Kiss Me Now, Kiss Me Never

The Price of Three

***The beginning of this will confuse you, but please give it a chance***

Boston

"Beverly, you know how I feel about you. You know I do not wish to wed her." I sighed deeply, watching her chocolate brown eyes glaze over. "This was prearranged between my father and Becca's." It was devastating to watch the tears slip down her pale cheek, knowing that I was the cause of her pain. I hated myself for it.

"Oh, I see you are on first name basis with her now," she huffed, furiously wiping away her tears.

I snorted ungentlemanly and continued to pace among the forest trees. We were both risking so much by being here together. I would not ruin her reputation. She meant too much to me. I would not repay her love by having her spend the rest of her days unhappy.

I wanted her to be happy, even it would be without me. I knelt in front of her, ruining my freshly laundered tea-colored trousers. I took her hands in mine, which she wretched away from me quickly. I sighed again, regretting the words I would have to speak aloud.

"It is for the best, Beverly. It was not meant to be. I'm a Masen and you are a…Weatherby. Our families are worlds apart."

Her hands clenched into tiny fists before her right one flattened and struck me across the cheek, causing me to stumble backward.

"I said those very words to you months ago, and you said it did not matter. Now when someone better –" she spat, cutting herself off bitterly, rising to her feet. "Now you care about my name."

I hated myself for what I was about to do, but it had to be done. I would not soil her name just so that we could be together.

"You have heard of the men in my family tossing women aside like yesterday's papers," I said coldly. With every word I spoke, a tear formed in my heart.

Her eyes widened, and her cheeks flushed the loveliest shade of crimson before she stomped on my foot and ran off into the woods.

I howled in pain, watching as she ran deeper into the forest. "Bev! Stop! Come back!" I grunted, rising to my feet timidly. A loud peal of thunder roared in the night, followed by a brilliant white light that filled the darkened sky.

My heart pounded in my chest, matching the pace of my feet as I ran after Beverly. Rain pelted against my cold skin, and I was drenched within minutes. My beloved was out there because of me, and I knew that this would not end well. Her scream echoed among the trees as another crackle of thunder rumbled in the darkness. What have I done?

June 1998

I bolted straight up in my bed as thunder boomed through my window. I gasped for breath as I felt my pounding heart, trying to calm myself.

Yet another dream that made no sense to me. These nightly visions had plagued my mind for the past few weeks, and with every vision, the details seeped through my consciousness like running water in my hands. I could never hold on to more than a trickle. I quickly grabbed my journal from my nightstand, desperate to hold on to something.

I opened my notebook, and it fell open to my last entry. The only thing on that page was a pair of brown eyes that I had drawn. The detail was amazing; never had I drawn anything with such care.

I turned to a fresh page and wrote the date.

June 20, 1998

I remember her brown eyes and that the man let her run. No, he made her run from him. He screamed her name, but it was masked by the thunder. I heard it, though. It felt like I screamed it – Beverly.

I closed my journal, satisfied that I had remembered a little more. I had remembered a name. Though the man's eluded me, I felt that it wasn't as important as hers. I looked at the digital display on my alarm clock – happy fifteenth birthday to me.