Forever & Always, Even if My Forever is Limited

F&A...Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I'm falling. Falling backwards through time: I'm thirteen, then ten, a newborn baby, then something pale and alien-like. Pressure mounts in my head until I feel it will burst. I collapse into the darkness of dreamland. Nothing is left but the inevitable death...

I wake with a start-bolting straight up in bed, my breath is heavy and I am soaked with sweat. Only a dream. My head still pounded in pain and I hear the rush of blood in my ears. Just another migraine, which was obviously the cause of my strange and frightening dream, though I doubt the slushy I had before I crashed out help any.

Slowly, I lay back down. It's useless, but I try to sleep again. My brain won't relax. With a sigh, I give up and roll out of bed.

I am a bit unbalanced this morning, but, then again, when am I not? I stumbled down the hallway to the kitchen. My dad is a self-taught chef, so we renovated our kitchen to match his restaurant that he owns. My mother did not want just a lame, white kitchen, so we put in granite countertops and painted the walls a warm burgundy. A giant stainless steel refrigerator could hold three entire people-not exaggerating-but it is always filled with some kind of unhealthy deliciousness.

I looked at the clock: it was seven. Breakfast time! I threw open the cupboard and grabbed the least healthy thing in the house-Chocolate Crunchies. Giant balls made completely of chocolate and sugar; an unhealthy, but perfect, start to the day. I poured them into a bowl and covered it with chocolate milk. My mother would scoff at this, as she always did. I stretched out across the black leather couch in the living room and turned on the TV.

Our living room was lame. A black leather couch and arm chair, a large television, and an ugly oriental rug-typical suburban living room. A succession of pictures of me from a newborn baby to now-fifteen years later-stared down at me.

I flipped on the local news: Iowan news, the epitome of exciting. What will happen to the corn today? Care for yet another update on that murder that happened, what, three months ago? Yeah, we got it all.

"Isn't it a bit early to be up?" My mother trudged up the stairs in her robe, yawning dramatically.

"It is never too early for unhealthy, chocolately goodness!" I bared my now-brown teeth.

She grimaced. "I don't know how you can digest that..."

My mother was probably quite lovely back in the day. The days that I didn't exist and make her life so very stressful. Nowadays, though, her forehead is permanently creased and she has deep frown lines. Her gray eyes constantly look worried; every time she looks at me, it is like it will be her last glance. I don't suppose it is a bad thing, but it can be unnerving, it isn't like I'm going to disappear anymore.

Anymore. When I was younger, yeah, it was a possibility. When I was about four years old I had a brain tumor. They removed most of it and were sure they wiped it all out. When I was in fourth grade, I had leukemia. I got a bone marrow transplant from my older sister, Megan, and lived. I was the invincible child.

I can see why my mom always worries so much. That is why I can't tell her about the migraines. She would assume the worst, as always. She'd rush me to the ER and put me through extensive tests, all of them telling me that I was perfectly fine. It was my little secret for now.

After a while I went back to my room to prep for school. It was a Wednesday-my least favorite day of the week. It was also November. I never had minded autumn, but when there's snow on the ground it is very unlikeable. I pulled on some light blue jeans and a tan and brown plaid, flannel button down. I decided it was a good day to wear rainbow socks-when isn't it a good day?-so I threw them on as well.

I put up my strawberry blonde hair in a ponytail. It had dried strangely last night, and was just safer up. I lined my baby blue eyes with black eyeliner. I looked decent. Then I was off.

After years of me needing nearly constant transportation from my parents-I was quite the socialite in my younger years-my parents bought me a car as soon as I was legally able to drive. It was a shiny, black SUV. I loved it; it fit me, my friends, and my copious amount of stuff.

The drive to school was usually pretty normal. I would listen to the radio and plan out my day. While waiting in an extremely long line of cars, my favorite song in the history of the universe came on. I turned it up until I felt myself vibrating from the bass. I belted out the words as I inched along the road. It was nearly over by the time I saw him.

He was stationary on his bike, just watching me. I could tell he was holding back a laugh. I noticed that my windows were rolled down-he heard it all. I turned red and rolled them up. All dignity I may have had was gone now.

He frowned slightly and pedaled on down the sidewalk. The boy was sort of cute, in an awkward sort of way. He wore black plaid shorts and a black t-shirt. His hair was long-down to his shoulders, almost-and dark. I had never seen him before.

A horn honked behind me-I was jarred out of my thoughts and back to reality. I sped through the intersection and into the parking lot of my school.

I had a strange feeling about today.