Ginny is returning to Paradise for the first time in ten years and what she finds is that ten years is a long time. She is forced to face people that she's missed and people that she definitely hasn't.
Very much a Ginny-centric story, all of the relationships are fairly background. Relationships mentioned: Melanie/Dez, Sasha/ Roman, Boo/Carl.
Rated K+. Chapter titles are songs I listened to while writing the chapters.
F*** You
Ginny woke up in the guest suite, Charlie's stuff was everywhere. Clothes in the closet, shoes by the door. Bath…things in the bathroom.
"You were so not kidding about Charlie claiming that room." Ginny said as she walked out of the guest suite to see Melanie in the kitchen, standing between Dez's arms as he cooked breakfast.
Melanie stole a piece of bacon off the plate next to the stove when Dez turned around to grab a carton of eggs out of the fridge, "I never kid when insulting my brother."
"Thanks, I love you too." Ginny startled at the sound of Charlie's voice. She turned to see him slumped down on the couch, feet on the coffee table. He was wearing sweats and there was a duffel bag underneath his legs.
"He's here by the way, woke me up at five in the fucking morning because he forgot his key." Melanie narrowed her eyes at Charlie - her words aimed more at him than they were at Ginny.
Ginny pursed her lip. The Segal siblings, record holding bickerers since Melanie hit him in the nose the day she was born.
"Well, you rented out my room anyway, so it was obviously better I did." Charlie sat up to level his own look at his sister. Their faces were nearly identical as they faced off. Dez rolled his eyes.
In the second they paused to glare Ginny jumped in, "Sorry, it was just for the night though, I'm taking a cottage for the rest of my stay." Charlie's glare slipped as he looked at her. He shrugged. Ginny nodded, trying to smile.
Melanie tried to steal another piece of bacon and Dez stole it out of her hand just before it made it to her mouth. Dez then ate it himself. Looking down at her smugly as Melanie huffed. "They're kind of adorable," Ginny said, now standing across the coffee table from Charlie.
He scoffed, "Yeah, adorable. Nauseating was my word, but sure, whatever." Charlie sunk back into the couch, looking as if he might just let it swallow him.
"Be nice Charlie, or I'll paint your room pink while you're gone." Melanie threatened playfully, her voice filled with laughter as she and Dez traded kisses and stole food from each other.
"Hey, I haven't made any jack rabbit jokes." Charlie defended, not actually moving to do so though. Then he winked at Ginny and mouthed, "Yet."
"You're a saint, aren't you, Dez?" Ginny looked over at Dez, in awe that he hadn't been driven nuts dealing with both Segal siblings on such a regular basis.
"One to two weekends of every month."
"Lies! You don't even feed me!" Charlie stood now, pointing an accusatory finger at Dez and managing a fairly dramatic pose despite his obvious exhaustion.
"Go take a nap, Charlie, your inner four year old is showing," Melanie shooed him towards his room without leaving Dez's arms. Ginny smiled at the way she and Dez seem to just fit together.
Ginny waited till Charlie has shut himself in his room before saying her goodbye, "I'll see you guys later. I want to check out the new and improved Paradise." Melanie nodded and Ginny was out the door before either of them could say anything.
The two were certainly adorable, but Charlie wasn't wrong. They were kind of nauseating too.
Since the engagement party wasn't until later that night Ginny decided to drive into town to see what else had changed beside the addition of a movie theatre. And she was wholly surprised.
All of the boarded up shops that had been empty for most of her life were open – with colorful signs advertising home-made soap and candles, surf board paint jobs, and even an art gallery. Apparently Sasha hadn't been joking about Carl's abilities at the bank because none of the shops appeared to be chains so they had to be owned by people in town.
It was the Oyster Bar that surprised her the most though, the food last night was one thing, but in the day she could see that it was now sporting a colorful new paint job and a fancy sign. The Oyster was not just a rundown surfer bar anymore.
"Wow," Ginny smiled as she paused in her walk around the town to breathe. It was like a completely different town now. There were lots of people walking around – tourists. Paradise was now a tourist town.
"Pretty impressive, huh?" It was Michelle that snuck up on her, exiting the Oyster bar.
Ginny smiled at her, "Definitely." Michelle drew her in for a hug, "I hardly recognize any of these places now."
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Michelle joked, scrunching up her eyes as she smirked, "Because really, I've heard both."
Ginny laughed, "I'll say good for now. But really it all depends on how good the popcorn is at the movie theatre."
"Dash runs the food counter," Michelle said, "So probably spectacular."
"Probably?" Ginny raised an eyebrow, "You haven't had any?"
Michelle blew out a breathe, "You spill one espresso?"
"Dash still holding a grudge?" Ginny asked, Michelle nodded, "Well it's nice to see some things have stayed the same." Michelle snorted and after another hug said goodbye to get to the dance studio for her next class.
The rest of the day went the same. She tried out the new places around Paradise – starting with the movie theatre – and ran into people she hadn't seen since high school. It was shaping up to be a good day, which should have been her first clue that something horrible was just around the corner.
Literally. Ginny turned a corner and walked right into her dad. Banging her nose against his shoulder and his entire briefcase rained down on the sidewalk. She didn't realize it was him at first. Immediately, she'd stooped down to help contain the mayhem.
"Ginny?" her hands froze mid-grab and she looked up with music from The Shining playing in her head. There was her dad. Business suit, bad dye job, pocket protector. His eyes were wide, surprised, but there didn't appear to be any anxiety or anger – the two things that had made up their relationship the last time she'd been in Paradise.
"Dad," Ginny breathed out, launching back into action to grab the rest of whatever document had been in the briefcase pre-collision. He did the same. Once they were standing up, she handed him the paperwork and he stuffed it all back into place. He kept glancing up at her, eyes shining with something Ginny wasn't sure what to call.
"How are you?" he finally said as he closed his briefcase. He'd taken a deep breath before saying it, so Ginny knew he was really trying. She took her own deep breath, willing to give it a shot. It being having a normal conversation with her father that didn't end in tears or yelling.
The words never had a chance to exit her mouth though, as the familiar voice of Fay called down the sidewalk. Her father's wife sounded out of breath and she was mid-way through calling his name again when she stopped behind him.
"Ginny," Fay's face froze up in fear. Ginny smiled at her, aiming for nonconfrontational and casual. Probably missed it by a mile, but Fay noticeably relaxed.
It was an understandable reaction. Ginny had verbally-berated Fay to tears the last time she'd seen her – the day her mother had moved out of Paradise and her father had reclaimed her childhood home for his new family. It had been a bad day, for everyone.
"I should go," Ginny nodded, glancing back at her dad, "I need to get back. It was nice to see-." She trailed off mid-platitude when she saw the young blond girl next to Fay. It was like looking in a mirror, or a time-machine. This was her little sister. The nose was a little different, the hair a little darker, but the resemblance was there. Strongly.
Her eyes must have shown a flash of panic, of her desire to flee, because her dad placed a hand on her shoulder. Ginny met his gaze and he smiled reassuringly as he introduced her, "Gwen, this is your sister Ginny."
Gwen, her sister, looked at her with interest, "I've seen pictures of you. You danced at Madame Fanny's too right?" Ginny nodded, crouching down so she was at eye level. Her own blue eyes were staring back her – younger, more innocent. They weren't hers though, they were Gwen's. They were her sister's.
"It's great to finally meet you, Gwen," Ginny spoke rapidly. She was fairly positive she was panicking. And if she didn't get out of there, she was fairly positive it was going to be a full-blown, raging anxiety attack. "I have to go, though," Ginny stood up, smiling at the three of them quickly, "I'll see you later."
She did not mean that at all. She meant that she would prefer never to see any of them again. She fled as quickly as she could down the street towards her car. It was parked in front of the Oyster Bar and Ginny slipped in to her front seat. She took a breath, held it seven seconds, and then slowly let it out as she mentally counted to eight.
Ginny could feel herself calming down. She reached over to open her glove box so she could dig out a nail file. Five minutes later she needed to repaint four of her nails, but they were all uniform in shape and her anxiety attack was gone. The first one she'd had in six months. She took another controlled breath.
"I'm good," Ginny looked at herself in her rear-view and nodded. She put her car in drive and called an official end to her exploration of Paradise. It was time to go see her cabin. Or at least find it.
Melanie had great foresight apparently, because Ginny's cabin was one of the closest to the main parking lot. It was cute little thing with a stone exterior – river rock, maybe – and a white gable roof that upon entering Ginny learned housed a vaulted ceiling with exposed gables. It was a studio with a small kitchenette – sink, mini fridge, cook top, and microwave.
Ginny liked it. Later, she might even love it, but in that moment she was focused on falling face first into the plush-top double bed with a quilted comforter and not crying. Not crying. It was a power struggle, her will power against her emotionally fried brain, but when her calendar alarm on her phone went off Ginny was happy to note she had no tear stains on her face.
Mascara was still shot, and her eyes were bloodshot, but the tears had been suppressed. Ginny called it a victory and started searching for her facial scrub in her suitcase.
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