I'll Be Back

Prologue - Part 1

My father once told me that you never forget your first love. He told me that the first time you fall in love, you fall deep ― you literally crash. And then it changes you forever and no matter how hard you try, that feeling would never go away. No matter how badly they hurt you, no matter how much pain and tears they put you through, you'll always love them.

Men always wants to be a woman's first love. That is their clumsy vanity. However, women have a more subtle instinct about things. What they'd like to be is a man's last romance. And God, did I pray that he could've been my last love back in the days, and I had prayed that he felt the same too. I loved that boy. I loved that boy so much.

And that boy was Ayden Keetly.

Ayden Keetly was my first love.

***

When I was younger, I remember that there was one thing that I disliked about my town. Nothing interesting ever happened in this place. I never really complained though ― I liked the usual calmness within this town, I liked having a peaceful and secure life. I never had a lot of friends when I was younger, so I had no one to really share anything with - my thoughts, feelings, jokes. But when Ayden entered, he entered like a whirlwind.

Our story began when the two of us were seven years old. Our toes could barely touch the floor then. During his childhood, Ayden was constantly in the hospital due to leukaemia. He'd come in at least once a week for his check-up, and as if it was planned, my father was the doctor in charge of his case.

I still remember the first time I laid my eyes on him. He was walking down the hospital hallway, goofy grin planted on his face as he flipped through his Batman comic book. He wasn't even looking at where he was headed and before he knew it, he had knocked over an entire cart of urinary catheters. Up until this day, I can still imagine the horror on the nurse's face as she helplessly watched the liquid flow down the hallway. And out of the reactions a normal seven year old would've given out ― panic, despair, shock ― he decided to laugh.

After the incident from that day, I had begged my father to allow me to enter Ayden's hospital room the next time he came around ― I wanted to know him better. My father had always been strict about me talking or associating with the children living or visiting the hospital. Back then, I never understood why. He'd always say it was for my protection and told me to drop it when I told him to explain.

He had still said no to me entering Ayden's room when I had persistently begged him for two hours straight. It didn't stop me from doing what I wanted to though. It was a Wednesday when Ayden came again. He walked down the usual hospital hallway and I quietly inspected him, making sure that my father was not around. When he finally did, I slipped in just as the room's door was about to close.

The first thing I saw were a pair of big, amber eyes peering at me curiously. That was the first time I felt my heart race. Honestly, it was the first time I had felt something.

"Hey." He said.

"Hi."

"You are?"

"I'm," I swallowed down what seemed to be my fear. "Gabriella. It's nice to meet you."

"Gabriella?" I watched as his eyes lightened. "That's a pretty name. It's nice to meet you, I'm Ayden."

"Um," I mumbled, trying to find the right words to say but my mind was completely blank. There was nothing that would come out. "I, uh, it was nice to meet you, Ayden. I have to go now."