Prologue
Life is so unexpected, especially when you’re a teenager. Nothing ever happens when or how you plan it. I never thought at seventeen I would fall in love. Not just any type of love either, I mean the timeless kind of love. Through thick and thin, through distance and time.
I didn’t recognize it in the beginning. It came to me a little later in life. I guess I should have suspected how extraordinary our love was. We weren’t supposed to be, yet we inevitably became … “Us.”
This wasn’t like those fabricated love stories in a romance novel. Particularly, because the girl I loved tried her hardest to persuade me that we weren't meant to be. Having lived through everything, you would think I wouldn’t do it again if given the chance. But, I would. I’d do it all over in a heartbeat. Just so I would get the chance to hold her in my arms.
She’s worth it. All the heartbreak and all the tears—she’s worth it!
Fate brought us together, but life tried to keep us apart. I loathed moving to Gulfport. But now, I could not imagine not moving there, or else I would never have met her.
It’s late January. I arrive home from school. I walk into the kitchen and drop my keys on the counter on my way to the refrigerator. I grab a bottle of water and I gulp it down.
“Hey, honey.” My mom says while she breezes through the kitchen.
“Hey, Mom,” I say as I throw the empty bottle away.
She stares at me for a brief moment. “Sky honey, we need to talk.”
The way she says, “We need to talk” makes my stomach drop.
“Okay …”
“Your dad called earlier and he has some news …”
“Okay, shoot.”
She sighs. “Well, your dad is being promoted. But, if he accepts it, he has to move to Florida. Which means we’re moving …”
My eyes bulge out of my head. “You’re kidding me. You realize that my whole life is here, right!”
“Honey, I understand. I’m not happy about it either but what else can we do? We need the money.”
I groan. “Come on. Let me at least finish the year.”
“No, Skylar you move with us and that’s final.”
I don’t utter another word. I walk out of the house and into my car.
