THE CONQUEST ; BOOK 1 [Brown University Series]

PART I : SUMMER 1989

Chapter I. The end.

Dean broke up with me shortly after graduation. There were two things that I believed to be true back then: that we were in love and that we were seventeen. It was June 1989 and summer was a hot and busy time of the year.

We lived in a wooden house in the outskirts of Bluebell, Vermont. It was me, my older brother Max and my mother. Together, we were the Weston-Hart family. Dean's family, the Stuarts, were our neighbours. They were a French-Canadian family who had immigrated to the USA when I was a freshman, and Dean and I had been dating since sophomore year of high school.

That was until June 12, 1989, the day it was all over. Dean called on the phone that morning and decided it was best if we stopped dating. I wasn't surprised at all by his decision, given our constant fighting for the last couple of months, but I still wasn't ready to accept our fate. I hanged up the red table phone and run upstairs to cry in bed. The cookies I had been baking burnt and my brother Max had to turn off the oven later on that morning.

I saw Dean Stuart one more time before the end. Two days later, I went into the porch to pick up the mail. Across the street, I saw Dean and his parents, packing up for their yearly summer in Québec. I stood there, motionless, with the newspaper and the letters in my hand, watching him go. Suddenly, he realized that I was watching him. He looked at me with guilty eyes, left his bags in the car and crossed the street over to my porch.

As he walked, his blue eyes shone in the morning light, his tan skin melting in the rays of sun, his dark black hair moving in the breeze.

'Why do you have to go?' I muttered as he mounted up the stairs.

'I have to go' he simply said, slowing down and stopping in front of me. He watched me with tender eyes and put his hands on my shoulders, caressing the back of my neck. My brown eyes became teary and he pushed me towards his body into a hug, as I held on tightly to his arms and waist. 'You're going to Brown, I'm moving to California. It couldn't have lasted long anyway' he whispered into my hair as I began sobbing against his neck.

He caressed my hair and soon he stepped back, watching me for the last time. He leaned in and kissed my forehead slowly.

'Je dois y aller' he murmured again. He then stood away, looked at me, turned around and walked down the stairs into the car, waiting for his parents.

I walked back into the house with tears in my eyes and I didn't see him again for more than two years. I left the mail on the kitchen counter and walked up the stairs straight to my bed.

Summer was starting.

...

a/n 17/12/23
first semester is about to end, i'm excited for the winter break. do you have any christmas vacation plans ? kissesss