He was Corey when the truth came out about Dominic. I don’t know how it happened or why, but all of a sudden I told him about Dominic. Everything about Dominic. Our word of the day. Our promises. Our friendship, my love, the bright and burning and god-awful thing that it was. The look on his face when everything was inevitable. His broken voice due to screaming the night his mother was murdered by his father. How big he was to me, both physically and emotionally. “It was hero worship,” I finally said, the tofu stir fry in front of me going cold. “I can see that now. That’s all it was.”

A minor earthquake struck when I said that, but I kept it at bay. After that, the panic attacks stopped, for a time. But I wouldn’t realize that until later, when I was standing on a beach in Seafare in the rain.

Corey watched me for a while, not saying anything. Eventually, I looked away. The restaurant we sat in was almost empty.

Then, “I knew, I think.”

“Knew what?” I asked.

“That there was something else about you.” He smiled sadly. “You were there, Ty, with me, when we were together. But you were never there.”

“I was,” I said weakly. My own words felt like lies.

“This Dominic.”

“What about him?” I desperately wished the conversation was over. I didn’t know why Corey brought it up in the first place. I wanted to be anywhere but where I was.

Corey shrugged. “He’s different. To you.”

“Meaning?”

He leaned forward and grabbed my hand. “Meaning, you’re a liar. You can say you’re over it, that it was just something like childhood adoration. Say that all you want, Ty. But you’re a liar.”

You’re a liar, it agreed.

She was Kori when she convinced me to come back to Seafare, one last time. “You’ll regret it,” she said softly. “If you don’t go back at least once, you’ll regret it.”

“I don’t want to see him,” I said quickly.

She laughed that Kori laugh, a light and seductive thing. “Notice how I didn’t bring him up. You did.”

Shit.

“Besides, it’s not about him, Tyson. It’s about your family. Anna. Creed. Their parents. JJ. And it’s about Mrs. Paquinn. I know you, Ty. I know it’s killed you not to see her again. And it’ll hurt even worse later on. Trust me. It’s easier to avoid now if you don’t think about the regret later on. But eventually, regret is all you’ll know.”

“That psychologist bullshit doesn’t work on me,” I retorted.

Kori smiled. She knew. She knew she was right. And what was worse, she knew I knew. “When do we leave?” she asked me.

SO THERE it is, the history lesson. All of it, I think. At least the high points. I’m sure there are countless stories I could tell you about my time away from Seafare. Things that have molded me further into becoming who I am today. Maybe I’ll tell you, one day. But here, now, in this moment, it’s about coming home to a place that I’ve avoided for as long as I possibly can. It’s about this drive into town on a rainy afternoon, Seafare looking bigger than it has any right to, looking brighter than it ever has before.