Stories we already told | Larry Stylinson

Chapter One

PART ONE

1998, Green Lake, Greentown (UK)

I met Martha on a sunny summer day. She was exactly like that: bright and beautiful.

We met on the shore of the lake near my grandmother's house, she was there with her sister, swimming, and I was there with my best friend, Zayn, to celebrate his admission to the police academy.

When I saw her for the first time she was stunning, coming out of the lake, water dripping from her long brown hair.

She smiled at me and Zayn, before joining her sister, sunbathing on the soft grass.

"Go talk to her," Zayn said.

"Uh?"

"You like her, lad. It's written on your face, just go talk to her."

I got up and walked up to the girls.

"Are you new here? I don't think I've ever seen you in Greentown."

Greentown was a very small town where everyone knew everyone. If a girl that beautiful lived there I was sure I would have known.

"Oh, we don't live here," Martha answered in a Scottish accent "we're just visiting."

"No one visits Greentown, there is nothing here to see: just the woods and the lake" I said.

"We are visiting Mr. and Mrs. Smith, we are their nieces" Martha's sister explained. "People are always curious about us. You don't see new faces often around here, do you?"

"No, we don't. I've moved here four years ago and people still call me the new boy."

"And what is your name new boy?" asked Martha, locking our eyes together.

"Louis," I answered "Louis Tomlinson."

"Martha Smith" she replied with a smile, offering me her hand. I shook it.

"I'm Julianne," her sister added.

Julianne left Greentown two weeks after. Martha chose to stay for the rest of the summer.

The summer of 1998 was the best of my life. I still remember the first time Martha kissed me. We were swimming in the lake, laughing and chasing each other. When she finally reached me, she pulled me closer. She looked me straight in the eyes with her big green eyes, before pressing her soft lips on mine.

I had kissed other girls before, but they didn't feel like her. That day I understood that Martha was different, she was special. I swore to myself that one day I would have married that girl.

We spent the rest of the summer taking strolls by the lake, laughing and kissing, and going to the only cafeteria in town, complaining every time that the coffee in Greentown didn't taste the same as in the big cities.

At the end of August, Martha had to leave and go back to Scotland for her last year of high school. I promised to wait for her. And I did.

I missed her terribly, I spent my days waiting for the summer so she could come back to me.

Zayn always teased me about it.

"You've become boring, mate. You look like a lovesick little boy all the time," he said.

When Martha finally came back, she decided to stay. She found a job at the supermarket in Greentown and moved to her uncles' house.

In 2000 I kept the promise I made to myself two years before and I asked her to marry me. She said yes.