sue me, i wanna be wanted

Stella Davenport grew up in London, an only child. She was the only daughter of Mark Davenport, an investment banker, and Lavinia Wright, a model —a pair of adults who didn’t care much for their marriage or their subsequent child. 

Stella grew up with nannies, many of whom she loved. Stella grew up with paper dolls and knobby knees and a heart that was way too big for her chest. Emmie grew up with a persian cat named Patsy, and Stella felt trapped, like a hummingbird in a cage. 

When she was young, she was loud. Her smile was bright and big and bold, and she’d flash it at anyone, given the chance. But then, her parents started to get annoyed. Their frustration radiated off them like an infection, and that quieted Stella right up. 

She became the perfect little dormouse: sweet, petite and quiet. It worked for a while, but she got awfully lonely. She was a prisoner of her own mind, and she knew she had to find a way out of feeling small. And as she grew up, going to school, the words, and thoughts, and quirks bubbled out of her without any filter to stop them. 

Soon, Stella Davenport made noise. She became popular, and took on the role of the sweet, harmless ditz. People listened to her, this way. They took her seriously without any expectation. They admired her smile. She was smarter than anyone gave her credit for.

It was around this time that her family went to the wedding of a friend in Edinburgh when she was 16, and though she had various aspirations overthe years, seeing it all come together, she decided wedding planning was the gig.

When it came time for uni, she went up to Manchester, experiencing a very different part of the UK. With school and time passing, this was where she planned to make her roots. She partied hard, but studied too, and excelled, which came as a surprise to most everyone except her. She graduated and started working for an event planning company, rising at a fairly steady pace.

She also met the man of her dreams, Lyle Franks, a stockbroker. It was years of dinner parties, galas and lavish dates, the kind she had only imagined for so long. After planning so many parties for others, she was falling in love and thinking up her own big day. There was a dream proposal, she thought she had the life she fully imagined, until she caught him cheating with her coworker. She was absolutely devastated, feeling like her life was crashing out before her very eyes. 

She left, like a bit of a hurricane. She didn’t mean to party for a whole year, but then again, she didn’t want to feel the hurt of it. She left her job and coasted off of her money for as long as she could. One day, she woke up, and it didn’t feel fun anymore. She booked a trip to Los Angeles, to escape for a bit, but while she was there, she heard about Aurora Bay. It seemed like a miracle, this beautiful, idyllic place. So on a whim, wanting to shed her time in Manchester like a snake’s skin, she decided she would stay.