Chapter 1: You Are Invited.





--You are invited—
What: Laguna beaches’ School’s first annual high school reunion.
Who: Laguna beach School graduates; the class of ’2000.
When: September 13-16th
Where: The St. Regis Hotel, in Laguna Beach. Join us for a weekend there, full of reminiscence!
We hope you can attend. Feel free to bring family!

I found this invitation sitting on the counter in my apartment. My roommate Summer, must have brought it in. After tearing open the envelope and reading its contents, a wave of mixed emotions swept over me. All of which were bitter sweet. Seeing Ryan and Brooke would be great, but. what about seeing Brody. We had broken up only 2 years ago. I had loved Brody more than anyone, but I knew that our lives were taking separate paths, and the chance of a healthy long-distance relationship wasn’t likely. We had said a long good bye, and I had moved to New York, to pursue fashion. After finishing my time at NYU, I began to miss my old life and my friends and family.

Brody, by now had become the accomplished author, and his graphic novel was a hit. People all over the world were reading it and he had more fan sites than most celebrities. I hadn’t spoken to Ryan or Brooke in a while either. Brooke went back to France, and was doing god-knows-what, and Ryan, from what I had heard from friends, was now an Architect. As much as I longed to see them, seeing Brody would be too weird. He was crushed when I broke up with him, and would probably be bitter. Or maybe he was off dating some comic book “skank”. You know, one of those girls who go to all the conventions, wearing pleather and polyester costumes. That was one thing that I certainly could not handle; Brody dating another girl.

Although I had been the one to break up with him, I was always thinking of him. When I went on a date with a new guy, I thought of dating Brody. When I kissed my boyfriend, Jake, I wished I was kissing Brody. He never left my mind. Jake, my latest boyfriend, was sweet, and I liked him, but something...just wasn’t there. I couldn’t pinpoint what it was, but it was always hanging over her head.

“Hey Stephanie.” A tall girl with long silky brown hair and wild violet eyes, walked in to the entry way of the apartment.

“Did you get the letter I set out for ya? It came today?”

I nodded. “Yeah, Summer,” I said pursing my lips, still thinking of Brody. Summer shook her long hair, and smiled.

“Was it another letter from your ex-boyfriend?” she asked.

After the initial break up, Brody began writing me tons of letters, all of which I couldn’t bring my self to look at. They were unopened lying in a box underneath my bed. I had told Summer all about Brody and life before she had moved to New York. Summer had become my sole confident, and best friend.

“No. Umm. It’s a high school reunion invitation.” I said quietly.

Janelle walked up behind me, reading the invitation. “Steph? You gonna’ go?” Summer said, tapping me on the shoulder.

I thought for a moment. Those people and I had so many memories together, some good, some bad. I really had no desire to unearth the bad ones.

“ I’m gonna sleep on it. But first, I better order take out. I’m starving”. I giggled.

Summer shook her head. “You should go. And oh my god, this will be the fourth time we’ve had take out this week,” Summer said complaining.

I would have to sleep on the possibility of attending the reunion. But in my heart, I knew that I couldn’t miss it.

The next morning I woke up with what seemed to be a knew perspective. I found myself excited, ecstatic almost about going to the reunion. I ran in to Summer’s room and jumped on to her bed. I began screaming and jumping up and down on her bed, acting like I was two years old. She awoke with a face that made me want to cry and laugh at the same time.

“What do you think you are doing”. She said with her hair messed and her makeup half way down her face.

My reply in a very excited voice was, “I’m going to see Brody”.

“What?” she asked in a loud anxious voice.
“I’m going to see Brody at the reunion, I’ve made up my mind, I’m going back to Laguna, and I’m seeing him.” I said with a smile ear to ear.

I don’t think I have ever seen Summers’ mouth drop like it did when I said those words. As soon as I told her my plan I ran to my room sat down, and began to cry. I really didn’t know why I was crying, I was excited to see Brody, and Brooke and Ryan. But for some reason I began to think about the past, and all the things that had happened between all of us in high school. Summer herd me crying and ran in to the room. She quietly sat on the bed and hugged me. She hugged me tighter than anyone had ever hugged me in my life.
She whispered in my ear

“it will be okay”.
I turned my head and smiled at her,
“I hope so”, I said sobbing.

After that I began packing for what was supposed to be one of the most important things I’m going to do. Get the man I know I am supposed to be with. After I packed my stuff, I said goodbye to Summer and I was off to the airport. A few minutes after I got into the cab to the airport I got a text from Summer saying, Please don’t be mad at me, I sent Brody a letter.

Directly after I received that message I felt butterflies in my stomach wondering what she said to him. I texted her back saying, what?!? what are you talking about , what did you say to him? She replied right away saying, Nothing important, just that you are still in love with him. I don’t think anyone could understand how angry and scared I was of what the whole letter said.

I sent one more message back to her, asking her to send me the whole message so I was prepared when I saw Brody in Laguna.
She sent me the message which read;
I want to talk to you about Steph. I’m not sure exactly what’s going on between you and her at the moment, but I need you to know this...
She’s madly in love with you, she always has been, there hasn't been a moment when she hasn’t thought about you, or said your name when she’s sad, she loves you more than she love's me, and that's sad to me because I’m supposed to be her best friend, but that’s also so good, because with you in her life, she is happier than she's ever been. The only reason she wanted to break up was so that you two could "prove" your love and so she could really believe that someone like you loved her. Because you meant more to her than breathing.(when you broke up she didn’t breathe)
You two honestly make each other happy, I know sometimes you would get to each other, but its only because your both equally stubborn. You love each other, don’t say you don’t. She loves you with all her heart and I know you do too. I’ve watched my best friend cry so many times because she misses you. She’s cried so hard that she didn’t want to breathe or stand. She cried so hard that not even I could help her at some points. You know that I know everything about her... but sometimes, I’m not enough. The person she needs is you, just thought I would remind you.
PS. She’s coming to the reunion: Summer.

After I read this I began to cry, for one of two reasons. One because I was so happy that Summer was being such a good friend and cared enough to do that for me, and two because I was scared of what Brody was going to say to me when he saw me after reading that letter. As I got off the plane I started to sweat. People in the airport probably thought something was wrong with me. I turned the corner to baggage claim and to my surprise I saw Brody. He was just standing there with his hands in his baggy grey sweater pockets looking around nervously. I tried to avoid him, but it wasn’t working. He finally spotted me and yelled my name across the airport. I wasn’t sure weather to run and jump on him, or pretend I didn’t see him. I had many thoughts going through my head, had he read the letter? How did he know what flight I was on? I was just confused in general. As I waved back he began walking toward me. I really wanted to run away hysterically, but by then he was too close and I would have felt like an idiot.
He walked over right in front of me, hugged me and said,

“I’ve missed you S”.

Right there I almost peed myself, he hugged me so tight.

“Haha, I’ve missed you too”. I said while trying not to through up.

“Where are you’re bags?” he asked excitedly.

“Uhm, there over there, pink and white and a, bigish”. I hesitated to reply.

As he walked over to my luggage I couldn’t help but watch him. I forgot how humble and kind he was. It’s true you really don’t know how much you miss someone until you see them again. Brody turned around and smiled at me,

“why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.

“Oh, no reason” I replied.

“Okay, so lets get going” he said quite enthused.

“Yeah lets get going.. where exactly are we going?” I asked uncertain.

Well your staying at my house while your in town remember? You asked me in your letter.

“Oh yeah, so you got my letter did you?”

“Yes I did, and I think we should talk later about that as well.”

“Okay, sure.” I said. “That Little Bitch”, I said as quiet as possible.

“What?!?” He asked me.

“What? oh nothing, nothing, just thought of something I need to uh, take care of.” I said kind of sarcastically.

“Okay, well let’s get going, we have a lot to talk about.” He said grabbing my hand as we walked out of the airport.