kind of knight in a fairy tale.
Ridiculous. I’d never be anyone’s knight in shining armor. Most days, I barely even felt human.
I went back to the national news site I’d started with, wondering if there were anything else I could search for, and saw a headline that I knew I shouldn’t click on. I clicked on it anyway.
Lucky Seven for Infinity Falls Reunion?
Fans of the smash-hit TV show Infinity Falls will undoubtedly remember the show’s rule of sevens, which governed everything from plot mechanics to character names on the acclaimed teen drama, just as they still remember beloved actress Aggie Stone, who played September Banks, daughter of Infinity Falls’ resident sheriff, Merriweather Banks.
When Stone passed away in a shocking car accident at the end of filming season three, fans and cast-members alike were devastated—perhaps none more so than Eric Amundsen, Stone’s on-screen love interest and off-screen flame. While rumors had swirled for months about trouble in the pair’s idyllic Hollywood romance, and some cast members intimated that the couple had broken up only days before Stone’s death, no one foresaw the abrupt and tragic ending that ultimately resulted.
Amundsen left Hollywood days after Stone’s passing and has never returned, severing all connections to the acting world. Dedicated fans have been known to make the trek to Birch Bay, Maine, a remote fishing hamlet north of Portland where Amundsen now resides, but few have ever caught a glimpse of the elusive ex-actor. With this year marking the tenth anniversary of Infinity Falls’ premier and the seventh anniversary of Stone’s death, some speculate that Amundsen may finally break his silence.
A long-rumored cast reunion is planned for this winter, and those close to the project hint that Amundsen may even make an appearance and share what he knows about Aggie Stone’s final moments. Other sources state, however, that Amundsen remains firm in his commitment to stay silent on the matter. But fans of a show known for dramatic reversals and surprising twists hold out hope nonetheless that this year may yield a bombshell of a revelation. Only time will tell.
I wanted to throw my laptop across the room.
The whole thing was insane. I sincerely doubted that anyone involved in the reunion thought I might come back. Not after I’d cut ties so decisively, turning down every offer for an interview since I’d left California. They were just trying to raise more interest in the reunion by stirring up speculation.
Fine. Let them. I didn’t have to respond, and I wouldn’t. It was all bullshit.
Well, except for the part about me and Aggie having a troubled relationship. That part—fuck, that part was true.
I’d used Aggie horribly. And when I’d finally worked up the courage—or, rather, when my disgust with myself had finally grown too big to ignore—I’d ended up destroying her life.
Literally.
It was true that I’d been pulling away from her for months. The growing realization that I couldn’t keep lying to myself about my sexuality made it impossible for me to keep being a functional boyfriend.
We’d started dating because Aggie was fun. She’d always been the life of the party, up for anything. A little wild, maybe. A little reckless. But when I was around her, I forgot about the demons that haunted me. At least, at first.
But as I started to withdraw, she’d responded by turning that energy up to twenty. Going out every night, coming home after dawn, still high or drunk or both. Like she was trying to fill a hole inside herself with noise and light and movement.
A hole that I’d created, by lying to her.
When I finally told her the truth, just after we wrapped the third season, and told her we needed to break up, she didn’t even believe me. She accused me of cheating on her with Hadley, of all people, and disappeared on a binge where no one could get in touch with her.
I responded by getting wasted and pulling the first willing male crew member to cross my path into a spare bedroom at the house we’d rented for the wrap party. And then Aggie came back. Crashed into the room. And found the two of us in bed together.
The pain in her voice, the hurt in her eyes, was seared into my chest forever. She’d stumbled out of the room, crying. And I’d just let her go. Passed out on that bed, already feeling hungover despite still being drunk.
When I’d woken up the next day, it was to the news that she was dead. December