FicWad

Beaches, Booze and Falling
Prologue
/It haunted him. He wasn't sure how or why but it did. He had tried to destroy it many times but somehow whenever his long, agile fingers went to tear it into pieces he couldn't do it. It was all he had left of those few days. Ten days to be exact. It was a simple five by seven photograph. In the picture sat a young man with a young woman. The man was himself and he was staring completely enamoured with the blue-eyed beauty that sat beside him. They hadn't been aware that a photo was being taken so they weren't even looking at the camera. She had been teasing him and he remembered trying to act insulted. It didn't work. It never did. The photo had captured her brilliant eyes. They were filled with mirth. He didn't know whether it was only a trick of the sun but her eyes seemed to sparkle./

That photograph and all it represented was going to be the death of him. It had already caused him to get into trouble multiple times.

The trouble had started about a month after the photo was taken. He had just received it in the mail, actually. He had gotten a DUI that night. His friends tried to stop him from getting into the car but to no avail. He had, apparently, gotten violent leaving one of his friends with a broken nose. He had gotten into the car a peeled out of the parking lot. He was arrested not ten minutes later.

Up until the day following his arrest he hadn't told his friends about her. When he did it had been unintentionally and he hadn't given it all away. Stephanie had been the one of his friends who asked. She had tentatively sat next to him, and rubbed his shoulder with her hand but he shrugged her off.

"What?" he remembered demanding harshly. She didn't even flinch. It seemed like she had been expecting him to lash out.

She grabbed his hand gently. "Who is she?" She asked so softly and caringly that she had reminded him of her.

He yanked his hand away and stood up. He was angry again and he didn't know why. "Who is she? 'Who is she,' you ask? I don't know! I don't. She was supposed to be just some girl! She is just some girl. She's nobody special. She can't be!" He was waving his hands in the air trying to emphasize his point. He looked around at his other friends who were standing quietly in the background worried about him. "I'd appreciate it if everyone would just piss off!" Moments later the whole room shook as he slammed his bedroom door closed.

Hours later Stephanie had crept into his room and crawled onto the bed; she laid down beside him. In his hands he held the photograph.

"She's beautiful," Stephanie had commented. He nodded his head, absentmindedly agreeing with her. "What's her name?"

He shook his head. "It doesn't matter anymore." He rolled over terminating the conversation. Seconds later he heard his bedroom door open and close softly.

They had, then, taken it too sea. On the yacht he had been anything but happy. He knew what that meant. Stephanie was a psychology major. He had overheard her talking with his other friends about it too. He was displaying all the signs of depression. He was in a state of irritable mood, he rarely ate or slept, his sex drive had increased tenfold, he was out of control and his judgement was always impaired. He had also increased his alcohol intake. The few nights he didn't pass out before he went to bed he was unable to sleep. His mind was racing. There were so many thoughts bouncing off the inside of his head and everything was so jumbled he wasn't even able to understand it. So he drank until he passed out then woke up and drank some more. When he wasn't drinking he was studying the anatomy of different females.

They had sailed around the world in hopes of raising his spirits. It had worked, for the most part anyway. That is until they reached Australia, his homeland. It was near the end of the trip. After that they were heading back to school. Within hours of being back in Australia, he had seen too many places that had memories, memories of her. That night when they had gotten back on the yacht and when everyone was asleep and him drunk he had made his way to the controls.

He still wasn't sure what possessed him to actually do it but all he knew was he needed to get as far away from Australia as humanly possible. The keys happened to be in the ignition still, he was sure it was an accident but he thanked the Gods all the same. He had taken another swig from the bottle of alcohol that had been in his hand at the time. He turned on the controls and the boat sprang into life.

Instead of keeping the boat at a steady pace he accelerated and sailed at maximum velocity. All throughout the night he sailed with the alcohol swimming through his veins, drowning him. When his friends woke up during the night they all rushed to get him away from the controls. They had been near Fiji at this time. This had been not one of their best ideas as, as they attempted to pull him away the wheel turned and with it the boat. Unfortunately, in front of them lay a smaller boat. Needless to say the outcome hadn't been good.

He glared, now, at the picture. He cursed and condemned it for all the trouble it had caused him.

"Finn!" he heard his friend, Colin, called from the other room.

His head shot up and he looked around guiltily as though Colin could see that he was looking once again at the photograph. He hastily opened a drawer and shoved the picture in it.

"What?" he called back satisfied that now since the picture was out of sight it was also out of mind.

"We're going to the pub, you coming?"

"Yeah, just a minute!"

He looked around his room. It was a complete mess. It was the day before classes resumed at Yale and he wasn't finished unpacking yet. His suitcase was open on his bed and the room was full of unopened boxes. He had been unpacking when he found the picture then his mind drifted. He looked around one more time before turning around and walking into the common room where his two best friends, Logan and Colin were waiting.

"You okay?" Logan asked looking at him with concern.

"Fine."

They left the dorm room and headed outside. The pub was only a few minutes away by foot so they never bothered to take a car. They also never had to worry about designated drivers.

The school looked no different than the last time he was here which was over a year ago. It was the same type of people: either over achievers or over privileged. He saw a few freshmen walk by with their arms full of textbooks. There were some sophomores and junior and seniors about too but they were less up tight. They were walking around with a cup of coffee greeting old friends.

He was glad there was something he could always count on; that some things never change.

After Fiji, Finn had vowed not to let her bother him anymore. He had promised him self that he was going to get over what it was that he wasn't over yet.

"Hey boys!" Finn looked over and saw that Stephanie had joined them.

She was a very pretty blonde girl. He had known her for years. They-Finn, Colin, Logan and Stephanie-had all gone to the same boarding school and had been friends ever since.

"Hello love," he greeted her with a small smile.

She smiled brightly and sidled up next to Colin as they continued to walk. He hear her whisper quietly to Colin, "how's our boy doing?"

Colin sighed softly. "He's better, I guess. Well better than at Fiji."

Finn resented that. He had apologized profusely for sinking the yacht during his drunken rage. They were never going to let him forget that. It had been nearly two months since Fiji and they still felt compelled to remind him almost daily. On the other hand though, Finn was doing much better since he left Australia. The distance had helped. The further he was from Australia the better, at least for now.

"Hey watch it!" Colin said suddenly. He seemed outraged.

Finn looked around to see what was going on. From what he could gather in a glance was some seemingly familiar curly black haired male had bumped into Colin.

"Sorry," the man muttered and continued walking. He was with a girl, he couldn't see her face but she was talking animatedly.

Finn shrugged and turned away.

"No, seriously, you couldn't see me there?" Colin said.

"Not everyone is staring at you, Colin," Finn quipped. He stopped walking and turned to see Colin make an ass out of himself.

The curly haired man had his eyes narrowed. The girl beside him had her head down and was shaking her head.

"Hey, I know you. No, wait, wait, don't tell me. I'm seeing a uniform of some sort," Logan added, he scrutinized the man.

"Maytag repairman?" Finn muttered sarcastically, not very interested in the whole ordeal.

"I bartend for you-your parties, I mean," the man said.

Finn remembered then, the man made kick ass margaritas.

"Can you get out of our way now?" Colin asked pointedly. His tone was haughty.

He started walking towards the pub again until he heard the girl speak.

"Hey!" she began, "who do you think you are? You can't talk to people like that?"

Finn's ears picked up. He didn't dare turn around. He couldn't, wouldn't not until he could prove to himself it wasn't her. He didn't think he could handle getting his hopes up only to be let down.

"Like what?" Colin asked, clearly not seeing the girls point.

"Like they are below you!" she exclaimed. "Besides he apologized."

Colin was silent. The girl was right there had been an apology. There was no reason to be angry. It had been an accident. But Finn knew Colin. Colin was uptight and snobby to people he didn't know.

After a pause during which Finn refused to turn around Colin replied in a superior tone, "but how could he not have seen me? I was right there."

"Hey-" the man started to say but was cut off by the angry girl.

"Not everyone is looking at you. This may come as a surprise to you," she said, "but the world doesn't exist just because you do."

Finn glanced at Stephanie. Her mouth was open and she kept sending fleeting looks between Finn and the scene. It had to be her. He whipped around. He was rewarded when he looked into the pools of ocean blue that were her eyes.

"Rory," he said. She looked over to him. His face showed astonishment and his mind seemed to be working overtime as the memories flooded in.