It was her smile.

Dedicated to fallenbabybubu, because her stories inspire me :D She is an amazing writer and I hope to be as good as her someday. 

*

Prologue 

"And so we meet again." Nate Osbourne's therapist smiled at him.  

Nate sighed deeply before saying, "yes...unfortunately we do." According to him, there was nothing wrong with him but his neurotic parents thought otherwise. They had a problem with everything he did, from the fact that he dated too many girls a few months ago to how he stopped dating altogether now.  

What did they want him to do? He idly wondered.  

"Nate, I just want to help you. Creating a shell around yourself is not going to benefit you! I understand that you have been badly hurt but at some point in time you need to move on." The therapist calmly spoke.  

Nate had heard that too many times, everyone thought they could help him. Oh, how wrong they were...Nothing was ever going to make the pain he was going through better. He had accepted his doomed fate a long time ago, but his parents had a hard time getting used to the idea.  

"What if I don't want to? I have no reason to live anymore! So why should I go through the painful process of discarding my 'shell' when I don't wish to live?!" He rhetorically asked before averting his gaze to the patina floor.  

"Fine then, stay in your shell. Don't come of it if you don't wish to. But don't suppress the feelings that are the cause of your pain. Talking usually helps." She chirped affirmatively.  

"I am sure it does." He muttered sarcastically, sounding very much like the old Nate. The therapist pressed her lips together to stop herself from smiling, when she noticed the change.  

"Look, every minute that you spend here is costing your parents quite a lot of money and the sooner you get this over with, the better it is for you." She suggested, her voice drained of the initial warmth as she argued with him. She was one of the town's best therapists and she always succeeded in getting people to confide in her. However, Nate was an exception. After, two months and three weeks she was certain that he was not going to talk and had abjured.  

"Where do I begin from?" He questioned, surprising her.  

"Begin right from where it all started." She spoke, trying to keep the astonishment and happiness that she was feeling out of her voice.  

"Are you sure you don't want me to skip to the climax? It begins rather cheesily." A beetroot red blush evaded his cheek as he admitted this.  

"Bring it on. I am a girl, I like cheesy stuff." She joked. 

His lips twitched slightly as he began speaking.

* 

"And she will be looooooooooved!" Lily sang loudly and Nate tried to suppress a smile. She was always so off-tune, it was hilarious.  

"She 'will' be loved!" He joined in, emphasizing the 'will'.  

Will-short for William-was the name of the guy Lily had been dating for three months. So far, he was the most decent guy she had ever gone out with. He didn't drink or smoke too much and he treated her well enough. Lily had always been attracted to boys who were not good for her because she thought she could change them. In end though, they ended up changing her. She would always come crying to him and swear that she was done dating, and then she would get infatuated with some other guy and the same thing would happen again. 

"Shut up, Nate!" She giggled. 

"She WILL be loved!" Nate sang again, just to infuriate her. He loved annoying her. Her reactions were just so funny!