Book 1: Valentina

Chapter 1

Here I am, standing at the top of the water tower with  my back to the wind and my arms stretched waiting to take off like the crow before me. But, that was the problem, I'm not the crow, I don't have wings, I cant just fly away. So the only way for me to actually be able to mimic the actions  of the crow would be to let myself fall off of the tower , and I did. I felt the wind pushing on my back as if it were trying to force me back on to the tower but it was too late, I was already falling  the closer I got to the bottom the more fearful I became as I thought of what was waiting for me below. I screamed just before I was enveloped by the cushion of the air filled bouncer, people cheered and screamed as I made my way off  and the next person climbed up to the top.

" See Tura, told you it wasn't that bad." my friend Alex said as he helped me off.

That is my name, well a shortened version of my name, Artura Valentina, named after my father Arturo Valentina, meaning that I am Hispanic, it's usually harder for people to notice given that I am also a little dark skinned girl.

Alex and I made our way across the field to the rest of the people watching the tower divers.  This was not an official Southern sport, this was actually this first time we'd actually heard about it in Georgia so we had to try it,Alex had gone first and told everyone how he'd almost wet himself, this ironically made people want to try. 

"So, where's your boyfriend?" I asked Alex.

"With his girlfriend, still undercover." he said shrugging it off as he looked across the field to where the love of his life stood making out with his girlfriend.

I hadn't noticed until I followed his eyes, Alex made the painful mistake of falling for the captain of the football, basketball and track team at our school, Jared Crosby, and this wasn't like Alex just sat and daydreamed about a day when Jared would come and profess his love to him, this day came 8 months ago. But, of course Jared wanted to keep it a secret for the sake of his reputation , he never broke up with his girlfriend, he'd spend most of his time with her and Alex got whatever was left over. I was the only one who actually knew.

" I don't understand why you keep doing this to yourself."  I said looking back at him." There are plenty of openly gay guys at our school and you fall for the one guy who who wants to keep you in the dark just to save his reputation." I continued.

" He's not like those guys, those guys cant give me what I want and Jared does." he replied.

Just as I was about to respond Jared and his girlfriend,Candice,walked to where we were standing. Jared and Candice were the "power couple" at our school with him being captain of everything and her being captain of the cheerleading squad, so it was safe to say that Alex was treading dangerous waters with this one. Disclaimer, Candice doesnt like me, at all, she thinks that I have some secret crush on Jared, because he always approaches Alex and I but doesn't even suspect him of being gay.

" Hey Artura, Alex." he greeted us.

"Hola Jared, Candice." I replied smiling at Candice.

They literally stood there for two minutes and she leaned over and whispered something into Jared's ear, not even noticing that Jared hadn't taken his eyes off of Alex since they'd been standing near us. It was like he was undressing him in his head,it was weird to watch. He finally spoke up to tell us that they were getting ready to leave, per Candice's request.

"I'd give anything to have a boyfriend who stares at me in public." I teased. 

"Har har bitch." Alex said pushing me.

We stayed for another twenty minutes and Alex's phone made a noise, he reached into his pocket and read something on the screen and his eyes got wide and he was smiling like an idiot. I knew that smile and I knew that it was time to go. On the drive back all he could do was talk about what he thought what going to happen, or what he'd hope would happen when Jared got to his house. I was used to the night being cut short because of Jared so it didn't really bother me as much as it did in the beginning. My best friend was in love and all I could do was support him no matter how much I disagreed.