Forever Sweet

Chapter 1

“Will you be my Valentine?”

Fifteen-year-old Keira Hartley was startled by the sudden question. The last place she expected to hear those words was standing in front of the movie theater. So far Valentine’s Day had been miserable but maybe her luck was about to change. Tucking a lock of chestnut hair behind her ear, she subtly looked over her shoulder…and groaned. 

It was a sad day indeed when she got excited over the offer of an eight-year old boy.

His chubby cheeks puffed out as he smiled, showing her a pair of missing front teeth. “I have a flower,” he hurried to add as if that was an important factor in her decision making process. His nose wrinkled as he reached into his jean pockets. “See!” he exclaimed proudly, shoving a very sad looking wildflower into her face. Only four petals remained and it was drooping off the stem. “And it smells real good.”

The people around them, including his parents, laughed at his behavior, but Keira wanted to sneeze. Literally. She was allergic to flowers. Before he could insist she take it, she asked, “Don’t you want to give it to your mom?” 

Eyes shining bright, he shook his head. “She has daddy. You’re all alone.”

The innocent observation stung. Forcing a smile, she took the flower and murmured her thanks. She nearly sent up a shout of thanks when her older sister, Anna, showed up.

“Thanks, but you should keep that and give it to the special girl in

“Sorry, I was hanging out with some friends and lost track of time,” she explained, her voice muffled as she threw on her college sweatshirt. 

“No problem,” Keira responded, although, it kind of was. Anna was notorious for showing up at the last minute, but she promised Keira it wouldn’t happen today. She should have known better. 

Megan would have showed up on time.

She shook her head. The thought of her best friend—ex-best friend—was enough to set her teeth on edge. The last time they spoke was four weeks ago when Keira and Megan got into a huge shouting match over Jared Malone. 

Both girls had a crush on the tall, raven-haired boy who’d recently moved to town. Neither thought they had a chance of catching his attention, but when he joined the drama group at school, all bets were off. When he started to text Keira, sending flirty messages, she thought it was the beginning of her first real high school relationship. However, those dreams were soon dashed when she found out Megan was also receiving texts. 

Hurt and confused, she went over to Megan’s house to confront her. The conversation quickly turned ugly when Megan smugly informed her that Jared had asked her out on a date. That’s when the insults really started flying, each more vicious than the last. After one especially brutal remark that may or may not have insinuated that she was becoming pathetic, Keira stormed out of the house and shouted that their friendship was officially over. And just like that, ten years of friendship went down the drain.

Anna gave her ticket to the employee stationed at the entrance of the movie theater and looked over her shoulder. “Remind me again why we had to come to this theater that’s half an hour away when we could have gone to the much closer one in town?”

“Because I thought it might be fun to get out and try some place new,” she said, refusing to meet her sister’s gaze. She handed her ticket over and then followed Anna inside.

“Of course. And it had nothing to do with the fact that you didn’t want to run into Megan.”

“Megan who?” she asked nonchalantly.