Hopeless Romantics

Chapter 1 - Fresh Start

POV: Sal

"Are you excited about our new house?" My dad and I just moved from New Jersey to Knockfell, my mom passed away from a guy that shot her like 10 years ago when we were on a picnic. Long story short my dumbass thought a heard a dog, so my mom and I went to go pet it when a guy in the bushes tried to shoot us. My mom tried blocking the bullet from hitting me, but instead it went straight through her chest and right into my eye, it fucked up my entire face. So, I started wearing this prosthetic mask to cover my face. I got bullied a lot at my old school back in Jersey because of my mask. The bullying got so bad that I had to do school online school. Then my dad decided to move here. This town looks miserable, dead almost. "Yeah, I guess so." We pulled up to a shitty looking apartment building. Just looking at it gives me the creeps

Our apartment is on the fourth floor, room 402. The apartment itself was honestly not as shitty looking as the outside of it looks. My dad walked through the door with one last box and set it on the floor sighing. "Okay Sal, I'm going to unpack. Why don't you go around and get to know people or something." "Okay." I set down my backpack and headed to the first floor, No one answered their doors except for this grumpy old lady down the hall who just yelled at me and Mr. Addison, the owner of the building. There were four apartments on each floor so there weren't many people to say "hi" to. I hopped back in the elevator and clicked the button for the second floor. There was a lady mopping the floor. She was tall and had long dark brown hair. "Hi, you must be the new tenants up in 402." "Yeah, hi I'm Sal." The lady held out her hand, I shook it. "I'm Lisa, nice to meet you, Sal." "Nice to meet you too. Is there anything fun to do around here?" I asked. "Actually, I have a son about your age. His name is Larry, He'll be in the apartment in the basement. You can borrow my key card to get down there." Lisa handed me the key card, "Thanks, I'll go say hi right now." I took the card and went to the basement.

The second the elevator opened to reveal the basement. I could hear loud music coming from the apartment down the hall. I assumed it was Larry, so I followed to music into the apartment. I turned to the side and there was a wooden bedroom door that read "KEEP OUT", I knocked on the door. From the other side of the room, I could hear Larry stumble to turn down the music and open the door. "Oh, uhm hey." He said, "I'm Sal, I just moved in with my dad. I saw your mom and she told me to come say hi." Larry was covered in paint; He has a light brown t-shirt that said "SF" and dark grey sweats. "Oh shit, yeah my mom told me that you guys were moving here, come on in." He moved to the side allowing me to come into his room. It reeked like weed. Larry's room was a disaster, art supplies, clothes and pizza boxes were scattered all over the floor. "Sorry for the mess dude, I haven't gotten the chance to clean it yet." "Yeah, no problem. I like your paintings." I pointed to a canvas that I assumed he was working on before I came in. "Oh, thanks man." Larry started cleaning up his art supplies and set his canvas to the side. "So, what's with the mask?" ".. it's a prosthetic." "Oh shit, sorry." "It's okay."

Larry and I actually hit it off pretty well, turns out him and I are going to the same school. I'm transferring to Knockfell High this year. At least it won't be the middle of the school year. It'll be everyone else's first day too. So that lifts the weight off my shoulders just a little. "Just be careful around Travis Phelps, he is such an ass. He thinks he's all that just because his dad is a preacher at the church or something." Larry continued to tell me stories about Travis, it kind of worried me to be honest. "Okay well I am definitely not going near that kid." Larry and I talked for a few hours, about school, friends and other shit like that. Larry told me that he could take me to school with him tomorrow, so at least I already have a friend, and from what he told me about his other friends they seem cool too. His one friend Todd lives in the building too, he lives on the second floor.

Ahh! If you guys actually read the whole chapter ily. I swear to God the book will get better, I made 4 pages in my notebook just talking about the plot of this book and I'm so excited for it. It may seem boring at the moment and this chapter was short i know but I swear it will get so much better! Anyways you guys have a nice day!! I will update soon! xx