"Don't sound too happy to see me," Cadence said, slipping her beanie back over her hair. She folded her arms and diverted her gaze towards the sea, her heel bouncing off the sand to an imagined beat. "I know it's been a while, but come on."

    Elise's blood pumped through her ears to drown out the rush of the waves. "I had a feeling. It's just..." she said, drawing her gaze up and down the girl's body. The bright metal buckle of Cadence's black belt shimmered in the evening light, and a silver butterfly sparkled against her pale skin from the chain around her neck. "You look so different."

    Flicking her hair out of her face, Cadence sighed to herself. "Ten years is a long time." She tapped numbers into the phone, glancing up at its owner with a muted look. "I'm not the sharpshootin' sheriff I used to be when we met up after school anymore. Things change. People change."

    "You still recognised me right away," Elise pointed out, dialling down her enthusiasm as Cadence's stony expression hardened. "I don't go chasing robbers as your deadeye deputy anymore either, you know."

    Cadence pressed the green dial icon. "You're not easy to forget, Ellie. Believe me, I tried." Bringing the device to her ear and turning away, Cadence leaned against the rock and rapped her knuckles against the spray-soaked stone. "Hey, Arin. Yeah, it's Cade. My phone died..."

    As she hovered nearby, Elise tried to steady her splitting breath. Seeing her former best friend's face and hearing her voice had unleashed a wave of emotions she did not know her mind held back. There was a shock that rendered her joints little more than rusty cogs in a defunct machine. There was a childish love, a joy that urged Elise to bound forward and hug the girl like she used to so often. Above it all, however, there was a guilt whose roots had only delved deeper over a long, lonely decade.

    Her father's wish to move had come as a surprise to Elise and her mother ten years ago. Overnight, Elise helped her mother throw their lives into a pair of small suitcases and clung to her seat as her father sped over the county boundary. Leon had never told Elise why he moved them in such a rush, just like Elise had never told Cadence she would not be showing up at school next week. Time sealed the wounds until they numbed into nothingness, yet the slightest whisper of Cadence's name tore them back open and held them up to the salty air.

    Yet the girl borrowing her phone was not the Cadence Harrow that lingered in Elise's memory. This was 'Cade', and 'Cade' was no more than a stranger.

    "I'll roll up in a bit. Just keep the door unlocked for me, alright? And the garage too." With a roll of her eyes, Cadence ended the call and thrust the phone in Elise's direction. "That's that. I should get going before the old lady beats me home. She hardly needs another reason to yell at me."

    "Is everything alright with you and your mum?" Elise asked as she slipped her phone inside her bag. On the few occasions she saw her friend's mother while growing up, she seemed like the type to communicate any anger in disappointed sighs rather than furious screaming. "I always thought Faith was lovely."

    Water droplets tapped across the rock, and the steady streaks of grey forming across Cadence's shirt suggested it was more than just sea spray. Through the darkening sky and blushing clouds, a raincloud drifted overhead, eager to relieve its burden before its peers in the distance caught up.

    Cadence looked up through the coming rain, her lips quivering. "Faith was the best," she said, her fingers tapping against her thigh. Her gaze floated down from the cloud cover, taking the falling raindrops to weave a shimmering veil for her eyes. "Not that it matters anymore. Now, it's just me and the old grump."

    The harder Elise searched Cadence's face for a hint, the further her old friend's feelings retreated behind an unmoving mask. "I don't get it. What's going on?"

    "You don't have to get it," Cadence scoffed as she strode past Elise to make her way back to the promenade. She paused at the foot of the steps and held her arms out through the gathering rainfall. "You left. You disappeared. I'm not your problem anymore, so drop it."

    "You were never my problem, Cadence." Shielding her eyes from the rain, Elise ran over the sand to catch up with the girl. "You were my best friend, and that meant so much to me back then. I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you like I should've been."

    "Couldn't you?" The rain intensified between them, and Cadence raised her voice to clear the burst of howling wind. "For all those years? Or was it just that you didn't want to?"

    "It wasn't like that! I wanted to come back and see you so much, but my dad – "

    "Cut the crap, Ellie. I'm not interested in whatever sob story you want to dump on me."

    Elise clutched the handrail to keep herself steady, yet the blow of Cadence's words still threatened to knock her back to the sand. "I missed you," she managed to say, fighting through the shock constricting her throat. "I mean it. I thought about you every day after I left."

    Tightening her hands into pale fists, Cadence took a deep breath and released it into the breeze. "So did I," she said with a slight tremble rocking her tone. "Then I moved on. I don't need you anymore, and you don't need me. There's nothing else to say."

    A chill colder than any raindrop crept along Elise's spine. "Cadence..."

    "Just leave me alone, Ellie. You're a natural at that." Cadence did not look back as she waved in Elise's direction. Without another word, she withdrew a car key from her pocket and opened up a battered SUV in the beachside carpark. Scratches and dents tracked across its dusty blue bodywork, revealing blood-red rust patches that reached deep inside the vehicle's structure. It coughed into life and groaned as Cadence ushered it onto the street.

    Listening to the engine splutter away, Elise gave into the shakes crippling her legs and sat on the kerb. A chill pierced her thigh as her skirt landed in a shallow puddle, and raindrops ran along her hair to spread the cold across her shoulders. No matter how close her body came to freezing, however, Elise's tears erupted just as forcefully from her eyes to sear her cheeks.

    A familiar bell tinkled in the distance. "Ellen? What the hell is taking you so long?" Tegan called out, her sharp voice cutting through Elise's choked sobs. Her heels clattered against the pothole-strewn pavement as she marched up to Elise's side, yet her pace slowed as she approached. "Are you crying?"

    Elise nodded, cursing herself in her mind for forgetting about her ditched date. "I just ran into someone I wasn't expecting to see," she said, wiping her eyes. "It...dragged a lot of things up."

    To Elise's surprise, Tegan reached out to take her hand, though her vice-like grip yanked Elise up hard enough to leave pain burning in her wrist. "Dragged the rain over us too," she muttered, wiping the drops off her top's sleeves. "Who was it? An ex?"

    "Yes." The dullness in Tegan's eyes gave Elise the impression she would not sympathise with her crying in the freezing rain over a friend she had not seen in ten years. "I think I'm just going to head home. You probably don't want to drag a crier around with you all night, right?"

    "Actually, I don't think we'll be going out tonight after all." Tegan slid a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear and let her shoulders sink. "Stu's still being a whiny bitch and calling us cheap for not getting a taxi. I can't be bothered dealing with it all right now, so I was just going to do drinks back at mine. There's plenty to go round, if you're interested."

    Elise's hands shook. "Are you serious?"

    "Absolutely, girlie." Placing a hand on Elise's shoulder, Tegan let her fingers creep towards the side of her date's face. "Come on. We can get drunk and cry about stupid little mistakes until we pass out, and maybe make a few more mistakes along the way. Doesn't that sound fun?"

    Tegan's offer arrived on a tide of both flirtation and desperation, a double-bladed desire to salvage something from a night that had crashed off its rails. It was also a clear ploy to get Elise into bed, as shown by the way her finger trailed from her date's cheek over her jaw, landing on her lower lip. Even contemplating spending the night with Tegan was a dumb idea, yet a long chain of hideous mistakes stretching back years wrapped around Elise's neck. Adding a tall, glamourous, gorgeous mistake to the list could not leave her feeling worse.

    As Elise lingered in her bubble waiting for her words to trickle onto her tongue, her phone burst into life. She fished the device out of her bag and saw Robin's cheeky grin light up its screen, flooding her body with a wave of much-needed relief. "Sorry, I have to take this," she said as she removed herself from Tegan's hold and descended the steps to the promenade.

    "Hey, Ellie. Just thought I'd check up on you," Robin said with an audible smile. From the banging and creaking sounds in the background, it sounded like he was just arriving back at the flat. "I have to say, I was totally expecting a panicked text from you at seven on the dot. I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

    Heat welled in the corners of Elise's eyes at the sound of her flatmate's soft chuckle. "No, you're fine. You're right on time," she answered as she fought back her tears. "If you're not busy tonight, can we...hang out? Just the two of us, I mean."

    "Like I'd ever be too busy to chat with you." The creaking in the background ceased, and a bolt of concern shuddered through Robin's voice. "Is everything alright? You don't sound great."

    "I messed up, Robin," Elise uttered, shaking her head. "I don't know what to do."

    Robin landed in the flat's sofa, the gentle tapping of numbers into the landline phone filling the moment of silence. "I've got you, lovely. Just let me know where you'd like to be picked up."

    Keen to dodge Tegan's desperate advances, Elise named the next street along the promenade and walked over the lamenting wooden planks. "Thanks," she managed to say as she came to a stop by a bench.

    "Hey, I said I'd be here for you," Robin said with a muted chuckle. "What are friends for?"

    As soon as the call ended, Elise buried her face in her hands and let her tears burst forth.