Chapter 1.
I had the perfect high school love life.
My Dad had been preaching that sentence to me ever since I started high school.
He’d go on to say that a lot of people in his time got married to their high school sweethearts.
But, that did not stop me from believing in the saying, high school relationships never last, I knew that my Dad and his generation had it good in their time, and that my generation was completely and utterly fucked.
Anyway..
Before I discovered what a high school love life was all about, I sort of had the perfect high school... picture, I'm talking star quarterback boyfriend, two awesome girl friends, I was acing all of my classes and the teachers loved me for it, and let's just say that my life was going great.
Hanging out with the popular kids made me feel like a popular kid, they made me feel like I belonged.
It was Monday morning.
I was still in bed, letting sleep take over me again at a stride. I hated Mondays more than anything in the world, but something made me snap my eyes open and put a smile on my face.
It was our one year anniversary.
How cliche, I know, but I had had a crush on Charlie since freshman year, hence why I literally fainted when he finally asked me out.
I lazily got out of bed and strolled to the bathroom. I took the shortest soothing shower of my life and hurried back to my room. I decided to wear a plain white t-shirt, blue denim jeans, Converse shoes and a leather jacket.
I heard Haley honk her car for me outside.
I quickly grabbed my backpack and trudged down the stairs, I grabbed an apple from the kitchen counter and ran out of the house.
I got in the back of Haley's red Jeep Wrangler and released a breath.
"Bitch, what took you so long?" She hissed as she started the car.
"Good morning to you too,” I said breathlessly.
Carley was in the passenger seat, she looked back at me in-between the two seats and smiled, I smiled back.
The ride to school went in complete silence, good and comfortable silence since Haley was playing music.
After a thirty minute drive, she pulled up to the school parking lot but none of us got out.
"So, Emily, what are you and Charlie doing for your first anniversary?" Asked Haley, Carley also anchored her attention on me, waiting for my response.
Haley and Carley were beyond invested in my relationship with Charlie, I thought they were only trying to be good friends so I involved them in everything.
I mean, the two girls were beautiful, they were cheerleaders, rich kids, popular kids, you name it. How did I become friends with them? That's still a mystery to me, all I knew was that one minute I started dating Charles Morrison and then I was getting invited to cool parties the next.
"I was thinking I would just keep it simple and decorate my room with this big happy anniversary poster and then we would hookup later afterwards," I said to them, slightly lifting my shoulders.
Haley dramatically face palmed.
Of course she was about to disagree with me.
"Sweetie, you have been going out with the most popular guy at this school for a whole fucking year, what you need to do is go all out and do something fun for him here at school, you can always hookup later afterwards," she waves off with a smile on her face.
And like a stupid fool, I listened to her, mostly because I thought she was right, I had dated Charlie for a year, he was my first.. everything and we all know how we first felt about our firsts.
"Okay, what do you guys think I should do?" I asked curiously.
They smiled deviously as they looked at each other. Haley was about to tell me her big master plan but we got interrupted by something, people were gathering around in a circle, it looked like a fight.
"Finally, some action around here,” Carley quickly got out of the car and rushed to the scene. Haley and I exchanged a glance before getting out of the car as well.
"C'mon, it's probably your boyfriend,” she said in a lazy tone as she grabbed my hand.
Charlie was always getting into stupid fights for no good reason. I hoped it wouldn't be him this time around as I followed closely behind Haley, we got to the scene but I couldn't see anything, I tried jumping and tiptoeing but still nothing so, I decided to shove my way through the crowd.
I finally got a front row seat to Charlie fisting Adrian Mackey's shirt, Charlie looked serious and angry while Adrian looked unstartled, bored even.
"I dare you to say that again,” Charlie said to Adrian, Adrian rolled his eyes at Charlie.
Charlie hated Adrian Mackey for reasons that no one could really understand. I had no idea what their bullshit rivalry was about and, I tried asking Charlie but he said it was 'none of my business' so I let it slide.
Charlie punched Adrian in the face, the crowd exclaimed in sync, I sighed restlessly as I gripped the back of my neck.
Adrian didn't even flinch or rub his cheek, Charlie was about to hit him again but I decided to budge in and hold his arm captive.
Both boys looked at me, Charlie's look was asking why the hell I was interrupting while Adrian's look was just.. blank.
"He's not worth it,” I whispered to Charlie. Adrian looked elsewhere and a muscle in his tight jaw twitched, he looked so unamused by my words but here's the thing, I didn't give a shit.
"Let go of me,” Charlie demanded.
"Charlie, if you get in trouble again, your coach is going to bench you, just like last time and I don't really think that's what you want, is it?" I asked him in a whispery tone.
He immediately came to his senses and hesitantly let go of Adrian.
Adrian straightened out his shirt and glared at Charlie.
"This is not the end of it, freak,” Charlie shoved Adrian’s shoulder. Adrian didn't respond to Charlie, he just shot me a mysterious glance, picked up his backpack from the ground and walked away, bumping into my shoulder.
My shoulder! Like I didn't just save his ass.
Freak indeed.
Charlie held my hand and literally pushed people out of our way, he dragged me all the way out of the parking lot, into the school and inside the Janitor's closet, which was really small and dark.
"Why would you do that?" His tone sounded pissed off while he trapped me against the wall.
"Do what, save you from doing something dumb... Again?" I tried to touch his face but he dodged my touch.
I rolled my eyes at him.
"You didn't save me from shit, I had it under control,” he seethed.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry I stopped you from hitting someone, let's move on?" I asked, interlocking my fingers behind his neck.
He heaved a sigh, shutting his eyes. I tiptoed to peck his lips but he didn't kiss me back.
"Emily?" He whispered against my lips.
"Yes, Charlie?" I playfully put emphasis on his name as I pulled away.
"I don't think I can do this anymore,” he said in a serious tone, I giggled.
"Do what? Fight Mackey all the time?" I asked, searching his eyes.
"No, I'm talking about us, I don't think I can date you anymore, Em,” he said while avoiding eye contact.
I laughed.
I laughed because I thought it was a joke.
But his face was seriously cold, emotionless.
My hands fell to my sides, I felt drained.
"You're serious?" I released a nervous laugh as my stomach twisted and I felt nauseous.
"I am,” he nodded his head and didn't meet my eyes.
His words knocked the air out of my lungs, I felt my heart hammer against my chest and my knees were about to give out any second.
"You're breaking up with me because I stopped you from hitting someone?" I asked him in disbelief.
"No, um..” he scratched the back of his head, “I probably should have told you this sooner but, I'm not in it with you anymore, Em, I don't feel the same way I felt when we first started dating, we've grown apart," He shrugged, my mouth fell open and a tear rolled down my cheek but I quickly wiped it away.
"We've grown apart?” I shoved his chest angrily, he looked down at where I had touched.
Like how dare you touch me.
"Yeah, Emily, we have and honestly, I don't think I should be in a relationship right now,” he added, still not meeting my eyes.
At that point, I couldn't stop the tears from falling anymore.
Don't get me wrong, I had thought about what breaking up with Charlie would feel like, of course I never thought he'd be dumping me, I thought maybe we'd be forced to break up by something like long distance and maybe we would even stay friends.
Guess I should have thought about all the alternatives.
"You can't just break up with me like this,” I was starting to sound brittle.
"Why not?" He sighed.
"Because we've been dating for a whole year, asshole!" I felt a big rock sit on my throat and another tear rolled down my cheek.
"So?" He scoffed.
"So?" I raised my eyebrows at him.
"Emily, even if we were dating for five years, I would have still broken up with you if-”
“Shut up,” I raised a silencing hand.
I gripped my hair and laughed through my sobs. I couldn't believe it.
"I thought we were soulmates," I stupidly whispered my delusions to myself, which he heard.
"There's no such thing,” he responded.
I glared at him, I could almost see myself strangling him to death and leaving his body in that smelly closet.
But no, I did not want to go to prison for killing someone called Charles, people would think I killed someone’s grandpa.
“Yeah, I know that now,” my hand reached for the doorknob but he stopped me from opening the door.
“If I were you, I would not be touching me right now,” I gritted.
“Just one more thing,” he retrieved his hand.
“What? You want your hoodies and t-shirts back?” I mused.
“You can keep those, it's just that Jennifer and I have been getting to know each other, so if you see us around, just remember, I didn't cheat on you,” he assured.
I didn't feel assured though.
“Which Jennifer are we talking about here?” I questioned.
He hesitated before whispering, “Duncan,”
I widened my eyes at him in shock.
“You've got to be fucking kidding me,” I said more to myself, “As in your fucking ex?”
