Chapter 1

“I need to clean this mirror” I say to myself as I zone back in to reality.

I continue staring into it as I apply the over priced blush onto my too pale skin. Today I am on a mission. Today is the day I leave this house and do something, anything.

Four days ago Bryce and I broke up. Two years down the drain. He claims he just needed to focus on himself, but apparently that includes getting on top of his bestfriends girlfriend.

I have been trapped in this bed for too long.

Todays the day motivation washes over me and consumes my sore, fragile body.

I step back and look over myself. I’m not bad looking, but I’m also not the prettiest girl in the crowd. I have dark brown hair that falls just above my hips, im average height, 5’8” last time I checked, im fit and slim, my face is cool toned, my eyebrows are dark and straight, my nose straight with a bulb, my lips pink and thin, and my cheeks are chubbier than id prefer.

I nod with approval and grab my olive green tote bag, heading out the front door and towards my car. The sun is blistering, which it normally does this time of year in Georgia. I crank my car and turn the a/c all the way up, and as I’m pulling out of my driveway I get a phone call from Nevaeh.

“Hey” I answer

“What are you doing today?” she asks

“I just left my house, I think I’m going to walk around a few stores just to distract myself”

“I’m in, where are you going first I’ll meet you there”

I smile and think for a second,

“Want to start at the bookstore? We can grab a coffee from the cafe and walk around?”

“Perfect, give me twenty minutes and I’ll be there!”

“Okay drive safe”

“You too, bye” she hangs up.

I smile and feel excited to see my best friend. We have spent the last few weeks apart, her busy with college, me busy with work. Neveah and I have been inseparable since the 5th grade and im convinced we are what people call soulmates.

I pull up to the bookstore and spot her red convertible across the parking lot. She’s had the same car since her 16th birthday, she came from money and her parents bought her a nice car to get her through school. I park my old and used car next to hers and greet her.

“Ugh Elise, it’s been too long” she says as she half hugs me and we start to walk towards the store.

“It’s been 3 weeks” I laugh

“Like I said, too long” she laughs back

She and I love to read, but we have very different tastes so we enjoy to wander off and look at our own choices of genres and eventually find eachother when we’re ready to leave, but we always start by grabbing a coffee.

We’re standing in line when Neveah elbows me

“Um who is that?” She asks while gesturing to the boy across the cafe sitting alone looking at a book.

I pause then answer “actually im not sure”

“Well he is cute! Not for me of course, but for you” she drags out the ‘you’ for a few seconds as she makes her eyebrows dance. She’s been dating Dawson for almost a year and honestly they are perfect for eachother and I know she’d never cheat on him.

I smirk and say “thank you for reassuring me that dawson doesn’t have competition with mystery boy”

She softly punches my shoulder and scoffs.

“Oh please, never.”

“Next” the cashier says

We step forward and order our coffees.

“That’ll be $12.96” she says

Neveah reaches in her purse to grab her card, but i beat her to it with cash. I hand the cashier $15 and tell her she can keep the change for the tip jar.

“Elise!” She shrieks as if we don’t have an unspoken battle of paying for eachother.

“Neveah!” I mock

We move down to the end of the counter and wait for our coffees.

I look around at the tables to pick out a spot for us to sit, as I rake my eyes across the room I catch a peak at mystery boy. Neveah isn’t wrong he is cute. He’s still invested in his book and doesn’t even notice me taking in his features. I pick an open table closer to the register since it’s one of the only clean ones available.

We grab our coffees and i lead the way. We usually use this time to drink our coffees and play on our phones, but Neveah decided to spend this time catching up instead which I am perfectly fine with.

We talk about her classes and my work, what the latest drama is and how her relationship is going.

Suddenly she becomes quiet and looks down at her coffee before asking me

“Elise… I’m sorry about you and Bryce. You deserved so much better and you know that I’ve always had a bad feeling about him. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when y’all broke up.”

I sit back and sip my coffee while thinking of how to respond.

“It’s okay Nev. I knew it was coming, I had mentally prepared myself for this breakup for a few months now. It just wasn’t meant to be and I think I’ve come to terms with it. I’m just tired of being sad over it, plus you were so busy studying for finals.”

“I know, but still I wish I could’ve been there for you”

“I know” I say as I give her a warm smile.

She’s always been there for me and I know she feels bad about being busy, but I’m proud of her for studying and making her dreams come true.

We eventually get up and throw our cups in the recycle bin and head towards the books.

As we walk past where mystery boy was sitting, I notice he’s no longer there. I turned to the right to go hunt for a new book I have been wanting to read and neveah walks to the back left to go find some personal growth books.

I walk down the first aisle and look at all of the books on display. I have so many I want to read, but one I want to read most.

“Where are you” I mumble to myself

I go through every book making sure to check for misplacements. I move onto the next aisle determined to find this book. I repeat the process of scavenging for this book. Unsuccessful again. I move onto the next aisle, then the next, then the next.

I sigh and get frustrated when I reach the end of my genres section. I can’t find it, but I don’t give up that easily so I go back and retrace my steps just in case.

I reach the second aisle of retracing my steps when I spot mystery boy putting a book back onto the shelf, it was the book he had been reading at the table. I glance at the title and it’s my book.

“Of course” I think to myself

I nonchalantly pretend to look at the other books so it’s not obvious that I’m waiting for him to move so I can swoop in and steal this book.

He stays in the aisle and looks at another book, but still in-front of where I need to get.

I consider leaving and coming back later, but decide against it. Eventually he walks towards my end of the aisle and I take my opportunity to switch spots with him

“Excuse me” I softly say as I squeeze past him

He doesn’t respond but shares the mannerism of moving out of my way to squeeze past one another.

I go straight for the book and pick it up. I smile as I examine it and flip through the pages.

Out of the corner of my eye I see someone moving towards me so I turn my head to see if I need to move out of the way.

“Oh no he’s walking towards me” say to myself as mystery boy approaches.