Prologue

Emily

I loved her from the bottom of my heart. She was my first love, my passion, my life. How strange that one can love someone so deeply, so much with a singular mind as if no one else existed in the world. Only her name was there constantly on my lips and in my heart. It looked as if she was the only human being in this world for me, everyone else, everything else was blotted out from my vision. Sometimes I repeated her name like one repeats a prayer.

Alison.

Her brilliant blue eyes held me mesmerised from the moment I set my eyes on her and she returned my love unequivocally, but not immediately. She took her own time to develop her feelings for me. There were others too who loved her for her beauty and grace. But, they didn't stand any chance in front of my persistent and true love.

It was not easy, of course. But I guess, nothing worth good truly is in this life. We faced many trials and obstacles in order to get where we are in the present. Her family being one of them and my friends being other. But I would sacrifice whatever presented itself as an obstacle in my way, in order to reach her and have her by my side.

It was a moment of pride and honour when she accepted my love and agreed to meet me in the park where we would not be seen. She looked so beautiful standing there on a patch of grass; the roses did not compare to the rosy cheeks upon her face nor the bright red lipstick that tempted me every time I glanced upon her delectable lips. When she professed her love for me, I wished I could replay every motion she carried out- the way her cheeks blushed when our eyes clashed, the soft blonde waves of the hair and the way it fell gracefully on her shoulders and her dimples appeared on her face- all of which made me into a love struck and smitten fool who tripped over thin air every time she came near me. It should be embarrassing but I guess that when it came to her I was not worried about how I looked.

Only she existed.

My best friend, Hanna, in particular noticed the way my throat would clog up as I was unable to talk to her without stumbling over my words. That was during the first moments of meeting her. Hanna laughed at me afterwards while Aria and Spencer glanced sympathetically at me, while I shoved my head under a pillow, unable fathom the way I acted when I was in front of her.

I guess you are wondering on how I met her. It was not at all like the films made it out to be like. There was no mutual understanding nor common ground, in fact the relationship in the beginning would be referred to as toxic and unhealthy. We both fought quite a lot but our arguments were something I always thrived on because it meant I would be able to see the glint of passion in her eyes and the heaving of her chest during our screaming matches. She always boiled my blood in anger but also love like no one else did. Not even the lustful one night hook ups nor my first girlfriend.

She brought out something in me that I did not know existed. The dark side. The mysterious and unpredictable side of me that she encouraged in fact.

Hanna was with me when I met her for the first time. She's been my best friend all throughout high school. Same as Spencer and Aria but she and I connected on a deeper and spiritual level. She was able to know what I was thinking without me being able to voice it aloud. The four of us have been friends since we were fifteen years old. I guess we drifted together because of being invisible to the school. Don't get me wrong, I mean we were not bullied or picked on but neither were we popular. Hanna being obese, Spencer being the school nerd, Aria being the unconventional type of teenager and me being shy and uncomfortable around big crowds despite being the swimming captain. Looking back on those awkward teen years, a lot has changed since then and now.

Hanna asked me once on how I sustain my love for Alison during a cold, September morning in Central Park.

"There's no question of sustaining or maintaining when you are in love. You don't maintain your breath, do you? It happens naturally." I said.

In a sense, she was my breath. I lived because she breathed. I only lived on her cares, her concerns, her soft words, on her fragrance and smirks, on her gestures and words, in her arms sometimes and on occasion on her benevolence. I lived in a dream, wakeful and conscious but enslaved, incarcerated and totally immersed in her love.

It scares me sometimes, on how in love I am with her. It's what motived me to escape situations I would never have found myself in the first place such as running from the police to reach the hospital just to see her. Or other moments such as standing up to her father who disrespected her.

I was the one who broke the icy walls built around her heart, fighting off all the demons in her life in order to climb the walls and shatter the ice.

I'm going to marry her soon. Someday I'll take her to Paris and I'll propose to her on top of the Eiffel Tower with a diamond ring. I can clearly afford it according to lifestyle of being a CEO of a large company that I owe. God knows that she deserves it after the bad stuff in her life and dealing with money.

There is a sort of timeless bliss in our love. Hanna says that it's a serious mental disease in which I am at but whatever it is I know that I will never experience this with another person ever in my entire life or any other afterlife I may happen. Time and life, has those blissful, eternal moments. Which we all long for, like the gentle lips of a lover.

She arrived into my life like a hurricane without any warning, and I'll be damned if I ever let her go.