Author's Note: I know this is like the first thing I've put out in like years, and I hope I don't disappoint anyone when I say that this has absolutely nothing to do with Niley. I've been having some relationship problems recently, and it's pushed me to let out my feeling doing what I love best, writing. So I hope you enjoy this little snippet into my life, and if you don't, then it's fine too. I wrote it as my own little diary and I thought, why not publish it? Hope your holidays are lovely. :) - Alexis.

Hayley returned home, her body feeling heavy from another long day at practice. She carelessly threw her bag across her room before collapsing on her bed. She managed to persuade her mom that she had already eaten dinner, before cocooning herself within her blankets. It wasn't just her body that was exhausted though.

Stress had risen to a whole new level in the last few weeks. Finals. Dance. Competition.

Relationships.

Hayley had been dating the same boy for the last year. They had met after a fateful encounter in summer school almost two summers ago, and everything just seemed to fall into place after that. They had followed the typical routine of courting, then dating, and remaining in that honeymoon stage for a fairly decent amount of time.

And then the storm hit.

It was slowly at first, so slowly that both of them hadn't even seen it coming. One day, they were so unbelievably happy and the next time Hayley turned around, she couldn't even recognize them anymore.

And there were always the same excuses of being stressed out from school and their own personal activities, but Hayley knew their excuses were running out. After every major fight, they would always talk about it and swear that they would get better. They would figure things out.

And they would. For another few days.

And then the fighting would return.

And the endless cycle began. Again and again and again.

Hayley's heart felt exhausted. She didn't know why love felt like this, or even more importantly, if this was even love at all. She had heard of all the endless stories of other survivors of love saying, "You have to fight for it."

But it should have been easier than this. It had to be.

Love couldn't hurt more than it could give.

And if it did, Hayley was pretty sure she didn't want anything to do with it.

She picked up her phone, dialing a number she memorized by heart. The other line rang four times before someone picked it up.

"Hey," Kevin answered. There was shuffling on the other end.

"Are you busy?"

"Not really," he answered, but there was a significant gap between Hayley's question to his answer.

"Okay, well I just wanted to talk. I had this really hard day at practice, and competition is coming up and I just feel so scared… I swear I think I had panic attack today," she began to explain, her eyes already watering as the stress attacked her again.

There was another decent pause before Kevin answer, "Oh, really?"

She started to feel a bit frustrated. "Are you sure you're not doing anything?"

"Okay, fine," he laughed. "I'm gaming with Jake."

"Are you seriously gaming right now?"

Kevin laughed again, not really sensing the annoyance in her voice. "Well, are we going to talk?"

"Yeah, of course," Kevin stated. "I'll just call you after my game."

Hayley's heart dropped and the tears resurfaced into her eyes. "Fine."

She hung up the phone before he even had the chance to say goodbye. Hayley threw the phone across the room, frustration, anger, and a desolate sadness all intertwining inside her.

She remembered when he would give up those games just to talk to her on the phone, no matter how mad his friends got or how important the game was. She was always first.

And now, she could barely find room to fit herself in his "busy schedule". She knew he meant well, but they were fading and none of them could stop it. Only momentarily slow it down.

But they weren't always like this, she thought.

No, in the beginning, they were beautiful.

[Two Years Ago]

Hayley clutched onto her new binder, her bag swinging lightly at her side. She took a deep breath, knowing that she was walking into a room full of complete strangers. None of her best friends from her old town would be sitting there, waving for her to come over. Everything and everyone was new.

She took a deep breath, remembering her promise to her mom about trying her best to adjust to the change. She opened the door slowly to find a chemistry classroom bursting with chatting students. The room was loud and no one seemed to notice her entrance. A boy was standing despite the rest and said something Hayley did not catch, but the whole class burst out laughing.

Hayley found the teacher, a pudgy bald man, and introduced herself as being recently enrolled. He introduced her to the class, but no one really seemed to be paying attention.

She met one pair of eyes though. The boy who had been standing. He had sat down by now, and he was just looking at her.

"Well, you came just in time, Ms. Preston," the chemistry teacher announced. "We're switching seats today."

He began to read off a bunch of names that were unfamiliar to Hayley, pointing to desk after desk. Finally he was at the last row of the desks as he read the final names. Hayley noticed that the standing boy was also still left.

He filled the last seat, but we were both still the last two standing.

"Mr. Andrews, thanks to your excessive talking, you have gained your rightful seat in the back, the farthest seat possible from your friends," the chemistry teacher announced smugly as he pulled out an extra desk in the back corner, in its own row and pretty much isolated from the rest of the class.

The class burst out laughing and the boy only grinned, his cheeks reddening just a little in embarrassment. Finally, the teacher turned towards me. "And Hayley Preston?"

"Yes."

"You have the seat right next to him."

Hayley walked towards the back corner of the room slowly. She set her bag down on her side of the desk, not having made eye contact with the boy just yet. And just like that the class went back to their own side conversations.

The silence was heavy so Hayley decided to turn towards him.

"Hi."

He turned towards her hesitantly, the confident comedian disappearing entirely. He appeared shy. "Hi."

"I'm Hayley," she introduced hesitantly. "I just moved here."

"I'm Kevin," he responded, before his lips broke into the most beautiful smile Hayley had ever witnessed.

"So what do I need to know about this class?" Hayley teased.

Kevin chuckled. "Well, the teacher doesn't know anything. So it's pretty much just fake it til you make it."

"Okay, well since we're pretty much in our own corner of the world, wanna help each other out? I can say that I have an impressive record in chemistry."

The boy laughed, a real laugh that rang through Hayley's ears like music. "I would like that."

And it began before either of them could even try to stop it.

Hayley woke up her chest heaving and her hair damp and sticking onto her forehead. She felt like she had woken up from a nightmare, but she couldn't even remembering dreaming.

Maybe this was her nightmare, she thought. Reality is the nightmare.

She sat up, breathing heavily. She reached around in the dark for her phone, realizing she had fallen asleep after hanging up on Kevin. She looked at her missed calls, finding only one from him. She threw her phone back and collapsed on her castle of pillows. She felt tears rising again, but she held them back, reminding herself to be strong.

She felt like she was on a sinking ship and she had no other choice but to watch every inch of it drown. She missed the days when she could call Kevin and he would just be there, willing to drop everything for her. She missed when they could hold 7 hour long phone calls, never one boring moment. She missed his "I love you's" after every goodbye.

She missed feeling like he was the only one she could ever truly be herself with.

And without him, it would mean, she was completely and utterly alone.

And that scared her to death.

After that long summer school of flirting and getting to know each other, they had parted knowing they would probably never see each other again.

But they were so wrong.

On the first day of school, they found each other in two of their classes. And in both classes, they were seated right next to each other.

It was like fate was screaming the obvious to them.

After an entire year of talking and night- long phone calls as "friends", he finally decided to take the next step. She remembered how nervous he was, not really knowing how it all worked. She loved that.

She loved being his first.

[One Year Ago]

"Are we even allowed to be up here?" Hayley whispered, her arms wrapping around herself as the night breeze danced around her.

Kevin shrugged but he kept walking across the parking lot anyway. They were on the top floor of a mall parking lot, and Hayley just followed him, not really knowing what he was up to. They had been hanging out alone a lot recently, and she couldn't help but feel those butterflies every time he looked at her.

"What are we doing up here?" Hayley asked one last time, shivering in her pencil skirt.

Kevin stepped forward before a smile spread across his lips. "For this."

Hayley stepped forward next to him and the sight she saw before her was enough to make her heart leap. The entire strip was beneath her, the lights shining like the earth's own little stars. The fountain lit up like a stream of gold and white spraying through the night air. The people walking around the strip appeared like ants compared to everything else.

"Kevin," she gasped, her words losing itself in wonder. "It's beautiful."

Kevin just grinned, looking down with Hayley. The two turned to each other, their eyes meetings with such intensity that Hayley wouldn't have been surprised if real sparks actually flew between them.

He took one step closer, but still far enough to keep their limits. The two stood there, the most beautiful view in the world beneath them, but still, they only looked at each other.

Hayley loved the way he looked at her. She felt important. She felt beautiful. She felt loved.

"Hayley," he said very softly, his eyes not leaving hers. The immense light underneath them lighting both of them up like fireworks.

Just as he was about to take another step forward, a security guard called out and started walking towards them. Kevin and Hayley made quick eye- contact before breaking into laughter and mouthing "run".

They raced each other down the stairs, skin sliding across skin. His hand grazed hers several times as they reached the safety of the strip. By the time they felt safe enough to stop running, both were dying of laughter. Hayley's hand clutched onto her stomach to contain her laughter, and she knew she looked like a mess. Her cardigan sliding off one shoulder, her hair a nest around her face. She looked over at Kevin, but he was just watching her, his face never looking more serious.

"Hayley Preston, please be my girlfriend."

Hayley, feeling lightheaded and giggly from running, smiled, her lips spreading from ear to ear. "Would I really say no, Kevin?" she teased before taking a step towards him. He didn't hug her or grab her hand. He didn't do anything except smile that beautiful smile of his.

And that was enough.

Hayley couldn't fight back a smile as she remembered that day. She remembered the spontaneous decision to watch Titanic 3D after he had announced to her that he had never watched it. Hayley couldn't let him live on his incomplete life without witnessing the legendary love story of Jack and Rose.

So they watched it.

And just when she thought he had fallen asleep, she looked over only to see him completely engrossed in the movie. And after, when she decided to quiz him, he knew every single answer.

She couldn't help but feel accomplished.

Hayley hugged onto her Perry the Platypus pillow pet, a Christmas gift from Kevin. Only he would know her enough to know that she would absolutely love something that looked so ridiculous. Only him.

Suddenly feeling really lonely, Hayley grabbed for her phone and dialed his number. She waited ring after ring, knowing that he was asleep, but still holding onto that one sliver of hope that he might have kept his phone on loud

Finally, after one of the last few rings, a muffled "hello" answered from the other end.

Hayley closed her eyes, tears rising again. The voice brought back the hundreds of phone calls they had in the last year. The hundreds upon hundreds of laughs and stories. And most recently the hundreds of tears and disappointments. She wished she could remember only the good parts, but the bad parts kept fighting their way through.

After a lengthy silence on her part, Kevin's voice became clearer.

"Hayley? Is everything okay?" he asked, genuinely worried.

"I love you so much," Hayley whispered, not knowing what else to say.

She heard Kevin's heavy sigh on the other end. "Oh, Hales. I love you too. So so much."

"I'm sorry we haven't been the same."

"I'm sorry too," he replied sadly.

"So what now?" Hayley whispered so softly, she wondered if he had even heard it.

Kevin paused. She could hear his own tears through the phone. "I love you," he simply whispered again, the only thing he could say, the only thing he was sure of.

And she said it back over and over again, because it was the only thing that kept this broken puzzle together. The two stayed on the phone for the rest of the night, half in tears, half in smiles.

Both desperately holding onto their sinking Titanic.