A year had gone by and I didn't even realize it. Seventeen was now how many years I had existed, and it seemed like it was a dream. The most vivid dream ever - I was going to graduate next year, I had a weird family that I loved, and I had quite a few best friends. Which I've gotten quite close to recently.
Things were flying past and here I was; stuck in the middle, just playing with things...and girls. I had a habit of keeping my ego... I didn't want anyone to knock me down, and now I was known as the bad boy of the school. Which is really weird since dad was the bad boy at his school...
But it didn't really bother anyone, at least I don't think, since my parents didn't know and I threatened anyone who was about to tell them. I didn't have to take the girls home (unless I decided to keep them more than a few weeks) because I had found the place my mom used to talk about all the time.
Her secret hideaway house in the woods. It was quite a while away, but I still managed to find it. The thing about small towns is they never really change, but if they do, you can always find things that were left behind.
Which was great since I could take "my girl" there for a few hours. Everything worked out great...that is until mom decided one day she wanted to see her little house again. And it wasn't the way she had left it.
So I rushed back there and cleaned everything up, getting rid of the food, even turning the channel incase something bad came on. Everything was a-okay. I even pretended to find it and stare in awe. Obviously I'm pretty good at acting...maybe I should be in a movie sometime.
But anyways, this past year had gone by so fast I didn't even realize what had happened until after the fact. I got my license, I got my own car...a pretty sucky one at that...I wanted a sweet ride I had found; a sports car, but my parents thought it'd be better to start out with a clunker the first few years with an actual license.
I had also become closer friends with Mel and Harmony... As well as my boys, my siblings, and a few girls I hadn't dated yet. Although, those few girls and I didn't exactly last as friends for too long... Two of them I dated for three months, the third I only got a few weeks in, until I found a beautiful girl.
One I really loved; like the last time, but I was too scared to do that again. But let's not go there.
"Hey, Troy?" Mel called out, leaning on the roof top we were on. "Do you think that..."
I waited, but she didn't continue.
"What? Do I think that what?" I questioned, trying to get her to finish.
"N...never mind." She replied, shaking her head. "Isn't the sky pretty?! It's getting to be a gorgeous sunset."
"Yeah." I nodded, looking at the sky. The blues were starting to go to oranges, yellows, pinks, and the clouds were grey and pink. It was pretty, I must admit.
"Well, look! It's changing colors. Blue again, purple, pink, orange, dark blue...! Wow." She said, breathlessly. I rolled my eyes. How many sunsets have we seen? I mean, it is spectacular, but I can also see in front of me; I know what colors are.
"Yup." I replied, nodding.
"Okay, so, the reason why I wanted you to come over today...just you...was because..."
"Okay, I swear, if you trail off and say never mind again, I may have to strangle you. Just saying."
She laughed and shook her head. "No, no, I won't... I just... I wanted to talk to someone. Other than Harm or LyLy."
"Okay...so...we're talking." I nodded, stating the obvious.
She rolled her eyes and punched my arm, quite hard actually. She sighed and looked at me weird. It was almost like that day I went to the hospital. I realized then that I never asked her what was up.
