Chapter 1
March
12, 2008
Cameron, North Carolina
Cameron, North Carolina is one of the best places in the world. Well maybe it is if you really know how to appreciate the country lifestyle; Families going to the county fairs together, taking hikes and going to Pine Lake as a teenager making out with your high school sweetheart, or just swimming on those hot summer days. There was still the old time diner that had been in the Gallagher family for years on the main street. Nothing changed in Cameron. Everyone knew their neighbors and they were all friends. It wasn't odd when you had a family BBQ to invite the whole neighborhood and everyone brought half the food.
You saw the teenage guys riding in their pick-ups with their arms around their girlfriends. The kids walking down the street from leaving the ice cream pallor with a cone in their hand, trying to eat the ice cream before it melted and made their hands sticky.
The best thing about this place was it didn't matter who you were to the rest of the world. You could be famous but here you were just another person like everyone else. That's what Jeff Hardy liked the most about where he had lived his whole life. Of course he traveled all over the world and had even considered briefly moving away, but he couldn't. Cameron held everything dear to him. He valued the time he was home but he wished his this time off came under better circumstances. He was home to get his life in order before he lost everything. He and his long time girlfriend Beth had gotten into an argument over the phone when he told her about his suspension from work. The call ended badly and neither of them was happy with each other, she was tired of trying to get through to him. It seemed like he didn't want her help nor did he want to hear her opinion about his suspension over the prescription drugs he got caught using. She went to stay with a friend in Raleigh while he was arranging a flight home. This fight had just been the last in a long line of arguments about how he was living his life, and he knew better then to do the stupid crap he was, but sometimes you slip and just hope that when you hit the bottom you don't crash and burn.
So here he was driving around on his way home and thinking of what he was going to do now. He passed the same old diner, still painted a soft white on the outside with the huge turning 'Gal's Diner' sign on the pole out front. He thought it was funny calling the place Gals, but he guessed it made sense since a Gallagher always ran the place. Looking through the window he saw Mrs. Gallagher behind the counter, the waiters and waitresses walking around and taking orders. He missed being in there eating and talking to the guys. Come to think of it he missed a lot about this place that he had started to take for granted.
He missed his old friends that he didn't get to hang out with due to his schedule, Brice, Seb Davis and Jake Gallagher, and god help him, he missed Jake's little sister A. Seb's sister Molly. A.J. was always a feisty kid. Running around with the boys, doing everything they would do; she became quite the athlete while she was in high school, if he remembered correctly. She was his and Jake's responsibility during the summer months, along with Matt, Shannon and Seb and though sometimes it got annoying having her and Molly tag along there were times he was happy to have A.J. around.
The car pulled up in front of the house on Mason Lynn Road, so he moved to shut off his engine. Soon as that was done he hopped out and made his way up the drive to his friends' house.
"Jeff, Is that you?" Jake yelled from under the truck he was currently working on. He noticed the black corvette that had pulled up in his drive way.
"It's me." He said walking over.
"Damn. I didn't think you would be back when you just left what three days ago or something. What happened?"
"A lot happened. Got into an argument with Beth and decided that it was time to take a break for me to get my life together. Along with that I got suspended from work because I took prescription drugs that I shouldn't have and didn't pass the drug test."
"We decided or she decided?" He asked.
"Well she did, but it's a smart decision right now." He answered shrugging.
"Ah. Well come on in. We can talk about the suspension and that. Catch me up on things. I'll do my best to help you out."
"Alright."
"Sounds good. I'll grab the beers from the fridge."
"Sounds good to me." Jeff said following his friend into the house.
~ Gallagher's Diner ~
"Jake, get your butt over here and help Mama." Aubrey yelled at her brother.
"I'm coming; hold your horses."
"I don't have any horses to hold onto at this moment smart mouth." She replied sticking out her tongue.
Aubrey, better known to Cameron natives as A.J., had moved back home to help with her family. She had been living up in Boston working towards her doctor's degree. She had made it through undergrad school and half way through medical school. She wanted so badly to be a doctor, but the hours studying were exhausting. She was 24 and was moving back home half way through her semester because her family needed her. She had to find a medical school closer to home if she wanted to continue her plan, but for the time being, she had to worry about her father.
He was having tons of health problems, which seem to get worse as time went on. His health was half the reason she wanted to be a doctor. Fixing her father was among the highest of her goals. He could barely stay in the diner the whole day anymore, so her brother took over cooking most meals along with Tommy. Tommy had been with the family for years now, aging grumpily along. That always made her smile. Her mother ran the register, helped wait on customers at the counter, while Aubrey took over waiting on tables and filling in where she was needed.
She had been home for almost a month now and still had no time to herself, but she figured that was okay and everything would work itself out. Saint Patrick 's Day was coming up, and her family always had something going on in the restaurant. The one good thing about moving home was that she actually had her own house instead of an apartment. Her family home was on County Rd, but her house was down on Graffenstatte. It was a half hour drive, but her place was closer to the diner on the main strip. Her house was also only 5 minutes from Jake's place. That was both a blessing and a curse. He seemed to think that checking up on his baby sister was a nightly duty of his, driving by her house to see if her truck was there. Her other perk of being home was that she got to buy a new truck, so going out and getting her Nissan Titan was a huge deal. Having such a huge truck in Boston was useless so being able to buy it now made her laugh. The country girl was back with a vengeance. Well not a vengeance but she guessed she was finally back in a place where she fit in.
She had changed a lot since being gone. She wasn't that naïve country girl anymore. College had a way of making you open your eyes to the world. Being a sorority sister and going to frat parties also had that effect, but she was one of the good ones who knew her limits. Her first year in Boston, she cut her hair shorter (which she eventually grew back down to her butt because that made everyone else more jealous), and highlighted it. She went tanning to keep that southern glow that everyone seemed envious of, and changed the way she dressed. Most guys took notice, but she didn't notice them. It was bad, but she had always thought of marrying a southern guy who had the same values she did.
She didn't want to live her life so far away from her family, but she had ended up in Boston on a full scholarship and thought it would be the best thing to make her grow up. Her best friend Molly wasn't too far away in New York City studying to become a photographer. She often ended up posing for her photos when she went down into the city or Molly came up to visit her. While she lived in Boston, she saw more and more posters of her old friends Matt & Jeff Hardy along with Shannon Moore and Shane Helms. She noticed they were becoming quite the rage in the wrestling world. She remembered them being the sweetest guys once you got to know them, but they often hid that part of themselves from everyone. Matt, Jeff, Shan, Seb, Jake, Molly and her got into tons of trouble running around the town and thinking back on those times, it was all worth every punishment she ever received.
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