This story is inspired by the album "Under Southern Lights" by a local band here in the Philippines called Urbandub. They're one of my favorite rock bands. Their music is great and every song has meanings. Enjoy reading and please do check out my other stories on my page. Thank you. :)

If you have questions, feel free to PM me or leave it on your reviews. All kinds of reviews are accepted. Please no flames.

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This story is purely fictional. Unfamiliar names are purely made-up and does not made with intentions to harm/mock the person. Familiar scenes, names, events, places and other things are in no way copied or duplicated to the author's intent of writing the story. Events, places, things and other stuffs that will be mentioned are respectably owned by their owners. The author of this story is in no way affiliated with any thing that will be mentioned. The author, also, is in no way plagiarizing other people's work. Disclaimer will be placed before the chapter for the story is published.

Disclaimer: I wished I owned the characters I will use in this story. I would be a millionaire by then and I wouldn't waste my time doing disclaimers.

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Under the Northern Lights

Genre: M for some suggestive themes.

Summary: There's always second chances waiting for us. It just needed one thing to make it happen and it's just waiting for the right time.

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I have your picture

That you never gave

I can stare at it forever

What else is there to say?

I have your picture.

Picture by Urbandub

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"Have you ever been in love?" An 18-year-old girl asked her best friend of eight years.

"Honestly?" The boy replied. "I do."

The girl turned to the boy, "Really? What does it feel like?"

The boy smiled, "It feels like I'm on cloud nine. Every time I will see her, it seems like the other things around me are just a blur and I can only see her. I feel butterflies on my stomach when she's near or talking to me. Around her, I'm just me – I don't have to try and impress her with things I really don't do. And, God, when she's with me, I just want her in my arms and never let her go."

The girl nodded and looked up at the sky. The cool autumn breezes touching her soft skin, making her shiver a little. Her best friend looks at her, scrutinizing her features. The beautiful curls that hang loosely around her face, the tantalizing light reddish brown color of her eyes, the perfectly long and curled eyelashes, the cute little nose she have ,the high cheek bones on her face and her pink, kissable lips. To his eyes, all of her features what made her look beautiful for him.

Shaking his head mentally, he looked at the direction where she's looking at. "Why do you ask? Have you ever been in love?"

She shook her head and looked down, playing with the laces on her shoes. "No, I've never been in love. But after hearing what you said about what it feels like to be in love, I think I am falling for someone."

"Oh?" He looked at her, reaching out and pushing a stray curl away from her. "Do I know him?"

She nodded, resting her chin on her knees, hugging them with her arms. "You know him. In fact, he's the only guy who showed interest in me. I mean, from all of the guys that I've met, he's the only one that really kept up with me. He's too real that I think I'm dreaming."

"Does he – do you think he likes you?" He asked, a frown forming at his handsome feature.

She shrugged, "I guess so." She looked at him, staring right through his eyes. "Do you love me?"

"What?" He asked, taken aback on her boldness on the question.

"Do you love me?" She repeated.

He furrowed his brows together, "Of course, I do. I mean you are my best friend, of course, I love you."

She sighed. He's not getting what she's meaning to say. "I mean, do you love me in a more than just a friend way."

He sighed, of course he love her in a more than just a friend way. But can he really tell it to her? "If I do say 'yes, I do love you more than friend', will it change everything between us? Will our friendship break?"

"Actually, I want our friendship to stay. Whatever happened between us, our friendship will not break." She looked at him and grabbed his right hand and grasped it between her tiny hands. "I don't want anything break our friendship apart. I might sound like a man saying this but, honestly, I love you more than a friend. I thought it will go away any time of any day, but, no. It only grew every time I'm with you."

He looked at her and reached out the hand that she wasn't holding and cupped her face. Slowly, he brought her face closer to him. Exchanging looks at her eyes and lips; he took a deep breath and closed his eyes as their faces were inches away from each other. She did the same as he.

Feeling each other's breath on their own faces, he tilted his head a little on the side for better angle. She, on the other hand, waited for his lips to touch hers. It's just mere millimeters away from each other until it finally…

"Dreaming of it again?" A voice said. "You know, it will never bring back what you two have now."

Breaking away from her dazed state, she rubs a hand on the side of her face. "Why are you here, Seph?"

Joseph, or simply Seph, shrugged. "Eh, nothing really. I just brought my daughter here, thinking if you can watch her for a while. I needed to go with Hayley on her doctor's appointment. Don't worry, your niece won't stay long, someone's going to pick her up."

He walked to his daughter and sat beside her on the lounge area inside the room. "Aly, princess, greet your Auntie first."

The 5-year-old girl got out of the couch and stood her Auntie's chair, waiting for her to turn and crouch down to her level. "Good afternoon, Auntie Abie." The little girl said in her cute voice and kissed her Auntie's cheek.

Aly, or Alyson, quickly run to the couch she was occupying earlier and continued what she was doing earlier. Her father stood up and walked away to leave his daughter on her work. He stood in front of the desk separating him and his sister.

"Gabriella, how long are you going to suffer from that heartache of yours?" Joseph asked his sister in a low voice that only he and she can hear. "He's around the city, why can't you just talk to him and fix whatever happened between you two?"

Gabriella sighed, "I know that. But I can't talk to him without thinking of what could have been happened on our relationship. I loved him and I still am, it's just hard for me not to dwell with the past and you know that." She replied in the equal voice when he talked minutes ago.

Joseph breathed deeply, "I get what you're trying to say, sis, I do. Piece of advice, don't let your past ruin your present and future. You're no time traveler to fix what's done. If it's done, it's done. Finish. The end. Don't go against one direction, instead, follow it. I may not good with advices but when I know that something needs sorting out, I will do my best on advising and helping."

She glanced at her older brother, noticing the seriousness in his feature. His brown eyes looking at her like she's a little kid who had done wrong and being punished. The thin line his lips is formed showed that he is, indeed, serious on what he had said.

Leaning back on her chair, she sighed and closed her eyes. She knows that what her brother had said is true. She can't keep on thinking back to the past, that she should look at her present and think of the future, the past completely behind her but not completely forgotten.

"You're right – I should think of the present and future. It's not I live my whole in the past, I still have it but the most important thing is now." Standing up from her seat, Gabriella rounded the desk and stood in front of her brother and hugged him. "Thank you for knocking sense into me, Seph. I know I can always count on you, big brother."

Joseph patted his sister's back. "You're welcome, sis. I'm always here, mom, dad, and Hayley to help you."

Pulling away from the hug, Joseph looked at his wristwatch and saw that he has fifty minutes to fetch his wife at home and drive to the hospital in time for the doctor's appointment his wife has today.

"I have to go. Hayley is waiting for me to go to her doctor's appointment."

Kissing Gabriella's cheek and hurrying to his daughter to leave a kiss on her cheek also, Joseph rushed to the door but stopping to remind Gabriella who's coming to get his daughter in an hour or so.

"By the way, Gabriella, he's getting Aly in an hour or so. Something had to do with what he promised to her. Probably going to the zoo or watching a movie." With that, he closed the door and hurried down the hallway and to the elevator to take him to the lobby.

"What?!" Gabriella exclaimed but was replied by a door closing.

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How's that for a first chapter? Good? Bad? Review please.

By the way, if you haven't noticed, I had changed my Penname from ashli15 to Desperate Dreams. And last, I might rewrite my other story, "Beautiful Life". I don't like how the first chapter went. That's all. Keep looking out for my other stories.