10 years had passed, and Mikel honestly wasn’t sure how ready he was to face his “friends” again. He hadn’t really spoke to anyone since he got out of Beryl. He had been back more though but only because he had a significant tie to the town now. It was never his plan to have ties to the town that would last after graduation, but he wasn’t mad that he did. His parents divorced shortly after he graduated, and his dad moved to LA to be closer to the company while his mom moved a few miles away from town so she could still be a grandma. It was almost like because she had missed out on so much of Mikel’s childhood that she was using Laurel as the opportunity to spoil a child. Mikel did come back as much as his career let him, but he traveled often. He was making good money and sending more than half of each check he received to Jezebel for Laurel to use when she was older for whatever career path she wanted to take in life. They were on good terms and he still cared deeply for Jezebel but in a friendship way. It wasn’t until he met Aileen four years ago that he realized that he had only really been in lust with Jezebel and the chase was also a major part of that. Aileen had been back a few times to Beryl with him now that they were even more serious. He met her while he was traveling in Marina Bay, Singapore. She is writer for a travel magazine, and they were staying in the same hotel. He was there for four nights and so was she. He knew she was different when the first thing he didn’t think about her was sleeping with her. He instead wanted to learn about her, and she wanted too about him. She had no other motives, and she didn’t even know about his family’s past. They spent every one of those days in Singapore exploring together. She would stop and take notes of different things that stuck out to her and he would do the same but capture the views.
They both left that last morning, but Mikel couldn’t get her off his mind and fortunately she couldn’t either. As he was getting on his plane, he heard someone yelling his name and as he turned around, he saw the blue haired girl rushing over to him. Knocking his lanky body over and from then on, they put their talents together to start their own travel blog which has a huge following now and did early on! They get booked as duo to come and capture moments at any and everything. They have yet to find a dull moment, even in the silence he doesn’t feel trapped anymore when she is around him. She has more than helped him grow and realize you cannot just run away from things when they get tough, like he had done in the past when he was younger. She didn’t even care about his past.
Before he met her, he traveled alone for the most part and went out and met a new friend almost every other night. That is when he wasn’t back in beryl. He had obligations there but when he was on the road, no one was there to tell him to slow down. He had to admit for a bit it got dark but also, he felt like he was a new version of himself. There was one girl who he met who kept coming around for a while there, but she left one day suddenly, and he hadn’t seen or heard from her since which he found very odd, but he was busy traveling so it didn’t stay in his mind for too long. This was the first couple years after graduation when he was still getting his foot in the door. But everything changed when he met a very rich man in Paris who wanted a simple picture of a café. Mikel didn’t know this man was as rich as he was at the time but once he got the check from the man and held it in his hand, he knew he was going somewhere. This man told all his friends and soon Mikel was having people inquire him constantly. His company he worked for back in the states were thrilled at how well he adapted into the profession.
Mikel started talking to his therapist regularly and now he didn’t rely on drugs and alcohol anymore. He even knew how to control himself and know when it was time to quit. He was nervous to see his old friends. But he stood with Aileen’s finger looked into his jean loop where a belt could’ve been. She leaned her head on his shoulder and he could feel her smile against his shoulder. They were on a yacht. A damn yacht for a 10-year reunion. Only Beryl high would do this for their alumni. Other schools were lucky to get the gym rented out for a few hours and some streamers hung up to make it festive. He told Aileen about his whole time in Beryl and she laughed at how ridiculous the whole Blue Royalty game was. He looked over at her. She had recently died he hair to blonde, almost white. “We can leave, we don’t have to stay.” He said to her with a little chuckle and she returned the chuckle before grabbing his hand and pulling him in to socialize with his past classmates.
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