erik menendez // if you love me..don't let go

chapter one

present time, beverly hills, 1988

The number one award of being late should be given to me. Every morning when I hear that agonizing alarm, all it does is make me want to crawl into a hole and never see the light again. And of course my dad had already drew the curtains so never seeing the light again was quite impossible.

I sort of wish there was more chaos in my house, maybe then I would be able to drag myself out of bed more easily because of all the noise. But that wasn't the case. It was just me and my dad living in this ginormous house. Loud noise wasn't really in the cards for me.

After about 10 minutes of contemplation, I was finally able to roll out of bed. Literally. I think I almost got a concussion.

"SCARLETTTTT" Ouch. The sound of my dad's booming voice from downstairs definitely didn't help with my head.

"Coming." I whispered underneath my breath, even though I knew he couldn't hear me. Letting out a loud groan that I knew he would be able to hear, I finally got ready for my first day of senior year. Yay. Not really.

***

When I walked into the school building, the halls were completely empty. Shoot. Being here for three years, you would've thought it would be easy to find my homeroom, but with my bad sense of direction and bad eyesight, it was quite difficult.

I finally stood outside the door to my homeroom. I tried the doorknob. And of course, it was locked! I audibly groaned in embarrassment. When footsteps were heard, I immediately straightened up.

The door opened to reveal Mrs. Jenkins. My 9th grade biology teacher, also the worst teacher to man kind. Or woman kind. For whatever reason, I was her worst enemy. And now she's a teacher for seniors? Why me?

"Scarlett." She nodded at me, her mouth in a grim line.

"Miss." I repeated her gesture.

After a very weird staring contest, she finally opened the door fully so I was able to walk in. I could feel my face heat up at the sight of all my classmates already sitting down and staring at me. Great.

"Okay..Scarlett. Ah, Mariani." Mrs. Jenkins took her sweet time looking at her sheet with whatever on it. She also made a point of practically screaming my last name and really dragging out her words. I mentally rolled my eyes. Just give me a damn seat lady. "Right there." She finally pointed to the only empty seat, and I gladly rushed over to it, making a big show of plopping down.

As soon as the teacher started droning on and on, I zoned out. My focus point was on the boy's hair in front of me. It was the perfect, brown, curly hair that I just wanted to reach out and run my hands through. It looked so soft and fluffy and- Shoot. He turned around. When his eyes met mine, something fluttered in my chest. My stomach felt queasy. Those eyes. The dark blue eyes. They were almost familiar?

I was snapped out of my daze when I heard his throat clear. His eyebrows furrowed. I looked down at his hand which had a pile of papers. Then I remembered why he turned around. Not just to look at me. Oh.

Muttering a sorry that was probably not audible, I snatched the pile of papers from his hand and took one for myself before handing the pile to the kid behind me. When I turned around, the boy in front of me still was looking at me. I gave him a slight smile, praying he would just turn around already and forget about that very awkward moment. And thankfully, he did. But of course after he made my heart once again beat out of my chest just the tiniest bit.

***

The whole rest of the day went on and on for what felt like hours and hours on end. All I wanted was to hear that magical sound that let me know the day was over. And once I heard that sound, I immediately jumped out of my seat, ignoring the weird stares from my classmates and my teacher yelling at me. I ran out of the school to where I knew my best friend would be waiting for me.

"Anna, oh my goodness!" I yelled once I got to the parking lot and saw Annabelle standing by her car with a huge smile on her face that I knew matched mine. Me and Annabelle have been friends since middle school but we sadly had to go to different high schools since she moved. But we still talked every day whether it was calling or sending letters.

"I missed you so much!" Anna muffled into my hair once she grabbed me into a big bear hug. She always gave the best hugs.

"I missed you too, but come on, let's go!" I urged her into her car so we could go back to my house. I could not be near this school anymore. We pulled out the parking lot, and as we turned I caught the boy from homeroom staring at me from where he was standing in front of his car. He had a tennis racket in his hand and his jaw locked. He had this weird demeanor about him, and I don't know how I felt about it.