Love & Let Go.

Chapter 1: The spark.

The party ( 21:00 )

It was packed. A sea of strangers. Well, I shouldn't have called them 'strangers'. They went to my school but, I never spoke to them. I never liked parties much either, but the fact my friends couldn't attend made me hate the party more. I don't have many safe places except the library near my house. It's never busy and I could read Hemingway to my heart's content, whilst I would collect my thoughts, without interruptions. Here, there was no quiet spot in sight, no way of collecting my thoughts and interruptions EVERYWHERE. It was my worst nightmare; every corner was filled with people drinking vodka-cranberry and yelling drunken nonsense to each other. I felt very out of place. In desperate need of somewhere to sit, I scurried down the corridor towards the leather couch in the living room. It was still noisy but I had packed headphones in my little tote bag; Tolstoy and 'Anna Karenina' had my full attention. I wasn't sat for more than eight minutes until a couple budged me off the couch to kiss.

I had had enough.

I felt myself tearing up as everyone started to laugh and point at my fall. I got up and ran to the bathroom. I slammed the door violently, sat on the bathroom floor sobbing and tried to salvage my favourite book's now crumpled pages. I felt like disappearing into my distorted shadow on the wall I was leaning my back on.

A boy entered the bathroom abruptly. He looked all scruffy like a lost dog. He wore a black shirt and incredibly baggy jeans; so baggy in fact, if he wasn't wearing a belt, they would immediately fall down to his knees. His hair was wavy and the colour of Cocoa. His eyes were a mesmerising green colour; similar to the leaves on an oak tree in spring. He looked at me and took the lit cigarette from his lips and placed it between his bony fingers. I was dreading what he'd say in response to seeing my mascara-stained, flushed cheeks. Instead, he just closed the door and sat beside me silently. I was stunned.

We sat there, in complete silence, for a while; maybe twenty minutes. We were happy that all we shared were a couple glances. He took many puffs of his cigarette that made smoke fill the room; I went into a coughing fit that made us both laugh ridiculously loudly. When the cough had gone, I went to loosen the latch on the window, opened it wide, and sat back down next to him.

"This isn't my sort of place either," he shared in a sweet tone. It was as if he could read my mind.
"What is your 'sort of place' then?" I replied sarcastically.
"Well...the multi-storey car park near my house is pretty nice," he continued, "it's quiet... the kind of place where you can gather your thoughts."
"I don't have many of those anymore. People keep finding them." I muttered.
"You should come to my spot then. I mean i think you'd like it."

We looked at each other and giggled. I nodded. His quiet place sounded much better than this hectic setting. As my legs started to fall asleep, I chose to get back up on my feet and I went to look into the bathroom mirror. I turned the sink on, grabbed the face wash from the cabinet and washed my face. In between washes I'd look through the mirror just to look at him, swishing his cup full of cider. After I dried my face with a towel I made a silly pose and turned to look at him. He shook his head and chuckled.

"You don't need makeup, y'know." He looked at me with an inviting grin.
"I know, thank you," I asked him hesitantly, "Do you drink much?"
"Only socially really... do you?"
"Oh god no. I'm good like that, but I don't mind others doing it," I shrugged.

He stood up to face me. He was tall. Well, taller than me at least, but then again, it's not that hard to be taller than a girl who's only five foot three. He gave me the most intriguing stare, a curious stare, as if he was trying to figure me out like a secret code to a vault.

"What's your name?" He seemed inquisitive.
"It's Grace, but my friends call me Gracie." I tell him, my cheeks going all rosy.
"Well, Gracie, do wanna go somewhere with me?" He asked spontaneously; he looked a little uncertain, like the words just spilled from his mouth without a warning, but he hid it surprisingly well.

My mind told me to just call it a night and go home, but i always did that and my pounding heart didn't want to wonder what could've been.

"Sure, why not? But only if you tell me your name." I replied daringly as I walked to the door.
"I'm Tristan," He shook my hand, gestured to the corridor and opened the door with a smile.

"After you."He yelled over the sound of the loudspeakers coming from the living room.

We walked out of that party with smiles drawn across our faces and ran down the street. Little would I know that that was it. The spark was lit. The spark that would later fill the void in my heart that I never knew there was.