[UPDATED WEEKLY ON FRIDAYS]
When Lilah, an innocent eighteen year old, moves nearly eight hours from her rural town and rough past to have a fresh start at college in New York with her best friend and her older brother, the last thing she expected...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"J-Jackson?" I asked in disbelief. Obviously since I had seen him as a kid, his looks had changed.
His black button up was a long sleeve but he had it rolled up directly below his elbows, revealing both arms being covered in random black and white tattoos. The right arm was a well thought out sleeve that included very fine detail while his left one was a bit more messy and had several random ones scattered around his skin like last minute decisions. Both his ink-covered arms had veins popping through that traveled down and past his tattooed knuckles. I gazed down further to see scattered black and silver rings on both of his hands. Craning my head up, I saw his left ear had a silver diamond-shaped piercing that slightly dangled that I only noticed when his head had moved. Although Jackson was only three months older than my brother, he stood a good two inches taller.
Gazing back up to his matured face, I realized his eyes were scanning over me as well and I suddenly felt the need to straighten my posture and make myself look more confident, while also simultaneously cradle and hide my body in my arms.
Jackson was a neighbor that lived across our street when we were kids and he was practically over at our house all the time besides overnight, unless it was the summer. Kayce and Jackson met at school and instantly clicked, being best friends since. When we were young, I'd always try and hang out with them as I didn't have any friends and they'd always try and avoid me like I was a disease. I knew they were just teasing me. Until..
Shaking my head, I came back to the moment and I could see Jackson was almost too stunned to speak. Even though we were really close as kids, I felt like he was a complete stranger standing in front of me. So much had happened in the last few years in my life and I was sure it was the same for him. We were now older, and our lives had changed drastically from being children playing at the playground together.
"The one and only," he suddenly spoke with a cocky grin and in that moment, that crush feeling I had for him as a ten year old girl came fluttering back into my stomach.
When my family moved, I fought so hard to forget about him and the special bond we had made. And even though my brother and him still remained friends through the years, neither Jackson or I tried to ever catch up. I honestly wasn't sure why he never wanted to hang out in a group like we used to six years ago, but as I grew up I decided to not take it personally and move on with my life.
But now with him standing in front of me, with the same old cocky attitude and smug smirk he always had, all of those thoughts and feelings I had suppressed years ago came flooding back into my already dizzy head.
The heels strapped around my wrist gained slack before falling off and thudding onto the floor. I wasn't sure if they coincidentally fell at the same moment I had gotten butterflies at seeing Jackson in front of me but I wouldn't have been surprised.
Out of instinct, I went to reach down for them and didn't notice Jackson had too. Our heads clashed hard into each other, sending me to fall backwards onto my butt. My back hit against the wall and my head collided with it too. The dizzy state I was already in didn't help with the whiplash I had just received and I instantly reached up to cup the back of my head. My brain began pounding with an intense pain like a hammer hitting me from the inside out. I groaned in response and kept my eyes closed, waiting for the pain to settle.
