Chapter 2: Moving Backwards
As the familiar trees rushed past our window, I pretended that time was moving backwards.
It had been so many years since I lived in Sacramento, but I remembered the tiniest details. How the knothole in that tree looked like a horse. The way the fence around that lot bent inward near the gate. The exact words of the few conversations I had had with my high school crush, Ian Hecox.
I didn't want to go down memory lane of high school, especially since memory lane had some creepy occupants. To avoid it, I turned around in the car as we past my old school. I found myself staring at the drool dangling off the corner of my 17-year-old brother's mouth. Sloane had never been one to be as gorgeous in sleep as he was when conscious. Wide awake, he had all the girls in his arms, petting his perfect dirty blond hair and complimenting his hazel-green eyes. He enjoyed the attention, and didn't mind that it wasn't real. I, however, did mind fake love. Why couldn't I be truly loved?
Sure, I had shiny, straight, platinum blond hair, and my clear, green eyes were flecked with gold. I could get anyone I wanted, but I didn't want someone to be with me just for my pretty face. I wanted someone I knew, someone who knew me. Someone who truly loved me for me.
Backwards moving was time, that pretended I. Window our past rushed, trees familiar the as.