We enter the condo and she looks around while I set her bag to the side. It’s four in the morning and here we are about to start going down memory lane.

“Nice bachelor pad,” she says as she smirks.

I look around. Yeah, it is black leather and glass tables, and she is right; it is a total bachelor pad.

“So I’ll get the wine. The trunk is right over there. Pick which memory you want to trip down first.” I point.

Her eyes go wide as she chews on her bottom lip, looking nervous and as beautiful as ever.

I can’t believe she didn’t leave me. I hated her for no reason. My hate was so deep I never thought I would get out of it. It was as if a giant black hole swallowed my heart up.

“Is there a video of maybe our first summer together? That way I can watch it happen.”

“Watch what happens, Ev?”

“Us, um, falling in love,” she whispers.

This is good. This is very good that she wants to believe we were together.

“Yeah. In the trunk, there is a fat DVD case. Grab that and I’ll grab the wine.” I head to the kitchen to grab two wine glasses and the wine, hoping to hell that she likes Tellsie Wine. It is my favorite wine and I want to share it with her. I come back to find her staring inside the trunk.

“Is everything okay?” I squat down next to her, the wine glasses clinking together, making her cringe.

She shakes her head. “There is so much here. We have this much history in three summers?”

“Not just three summers, but holidays and some off weekends; anytime you got a chance to come back down to Laguna, you came.” I help her up and then bend to grab the case of discs, putting them under my arm.

“So I figured we would do the videos in order since you want to uh…see everything,” I croak.

“Okay.” She settles on the couch. I grab the throw blanket off the back of the couch and toss it over her lap. “Thanks.” She takes her glass of wine from my hands.

“Okay, here we go.” I sit down and hit play.

5

Tristan hits play and we both watch the screen come to life.

“Tristan, Drake, stop running from the camera! It isn’t going to eat you.”

They stop running and look at the camera and then at me.

I tilt the camera to my own face and I look so young. I guess fourteen is young.

“I’m going to marry the taller one.” I whisper to the camera before focusing it back on Tristan then back to myself.

“Yeah, definitely going to marry him.”

Tristan walks up to the camera, covering the lens with his hand.

“Hey!” I whine.

“What did I tell you about this camera Ev? Huh?”

I guess he starts tickling me because I drop the camera. The video captures him sitting on top of me tickling my sides while I am screaming and kicking about.

I start to gulp down my wine.

I look over at Tristan and he is watching with a smile on his handsome face. I turn back to the video.

“Sing for me Ev and I’ll stop!”

“How can I sing for you while you’re tickling me? Huh? Stop!” I giggle. “Fine! I’ll sing for you. Just get off me!” I shove him off.

“Oomph!”

He sits up, smiling at me. Drake has now picked up the camera.

“Come on Sunshine, sing for us!” Drake taunts.

“He called me Sunshine,” I say, turning towards Tristan.

“Yeah baby, he loved you too.” He turns back to the T.V.

I put my hands on my hips in the home video just as I still do to this day and ask, “Well, what do you want to hear?”

Drake focuses the camera on Tristan.

“Well Trist, what do you want her to sing? You tickled her to death for some tunes, so what will it be?”

Tristan looks away from the camera and to me smiling.

“’I Will Always Love You’, that’s what I want to hear Ev.” He crosses his arms smirking.

I can’t believe my own ears when I start belting out Whitney’s ‘I Will Always Love You’.

“I can apparently sing,” I laugh.

Tristan turns towards me. “I told ya. You’re amazing.” He smirks.

I finish the song and Drake focuses the camera back onto his brother. And that is when I see it. Love at the tender ages of fourteen and fifteen. Tristan is looking at me with a look of tenderness and love. Drake tilts the camera to me then to himself.

“They’re in love. Shhh, it’s some kind of big ass secret!”

And the home video ends.

“Intense,” I croak. “At that age, it was that intense?” I ask, filling my glass up again.

“I told you.”

“Okay, this next one is titled Jellyfish. I’m scared to ask,” I say with a laugh.

“Well, let’s watch it so you can see. It’s the shock that will get you,” he laughs while putting the second one in the player. I notice he takes extra care in removing the first one and putting in the second one.

“You know you once had copies to all these? You actually dubbed these for me and Drake.”

“I’ll make a mental note to ask my family about them.” I really will ask them.

“Don’t hold your wine during this one. You will laugh and spill it,” he points out.

“Okay.” I giggle setting the glass down on the table.

He pushes play.

I see the beautiful ocean lapping up and down the shore.