Hacking The Heart [Immortal Hearts #1] (#Wattys2016)

[9] - Distance (Break Away)

This part of our story goes back two years ago, when Landon and Kaylee were still in high school...

Kaylee and Landon were happily dating at this point, or so Landon thought. It was like any other day, they had come to school together, hand in hand, talking and laughing along the way. They met during lunch and in between classes, just like they did every day. But then he caught up to her after the final bell, only to see a gloom cover her face.

Then it came out of nowhere, it came falling from the sky, and it gave him one hell of an uppercut. "Hey," Kaylee back-stepped away from Landon. "Let's break up."

Landon stood still, his feet glued to the ground. "Break up? Why?" Landon's eyes sharpened. He wondered where this had come from, where were the signs? Had he done something wrong, had he hurt her in some way? Was it his fault? Could he have prevented this from actually happening?

"It's not you, Landon, it's me. It's just...I don't feel like it's working out between us." Kaylee said while looking at the ground. "I'm sorry, but let's be friends like we were before, okay?"

Landon couldn't believe it. The way she had broken up with him, for one, was way too generic for him to believe. She had been fine in the morning and even during lunch. So, what made her think like this? What happened to her? Not only did she look sad, she looked broken; inside and out. Naturally, this had led Landon to think about what had happened between lunch and then, though, unbeknownst to Landon, it had happened before lunch.

Landon was certain that she wasn't doing this by choice. Something in his gut was telling him so. Maybe it was just denial, the fact that he was the one that didn't - rather, couldn't, let her go. She was his source of life, the source of energy that allowed him to wake up every morning. She was the lone shining star in his dark life, and Landon fully believed that Kaylee felt the same way. That's why he refused to believe it.

"If you're going to dump me, at least give me the real reason..." Landon shook his head. "Or is it because you can't tell me?"

Kaylee wouldn't answer him. The only thing she did was turn around and walk in the other direction, the complete opposite direction of where they shared their home. Landon grabbed onto Kaylee's shoulder and spun her. In the blink of an eye, his lips were stuck to hers. Kaylee shuddered for a second, knowing that she would never feel his warmth again, and then pushed him away.

"We're done, Landon." Kaylee murmured. "You might want to change your taste in women...It sucks."

"Kaylee!" Landon's fist smashed into the locker on his left side.

As Kaylee turned the corner, something began to boil inside of Landon. It was bubbling, rising as his rage increased. He punched the locker again, and then came a third and fourth. All Landon could do was take his anger out on the innocent locker, the poor piece of sheet metal was no longer able to open as punch after punch rained down on it.

Landon couldn't hear anything as the locker gained a new dent with every rage filled fist that collided with it. If that index finger hadn't tapped his shoulder, he may have been there all night destroying that one locker that was in front of him until it fell off, destroyed beyond recognition. Landon stopped and quickly turned around to see a blonde girl, his fist still raised. Toni Renton was her name, she was the head cheerleader, the queen bee of the school, and cute to put the cherry on top.

As you would expect, she had money, and lots of it. Her father owned three hospitals along with many other various businesses, and had made a huge donation that went towards the construction of the school. As such, Toni was untouchable by the staff and had many followers that would chase her money. The 'typical' rich girl, so to speak.