an: It's been a while, but here I am. Two years is a long while on here, in my opinion, but I suppose that I'll stay just a bit longer. Just for you guys. Here's the story I promised a lot of you; I know you've been waiting a while for me to actually publish it. I plan it to be eleven chapters only. This story is dedicated to those who love me and believe in me and have been waiting for me.

Emotions. They're such powerful, fickle things that drive human beings to do so many, many things. There's the feeling of greed, of wanting more and more and more. There are people who will do anything and everything within their power to get what they want because greed is what drives them. There are the feelings of envy and lust that can drive you to do so many different things - so many dangerous things. Then there are emotions that are not simply black and white but ones that hold so much power that they hold the ability to appear in so many different shades of gray. Emotions like love.

Rays of sunlight streamed in through the white silk curtains. The sound of birds chirping animatedly outside of a perfect looking canary yellow household atop a small hillside could be heard inside of the All-American looking home. The sky was blue, the air smelled of freshly cut grass, and the day appeared perfect. Massie Block, however, looked like she was far from feeling perfect that morning. She looked like she was far from feeling anything at all, truth be told. Her cheeks looked sunken; black circles appeared like bruises under her amber eyes; the brunette girl - woman now, actually - appeared far beyond her mere 19 years.

"Today is a big day," she said as she stared at her reflection in the mirror that sat atop her dresser. She sat before the mirror for a long while, not wanting to draw her gaze towards the white dress that hung in the chestnut colored wardrobe that stood sturdily towards her left. "A big, big day." Massie sighed as she slowly let her eyes wander towards the dress. She didn't want to wear it. She didn't even like it, but she knew that he would love it, and that's what made her smile a little bit. It made her heart start to ache; she hated being away from him. Staring at the dress, however, she could not help but remember how they met, a mere five years ago.

The first day of high school was one that could make anyone and everyone nervous. Nobody wanted to feel stupid and ask people for directions. No one wanted to be late to their first day of classes. Massie Block was not an exeption to feeling any of these things. It was the last class of the day and she was extremely nervous because she seemed to be the only person who didn't come to tour the school before the first day of classes began to find where all of her classes were to be.

Where the heck is room 145? she thought hastily to herself as she scanned the numbers beside every classroom door. People brushed passed her hurriedly, making Massie feel as if she were the only person in the school that didn't know where she was supposed to go. "Alicia!" Massie called out as she spotted one of her friends walking around.

"Yeah?" a small-framed, dark-haired girl replied, a bright smile on her tanned face.

"Do you have history next hour?" asked Massie.

"Yeah! Do you have it too?" Alicia replied, enthusiasm in her voice.

"I do!" Massie replied with relief, knowing that Alicia had come to open house. "I was starting to get worried that no one was going to be in my class!"

"I know what you mean. Nobody else seemed to have it this hour," Alicia grimaced, pulling Massie into a classroom that Massie swore she must have passed a hundred million times already and walked inside just as the bell rang, signally that class was starting. Most people weren't in their seats yet, as most persons preferred to socialize with their friends before class started, but Massie could clearly tell where people were already sitting since notebooks and binders were already piled onto many of the desks.

"Hey, look there're some seats left in the back," Massie pointed out to Alicia. "Let's go sit over there."

"Alright," Alicia replied with a small hop in her step. Massie slid into an empty seat beside a boy whose face displayed aggravation and boredom, sort of like he didn't want to be there at all - like he didn't belong there, with the rest of the class. The teacher directed everyone to get into their seats and quiet down so that they would be able to hear her as she read the rules of the classroom. This was quite a boring routine because this was all that had been going on all day and Massie was really getting bored by it. People were starting to feel antsy and getting more and more chatty and starting to ignore whatever nonsense was spewing out of the mouth of Massie's more-than-boring history teacher, who was now passing around the "parent contact" form.

"Do you have a pencil?" Massie asked Alicia.

"Yeah," she replied, holding up a white mechanical pencil for Massie to take. She quickly scribbled down her parents' phone numbers and email addresses onto the sheet of paper in front of her. Once she was finished, she thought she felt a pair of eyes boring into the side of her skull and turned towards the boy who was sitting on her other side to find that he was staring at her. It wasn't like he was checking her out or trying to fit her into a category in his mind, it was more like he was just...looking at her, a look of indifference in his eyes.

"Hi," she smiled awkwardly at him, trying to make new friends. He was cute, she supposed. She was expecting a 'hello' back, but all she got was a small nod of recognition. He's probably an Upperclassman, she thought to herself as she looked away from him. That was all - just a short glance, one exchanged word.

If someone were to ask Massie Block then if she thought her and the boy beside her would ever fall in love, she would have told that someone that the thought of that was simply improbable and most definitely not possible.

The white dress was a nice fit; it hugged her body comfortably, but it wasn't tight. It made her pale skin look creamy and her eyes appear to be a darker color than it actually was. She wouldn't say that it made her look pretty in the least, but she knew that he would have said that she was the most beautiful girl in the entire world, and that's really all that mattered. She stared at her reflection in the mirror for a long while, her eyes going over every single detail. Sighing, Massie looked away with exasperation playing clearly in her eyes.

She didn't want to go today.

review.