Where The Grass Grows

Prologue

The summer I met him was a hot blistering summer. There was hardly any rain, and most days it got over 100 degrees in the afternoons. It started as a boring summer.

I was moving back to my dad's house, as my mother was moving with my sister to Massachusetts. My sister was going there for college, and my mother practically jumped out of her seat when my sister said she wanted mom to come with her. They always had a tight bond that I could never explain or understand. It filled the deepest parts of me with jealousy, as I knew I would never mean that much to my mother.

I was moving back with my dad hoping to have a fresh start with a new school, and new surroundings. It wasn't like I had no friends back at my mom's, but I had just been around them for so long that I needed the change. The only friend I knew that I was going to miss was Cass. She had been my closest friend back home, and she always knew what to say to me.

I remember the day that I told her I was going to go live with my dad. I remember we both cried, and she pulled me into a tight hug. She promised me she would write to me everyday, and that she would report all of the drama that I would be missing back home. She made me laugh.

When I moved in with my dad there really wasn't a lot to say or talk about. I had no idea how to start a conversation with a man that I had barely spoken to my entire life. He didn't know a single thing about me, and the only things I knew about him were the ramblings my mother gave me when she was drunk. I felt like those would be awkward if I brought it up to him.

Either way I found myself growing accustomed to the silence by my second day living in the house. I would come down for breakfast, be greeted with a grunt, and then be left to my Fruit Loops. It wasn't bad, it was actually sort of calming in a way. The second day I was there was when our first encounter happened.

I had told my dad I was going to the local ice cream store when I left. I remember him giving me a crumpled ten-dollar bill, and him muttering to "keep the change". It was already pretty sunny when I left my house, and I remember it being scorching hot when I went into the ice cream parlor.

When I first saw him, he was wearing a short sleeve white shirt that had the sleeves rolled up, and dark blue jeans that were cuffed at the bottom. Black chucks adorned his feet, and he was reading a book at a table by himself.

His dark hair was covering his eyes, and I noticed he kept trying to push it up as it got in the way of him reading. Even though I had just seen him, I knew that boy was the most beautiful person that I had seen in my entire life.

I remember walking into the store and ordering a raspberry sherbet with my crumpled ten-dollar bill. I kept glancing over my shoulder to stare at the beautiful dark-haired boy behind me. After about the fifth time I heard him sigh and exclaim, "Can I help you?"

Embarrassed, I shook my head no, I quickly grabbed my change and waited across the restaurant for my ice cream. I kept my head down, to mind my own business, when a tan hand shot out into my eyesight.

I looked up to see the same boy as before looking down at me with his hand extended. "My name is Everett." I took the boy's hand and shook it hard, before whispering out, "Lyla" in return. A ghost of a smile graced his lips before he quickly pulled his hand away.

Without a word he turned on his heal, picked up his book, and walked away. And that was the first time I met Everett Parker.