The Broken One

Chapter 1

NATHAN POV

I loved music. It was quite possibly the only thing that I appreciated about my life. Apart from my family of course, everything else was so fake. My friends, football, smile. Inside I was just so bored of being so fake. Sure, I was happy. I had a great family who loved me and I loved them but I'd created this image of myself and I hated it. My life was just so stable. Captain of the school football team, set to go to a prestigious college on a football scholarship, had tons of 'friends' and could get any girl I wanted. But I was bored.

Music was my escape.

"Nathan, honey."

My mom. She was great. She was a teacher in middle school and was one of the sweetest people I knew.

"Yeah mom"

I shouted back over my music to her through the barrier that was my bedroom door. We had a knocking rule in our house, which was best for everyone. No one came into anyone else's room without permission but to be honest, we tended to just shout when we needed something. Privacy was a big thing in our house and I was glad of it.

"You should go to bed now, it's late."

I chuckled and nodded my head, a pointless gesture since she was on the other side of the wall.

"Sure mom."

I know that it seemed ridiculous. I was eighteen and leaving school in a few months but still had my mom telling me that it was my bedtime. She was just looking out for me though. Grades were important in my family and I didn't want to disappoint so on top of football I always kept up good grades.

12.37

Even though I wasn't ready to actually go to sleep I shut off my music. It was late and I knew that the rest of the house would appreciate the quiet. I had a younger sister, Julia, who was fifteen. She tended to stay up all night anyway though.

I stood from my bed and pulled off my shirt and trousers, walking over to my window to close the blinds before I went to bed. I was about to close off the view from the neighborhood but then I saw her.

Sam, my neighbor. She had lived here since I was a kid. We were in the same year at school too, but we never spoke. Sam was kind of your classic 'rebellious' teenager. You could always hear shouting going on from inside of her house. She'd also always leave in the middle of the night to do God knows what. Hence why she was currently climbing out of her bedroom window.

I watched, amused, as the small girl threw her bag out onto her front lawn and then climbed out of her bedroom window and onto the small ledge in front of it. Our bedrooms faced each other so this wasn't an unusual occurrence to see. She the continued to leap onto her garage which stuck out slightly, giving her the perfect platform. From there she took the surprisingly steep jump to the floor, where she landed in a crouched position.

I followed her figure as she jogged down to the road in front of her house where a car was waiting. She picked up her bag from it's place on the lawn and climbed into the back seat of the mysterious car. It wasn't the first time that I'd spotted it. I think that it was her boyfriend's or something. I'd seen the guy climb up to her room before but had no clue who he was. He didn't go to our school, I wouldn't be surprised if he had already graduated. He looked older than Sam, maybe in his early twenties.