Lost In A World That Doesn't Remind You Of Home? Where Do I Sign Up?!
Day 158 of The Andie Chronicles
I want this to become my ritualistic bull shit-clearing routine.
Find a beachside location, walk along the beach every morning and night, and sip cocktails until the bar closes. Or guzzle them, depending on how much unwinding I need to do.
It’s a crude form of therapy but so far it seems to be working a treat. I don’t care what’s going on back in Melbourne or where I should be or what’s happening behind my back.
I’m here, availing the sun and sand as a blissful distraction. Heaven.
Ok, so that’s not entirely true. I haven’t completely blocked out what’s happening at home. It’s running through my mind at a ceaseless speed. I keep reliving the events of the last six months. I take my mind back to my birthday and contemplate how Douglas suddenly wanted me and then didn’t anymore.
I recollect all the times my friends left me out of discussions, and decisions, culminating in the day I set eyes on the billboard on Chapel Street.
Part of me feels like I could have prevented the position I was in now, the other part of me isn’t sure how I would have managed to do that.
Did I trust the wrong people? Or was my head so far up my own ass, I couldn’t see the forest for the trees?
I can’t deny it’s a little lonely here, too. Not that it wasn’t in Melbourne, either. There were people around me yet I felt more lonely than ever before. And the people I could talk to were people I probably shouldn’t have let so close to me.
Speaking of which, I’m not sure how to answer the text message from Taylor. He wants to know where I am so he can come here and rescue me.
His offer is sweet, adoring, what I want and need right now, but it’s all coming from the wrong person.
I can’t be that close to Taylor. I can’t do it GG. The secrets bubbling behind my back almost destroyed me.
How could I do that to her?
Another message comes through as I cross the road from the beach back to Cavil Avenue. It’s where most of the shops are, and the tourists too. Everyone is wearing shorts and t-shirts, with evidence of swimwear hidden underneath. If you weren’t carrying a surfboard or a boogie board, you’re carrying a beach bag.
Stopping to immerse myself in my phone felt wrong; the people here didn’t seem to care about things like that.
James was messaging me. He kept asking me when I’m returning. It’s strange to think of him at my house, no doubt talking about me, laughing at me.
I keep telling him the same thing; I’ll be home in a week or two.
That’s when I realistically ran out of money when I can no longer afford to keep up my hideaway.
As I came to the end of the main strip of shops, the last building was decorated as a shrine to posters. Mainly promoting local bands and the occasional international act. They didn’t get many here. But it was the poster at the end that caught my attention.
“GCWW Presents Reckoning Rules”
A wrestling show.
If I had seen this poster in Melbourne, standing aside my well-dressed friends and their pretentious attitudes, I would have blinked twice at it.
We weren't in Melbourne and they aren't here, I speculated.
You’re reading The Andie Chronicles, the 2023 romance-fiction series from the 1 Lovelock Drive (1LD) universe.
By the way, this all started when Andie turned thirty-five, and her then-boyfriend didn’t call her.
Or the day after that.
Or the day after that, too.
Everything started to unravel when her BFFs got into bed with her ex, too… ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
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A little lost on what’s happening at 1 Lovelock Drive?
Well, you see, Andie’s break-up started back in February and so much has happened since then. These stories will help you catch right up! xx
