Saving Me From Myself

Chapter 1

"Violet, come down here sweetie. Your guitar teacher is here." Oh great, just great. My mom has been trying to get me to do something new all summer. Apparently, she didn't like how I spent my entire summer either in my room or in the back corner of the bookstore. You see, my parents just went through a super messy divorce at the end of last school year. My dad ended up moving down to Miami and my mom, little brother, and me stayed in Jacksonville.

The divorce really took a toll on me, I became a turtle pretty much. I never wanted to talk to anyone or do anything. I had major anxiety when I was about 13. It was bad. I couldn't talk to anyone. It wasn't like I didn't try to. That's the thing about anxiety, it's not something you can control by the time I was 16 and starting my junior year, it sort of faded. Well, that was after two and a half years of pills and councelers.

After the divorce the anxiety came back, but with a friend named depression. With this duo I thought it would be best to just hide from the world. My mom tried to help me. She got me more pills, but the bottle would sit there, untouched, on the counter until my mom would get mad enough and just throw them away. She tried counceler after counceler, but I would just sit there, silent, staring at the clock until they had enough.

My mom's final idea on how to help "fix" me (like that was going to happen), was to get me to take guitar lessons with the new kid that just moved in next door. I decided to try and wait it out in my room. Maybe if I stay up here long enough, she'll just send him home. I'm just opening my laptop when my mom knocks on my door.

"No one's in here." I half-yell through the door.

"Violet, sweetie, come on down. It's not going to be that bad, it's just a guitar lesson." My mom's voice made it sound like she was pleading with me to make a life-changing decision. And to her, maybe it would be, but nothing could get me out of my bedroom on the last Saturday of summer vacation to take guitar lessons from some nerdy boy. "Oh come on honey, I've already payed the poor boy for a lesson so you might as well go down there and learn a thing or two. Or you can kiss your laptop goodbye for two weeks."

Oh, well played mother, well played. She knew right where to hit me. I'd rather die than go two weeks without my laptop.

"Fine. If I go down there for an hour will you be happy?" I was hoping my mom would let me off easy since tomorrow was the last day of summer, but I knew I was asking for way to much when it came to my mother.

"Make it two hours and you won't have to babysit your brother for two weeks."

"Fine, two hours, but not a minute more." I grabbed my black beanie and pulled it down over my maine of wild black curls in a failed attempt to make them look better. I shuffled out of my bedroom, shut my door behind me and made my way to the stairs. I didn't even make it down the first step because, right there at the bottom of the stairs was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen. He had the the most perfect blonde hair with streaks of brown going through it. He had the most intriguing blue eyes. I looked down at my old, ripped, slightly baggy jeans, my oversized hoodie, and not to mention the beanie on top of my wild curls. I tried to quickly, and quietly, sneak back into my room to change into something more presentable, but as soon as I turned around, my mother saw me and called me down.

"Oh, Violet, come on down, there's noreason to be nervous, he doesn't bite." I mentally curse my mother out, but, for the sake of the poor, beautiful boy, I put a fake smile on and walked downstairs. "Violet, this is Niall. Niall, this is my daughter Violet." Niall confidentally put his hand out and I nervously reached mine out and shook his.

"Um, so do you want to start the lesson in the living room?" I asked, looking anywhere and everywhere that wasn't Niall's face. I was pretty sure if I tried talking while looking at him I would either trip over every word that came out of my mouth or I wouldn't be able to form a single word.

"Uh, sure, lead the way." I was caught off guard by the pure perfection that was his voice. He had the sexiest Irish accent I have ever heard. He stepped back to let me hop off of the bottom step. I turned around and led him into the living room. I sat down in one of the chairs across from the couch where Niall had sat down. He slung his guitar case off of his back and unzipped it as he started explaining the basics of the guitar.

"And these are the frets." He stood up from the couch and walked towards me with the guitar in his hands. "Now, are you right- or left-handed?" Niall stood infront of me with a questioning look on his face.

"Um, left. I'm, uh, left-handed." I was nervous enough around new people, but it wasn't helping that he was probably the most attractive person I have ever seen and that accent made it hard to focus on anything at all.

"Oh, okay. Me too. So you're going to hold it like this." Niall set the guitar down on my knees and put the strap over my head, letting his hands linger a little before quickly removing them. "So you're going to take this hand," he said, taking my right hand, "and put it here," he said, placing my hand on the neck of the guitar. I looked up into his blue eyes and, for what seemed like forever, couldn't focus on anything. I was snapped out of my daydream when I heard Niall saying my name. "Violet? Violet? Are you listening?"

"Um, yeah. Sorry, I just got lost in my own thoughts for a second."

"It's okay, just put your left hand here, on the strings. Now you're going to take your right hand and put it on these frets up here, and the. Just strum these strings like this. There, you just successfully played your first chord on the guitar." Niall looked up at me smiling from ear to ear. I found it so cute how excited he was even though I had only played one chord. I made the mistake of looking at him, allowing myself to get lost in his looks. He was wearing slightly skinny black jeans and a loose blackish-grey sweater. The darkness of his outfit was a stark contrat to his pale complextion. This made him have an almost angelic glow to him. It also made the blue of his eyes stand out like two blue-birds on a fresh patch of snow.

"Violet, you there?" He giggled slightly at his own little stupid joke.

"Yeah, I just got distracted for a sec." I couldn't help but smile slightly at the ground over the fact that he had just laughed at a joke he made. It wasn't even that funny, which made it even more funny.

"So, I'm getting this vibe from you that you don't really want to learn how to play guitar, am I right?" Niall looked up with a little nervousness written on his face.

"Yeah. I-I mean you're right. I mean it's not you, it's just I'm not really a musically inclined person." I explained, straining to get the words out correctly and trying to not come across as not wanting him to be here. I did want him here. I mean I like having a... What am I saying? He's freaking cute and I don't want him to leave.

"Okay. Since you don't want to learn how to play guitar, I want to learn something." Niall said, taking the guitar from me and setting it next to him on the couch.

"And what do you want to learn?" I asked, leaning forward in my chair, resting my elbows on my knees. His eyes turned a darker shade of blue, as his glance flickered from my eyes to floor and back up to my eyes.

"I want to learn a little about you."