Prologue
Book 2 of the Captured Heart Series
10 years ago…
It was a bright, sunny morning the day I met her. My parents had just pulled into the driveway of our new house, and I was not in a good mood. Why did we have to move away from everyone I knew and cared about? So what if my dad has a new job and it was “more beneficial” for the three of us? I hated it. Nothing good could come out of saying goodbye to my best friend Alex, or leaving behind the bedroom I felt comfortable in.
I loved that old house. I’ve dreamed of living in it forever, long after my parents were gone. But all my hopes and dreams came to a halt the day my parents sat me down and explained that we were moving to a new state. What was so wrong with where we lived? It baffled me that all it took to uproot someone’s life was a job. Needless to say, when I first saw our new place for the first time, I swore to myself it would never become home. Sure, where we moved to is beautiful; with its vast pine forests and lakes, but I’d never call it home.
“Adrian, honey, can you start taking these boxes inside? Each one is labeled with what room it goes in,” my mom interrupted my gloomy thoughts. I crossed my arms and pouted.
“Do I have to?” I grumbled.
She raised an eyebrow at me and gave me a stern look. I knew it was a mute point to argue with my mom. At eleven years of age and only four-foot-eight, I stood no chance at winning an argument with her.
“Yes ma’am,” I relented, beginning to pick up the boxes she had pointed out to me.
Huffing a sigh, I carefully navigated the stairs into the house. It wasn’t a huge place. Only two stories, three bedrooms and two bathrooms. I glanced at each box I brought in, making sure to put them in the correct rooms. When I found one that belonged to me and climbed the stairs to my room, I hesitantly entered.
My new room was bigger than my old one. The walls were painted a deep evergreen color and accented with hardwood floors. A huge window faced the house next door. Walking over, I looked outside. Both of our yards were open to each other, with no fencing between to define where their yard ended and ours began. I noticed they had a fun looking play-set on their side in the backyard. It had a tower on one end and a swing set on the other. For a brief moment I felt hope at the thought of making a new friend.
“Adrian! Come downstairs please, the neighbors are over to meet us! Come down and say hi!” I heard my dad call from downstairs.
Excitement broke through my sour mood as I rushed downstairs, praying that somehow this whole situation could be redeemed if I wouldn’t have to spend all my time alone in this foreign new place.
Another boy to hang out with will make it slightly better living here, I thought to myself.
When I stepped out into the sunlight, my heart sank. A man and a woman were talking with my parents at the edge of our driveway. Standing behind the woman was a little girl with long brown hair in two braids on either side of her head, peering shyly around her mother’s legs with wide, hazel-brown eyes.
Aww man, it’s just a stupid girl! Great. I sighed with disappointment, shoving my hands into my jean pockets as I shuffled over to them.
“Here he is. Adrian, this is Hailey and Matthew: our new neighbors,” my dad introduced me to the couple standing in front of us. They smiled warmly at me. I mumbled “Hi” and stared at my toes, already bored.
“It’s very nice to meet you Adrian. This shy girl standing behind us is our daughter, Melody. Come on sweetie, don’t be shy. Say hello,” the woman, Hailey, encouraged her daughter to come out of hiding.
Curiosity got the better of me and I looked up, meeting her gaze for the first time. To say my heart felt like it was falling from a steep cliff was an understatement. She stared at me, hazel brown eyes wide and cheeks flushed pink. A few loose strands of hair blew into her eyes as she bravely stepped around her mother’s legs and mumbled a shy “Hello”. It was then I understood why her name was Melody.
Her voice was a sweet song that I could listen to on any given day. The sun shone down on her tiny frame, illuminating her in an angelic glow that made my heart skip. She was beautiful. Suddenly, I didn’t care that she wasn’t a boy anymore. I wanted to be her friend.
A huge grin appeared on my face as I greeted her for the first time. A faint blush appeared on her cheeks again as she stood there, her hands behind her back, staring at the ground in front of her.
“Melody, why don’t you take Adrian to go play in the backyard for a bit while we help them unload their stuff from the moving truck?” Matthew suggested to her.
She looked up at her father, eyes ample with fear. He gave her a big encouraging smile and nodded in the direction of their backyard. Hesitantly, she glanced at me before walking towards the play-set. She turned to look at me for a second, waiting. Not thinking twice about it, I followed her.
When we reached the swing set, she sat down on one of them and slowly began rocking back and forth, her toes dragging in the dirt beneath her feet. She ignored me and continued to avoid my gaze, so I did the one thing I could think of to bring her out of her shell: a game of tag. Reaching over, I poked at her, trying to initiate the game. She just glared at me, uncertainty written all over her face as if she was trying to figure out what I was doing.
“Come on silly, don’t you know how to play tag? You gotta chase me!” I teased her, wishing she would join in on the fun.
She shook her head and continued to stare at the ground. I wandered around to stand behind her and was about to tag her again when she spun in her swing to face me.
“I don’t want to play right now!” she muttered, glaring at me.
Something inside of me must be broken, because I took that as a challenge. Instead of leaving her alone, I tugged on her braids and tried to tickle her into giving in and having fun. She squirmed and flinched away until she couldn’t take it anymore and jumped off the swing, running.
Finally! I thought as I chased after her. We ran around the yard together until neither of us had any breath left in our lungs and sat down on the grass, exhausted.
“See? It wasn’t that hard of a game, was it?” I laughed as she glared angrily at me.
There was something about the way she gazed at me, with her face all flushed and that fire in her eyes, and it made me want to keep teasing her. I love the way she reacted. She would pretend to get upset, but eventually I’d catch her fighting a smile. After that first day, I did everything I could think of to see that hidden smile on her face, and vowed that one day she would be mine.
