Chapter One

"Do you love me…?" She whispers quietly after a while.

"Over course I do," he says pulling her closer into his embrace. "I'll always love you, no matter what."

She smiled clinging to him in the darkness finally drifting into sleep.

But that was almsot 4 months ago and now she lay in her room shaking as thunder rolls over head. "Your fine," she whispers over and over again. "Your fine." But nothing could stop her from reliving the memories as she dug her nails into her skin trying to breathe. She lifted up her phone debating on whether to text him or not. It had been 3 months ago since they broke up, and even though they swore they'd still be friends it never seemed to work out that way. A crash of thunder led to her throwing the phone across the room covering her ears trying not to scream.

A flash of light brought her back to that night. To the room where she had lost everything. The memory so clear but also so distant, no matter how hard she tried pieces still were missing from the puzzle and she had no way to put the picture together.

She looked up his shadow sliding across the room to her. She tried to move but found herself immobilized as he came closer his hand reaching from his body to try and touch her. She tried to scream but nothing came out, as the figure drew closer she felt time slow, agonizingly waiting for him be in touch her.

Suddenly he vanished and she was left alone in the dark. All she could her was a far off beeping of her alarm clock as she slowly slid open her eyes revealing her to be in her room. Sitting up she felt hot as sweat fell from her forward head. She breathed deeply as she slowly sat up.

"Just another nightmare," she sighed, as she reached over turning off the alarm. Pulling her fingers threw her hair she typed her password into her phone looking threw her notifications from the night before, nothing important besides a few game invites. She opened her messages to text her father asking if he had put money into her lunch account.

Quickly her eyes diverted to her most recent text. "oh god," she said clicking on the messages of her ex-boyfriend. Please tell me I didn't text him last night as the screen came up she shall what she had typed.

"I need to talk to you….." it read.

She smiled grimly at the phone as she noticed he didn't reply. So much for always loving me she thought. Setting the phone down she got out of bed to get ready for school.

"Hey Anna did you do the homework?" Lindsey the girl behind her asked. Sighing I turned around handing her the assignment from the other night.

"You should really work on doing your own homework," I said as she took it from my hands.

"I know I just got busy the last couple nights, I knew you'd come through for me anyways thought you never forget to do homework!" Lindsey said quickly starting to copy down the answers.

Your always "busy" I thought as I turned around looking at that board, I turned my phone on checking my notifications. Nothing appeared but the time, I sighed what was I thinking he was going to text me and heroically be there for me like he used to. I sneered at the thought, I'm so naïve. This is the real life no book or fairy tale.

Class ended like always as I walked down the hall to my physics class as I suddenly felt a hand on my head. I turned around to find Aaron behind me smiling wide. What the… I though as we got outside.

"Hi…" I said quietly surprised he was the one to greet me.

"How are you?" He asked looking at me as we continued walking through the throngs of teenagers.

"I'm fine… what about you?" I asked feeling my heart beating faster. I urged myself to relax but I felt the butterflies in my stomach as we continued walking.

"Just a lot of work and homework, I went downtown with some of my friends last weekend though."

"Oh..." I sighed "Sorry about the text last night, I was just having a bad time." I gazed at the ground as we continued down the hall of the science wing.

"Its fine," he said "Well give me a hug this is my class."

I quickly grabbed onto him hugging him, pressing my face into his chest as breathed deeply. I missed his embrace so much more than words could described I missed being in his arms and just for that bit of time being able to forget about everything that hurt so much. I felt myself pull away from him embarrassed by my action but he didn't seem fazed as he said "goodbye" and walked into his class room. I breathed out; face blushing red as I quickly walked to my class the tardy bell ringing as I meandered down the hall smiling stupidly.

For the rest of the day he was all I thought about, I kept replaying all the promises we made the dates, just being with him made me feel safe. Whole. But now I felt trapped, scared and alone. And as I stared into my bathroom mirror I wanted to scream.

Because I knew the only reason he wasn't here by my side was because of me.

Days seemed to move slowly after that, seeing him in the hall way was more or less the same but felt more heart breaking each time as I slowly came to the realization he wasn't mine anymore. I thought once school began again we'd make up. Fix everything but it never happened despite my best attempts.