CHAPTER 2- COMING HOME

Zach refused point blank to wave her off from the bus station. He told her over and over the night before that he wouldn't do it, that he had things he should be doing, but she hadn't believed it; she couldn't allow herself to believe that her Zach, romantic, sparky Zach could just let her walk away without even a wave. Sure she knew she'd be back, she knew that Newport couldn't occupy her forever, but...she realised with a sigh, she was pissed that he didn't seem to give a shit.

For all he knew she was running away for good...for all he knew he'd never see her again. She thought slowly and with a heavy intake of breath, that he was doing this because she had let him down, she'd dropped the strong, secure facade of her life recently, and suddenly she was eighteen again, not a fiancee to a mllionaire, not pushing thirty and losing her looks, she was just a teenager, just the part of her that had never grown up.

So she left him at home, asleep, savouring the last moment she spent in bed beside him, never really knowing how long she'd be away. She kissed his lips lightly and ran her fingers through his hair, leaving a note on the dresser; She was going home.


She tried to sleep on the bus. She lay her head back and closed her eyes, anxiety, longing and happiness waving over her as she finally aloud herself to feel what she was really feeling. It was a release to just have a moments peace, a moment away from her hectic lifestyle and her long standing stability; for the first time since she'd left Newport, twenty eight year old Summer let her guard down.

The woman beside Summer shook slightly in the early morning chill and Summer glanced her way; the woman, feeling those big, dark eyes upon her tried to

"Liza..." Her teeth chattered, and as she moved to pull her thin blonde hair from her eyes, Summer caught a glance of a purple bruise on her left wrist.

She smiled reassuringly. "Don't run Liza...Don't let him get away with hurting you..."

Liza raised her eyebrows. "Thats so easy for you to say. Look at you, travelling slum class in your designer gear and a rock the size of Vegas weighing your hand down. What do you know about real life, away from your Gucci, your Armarni?"

"I know that running away...from anything, just makes going back...which you always do, ten times harder. I wasn't always like this! When i moved to Vegas I lived in a Motel Room for almost a year. Everything i have, the stability, the money...its just a game...real life is choices and real life is about being completely baffled by reality, but OK, i have been away from real life for a long time, i have forgotten how to talk to people who don't work for me...but all i know is that if my best friend had gone to the police 10 years ago, I'd still have been in Newport and she'd have still been alive..." Summer sobbed the last words, choking as she did so.

"So you are running back to the place you ran from?"

"Everyone always does...its inevitable."


Liza had been married to Harvey for three years. She was twenty-six, a cashier at her local 7/11 and she had just lost a baby. When she was young, she had been told over and over again how beautiful she was, how she could be a model if that was how she wanted to live her life; but she had passed up that chance to be with Harvey, her childhood sweetheart, the man she would always, always love wa too much.

He hadn't always been violent, He had helped her through when her father died, when she felt only like curling up into a ball and crying. He had hugged her, taken her into his arms and kissed her, made love to her when she needed it most. She couldn't dob him in. She would rather run away from it all than see him behind bars, even if it meant forgetting about the bruises, about the scars.

Summer had told her about Marissa's suicide. She had told, tears trickling down her cheeks, of how the boy that they had all thought they knew had driven her, piece by piece to throw herself off the pier. Summer had admitted, for the first time, how scared she was of going back, how insecure she felt about seeing Seth again, seeing her father again. She admitted how immature and selfish running away had been, but she had done it for Zach, and for herself, because she loved him so much.

PJ was never jailed. He still walked free due to lack of sufficiant evidence that he was involved. He cried at her funeral, lay flowers down, every moment being watched relentlessly through tear glazed eyes that were so full of hate for him. Ryan had said nothing. Staring only at the ground while Seth wrapped him into a deep hug; a brotherly hug. And Summer only wanted to get out of that familiar graveyard, that familiar town...her stupid pointless life. So after the funeral, they packed their bags - Summer and Zach - leaving notes for loved ones, explaining the circumstances.

Liza and Summer cried all the way to Newport where they couldn't bring themselves to say goodbye.