Shine ~ Guardians #1 (BEING REWRITTEN, MAY TAKE DOWN)

~I~

I

EVERYONE HAS THAT one moment in their life that they'll never forget. The one that, no matter where they go or what they do or how hard they try to forget, will always remain there, printed on the back of their eyelids for the rest of their lives. Sometimes the memory will be a good one and the people will thank their lucky stars they were blessed enough to remember the event; others, not so much. Others will be memories with not-so-happy events, leaving the victims' traumatised and scarred for however long they have left in this world, forced to relive the moment again and again and again.

My permanent memory was definitely one of the better ones - thank god. For me, it was seeing Reece Carter's eyes for the first time. The very colour of them knocked the wind out of me, leaving me breathless and gasping for air; or maybe that was caused by the prior punch to the gut I received from said young man.

*****

"Hello, welcome to The Mad Hatter, how can I help you?"The ballpoint pen taps against the white page of the notepad in a repetitive beat as I flash my new customers a toothy grin.

A family of six sits in the booth, three young children, an older girl and two adults. The girl looks bored, tapping away at the screen of her iPhone while her mother asks her to please put the device away and the father threatens to take it away from her.

Only one of the younger children is a boy, the others two are twin girls with identical curly blond pigtails, pink dresses and purple bows in their hair. The only differences between the two is that one has a freckle under her left eye while the other had no freckles as all.

"I want a burger!"The boy yells, brown curls spilling out from under his Pokémon cap. He slams his fists against the table chanting,"Burger! Burger!"

One of the twins, the one that has an adorable freckle under her eye, says sweetly,"We would like-"

"Pizza!"The other finishes, sharing her twins' grin.

I smile as I write down the orders and after the older daughter screams about life being unfair and says that she would rather die than have them as her family then shoves her phone into her pocket, the rest of the family orders their food and I flash them another grin,"Fox will be right out with your orders."

Then I spin on my heel and skip to the counter, where I rip off the page and hand it to Fox.

"How's life, Foxtrot?"I jump onto the counter and swing my legs, earning a disapproving look from Fox Mitchell. Fox and I were raised together, close as brother and sister, so when I was fifteen and needed a job I had no problem getting one here. Of course, my twin brother Chase never really liked Fox; he had some ridiculous theory that Fox only 'wanted to get into my pants'. Ugh.

Not that he isn't attractive or anything, because he is, trust me, it's just that I could never imagine his as anything more or other than a best friend.

"Good till you came over."He replies smoothly, handing the slip of paper back to the cook, Simon.

I place a hand over my heart."You wound me greatly, Foxy-Boy. I thought we were best friends. The Two Musketeers! Dennis and Gnasher! Zeke and Luther! Bart and Milhouse!"

"Those are all guys, Junie. Is there something you're trying to tell me?"

Look at my scowl, dammit! I scream at him in my mind with narrowed eyes.

He has this silly little grin as he runs a hand through his messy hair.

"Asshole,"I cough, then look around with wide eyes."Holy hell, who said that?"

Fox gives me a sarcastic look,"Very funny. You're hilarious, Junie."

"I like to think so."I jump onto the counter, swinging my legs back and forwards. Fox leans closer to me, resting his elbows on the counter and his chin in his palms.