There's a Place For Us (Complete)

Part 14

I. An Exquisitely Tragic Love Affair

(Part 14)

"Your girlfriend?" Isabella asked. Adam nodded his head, red heat spreading throughout his ears from her obvious confusion on the concept.

Isabella stared at him, looking like a deer in head lights. Adam looked away, and an image popped into Isabella's head.

It was that of a dark skinned boy, tan from hours of working in the sun everyday. His hair was as black as coal and his muscles were defined. So defined he could have been chiseled out of stone. He wore his hat and his plaid shirt, which was worn open. He carried a heavy bale of hay above his head. At the sight of her, he smiled broadly...

The image only appeared for a second, but even still, it was clear and definite.

Isabella hurriedly stuffed her books back in her backpack, obviously forgetting all about the reason she was there in the first place. She slung the bag over her shoulder and scurried to the door. Adam shifted his weight from one foot to another, creating a noise in the process. Isabella stopped short in the doorway, remembering the cause of her quick departure.

"Well?" Adam asked awkwardly. Isabella gulped and Adam knew her answer before the words even came out. "No," she said confidently, and then, she hurried away.

Adam stood in the exact spot, dumbfounded. He had never been rejected before...

'So this is what it feels like,' he thought bitterly.

He felt like an idiot for not seeing what was clearly in front of him. She would never feel the same way about him that he did about her. He packed up his notebooks and walked to the door, but someone stopped him.

"So you asked her out, huh..." Drew said nastily. Adam looked away, not wanting to get into anything with him at the moment. He tried to push passed him, but Drew was strong. "What'd that little freak say?" Adam shoved Drew forcefully. It caught Drew offguard and he stumbled. "Don't call her a freak..." Adam grumbled angerly. He then walked away, leaving Drew behind him.

Isabella ran from that school as fast as her legs would carry her. Finally, she couldn't stand it anymore. She fell into the woods on the side of a highway.

They used to go there sometimes. It was an odd place, but then again, they weren't normal. He had found a deer's burrow. She recalled the smile on his face.

'Deers living on the side of the highway!' he had exclaimed happily in his country boy accent.

She went to the place where they had found it. She knew it was it, for they had marked the location on the tree beside it. Isabella searched for the burrow, moving the fallen leaves around, kicking dirt, but it, just like him, was gone...

Adam sat on the edge of his bed with the door locked. The curtains were drawn and the lights off. Call Of Duty was in the xBox. The controller was laying on the floor, right beneath the spot where he nearly punched the wall in frustration. He had the music blasting loud, so nobody could hear his cries. His hair was a mess from running his hands through it. And he was replaying their last conversation thinking, 'she'll never care about me half as much as I care about her...'

By the time Isabella got home, the tip of her nose was redder than red. She ran into the house. A shelter from the wind; no heat, no fireplace, just a shelter. She put her backpack down on her bed, abandoning any homework she had. She then sat down on her bedroom floor beside her bed. She reached under, feeling around for it. And finally she found it.

Isabella pulled the tattered, old box out from beneath her bed. She pulled the cover off and stared at the things that had kept her going for so long, but no longer...

"ADAM, HUNNY...." his mom called with concern obvious in her voice. He ignored her. His mom tried at the door, but when she discovered it was still locked, she called, "come out here..." But Adam remained in the same spot, glued to it. The way he was feeling was stupid, and he knew it. No girl was worth this much pain, this much revealed emotion... and yet why did he feel like Isabella was?

Isabella turned back time, living that precious moment one more time.

They laid on their backs in the fields of tall grass. The heat from the all day sun still made the air feel thick and sticky. He reached for her hand, and as he did so, she could feel his callused fingers. That's when he had told her the news that shred her heart. She had cried out in objection, but he had simply said it was his duty. Then he whispered something in her ear. Under the stars he made a vow...

Isabella pulled a letter from inside the box. The very last letter on the bottom of the huge pile. The first letter she had ever received. She sat there for three and a half hours, reading every single one. Finally she pulled the very last letter out. 'Letter 126' it was labeled. She read through it multiple times, just like every other letter, memorizing the words. The last sentence of the last letter was one she never forgot.

"Just promise me you'll think of me every time you look up in the sky and see a star."

He had written that five months ago. She laid in her bed with the door locked, not that it really mattered; no one was home. The curtains were drawn and the lights off, her only source of light now was that of the moon. The Notebook was in the DVD player. An empty tub of ice cream was on the floor next to dozens of crumbled tissues. She had her music blasting. She was rereading his last letter thinking 'I'll never get him back.'