Neoteric

I

[I just want to introduce the story real quickly. This story will have journal entries throughout it (some will be flashbacks and not necessarily pertain to the story but is just included to show some of the past. Anything that is a journal entry will be italicized and within quotations. I also will try to update often. Any questions or confusions just dm me. I have big hopes for this story and even have a series in mind. Also if anybody would be interested in making a cover for this story I would love it so just dm me.]

I

"Neoteric. A clean slate. A new beginning. I, Emma Marie Benner, am certainly more than ready to embark on a new adventure and to create a new life for myself and leave the old behind. This idea of moving to London wasn't meant to be a new beginning initially. It had been a dream that I put on hold. Once, he came all my dreams were put on hold. My world was no longer based on what I wanted to do. It was solely on our future together. He was my future. And I was okay with that in the moment. I was blinded by the love we shared. After two years together, we fell. We didn't just fall, we crashed. This wasn't gentle like the ocean crashing against the shores. This was so powerful that even the skies cried that day. Those rainy skies have since turned to clear. And I am headed to begin again in a different city with new skies." 

I close the black journal in front of me and sit it in my seat before trying to escape to the bathrooms. It turns to be a real challenge getting out of my aisle of seats. A guy who appears to be in his forties is selfish when it comes to sharing and for a moment I believe he was not going to allow me to pass him in order to visit the small cramped bathroom.

After returning to my seat which proved to be less of a challenge than exiting it, which was a relief; I plug in my earbuds. While listening to my music I begin to go through my camera roll. I look at the past year of photos and relive the moments that can't be told within the pixels lighting my screen. The most recent photos are of my sister and I at the park in my small town of Berkley, California. I will miss Lindy, maybe even more than she will miss me. Lindy has always seen me as her role model ever since she was old enough to understand I was her older sister. Sometimes growing up this was annoying because she constantly mocked me but that annoyance eventually faded. I look at the screen and how Lindy's wavy blonde hair is blown by the wind as we swing on the same swings that caused my first broken bone. We look happy, which is ironic because that was the day before I went incognito for almost six months. I close my eyes so the tears that are beginning to form are caught before reaching my cheeks. 

I close my photos and open up Sudoku and play for the longest time, all of the puzzles proving to be easy. That is until probably thirty minutes into it. I get stuck and that's only when I hear a voice. "Five," the guy with curly brown hair that is occupying the seat on my left says. I look up at him and then continue my gaze back to my screen and tap in five in the square. The screen glows gold for a second to show that indeed five is the correct number.

 I consider what to say in my head before turning back to the boy on my left and say, "Thanks.."

 I begin to trail off unsure of what else to say but he interrupts my lingering phrase with, "Don't mention it. I'm Harry. May I ask who this mysterious girl who journals and plays Sudoku is?"

"I wouldn't call myself mysterious nor would I consider playing Sudoku an identifying trait of mine. As you witnessed I am anything but good at it," I reply and his face highlights with a wide grin. 

"So the already mysterious girl who considers herself shabby at Sudoku although she plays better than my grandmother who spends her days buzzing through puzzles refuses to give a name, making herself even more mysterious?" he manages to say within one breathe.

I begin to laugh and in turn he also laughs, "Emma. My name is Emma."

He holds his hand out for a handshake and I in turn do the same grasping his large fingers, "Well, it's nice to meet you Emma."