Finding Seventeen (On Hold)

Finding Seventeen (Prologue)

*** Dedicated to Zombiefied for her amazing cover and for just being awesome!

Seventeen...an age of wonder, an age of anticipation, an age when you are supposed to have no cares in the world. When you're seventeen you think you'll live forever. It's you against the world, and you will always win. But what I remember about being seventeen, the only thing I remember about being seventeen was losing my best friend, the kind of friend that feels like a sister. A friend that was there for me no matter what, a friend who was so kind hearted, someone who would have traveled to the moon back, if it meant that she was doing something for someone else. The kind of friend who no matter where you go or what happens in your life. You never forget them.

And one I would never forget......

When Dallas was fifteen, she was diagnosed with Leukaemia. We didn't know she was sick for a long time. Later we learned it was because she had a form of Leukaemia that was considered chronic or slow moving. We never thought anything about the bruises until they just wouldn't go away.

Dallas was very sick for a good solid year. The treatments made her almost unbearable, weak and forced to withdraw from school. Things seemed really bad we truly thought she was nearing the end.. She was growing weaker and weaker by the day. Then it was like one day the wind changed, and she got better. That was about six months after she turned sixteen. It was like nothing had ever happened, and I had my best friend back. After that we swore to each other that we would life to the fullest, and that is just what we did.

Sometimes Dallas lived so much that she scared me, sometimes she was reckless, and didn't seem to care much about anything. She said she wasn't going to waste any more time. She was going to do what she wanted, and nothing was going to hold her back.

And as predictable as the wind can be, it once again changed. She started losing weight like crazy, the bruises were back, and so was the cancer. Four weeks later on a Friday night, Dallas went to sleep, and on Saturday morning she never woke up. That was two days after my seventeen birthday... I don't remember seventeen, and when I turned eighteen, I got in my car and got the hell out of town. I had no intentions of every looking back.

That was ten years ago... And here I sit right outside the city limits sign.

Long Beach, Mississippi Population: 15,110

I wondered if I would ever will myself to cross back into a place, that I swore I'd never return. I knew what I was doing for the best... My brother, Ryder had been in a car accident, he'd been paralysed from the waist down. He needed me, his wife Jody needed me, my nephew Phoenix needed me. What else could I do. 

As I sit and contemplated on weather or not to put my truck in drive, blue lights appeared behind. 

'Great' I thought to myself. 

I was as little startled when he tapped on my window with his flashlight. I rolled down my window and looked up at him. 

He was handsome man probably in this thirtys.

"You okay ma'me? License and registration please." 

I dug around around in my purse. I never understood how I could end up with so much stuff in my purse. So much stuff that made it hard to find my wallet. 

The officer seemed to getting a little impatient with my search for the license, so, I decided to go ahead and hand him my registration. 

I gave him an I'm sorry smile. " I"m having trouble finding my license." 

"I'll just run your tags while you keep looking." 

I nodded my head and continued to look as he started to walk away.  This was just great. With one last browse I found it.

"Score" I said aloud.

I hollared out my window. "Officer, I found it." He hadn't even made it back to his car yet.

He shook his head and I almost thought I heard a chuckled. He turned and headed back to the car, however his face was earnest. 

I handed him my license. He looked at it and then looked up at me. 

"Jules Seyfield." 

"Yes, Sir." 

"As in Jules Seyfield, Long Beach high school class of 2002." 

I wondered.. Who is this guy?