Surprise

Chapter 1

Paige's POV

I woke up with my heart hammering inside of my chest and my sheets soaked with sweat. I slowly sit up and try to calm myself down. It was just a dream I remind myself, just a dream like all the others. This pattern is getting old. For the past couple of months I have been dreaming about the vivid and gory details of that night. Almost every night I wake up from one of these nightmares and try my hardest not to think about the night that changed everything.

I get up and shake myself from the memories that the nightmare brought back and start to get ready for my day. I take a quick shower, throw my long, auburn hair in a high pony, and apply some light make-up to my face. Slipping into some black skinny jeans, a white v-neck shirt, a red scarf and black Toms, I walk out the door of my room and start for the stairs. I skip down the steps quickly but come to a sudden stop when the familiar short, grey haired woman pops out at me from the bottom of the stairs.

“Good morning Paige dear!” Clara says cheerily to me.

“Morning Clara.” I say heading for the door. As usual, Clara comes between me and the door insisting that I “take a little something for the road” as she says each morning. I take the blueberry muffin and thermos of coffee she offers and give her a quick hug before walking out the door.

While walking the five blocks to work, I think back to Clara who has become my closest friend the past couple of months.  After running away for weeks with only the bare necessities that I had quickly grabbed before leaving my home, I was exhausted. I remember coming into this town and just plopping down on a park bench and crying. That was the first time I had allowed myself to cry since the incident had occurred. Clara had seen me crying and took pity on me. She didn’t ask questions, she could probably tell that I was a wreck, but just offered me a place to stay. It seems like it was only yesterday I was following Clara back to her Victorian-style home.

Ever since then, I have been living in the upstairs apartment at Clara’s and have grown quite fond of her. Since Clara is well loved by all, and is known to be a little feisty at times, people practically do whatever she says so when she told Peter, the owner of the local coffee shop, to give me a job, that’s exactly what he did. I was grateful for the job and thanked her repeatedly telling her I would pay her back for room and board when I had saved up enough money. Clara being Clara said she wouldn’t take a cent but did have one condition in order for me to have the job; I had to attend the local high school and complete my senior year.

When I fled my hometown after the incident, I had just finished my junior year of high school and had assumed I wouldn’t finish school due to being on the run. However, now that I am such a long distance away from my home and starting to settle down again, I agreed to Clara’s condition of finishing high school in order to stay with her and have a job.

Pulling myself back into the present, I walk into the little coffee shop and am automatically hit with the most amazing aromas of coffee and pastries. Peter gives me a nod and starts rattling off different things that Ellie and I need to do before the morning rush comes in. Ellie is another employee at the coffee shop that is a year younger than me. Ellie and I have become friends since I started working here and is really the only person close to my age that I know in town. Ellie is bubbly, excitable girl around 5'2 with long curly brown hair.

The morning rush is more hectic than usual so I don’t notice who is coming in or going out of the shop. Ellie and I are just filling the orders that Peter gives us while chatting about the upcoming school year. That is until Peter has to get something from the back of the store and tells me to cover the register. There are quite a few customers in line so I quickly head to the register and take the orders until the line dies down. I hear the ding of the bell that signals the door to the coffee shop has opened and look over to see the most gorgeous guy I have ever had the pleasure of laying eyes on! He walks over to the register and I have to remind myself to breathe.

“What can I get for you?” I ask the model of a man.

He doesn’t respond, just keeps staring at me.

I start to feel a little self-conscious…man what is this guy staring at? Do I have a hair out of place or something?  

I wave my hand in front of his face to snap him out of it. The guy shakes his head a little while mumbling something about being tired. He quickly places his order and walks over to where the pick-up counter is. I continue taking peoples orders but I can still feel him staring at me. Finally the guy leaves and I take a deep breath thinking how weird that was.

“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it!!” squeals Ellie.

“What?” I ask her a little confused still wondering what that guy was staring at.

“Thatwasthemostpopularguyintheschool!” cries Ellie running all her words together.

I look at her like she’s a crazy person.

“You should slow down on the caffeine and remember, breathing is a good thing…” I say sarcastically to her while smirking.

“Sorry, it’s just that guy, the major hottie that was in here, is like a god at our school. He has his own posse that follows him around and he is the star of our football and basketball team! I can’t believe you talked to him!” she rushes out.

“Yea, he was good looking but it was weird the way he barely said anything and just stared like that. Kind-of awkward and border-line creepy if you ask me.” I say to her as her jaw drops to the floor.

“Aiden Miller is not creepy or awkward!!!” she screeches out appalled at me. “He is absolutely amazing.” she sighs out with a dreamy look in her eyes.

Hmm so Aiden is his name.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Note:

I hope you guys like Chapter 1! This is my first time writing anything so constructive criticism or comments would be great. Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading :)