Beyond My Control

Chapter 1: Surprise, Surprise!

In an old neighborhood in Manhattan, Hermeine Alexandria, a cheerful, smart and responsible girl resided. She had big, brown curls – which somehow resembled that of her mother’s. Strands of her hair were dyed with a lighter brown – giving the effect of highlights – that reached just below her shoulders. She had bright, emerald green eyes, that resembled her father’s, but only in a slightly lighter shade. She had small features and a nicely defined face. And with her rosy-white complexion, she looked like an angel. As beautiful as she was on the outside, she was but the same in the inside. Her name, Hermeine, was a combination of her father’s Herman and her mother’s Loreine. She was her parents’ most prized possession – what with being the only child and having been blessed with angel features. She would’ve passed for perfection if only it were humane and possible at all.

After losing his wife on the day of Hermeine’s birth, her dad, Herman, had been hit with reality, slapped dramatically, and had promised Loreine, and himself, too, that he guard their daughter with his life, that he will do everything for her, that he will love her and cherish every moment with her, that he will raise her well. Now, he is about 58 years old, an architect for almost 30 years. Aside from bonding with his daughter, he spends his leisure time hunting, owning a number of guns and other hunting gears, which are all kept inside their house attic for safe keeping.

Hermeine believed that she belonged to a good crowd. Many people in her neighborhood loved her and adored her by the simple way she was. Her boyfriend, Nicholas Wright, had been her best friend since college. They met, back then, in one same University as schoolmates, and from strangers, one day, they became friends, then soon enough, best friends. As time passed, they deepened their friendship, and strengthened their relationship, and, well, you could guess what happened next – yes, they happened.

Nicholas Wright was a diligent, respectful, and a loving person. He studied law and criminology – along with Hermeine – to fulfil his dream of one day becoming a real detective. He was a simple and independent, young man. He was attentive, hard-working and was an intelligent person. He was the type who didn’t give up very easily, and somehow, this was one of the many things Hermeine loved so much about Nicholas. He had sapphire blue eyes, disheveled auburn hair – that hairdo that looked so messy and so neat in some weird way at the same weird time – he had a charming smile that always looked sincere. He was a lean and tall man, the silent and lonesome type of guy, until Hermeine came along. She brought up his happy side.

Charmaine Anderfield, Hermeine’s best friend, was a loud and fun type of gal. She was very outgoing and updated with fashion trends and talks-of-the-day things. She was the type of girl who’d spend hours in a room, dressing up, and making sure she was pretty and wild and nice and naughty all at the same time, pleasantly. She was, like Hermeine, a small girl, with cute and small features, with a slightly wavy, brown hair, but with brown eyes. She actually had a not-so-very-good eyesight and thus, needed glasses, but she refused to look like a nerd, so she hid her beautiful grey eyes by choosing amber brown contact lenses – which only Hermeine knew about. And, well, yes, this was Hermeine’s best friend, whose ways and lifestyle just bluntly contrasted with hers. Charmaine had been Hermeine’s best friend/sister since pre-school, and one of the few people who knew just about everything about Hermeine. Back in pre-school, Charmaine and some other kids used to laugh at Hermeine for lots of childish reasons. And then one day, Charmaine stumbled into a mud puddle and the kids who once laughed with her chose to laugh at her, betraying her. And despite everything, Hermeine, a good-hearted little girl at the moment, defended little Charmaine from the unreasonable group of kids. And since then, Charmaine and Hermeine had been inseparably the best of friends.

Hermeine also had good friends who lived just around the block, namely, Johnna Williams and John Xavier. Johnna had been a good friend of Hermeine’s since high school, what with being classmates in several – almost all – subjects. She was a good friend to Hermeine, who was always there in times of need. She behaved like she understood the very essence of maturity and everything that went along with being a young adult – she was like Hermeine’s older sister. She had the same hair color with Hermeine’s but was a bit longer in length. And probably just by coincidence, they somehow looked alike. John Xavier, on the other hand, had been good friends with Hermeine since their senior year in college, thanks to Johnna. John first took Psychology as his course but unfortunately shifted to Business Management due to some personal issues. And there, he met Johnna as his classmate in certain classes. He had curly, black hair and naturally amber brown eyes, and opposite Charmaine, he (sometimes) wore grey contact lenses. There were times when John experienced unusual flutters in his stomach each time he got awkwardly close to Hermeine. Then one day, he realized that he had been crushing on her the whole time, that he somehow liked her, not just as a friend, but as something more than that. And to kill – or at least control – his feelings for Hermeine, he found it difficult, and somewhat nearly impossible. He silently fell in love with her.