Chapter One
I heard a knock on my front door. I jumped up off my couch to go answer the door. "Oh, hey, Bella," I greeted my love; I was for sure she was the one. "Hey," she said nervously,"We need to talk." "Aight, sure," I said, taking her hand and leading her to the couch. She sighed deeply, "I'm leaving you, Mayson." I looked at her in shock, "What? Why?" "I- I met someone else," she lowered her voice. "I ain't good enough for you anymore," I asked. "Well, yeah, but I don't know. You're not really my type," she explained. "Baby, I can change," I said, pulling her up off the couch and wrapping my arms around her waist." She wiggled out of my grasp, "I'm sorry, Mayson," she apologized. "Me too I guess," I sighed. "Bye," I kissed her cheek gently. She looked me in the eye. I noticed a tear roll down her face as she turned and ran through the door. I fell back onto the couch and buried my face in my hands. What do I keep doing wrong?
I thought back to my first girl friend, Megan Bunch. Sixth grade, she was sitting alone on a bench outside on the playground. She looked sad. I walked over and sat beside her. "Is something wrong," I asked her. She glanced at me shyly. "It's okay," I assured her, putting my hand on her knee. "My parents," she started, "They're getting divorced." My heart sank. "I'm so sorry," I apologized, taking her hand in mine. "They told me it was my fault," she sniffed. I saw a tear roll down her face. "No, Megan," I said, "You're beautiful, and smart, and kind. They should be proud to have an amazing daughter like you." I slowly pulled her hand toward my face and kissed it softly. We dated for two years then she left me for some jock.
I couldn't think anymore. I grabbed a pen and my notebook and wrote "10/16/12". I grabbed a bunch of push-pins off the wall as I ran out the door. I shoved the pen and the pins in my pocket as I ran around the house and into the woods behind it. The voices in my head began, "You'll be alone forever. You're impossible to love. Give up." I fell to my knees and dropped my notebook in front of me, "Stop!" I pushed myself back up, grabbed my notebook, and continued running. I stopped under a weeping willow tree, the only weeping willow in the woods.
I pulled the note and the pin out of my pocket and started to pin the note on the tree with the others when something caught my eye. A note, but it wasn't one of my notes. It read "10/16/12 Hey.. I'm Riley Storm." I stared at the note a while. Riley Storm? Who was she? She must've been here this morning. I stuck my note back in my pocket and ripped another piece of paper out of my notebook and took the pen out of my pocket and wrote "10/16/12 Hey Riley. I'm Mayson Brown." I pinned the note up on the tree next to Riley's and stepped back. I stared at the two notes curiously for a while before running back out from under the branches of the Weeping Willow and back to my house. Suddenly I wasn't thinking about Bella, but rather i was thinking about the mysterious Riley.
I walked back home, stumbling over the roots of trees. By the time I walked up to my front door I heard my house phone ringing on the inside. I fumbled around in my pocket full of junk feeling for my keys. I felt the rigged end of my house key and grasped it in my hands. I quickly shoved it in the key whole and pushed the door open. While running to answer the phone I tripped over ever table, chair, and rug in my path. "Hello," I said into the phone. "Hey," said my roommate, Casey, on the other line, "How's it goin'?" "Horrible," I replied with a sigh. "What happened?" "Morgan left me." "Oh, bro, i'm sorry. I really thought she was gonna last," he replied sounding just as sad as I did. "Me too..." "Hey! My ol' woman has a cute friend. I'll have her set up a blind date." "No, I don't-" "Great! It's a date then! Oh, and I won't be home 'til late tonight so leave the door unlocked." I heard a girl giggling in the background, probably his girlfriend, Britt. "But I-" Beep Beep Beep. I let out an annoyed sigh as I hung the phone back on the hook. Casey always did that, setting me up on blind dates with Britt's friends, and all of them end in disaster. I went to my room and flopped onto my bed. I glanced over at the clock standing on my desk. Only 5:30. I closed my eyes and less then 5 minutes later drifted into a deep, restless sleep. (To be continued)
