*VIEWER DISCRETION
This is one hundred percent, without a doubt, a love story. One that does not cause butterflies but one where both the characters and the readers kick their feet in the air in cuteness - awaiting what the next page upholds.
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When I moved to Hawaii I was expecting to grow closer to my best friends. Most importantly, I was expecting to find myself again. I lost myself for a while in high school and I never really found it again.
I wanted to come to the realization that I'm okay without her by my side. I needed to know that my life didn't end when she left - but rather it hit freeze and all I need to do is unpause the screen.
But never did I expect that moving to Hawaii would bring me to encounter such a sweet, persistent, cocky, yet heart warming man. I thought it was out of the cards for me to ever find someone that is like him and I don't even know his middle name or birthday or really anything about him.
Instead of worrying about boys in high school and going to football games, I lost my best friend. So instead of making my parents anxious about me sneaking out at night I made them not only worsen their grief about their late eldest daughter but also worry about my health.
My sister, Melanie, died at eighteen years old on a random Tuesday in the month of September. Why the school shooter choose that day, I don't know, but I do know that he took my sisters life and tried to take mine too.
I was in English class with Gracie when the first shoot was fired. No one knew what happened at first so Mr. Calvin went out in the hall to see what was happening. That was the last time I saw him alive. The shooter killed him before he could lock the classroom door.
Screams were the only thing we heard, it was when I stood up to find a binding spot when it happened. I'll never forget the searing pain that went through my body. I stumbled a little before I fell to the ground.
A few more shots went off in our classroom before the gunman walked out and went down the hallway to each and every classroom. I was a sophomore at the time so all of my classes were at the front of the building.
Gracie stayed with me until the paramedics came in 20 minutes later. I was the last one to be assisted in that classroom but the only survivor out of seven people in that room alone.
When I woke up not only was I told that the odds of me walking again were slim to none but also that Melanie fell victim to the gunman. We were told she was shot in directly in the heart, leaving her dead on impact. She didn't suffer - which made me feel a little better.
The bullet entered my left clavicle and exited underneath my right shoulder blade. I was immediately rushed into surgery to repair the shattered bone that the bullet touched. The bullet scratched against my spinal cord which initially caused spinal cord injury. Along with that I got shot on the right side of my body that went straight through dragging my shirt with it.
I spent two weeks in the NICU before I was relocated to the rehabilitation unit for an additional six weeks. When I finally got out of the hospital after having to relearn how to walk and eat on my own, I was never the same.
