Hearts We Mend To Break (Book I)

.3.

💫GISELLE💫

ENROLLING INTO COLLEGE WAS the first objective on the long list of my "Goals After Graduation" board. Creating checklists that I found myself desperately in need of accomplishing was what my high school friends called a pretentious act, but what I considered a game plan. And anything I planned for, I succeeded. Obtaining my master's degree in Biology at SFU was my priority, followed by joining a sorority, landing the internship of my dreams, launching a successful career, and getting married to my high school sweetheart. My tunnel vision was stronger than the power of God and I was determined to be extraordinary.

"You look so pretty with your hair pulled back like that, Star." My surprisingly supportive mother placed her hands on both my shoulders, admiring my reflection in the mirror.

"I love you, mom." Grinning from ear to ear, I turned to squeeze her one last time. There was an uneasy feeling in my gut about leaving her three thousand miles in the wind.

"Hey. Sorry to interrupt. Are you ready?" Aaron stood at the doorway of my bathroom, watching my mom and I embrace for the first time this month, and the last time for months.

Like a little schoolgirl, I began jumping up and down in my usual quirky way. I screeched and squealed as I landed in Aaron's arms. Planting a million kiss all over his face and neck, I took in his scent, his feel, and his love one more time. Then I transferred that same energy over to my mother. Resistant to my affectionate invasion, she worried more about her hair and makeup being ruined.

"You're such a child."  She laughed.

I let go of my mom, sighing dramatically with a dreadful pain attacking my body. I felt as though someone took a dozen pins and slowly inserted them, one by one, into my heart. As thrilled as I was to branch off on my own and embark on a lifetime experience like college, I had also never been too far from home. Far from my comfort zone, first love, friends, and the one town I was proud to call home, Layla Beach, California. The great thing about going from one side of the continent to the other is I had one familiar landmark, the beach. Everything else would be new and unfamiliar.

"It's going to be a lonely road to depression without you here." Aaron, my first and only love. My soulmate, my everything, was being left behind and I saw the sadness in his slumped shoulders. No matter how much he joked about his feelings, I knew this move was eating him alive. "Look on the bright side, after a year, I'll be right next door and only a few hours away."

I smiled. The thought of having Aaron just one state away, rather than being on the other side of the continent, settled my nerves a little. All I had to do was get through my first year of college and he'd be close enough to make life less lonely. That's all I repeated to myself on the drive to the airport, during our long embrace, and the flight over to the east coast. Even though I would be alone for a full year, I'd eventually reunite with my prince charming.

Aaron was tall, fit, blonde, and beautiful. He was the most clean-cut, pristine, flawless- faced in Layla Beach. Skin kissed by the sun, hair bleached by the God's, and a smile that sparkled with a shine equivalent to the brightest star in the sky. He was that type most people considered to be a pretty boy. My surfer boy. We'd been together since freshman year, meeting during our second semester of high school and had been completely inseparable since. That was until the moment I boarded my flight to head to the other side of the continent. Until I was destined to fly clean across the US to attend my first year of college.