Miley sighed as her mother, Tish talked animatedly with her soon-to-be stepfather, Bruce. She ran her fingers through her hair, and turned the volume on her iPhone higher, drowning out her mother and the constant sound of horns honking. She stared out of the window, watching the rain trail down the window. She traced it with her finger, strangely saddened when it stopped at the bottom of the window.
After another hour of this, they finally arrived at her mother's best friend's beach house on the Jersey Shore. For as long as she could remember, they'd been going to this beach house summer after summer. This would however, be Bruce's first time and the first time they'd returned in about four years due to problems in her family.
"Miley!" She looked up to find her mother turned in her seat, looking towards her. "We're here, honey." She nodded her head, and started to get out of the car, rolling her eyes. As if she didn't already know that.
"Oh, Miley!" She heard, looking up she saw Denise run towards her, her arms stretched wide as she tried to hug the teenage girl, who had just as quickly tried to get out of her grasp. She didn't seem to notice as she looked at her, tears in her eyes, a smile on her face. "You're so grown up."
Miley nodded, this time suppressing the urge to roll her eyes. No duh, she'd grown older, it had been four years since she'd been at the beach house. Last time Denise or her two sons had seen her, she had braces, and was a lot shorter. Now, since she'd taken up cheerleading and dancing at her boarding school, her legs seemed longer and toned, she had a perfect body, and her braces were off, revealing straight pearly whites. Her blue—almost violet—eyes were breathtaking. Her once natural auburn hair, now dyed black, the bangs hanging over her eyes in an alluring way.
She was seventeen years old and the girl all the guys at her school wanted, but couldn't have.
"I can't believe how beautiful you are." Denise gushed. "It's almost unreal."
Miley nodded her head, and turned away, going to get her bags from the car, but before she could, Denise stopped her. "No, dear, let Joe and Nick take care of that." She waved her off as Miley felt her body freeze.
Joe? Nick?
She hadn't seen Nick in four years. When they last saw each other, they'd kissed for the first time and had gone a little too far. After, she'd left for four years. She wondered if he remembered what happened between them, or if he like her, had tried to erase it from his memory.
Even as impossible as it was.
Denise called for them, Joe came out first, a smile on his face. He had glasses on, something Miley hadn't noticed he needed until then. His hair was cut short, and spiked in the middle. It made him look very cute, she had to admit. He walked towards her and gave her a hug.
"I missed ya, Miles." He told her, hugging her closer.
She laughed, and pulled away, "You're so strange." She grinned, and kissed his cheek, "I missed you too, in case you were wondering."
Joe smiled and looked behind him, clearing his throat. Miley stepped to the side as he began to get her bags. Nick stood in the entrance to the house, he ran his fingers through his hair, his phone to his ear. She narrowed her eyes at him as he looked at her and quickly hung up. Instantly, she felt angry towards him, he walked to the group and put a smile on his face, despite Miley's glare. He gave Tish a hug, and shook hands with Bruce.
Then he turned towards her. She shook her head, rolling her eyes; she completely brushed him off and walked in the direction of the beach. Not in the mood to speak with him.
"Miley?" Tish called, "Where are you going?" Miley didn't answer and kept walking, quickly putting in her ear buds, she pressed play and her favorite song of all time came on. She started to dance as she walked, tapping her hand to her leg in time with the song.
After a few minutes of walking, she came to what looked to be a carnival. She stopped at the pier, the wind blowing her hair behind her as she leaned against the railing staring out at the families on the beach, the kids playing in the sand, and in the distance, she was able to find a few dolphins.
She closed her eyes and smelled the ocean air, that alone bringing a smile to her face. After a few minutes, she walked to a concession stand and bought a smoothie. As she passed a group of guys a little older than her, one of them hooted in her direction, another slapped her ass as she passed. She immediately spun around and grabbed his hand.
"Want to do that again?" She said, her voice cold. "Or will I have to break it?"
The guy immediately backed away from her as she glared at him, her eyes becoming darker as she continued to speak, "Don't ever touch me again. Understood?" Then she spun around and walked toward what looked to be an intense game of beach volleyball.
She walked past it, looking down at her phone, she quickly typed a text message to her best friend at boarding school, Liam.
So far, it's lame. I don't want to be here, I've made that pretty clear.
She wasn't watching where she was going, and ran into someone who had seemed to be running towards her, unable to stop. Her smoothie exploded all over her shirt, thankfully not going anywhere near her phone. She landed on the floor, all sandy, as she sat up.
She tried to clean herself off, when the person who'd she bumped into spoke.
"Looks like I found you." She looked up and saw Nick, a smirk on his face.
"Nick…" She whispered, "What are you doing?"
"My mother sent me to come find you, and I suppose I did." He sat up, offering to help her up, but she brushed him off and stood up herself. She tried to clean the smoothie from her hair, but with the sand mixed in it only made it worse.
"Well, don't. I don't need you to follow me around like a babysitter. I'm seventeen now, almost eighteen. You're not in charge of me." She picked up her bag, her phone, and the now empty cup of strawberry-banana smoothie. Great, five dollars wasted because Nick couldn't watch where he was going.
"Miley." He stopped her from trying to leave, looking at her. "We have to talk about what happened."
"Just now? I think we've talked enough." She pushed past him to get to the trashcan nearby. "I'll see you later, considering I have no choice in the matter. Goodbye, Nick."
Nick watched helplessly as she walked away from him, probably in search of a new shirt. He knew she was upset over what happened the last time they'd seen eachother. They'd gotten into a huge fight, and haven't really made up just yet. As far as he knew, she had been sent to boarding school, and had gone to Paris during the summer, to work on her French, her favorite language. One she'd become very fluent in while growing up.
He also had noticed how different she looked, how skinny but in shape she seemed to be. He knew a lot about her, but some things, he also didn't. He sighed, running his hands through his hair, and turned toward the volleyball players.
He had no choice but to push it to the side and just play. It was all he could do for now.
Miley, meanwhile had found a stand that sold t-shirts. She made a face when she saw one with Nemo on the front, and another with Phineas and Ferb and they're platypus, who appeared to be surfing behind them. She wasn't a child. She threw it back on the table in frustration.
"Need some help? You look like you could use it." She heard a voice beside her, and turned to see a girl her age with black hair, and tan skin. Her brown eyes narrowed in on her as she looked at her with an amused expression. "I mean, I can see you're a bit too old for Nemo and Phineas and Ferb."
"Thanks for noticing." Miley muttered, "Don't they have anything else here?"
"Well, just down that way," The girl pointed down the boardwalk, "They do. Come on, I'll show you." She took Miley's hand and pulled her with her, causing her to have no other choice but follow. They got to another stand where Miley spotted an orange long sleeved shirt. She picked it up, and held it up to see the price.
"Twenty dollars? Too much." She put it down, and began looking again.
"Or…" The girl had a gleam in her eye, "you could do this." She picked it up and began to put it in her bag. Miley's eyes widened, "It's okay, I do this all the time."
"No!" Miley stopped her, "I got in trouble for that. I don't want to get in trouble again."
The girl smirked, "Wow, a bad girl. I'm liking you already."
"Not really." Miley sighed, "I'll just buy it, I don't want to smell like a fucking smoothie for the rest of the day."
"And a girl with a mouth. Even better."
Miley laughed and rolled her eyes, paying for the shirt. After she put it on and put her dirty shirt in her bag, she and the girl walked down the boardwalk. Miley bought a pretzel, and she bought a churro.
Soon after they found a place to sit and eat, they began to talk.
"So, what brings you down to the Jersey Shore?" The girl asked her, taking a bite of her churro.
"My mom shipped me down here with her, so she could spend time with her best friend and her fiancé. She couldn't trust me home for three months by myself, I suppose."
"And why is that?"
"Well. This is the first summer in four years I haven't spent in Paris. So, I guess she just wanted to spend time with me, not that she had much to begin with. Only a few reasons why she sent me to boarding school and allowed me to be in Paris for four years."
"She's not much apart of your life, is she?"
"Not really." She sighed, "But whatever, I'm used to it."
The girl could sense she had something else to say, but wouldn't. There was a lot about this girl she wanted to know, she seemed interesting enough.
"My mom doesn't spend time with me either." She said, "She has a boyfriend she spends all her time with, she's never home. I basically just live with my older sister." She took a bite as she watched her rip a piece of the pretzel off and put it in her mouth. She did it so perfectly, elegant. She actually didn't know the correct word to use.
She also noticed she'd been silent. "So, We never got eachother's names. I'm Demi." She held out her hand, and smiled at her.
She seemed in a daze as she looked back at her, "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Miley."
"Miley? Unique name." Demi smiled at her, "Or is it a nickname?"
"It's a nickname that I guess stuck." She shrugged. "I've had it for as long as I can remember."
"Interesting." Demi murmured. "So, where you from, if you're just here visiting."
"Franklin. It's a small town in Tennessee." Demi noticed for the first time her accent. It was very southern, but not so much that it was annoying. "I moved to New York when I was fifteen. My mother's boyfriend lives there, so she had me relocate. Not that I had a choice, my stuff was already packed and shipped when I got back for winter break freshman year."
Demi could see this girl had a lot of things going on at once. For example, the way she'd grown up, how her mother treated her, how she had to basically give up everything so her mother could be happy. But did her happiness matter?
"I'm sorry, Miley." Demi said, quietly.
Miley was silent for a moment, before she finally stood up, "Let's get out of here." She said, changing the subject. "I want to have some fun."
And the twinkle in her eyes was all the assurance Demi needed.
"Let's do it."
Later that night, Miley stumbled onto the beach house porch, the automatic light blinding her as she tried to walk straight, and not wake anybody up.
"Destiny." She heard a male's voice speak, she looked up and saw Bruce sitting on the beach chair, an angry look on his face. "Where have you been?"
"None of your business." She snapped, standing still for a moment, she felt a wave of dizzyness and grabbed her head in pain.
"I told your mother to get some sleep, that I'd stay up until you returned. Would you like to tell me where you've been?"
"Like, I said. It's none. Of. You're. Fucking. Business." She spoke in a cold voice, her anger becoming more apparent as her accent became more noticeable. "Please, just leave me alone and let me sleep."
"Destiny!" Bruce nearly yelled, "I demand to know where you've been."
Miley froze and turned around, "Don't you ever call me that. The name's fucking Miley." She walked closer to him, "And don't act like you give a shit, because you and I both know you don't."
With that, she turned around and walked almost soberly toward her bedroom. One she hoped was still the same even after four years.
Sure enough, her suspicions were correct as she walked upstairs to the last door down the hall, opening the door, she saw Nick sleeping in the bed on the other side of the room.
What the hell was he doing in here?
"Get out of my room." She told him, knowing he wasn't asleep, even if it was four in the morning. "What are you doing in here?"
"Uhm, hate to break it to you." He told her, "But we share a room, always have."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" She groaned, "I don't remember that."
"Fucking being the operative word here." Nick said, "You remember. You just choose not to."
"Fuck you, Nick." She snapped, "Get out of here so I can change."
"If I recall, this is technically my bedroom. I live here, you don't, remember? Go to the bathroom if you aren't comfortable. Even thought it's not nothing-" He didn't finish, because she slammed the door to the room, midsentence.
He wondered why she was so pissed about something that happened four years before. Then again, he supposed he had to understand; she was a hormonal teenage girl after all.
A few minutes later, she came back in, a headband in her hair holding it back, sweats and a tank top on as she got into bed quietly. She didn't say another word to him, instead deciding to try and get some sleep. She was exhausted, after the party Demi dragged her to, she just wanted to sleep.
Even if it was restless, at least she could say she tried.
Nick on the other hand, knew he wasn't going to get any sleep. She was acting too different from the last time he'd seen her, apart from what he knew she was angry about. They'd grown up together, best friends, never one with out the other, when they'd have their yearly visits.
Then after what happened between them happened, she began to act different. Not returning his numerous calls or texts. Whatever happened to her, happened and he didn't know what it was. He figured his mother knew, but even she wouldn't tell him, having been sworn to secrecy by Tish.
Tonight was their usual, first dinner together they always had when the two families were brought together. He stared at the empty seat all through dinner wondering where the hell she was. Her mother was beyond upset, she'd called her numerous times, not that helped at all. Tish even asked him if he knew where she was, he said he didn't know, that they last time he'd seen her was at the carnival on the beach.
All he just wanted to do was break down her walls and be her best friend again, like it was before, but if she wouldn't let him, or anyone in, how was he supposed to do it?
He turned over on his side, and sighed, closing his eyes. He was going to try to get some sleep tonight, even if he didn't, he could try.
The next morning, Miley got up a little earlier and looked at her phone for the first time. She saw how many missed texts and calls she had and let out a groan. Fuck. Her mother was going to kill her, if not this migraine she already had.
She quickly got dressed, quietly so she wouldn't wake up Nick, and grabbed her bag quickly, going down the stairs, she could hear her mother and Denise talking. She stopped at the bottom and listened.
"I don't know what to do with her anymore." Tish said to Denise. "She's acting out more than ever before. I mean I know she's been gone for most of the past four years, but regardless, I don't understand why she's been so distant from everyone. Especially yesterday, I apologize for her rude behavior."
"It's alright sweetie." Denise assured her, "Whatever's going on in her head, can be fixed, have you taken her to see anyone since school's been out?"
Tish shook her head, "No. She came back the day before we had to leave."
"Well. Why don't we look up someone local? That way she could see someone at least once a week while she's here, maybe she'll like to talk to someone."
"I don't believe that will work. Ever since the accident she's shut down from the world. She refuses to go see somebody and talk to them, she won't let anybody in." It was quite for a moment, and Miley could hear her mother's tears. "She literally put up walls, and no one, not even I can break through them."
Miley deciding she didn't want to hear anymore, quietly snuck out, closing the door softly behind her. She felt angry, once more, because her mother once again made herself look like the victim when really it wasn't her. It was Miley.
She refused to talk about that day. September 6, 2005. The possible worst day of her life, apart from what happened with Nick. She kept walking until she was in town, she spotted a few stores and stopped to look them. When she was in the record store forty five minutes later, Demi came in, and grinned at her when she saw her.
"Hey, Miley!" Demi waved, catching her attention fast she walked towards her and hugged her, holding her close. "What brings you here this early?"
Miley shrugged, "I had to leave. That place is fucking suffocating. What about you?"
"I'm meeting up with some people, you should join." Demi told her, "I want to meet you to a bunch of my friends."
"Didn't I meet them last night?"
"Well, yeah. But they weren't sober, and as I recall, neither were you, missy." Demi wiggled her eyebrows and playfully nudged her.
Miley laughed, "Oh yes, now I remember." She joked, following Demi out of the store. They walked a couple blocks until they came to a secluded spot on the beach. Sitting around an unlit bonfire were about six teenagers, all ranging from age 17-22. They had beer bottles in their hands, and some food in another.
Miley sat down next to a girl with long blonde hair, she looked at her and smiled, "Hey, I'm Chelsea." Miley gave her a small smile in return.
"I'm Miley."
"Guys, this is my new friend, Miley. Miley, these are the guys, with names, but silly me, I can't remember them." She joked as she sat down next to a guy about twenty with blonde hair.
He looked at her, "I'm Sterling." He told her, "I'm pretty badass."
"Are you now?" Miley's eyebrows rose a little. But before he could tell her anything further, the rest of the group began to introduce themselves.
"I'm Mitchel." A boy with short dark hair told her, he looked at her, "I'm not as badass." He joked, causing everyone to laugh.
"I'm David." Another boy with paler skin than Mitchel, and dark short hair told her. "I'm just awesome."
Miley smirked she looked ahead of her and saw a guy with shaggy blonde hair, most of which fell in his eyes. "And you are?"
He lifted his head up, and looked at her, his green eyes bright against the sun. "I'm Dylan." He had his arm around a girl with dark hair, and violet eyes.
She looked up, her pouty lips in a smile, "I'm Selena." She introduced herself, she moved her head closer to Dylan's.
It didn't take a rocket scientist to know they were both a couple. She grinned at them, "I have—or had a boyfriend-…" She trailed off. "Uhm, it's just you two reminded me of us, is—is all." Her grin faded away just as fast as it came. "Anyway, nice to meet y'all."
Demi sat down next to her a put an arm around her, hugging her close. "You, missy, are going to have the ride of your life this summer."
"Huh, how so?" Miley asked, as Sterling asked Dylan where Cole, Gia, and Debby were. Not that Miley actually knew them or anything.
"Just wait and see, sit back and enjoy it while it lasts, babe." She laughed when Miley looked at her confused. "Just wait."
"I know you've only known me like… a day, but patience isn't exactly my strong suit."
Demi laughed, causing her to laugh. From where everyone else sat, it looked as though the two were best friends for over a few years. For them, it seemed like a start to an amazing friendship.
