I Write Sins Not Tragedies (A Collection of Short Stories)

{Story 1} Sarah Smiles 1.1

I created Bryan Cole the day of my eighteenth birthday. In my defense, he was no more than a wish in my head and a mess of scribbles in my drawing tablet twenty-four hours prior.

  My birthday wasn't much; a quiet day and a not-so-extravagant night that ended in my mother and uncle blowing up at the dinner table in the middle of Olive Garden. She had apologized a countless number of times on the tense drive home, but I hadn't cared too much. Me turning eighteen just meant being another year older and the two year anniversary of my twin brother's death. My father and sister had opinions of their own and ended my wonderful night with a fight that sent my mother out the door and not to return until six the next morning.

Looking back, I suppose Bryan had always been in my life. He had resided on every page of every drawing tablet I'd managed to go through the last two years. The boy with the thick, unruly mop of raven black curls and piercing blue eyes that opened a passageway into your sole. The boy with the loose fitting washed out Nirvana shirt and worn jeans.

Drawing Bryan had been my escape-until he became the person I wanted to escape from.

I woke up Saturday morning with no intention of forcing myself out of bed. I'd tossed and turned all night, and when I had finally found it in me to fall asleep my alarm sounded through my quiet room. Outstretching my arm to slap the snooze button, I was shocked to find my hands fall into a bed of curls. For a moment, I thought it may be our Labradoodle but the thought soon faded when a deep, throaty laugh followed the action.

I cried out in surprise, shooting to the other end of my bed, my eyes shooting to everything around me for any sort of weapon to use against the figure stretched out beside my nightstand. When I finally grasped a pencil, I waved it inches from me as if it were a knife. It was safe to say the boy was in no way intimidated by a number two pencil.

He stretched his arms behind his head, his washed out band tee stretching across his broad chest with every flexed muscle. "Good morning, Sarah."

I stared, horrified by the fact the stranger knew my name.

"Who are you?" I breathed.

He chuckled. "You mean you don't recognize me?"

I brushed a loose strand of my dark hair out of my eyes and pointed the eraser of the pencil in his direction. "I've never seen you before in my life."

"Are you sure about that, love?" he smiled. "Look a little harder."

I opened my mouth to repeat my previous statement when my eyes fell on the red birthmark riding up the nape of his neck.

When I had initially drawn the birthmark on Bryan, it had been my best attempt at a hickey. Realizing it looked nothing like one, I took the opportunity to turn it into a one of a kind mark that would always secure the fact that he was one of a kind.

"Is this some kind of joke? Did Katie put you up to this?" the mention of my sister's name didn't phase him-or he was great at shielding his emotions.

The boy's blue eyes pulsated with every breath he took, his full red lips parting a fraction before he blew out a quiet whistle.

"Sarah." he met my eyes. "It's me. Bryan. I need your help."

********AN*********

*Unedited*

Hey guys, this short story will be three chapters. Hope you'll stick around to see how it ends!

~ChasingMadness24