To Eternity | Wally Clark

Prologue

I fell to the ground, hitting my side on the curb of the school's grounds towards the woods. I let out a grunt of pain as I watched Maddie disappear into the woods. However, that wasn't Maddie, Maddie wouldn't harm me, her best friend since birth. "Maddie!" I shout out, confusion dances on my face "Why, why would you do that?" I ask myself, hearing an audible gasp from behind me. You're all wondering how this happened, well let me take you back to when I first moved back to Split river.

Two months earlier

There he is, the love of my life... or so I thought. Mr. Carmone; Garrett Carmone, His blonde locks dance in the wind of the fan above him, green eyes sparkle as he presents his thesis to the rest of the class. Standing merely five foot eleven, he's everything to me. I swoon just thinking about my marvelous boyfriend. Today is his birthday, he turns the big one - eight; I'm planning on surprising him with the watch he always wanted and maybe a little more. I lay my hand under my chin and stare at Garrett with love as he spews information about the Great Depression. "...and that concludes my Thesis, Mr. Malone" Garrett addresses our Professor. The class and I applaud the well thought out thesis. "Very good Mr. Carmone, however, I do believe that you used some of what we talked about in class to help you out." Mr. Malone smiles at the comment.

This causes me and Garret to frown "Oh! It wasn't anything bad, I'm just glad my material helped you in your work. As you all should be doing the same" Mr. Malone then goes on a boring tirade of why we should use his lessons in our thesis' to 'better our research' ha like I'll ever need to, I thought while rolling my violet eyes. "Now then-" Mr. Malone was cut off by the sound of the bell. I quickly pack up my belongings "Wh- There will be homework due tomorrow! I'll email you the document!" The teacher shouts as the whole class vacates the classroom. I sigh, now able to stand and wait for Garrett to finish up packing. "I think Mr. Malone will give you an A"  I state putting my bag over my shoulder "As you deserve. You put in a lot of effort into your thesis" Garrett smiles at me, his green eyes shimmer in delight. "Yeah, though you did help me, my lovely cheerleader slash dancer girlfriend" He bends down a little to capture my lips with his.

I hum as the kiss ends. "Yeah I did, now let's get out of here. I still have to stop by the Theatre department to visit Ms Delaney" He frowns as he shrugs on his bag and hums in agreement. We both walked out of the classroom into the crowded halls of Prosper High School. "Remind me again why you must talk to Ms Delaney? I thought the old  woman would've croaked back in 2016, Lu." I can hear the concern in his tone, as much as I love him I hate it when he gets like this. "Because Gar, she's like a great baddie when it comes to theater and the art of seduction. Hell, if you would talk to her, she'd call you her cherry pop for being so helpless."

That gives me laughter from Garrett, I smile as we turn towards the theater department halls. "Right, I swear she's like ancient. I mean who the hell says cherry pop these days? Isn't that like a term from the sixties?" "62-64, it retired after the new gen started to create new names Like "down bad" for example." I roll my eyes, Garrett doesn't understand much despite being in a 6A school. "Lunaressa, you need to tell her. I mean she's been a good friend of your family's since what? Since you moved down here back in 2016." Garrett grabs my arm and pulls me into a hug, one hand on my dyed white hair and the other across my waist. " I know and I will, it's just, I've never seen her this happy in years, Garrett. I don't wanna ruin it".

A stray tear runs down my cheek and onto Garrett's tee. I wipe the tear as I hug him for a bit, then break it. "On the bright side, she can always call you and once I teach her how to facetime, you both can do that!" I let out the breath I held trying to calm myself down, that is a reasonable suggestion, yeah I'll tell her today. "But what about you? Will you Facetime me? Or leave me hanging, like you see in every story we hear about in long-distance relationships?" I ask as we walk into the theater. "Hi, Ms Delaney, hopefully we aren't interrupting anything" Garrett calls out as we walk in on Ms Delaney giving brief directions to upcoming actors. "You and I both know that you won't pick up, you'll forget and be heartbroken thinking I'll be cheating on you" I sigh for a second then amicably agree.