Chapter 1
It had been five years since I graduated high school. So much has changed since then.
I used to look back on my high school years with disgust, but now I've come to realize that I had some good times with some great friends.
Life was good; I had graduated college, something I never expected to actually do. A guy with my background doesn't usually get a chance to make something on himself, but I was one of the lucky ones.
Things at my last high school started out kind of rocky until I got the chance to go on a trip to Palau. Melissa was amazing, and she made it all happen, but we ended up crashing and getting stuck there.
That was probably the best month of my life. Sure, we worked hard, but it was like our own reality where nothing could hurt us.
When we got home, things were good for awhile, but eventually the island left us. We were in reality, and reality didn't really want us all to be friends.
I was the guy who got out of juvie. Nathan was the smart kid who was destined for greatness. Daley was bound for perfection. Lex was so much younger than all of us. Eric was expected to be the funny guy who was too cool for us, and Taylor was the princess. She didn't need us when she got back to school. Then there was Mel. Mel was nothing but nice to everyone. It didn't matter what group everyone else was in; Mel tried to be the glue that held us together.
Too bad Mel wasn't strong enough. We all still said hi to each other in the hall, but we never got back to being our family.
I really regret not dating Mel like I said I would. Things just never really worked out, for any of us for that matter.
High school isn't designed to bring people from different circles together. We all knew that we were there, but nothing was ever the same. I don't know how many of us kept in touch after we graduated, but there were two people I still talked to on a regular basis.
One day, I knew something was up when I got a call at 3am from one of them.
"Hello?" I asked.