This is my first story I've done in a while so go easy on me. :) Tell me how you guys like it after this first chapter. The story will involve lotsa romance, adventure, drama, music, and SHANEEEE!! yummy man. Enjoy!!

I have lived in Clarksville, Montana my whole life. Our modest two story ranch house was nestled at the base of the Bitterroot Mountains that created a natural western border for the state. Many rivers meandered from the peaks of those mountains and all joined together to form the Clark River that created a divider between the residencies and downtown. My town was historical. According to Lewis and Clark's diaries, the famous explorers who discovered the land we now know as modern day west from the Mississippi, they traveled right through my little town about 200 years ago with their crew in search of a route to the Pacific. Now, it's a sleepy little town that is full of tiny gift shops for the lonely travelers trying to make there way out of this state or the ones in seek of adventure and heading north. There's only one police station, fire station, and community hospital where Dr. Matthews will treat your everyday paper cut to an 80-year-old's major heart attack. the population of Clarksville is 10,000 and rarely does this number fluctuate. There is only one school that is a combination of all the grade levels. I can remember as a 5-year-old the high schoolers looked like huge people who might attack you at any second. Of course, this never happened, though I've gotten in a fair amount of fights throughout my pre-teen years.

I grew up right next door to my very best friend, Lynn. She and her family have lived here for generations and they never look like they're going anywhere soon. We officially became best friends when I forgot my lunch in kindergarten and she shared her lunch with me. That same day we ran back to her house and sat underneath the cottonwood tree talking for hours, as we still do 'til this day. I've always been more of a tomboy. I have always been in search of adventure. I'm was the kind of girl who would climb up the mountain and stay there for a weekend and return to find my parents in a state of mourn with the police by their sides because I had wandered off and hadn't come back. In my teens I would sneak out of my bedroom window at night, climb down a lattice, and run away with my boyfriend for the night. Now I still have my wild side, but as a 21-year-old I try to keep it on the down low and keep my runaways with boyfriends to a minimum.

Lynn was almost my complete opposite. She was the preacher's first born. She had three brothers: Alex, Mark, and Thomas. They were at least 4 years younger than her, so I never had much interest in them. Every time Lynn and i would sit under the cottonwood tree at dusk, we would talk about everything, from boys to stupid teachers. She taught me about God and that if you actually listen to your parents, they might listen to you for once. She has always had one love and he happened to be our best friend. His name was Nate. We met about the same time I met Lynn in Kindergarten. Nate was the most pale and curly haired of our class and when we met I was rude enough to ask if he was a ghost that came to haunt me. To this day he still teases me about that. It was late fall of the seventh grade that I started to notice a change in the way Lynn presented herself to Nate. She started wearing make-up and wearing her best dresses to school just to get his attention, though she didn't need to do anything to get him to smile at her. We have always been inseparable, but when I spotted them have their first kiss at the covered bridge over the Clark River, everything seemed awkward. I would sit for hours in my attic and look inside an old chest that Lynn and I filled with old pictures and memorabilia we had collected when we were younger.

My mom started to worry about me. When I told her that my two best friends were in love she just laughed and sat beside me, "Are you jealous of Lynn?"

I looked at her in shock and rolled my eyes, "Ew, mom, I don't like Nate! He's my best friend. I would never think of him that way."

She just nodded as if she had diagnosed my problem, "You are jealous though."

I looked at her confused and she continued, "You wish you had a boy that loved you as Nate loves Lynn. You want a fairy tale romance. Let me tell you this: Nate does love you, but as a friend loves a friend. He would jump a cliff for you. So if you're satisfied to know a boy loves you than there you have it." She stood up and shrugged, making her way over to the attic door, "Everyone has a chance at a fairy tale romance. Some come early, but the ones that are the most special come with time."

Those words stuck with me forever. I was curious then to find out if my fairy tale romance would come early so I went out and got a boyfriend at the age of 13. Most of the boys I were with were lousy and Nate and Lynn never approved so I usually flew solo unless someone came up and asked me out. I never tried to push them into asking me like i had done before. I would always think I was in love and make mistakes I regret to this day as I work my shift behind the bar. I probably could've gone to college if I hadn't been so caught up in boys. Lust, I learned, is not equivalent to love and what Nate and Lynn had was love and always would be. After my mom told me those words, my friends and I would be closer than ever, even through the hardest of times.

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The bar was unusually quiet for a Friday night. The ancient television in the left corner was set on a baseball came in San Francisco and being watched by a sleeping drunk and his barely conscious friend. The only other people in the bar were Nate, Charles and two other rookie waitresses I hadn't learned the names of yet. I sat a cold one on the bar for Charles and joined in on the conversation he was having with Nate.

"Oh, thanks Riley. And then when I pulled over to check the tire on my wife's subaru, I swear I saw little beady staring at me from within the trees," Charles explained and pointed his index fingers from his eyes for effect.

Nate laughed and I jumped in, "Hate to break your superstitious spirit, but I'm pretty positive that what you saw was a white-tailed deer roaming the forest as it should be able to without weird men in little subarus staring at them."

He took a peanut and bit it between his teeth throwing the shells into a small dish. He took a swig of his beer, "Hey, now. It's a man's car and there were more of them eyes. Little ones, too!"

"It's summer, Charles. There's going to be small little Bambis running around." He checked his watch, "You know what I gotta go get back home before Karen gets upset that I'm out late." He threw a couple bills on the bar and pointed a finger at me, "This isn't over, Riley. This isn't over."

I laughed and rolled my eyes, "That's what you always say. See you tomorrow. Say hi to Karen and the kids for me."

Nate and I waved as he walked out the swinging western-style doors. He looked over at me and grinned, "What's so funny, Nate?"

He shrugged and took a sip of his Coor's, "People crack me up in this town. You leave here and people are bland you know?"

I nodded with a smile and wiped off the bar, "Yeah, just don't tell that to tourists. Those out of state folks can put up restraining orders. Speaking of, when does Heaven end and hell on earth arrive?"

I was referring to Nate's cousin, Shane. Every summer he comes to Clarksville to spend time with his grandparents and other family. Shane and I have always had some sort of grudge on each other. It all started back when I was 8 and he was visiting for the first time. I had invited Nate to hang out and he said he had a cousin over and if i minded him coming too. Of course I said it was fine. That day he had broken my lampshade on "accident", tripped me into a pile of mud, and made fun of how bony my arms elbows and knees were. Every summer since then, as much as we try to avoid each other, our paths cross and he had always been bitter and angry, trying to insult me and make my life as miserable as possible. He was the rebel of the family and lived up north more in a small town called Seeley Lake. He is a year older than me and Nate has tried to reassure me he's really a good guy, but I never believe it.

"You should know, Riley, that he has a steady job and has gotten some of his act together."

I threw away the peanut shells, "Oh please, Nathaniel, you give me the 'getting his act together' speech every June. Don't you realize he hates my guts? And what have I ever done to the guy?"

"You put worms into his spaghetti, made fun of his bowl cut when he was younger, broke his arm when you pushed him out of that tree in the meadow behind my house...shall I continue? And don't call me that name. I have never liked it. Hence the 'Nate' I always use instead."

I smacked him with my rag, "He started it all! And the only reason I had bony knees was because I wasn't fully developed yet."

Nate looked me up and down, "I bet he's glad you finally did."

I hit him on the chest with my hand this time making him wince, "You have a girlfriend! You can't be looking at me that way."

He threw his hands up, "I was kidding Miss PMS. Plus I'm a guy. We can't help that sort of thing. I know it wears off as we get older though so don't worry."

"You never answered my question ghost boy."

He smirked, "He's already here." My heart stopped. He usually came the last week of June not the first.

"Uh, say what cowboy?"

He tipped his cowboy hat, "That's right my lady. He just texted me this afternoon saying he arrived in town and was going to get settled before going out on the town."

"Well, that's a first. He usually bolts out of your house. And Nate! Why this week? I have enough to worry about now."

He cocked an eyebrow and took another sip of his beer, "He's staying at grandma's. He says her food's better. What do you have to worry about?"

I shrugged, "Psh, only everything!"

"You don't have a life, Riley." And that was the ugly truth.

"I guess you're right." I sighed and checked my phone. It read 11:58 and my shift ended at midnight.

Nate checked his watch, "Hey I gotta run. Put the beer on my tab."

"Me too."

"You need a ride?"

"That'd be nice. Thanks." I clocked out and grabbed my jacket as we ran out the rear exit to Nate's old Ford truck.

I hope you guys like it!! Think Shane won't cause drama?? Well get your head out of the toilet and change perspectives! Oh yeah he will!! ;) If I get enough reviews I'll continue posting up chapters. Thanks to my bestie, Danica, for giving me ideas for this first chapter. I really love small towns in Montana so that was my major inspiration :D R&R stay cool y'all

~kelsey 3