into a moment in time

prologue

Augustine Jareau POV

Present. (April, 2010)

My mother had always told me that if boys were mean to me, it could only be because they had feelings for me. I found that strange as a five year old but retraced my mother's steps to realize that that's how she fell for my father, a mean drunk who had a bottle of alcohol in his hands longer than he had me in his arms as a newborn.

That leads to me now knowing and understanding my mother's logic. Being my stubborn self, I decided to test her theory. And I can only say it ended badly. I now have a broken heart no soul could ever mend, and it was shattered by the one and only...

James Everett.

I never understood what was so captivating about James, a senior at Evermore High, until those electrifying emerald eyes interlocked with my navy blues. An unexplainable course of electricity zapped from the top of my spinal cord, down to the tip of my pinky toe.

They burned into my brain and sparked a fire that took way too long to die down.

To be honest, it hasn't died yet. And I really really wish it would.

Starting off strong, my wonderful father has disappeared into the dust in the wind, never to be seen again. He followed his liquor and let his problem consume him to the max, which led him to anywhere but next to his family.

My mother, as any woman who loses the one man who they thought loved them more than anything, has been clinging to her sanity for dear life. Had she really assumed that he'd put his whiskey bottle down and hold her in his arms instead? I'm 17 and I knew better than she did. This day would come eventually.

I guess love really does blind you. Stupid girl, I should've known, I should've known.

The story starts off simple.

No it doesn't.

My biggest regret was my involvement with James. Something I hope to forget about will never leave my thoughts.

I gave him everything I had, and he changed his mind.