Bound

Chapter One

I didn't want to be moving to England.

That was the first thing I told my mother when she had sprung the idea on me five months ago. Moving back to England -- my home for the first fifteen years of my life, I couldn't think of anything worse. I had been trying to extinguish all memories from my time in England in the past three years that I had not been there, and I would not be going back. And then had came the call from none other than Cecily Herondale, my old best friend from England of whom I did not speak to regularly.

"Come back for college." She had urged me on the phone. "You can come live with Charlotte Fairchild and I -- you would love her, Tessa. It'll be just like old times again."

Somehow, I had ended up agreeing and now here I was, the night before my flight, packing up my whole life in New York. I loved New York more than I had ever loved London; New York was my home but yet here I was leaving it. My mother had said that it would be a nice change for me and that it would be nice seeing Cecily once again. She was right, it would be. I had missed Cecily in the three years that we had been parted. I met her when I was only ten years old, and she had been eleven, and we had been best friends ever since; we had done everything together.

Guilt washed through me as I put some of my books into a large box; I had never forgiven myself for not keeping contact with her when I moved away. I just wanted to forget and to run from - everything. That wasn't wrong though, was it? Aren't we all running from something that we refuse to feel? I don't know. Maybe I just say things like that to make myself feel better. Wrong or not, I know that some part of Cecily must resent me for not keeping in touch. I know that I would feel that way if things had been switched around.

I sighed as I stood up and glanced around my room; my grey walls were now bare of its usual decorations and my desk was empty. My clothes were now all in suitcases and bags and something in my heart twisted to see my room like this. I was really doing it -- I was really going to wake up tomorrow morning and get on that flight to London; the thought made me wring my hands together in nervousness. I was about to get started on packing up more of my books when there was knock on my door. Sophie Collins was standing there, my best friend here in New York. Her brown hair was in a braid and she was giving me a small smile. Mum must have let her in, I thought to myself.

"God," She started. "It's so weird to see your room like this."

I sighed. "Tell me about it. I can't believe I'm actually leaving tomorrow."

Sophie looked at me sadly and came and sat down on my bed. "Neither can I. I'll miss you so much, Tessa."

Sadness crashed through me like a wave as I looked at Sophie. She and I had become best friends on my first day of high school here in New York and we spent almost everyday together. Sophie was kind and caring and sometimes she reminded me of Cecily. Sophie was staying here in the city and was going to be attending NYU, just like my older brother Nate.

"I'll miss you too, Sophie." I frowned sadly.

"It's good that you're moving away though." Sophie squared her shoulders. "It will give you a break from -- everything."

Sophie did not have to explain what she meant, I understood her words. My parents were on the verge of getting a divorce; they fought nearly everyday and I unfortunately was present for all of it. Nate lived at university so he did not have to witness it, but I did. Sometimes I wondered where my parents' marriage had gone wrong. Growing up, they had been so in love with one another and I had always wanted a love like theirs. I supposed that time had taken its toll on their relationship and I would be lying if I said that it did not break my heart to see it.