The End Is Only the Beginning

01. How It Starts

01. How It Starts

He had tanned skin, and hazel eyes with flecks of gold.

The first time I saw him was on the beach.

He was sat against a large rock, his head down as he looked over a notebook with a pen in his hand. He wore earphones in both ears and didn't even notice me as I approached him, even though I was walking with a surfboard only metres' away from him.

"It's a nice day out," I spoke loudly, hoping to gain his attention so he wouldn't think I was just out here creeping.

It worked; the dark-haired boy flipped his fringe out of his face before looking up to me, his eyes looking entirely golden in the sunlight. "The weather's always nice in Florida," he responded with an unreadable accent, removing just one of his earphones.

I smiled back. "I'm assuming you're not from around here, so how did you find this place? It's not exactly a tourist attracting destination," I spoke as I sat clumsily on the sand, attempting to attach the surfboard's leash to my ankle in the most graceful way possible.

"My cousin recommended it; I was looking for somewhere quiet."

"Well then, I'm guessing me being here isn't helping with the quiet," I replied. Golden eyes smiled a genuine smile. It was one of those smiles that take your breath away, and once you've seen it you never want it to go away, ever. "Anyway, I'll leave you to it."

With that I picked up my board and jogged to the ocean, not even looking back to the golden eyed boy sat on the beach.

I expected him to have gone by the time I finished surfing. He hadn't.

--

The second I saw him again my heart skipped a beat, and I forgot how to breathe.

He was walking through the hallway, running a hand through his dark hair, looking like something pulled straight from a movie scene.

It had been two weeks since I had seen him last and I never thought that I would see him again, yet here he was, in my new high school, stood barely seven feet away from me. He looked just as perfect...just as beautiful as he had before, the only difference was that his hair was a little shorter and his summer tan was beginning to fade.

"Aaron!" a dark skinned female spoke loudly, bringing me back to reality. "I missed you," she added.

I watched as she made her way towards him through the crowded hall. "Missed you too," I heard Aaron respond, taking one of her hands in his own. The rest of what he said was drowned out by the conversations happening around him, but I saw the way his eyes lit up just at the sight of her.

Not even ten seconds later Aaron had his lips pressed to hers, and one of his hands resting gently in her curly hair.

The reality of it hit me at once.

He had a girlfriend.

It was no longer summer; Aaron and I were no longer a thing. He didn't realise that I was stood only metres away from him, watching him press his lips to another's. The truth of the matter is that he probably would have preferred it if I wasn't.

-

I arrived to my English class feeling dazed.

What was the likelihood of this happening? The likelihood of my dad been transferred to Brooklyn, New York out of all of places in America; the likelihood that I ended up attending this school out of all of those surrounding Brooklyn?