Paper Heart ✔️

Chapter 01 | reality

          Nothing could prepare me for what happened the night of the accident. I was fast asleep when I'd suddenly woken up. My room was dark and the house was completely silent until my phone started to ring. I thought nothing of it until I realized it was coming from Wyatt's house phone. I couldn't explain the feeling I felt in my stomach. My subconscious knew something was off about receiving a call so late. 

Once I answer, there's a long pause before they speak.

The call was brief but it felt like eternity. I had just received a call from my boyfriends father claiming the worst possible outcome in a fairly tale ending...death.

It was hard to listen as the walls around me seemed to close and shelter me inside. My phone fell from my fingertips, hitting the cold carpeted floor once I recollected his words. My arms wrapped around my body like a barrier I failed to create and like a magnet I fell to my knees, allowing the carpet to burn my skin.

My parents ran through the door almost immediately. They seemed frightened and confused as I cried out in front of them. When they answered my phone which had still been on call with Wyatt's father their faces went blank.

          It was the first week of January. Trees were relieved of their orange and weakening leaves. The air was cold, crisp enough to wear a light sweater. The town we reside in was quiet with a population of seven thousand people located in the Pacific Northwest. Our town was not overcrowded with tall trees as you might expect. It was a residential area with just enough amenities to keep us entertained. Many of us grew up here and for some, it's all we've ever know.

It was a quiet place where nothing exciting ever happens until as of recently.

I was getting ready to finish my senior year of high school with the rest of my senior class. I enjoyed school for the most part. I was in student council with my two best friends Danielle and Jess. The three of us were inseparable so when tryouts for the cheer team came along Danielle forced us to join. Somehow, I'd been appointed cheer captain after one year of being on the squad.

Wyatt, my boyfriend who was basically my other half motivated me to have at least three hobbies before I graduated. He said it would look better on my college application.

Senior year started off great, perfect even, until my two best friends became sworn enemies and oh yeah...my boyfriend died.

Unlike everyone else that first week of January was no ordinary week for me. Some of us had already gotten the news last night, like I did. Whether it be from social media, a friend or close relative. We all heard about the sudden death of Wyatt Finley.

Yet many of those people still found a way to make it out of the house that day. They might have listened to music on their way to school and when they arrived they greeted their friends with a smile and made it to class on time.

When I woke up my throat ached and my eyes were swollen shut. There were birds singing outside my window and I could smell my mother cooking breakfast from downstairs. The second I awoke was the moment grief fell upon me once more.

"Look at me Ella." My mother begs. I pull my legs closer to my chest and rock back and forth with my eyes shut. I was hyperventilating finding it harder to breathe after every breath.

"I'm sorry." I cried. "It's all my fault."

"Ella." My mother chokes back her tears. "It was an accident how could you have known?"