to understand. The cold feet he had put Holly's disappearance down to were not cold at all, but were rather toasty actually; in another relationship. As Jason defended her and she held herself close to him, he thought again to the scene of his arrival; her arms wrapped around him as they never did with any other man.
If she treated him the same, and her other male friends, it wouldn't have been so suspicious, but the man clearly had some importance to her.
Mentally the jigsaw started to mold and peice by peice everything started to fit. This man in front of him...was from Holly's past. This man in front of him...clearly meant a lot to Holly. This man in front of him...was the boyfriend who left Holly broken hearted. This man wanted Holly back.
Matt went in for the kill.

OOC: Welcome back to the land of the online Bayblade.

IC: Jason deflected the hit aimed for his jaw, and managed to move as he thought he'd have to. He looked Matt in the eyes and saw the red drop of anger and realised, as he felt Holly still holding him, shaking, he had to try and gain control, not the upper hand of a fight.
"Hey, easy mate. Don't you think you should just leave her to have a little space? It's what women needed before wedddings. They need time to think."
A look at Matt's body language told him everything. He was being seen as a threat.
"Dude, I don't want to steal your fiancée. I'm gay."
He'd used the lie before to try and appease guys who thought he was after their girlfriends. If you stuck around a place too long, especially as a single man, then you got a reputation. It depended on your perspective as to whether it was a good one to have or not.
"Look mate, Hol just wants to spend some time with some old friends, get back into contact with a few people. You'd be better off giving her some space. You don't want her to think you're going to be one of those controlling husbands, do you?"