1. It started out with a kiss

"That was great, Mandi." he said as he was pulling his jeans on.

"Yeah." I said quietly as I tucked my hair behind my ear. I looked at the boy that I had fallen for so long ago.

"Don't be like that, Mandi." he said pulling his shirt on. My eyes narrowed on him, as my blonde bangs fell into my face.

"Be like what, Dean?" I asked standing up in front of him.

Dean flashed his award winning smile.

"Don't be all depressed that we hooked up, Mandi. You always get depressed after we hook up." he said putting his arms around me. "What do you want from me, Mandi?"

"How about something more substantial than hooking up every week? How about something outside this room?" I said pushing away from Dean. He chuckled as he sat down to put his socks on.

"And what would that prove? Making it official and putting a label on it isn't how you used to want it. What difference does it make now, Mandi?"

I turned away from him and wiped a tear way from my eye.

"Things change, Dean. People change. You're too self centered to notice."

I walked out of the room and made my way back to my dorm. Eden Hall was becoming another part of my life that I just wanted to erase, along with Dean Portman.

I took out my Nikon and hooked it up to my laptop. I had some good shots of the hockey game, if I could manage to write the article to go with them.

I was studying journalism at Eden Hall. That was how I met Dean. I did an article on him last year. At first, I wanted to keep it secret that we were sort of seeing each other. Now that I wanted more, he wanted to keep it hidden. He liked the fact that girls always threw themselves at him, and it repulsed me. But I had fallen for him, and I was sucked into the Dean Portman vortex.

I managed to pull myself together to write the article, but it didn't help my mood. I had been a little unstable lately, to put it lightly. Things at home had always been bad, and now they had gotten worse. Classes were becoming more demanding. I had to go to every sporting event to cover it for the school paper. The things with Dean were becoming more detached. It was a lot to put on my shoulders, and I was starting to feel the weight of it.

I grabbed my butterfly knife that my sister had given me before I had come here. She said that it was something to remember her by. I flipped it open and stared at the shining blade.

It just started as methodically flipping the blade open and closed, when the blade slipped and cut my finger. It wasn't a bad cut, but I liked the feeling of the pain and watching the blood flow. Then I took the knife and made a small cut on my wrist, and then another one. I kept going until I had several cuts across my arms. The pain felt good. It was a part of my life that I could control, and I liked the control that it gave me.

I took a shower and bandaged my cuts. I cleaned my butterfly knife and picked up my phone. I called Fulton, the one person I could talk to about Dean.

The phone rang three times before he answered.

"This had better be worth me leaving the hot girl at the pool table." he said answering his phone.

"I need your help, Fulton." I said, not being able hold back any raw emotion.

"What's the matter, Mandi? What happened this time?" he asked across the phone. "Do you want me to come over?"

"Fulton, I want something more than just hooking up with him. He won't." I said quietly.

"You didn't used to want that. Did you ever stop to think that maybe he never has."

"Damn it, Fulton. You're no help."

"I have to get back to that hot girl." he chuckled. "Everything works out in the end."

I hung up the phone and cried myself to sleep.

Okay…I wrote a story where Dean was the bad guy, now I'm writing one where he'll be the good guy. You're welcome. ~cloakedauthor21