Saving My Forever | ✔

3. Sticks and Stones

"A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to preserve and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles." - Christopher Reeve

Chapter 3. Sticks and Stones

•Chance P.O.V•

I walk in the old diner, the blistering sun now off my back. I take off my shades and put them in my bag, I look over to see a blonde working the counter. Walking up, I take a seat, and wait for her to come over.

"Welcome to Stella's diner, how may I help you?" She asks, with a perky smile. I read her name tag, Stella was written on it. So this is Frankie's daughter.

I smile, "Yeah, you're dad actually said I could get some directions from you," I say while pocketing my hands, watching her expression change all together.

"You know my dad?" She asks, a wide grin taking over her features, she ditches the rag she was cleaning the counter with and leads me to a booth.

"Yeah, I live around his shop, I came here to find someone," I explain, she smiles again, reminding me much of her father, "Do you know a Sawyer Queen?" I add on.

Her smiles drops and I watch her eyes fill up with tears causing my stomach to drop all at once. Did something happen to her? I cant part with her, she's mine, she's my everything.

"Yeah, my dad talks about her all the time, last I talked to him he told me she was running away out here," She trails off, "Its funny, cause I seen her yesterday. She walked right in and we chatted about you, she seemed perfectly fine."

My head snaps to look at Stella, my gaze no longer watching people walk by outside, "You seen her?" I rush out, trying to calm myself, something inside of me becoming alight. Just the mere thought of losing her kills me

Stella smirks, "Yup, she's still beautiful, her hairs so long, but there was something about her eyes, they looked so sad…" She trails off once again. She plays with her fingers as seconds tick by.

"I'm assuming your Chance Stone?" She asks, finding the hair elastic around her wrist, moving it into her hair to pin it back.

Smiling a little I look her in the eye, "Yeah, how'd you know?" I ask, my mind flooding with thoughts of Sawyer, images of her beautiful face, her chestnut hair, her beautiful eyes. She could make models look ugly, the twinkle in her eyes could put the stars to shame. Everything about her, is perfectly imperfect.

"Well after she stopped stuttering about your good looks and amazing smile she mentioned that a boy would show up here looking for her," Stella says, reaching into her pocket, she pulls out a disc.

"She wanted me to give you this," Sliding the disc over to me, on the front it says my name written in cursive, "She said that you should watch it before continuing your hunt for her." Stella says, standing up.

I stand up as well, "Thank you, I appreciate everything," I say, lending out my hand for her to shake. She shakes my hand while grinning.

"Anything for the boy Sawyer loves, and for someone to love her back with as much love." She releases my hand and saunters back to the counter just as more customers come in.

I leave the shop and walk down the street to where I parked my car, my mother already booked a hotel room for me so I'm set. Slipping into the car, I buckle up and drive to the hotel.

•°•°•

When my mother said the hotel was nice, I didn't expect it to be this nice, its huge. In the room, there's two queen sized beds, a small kitchen, huge bathroom and a balcony. Never knew a hotel could be so nice, I know I'm coming back to Florida soon.

I sit on my bed, my laptop open and the disc already in, I grab my head phones and plop them in and press play. Her face appears on the screen and it reminds me of the video for English class that she had made.

   Its going to be hard, not being able to touch you, its going to be torture.
Right now its hard, I've been fidgeting the whole time filming this, it feels like I'm coming down from a high. Your the drug I've become addicted to, and it hurts that I cant be with you. The only thing that satisfies my craving is pictures of you, hearing your laugh.

I love you Chance Bryce Stone, and if only you could see the way my face lights up when your name appears on my phone.

I fell in love with you because you loved me when I couldn't even love myself. In you, I saw something more than what others see, something beautiful, alluring; something more than words can describe. I saw something special, that I don't want anyone else to look at.

I was scared, I knew you loved me, but what if tomorrow you noticed my flaws and imperfections and don't look at me the same way you did yesterday.

  Chance, you make up half of my heart, its in your hands now. Take care of it please.

The screen goes black and I take my earphones out, pushing the laptop aside, I lay back and rest my head into the feather pillows. Letting everything, every word, every expression she showed, sink in.

She loves me, I love her, but she's scared someday I wont. I almost laugh at how ridiculous that sounds, shaking my head I sit up again and grab the laptop. Bringing up Google I search in her name, Sawyer Queen.

I click on a news article from three years ago, it was written March 12. The headline reads House Fire kills family and my stomach drops. No, this cant be it.

A house fire kills three family members, Joe Queen, his wife Marry Queen and ten year old daughter May Queen while daughter Sawyer Queen was not home.

Right here in St. Augustine Florida, such tragedy has struck, the fire started in the kitchen where the oven was mistakenly left on. Daughter Sawyer Queen is now without a family, five years prior to the fire, the family had last a daughter Fiona Queen to cancer.

No news on the daughter Sawyer has been given, please respect her privacy as it is a hard time for her and close friends right now.

I exit out of the page and close my laptop up again, placing it on the bedside table for good. No longer able to read anything else, my stomach is doing unpleasant flips right now.

My dear Sawyer, everything she's been through. Now I know why she came to Florida, she lived here when she was younger, before she was sent to foster care. I need to find her, I need to have her in my arms, I need to save her.

I lay down, bringing the blankets over me and close my eyes, my determination to finding Sawyer just got higher. Tomorrow, I'm going back to Stella's to see if she knows anything else.

All I can think about now is Sawyer.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•
Authors note: I know its been a very long while, I fell of the rails, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New years!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry to all of you I pissed off for not updating sooner :/

Check out a new book I have out its called, Second Chances, I'd truly appreciate it, more chapters to come!

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~James