Chapter 3

"Well, I don't care what my parents say, we'll be perfect together…" She came from a wealthy family and her parents didn't much approve of her marrying a man like Burt. He didn't have a steady job, never live the same day twice, which was his philosophy. Upon mention, her father said that this philosophy wouldn't pay the bills.

"…right," he muttered looking out at the rain still coming down. He wasn't taking in anything she was saying, sure he heard it but he wasn't focused on it. His thoughts were on a rampage, darting every which way imaginable.

"Burt, are you alright?"

He ripped his attention away from the shaky precipitation making its way down his windowpane. "What?" His eyes were wide but looked either exhausted or preoccupied. Which ever the two it was, Pricilla didn't like.

"Are you alright? You seem awfully worried about something. Is there anything you want to talk about?"

He took in a deep breath, looking back out upon the gray day that sat before him. "Naw, I'm fine. Just tired, I expect." He didn't understand how she could have done it, he never understood it. How she could possibly choose to go off into PP…-whatever it was. He just never understood her choice. Why she would rather be doing that when they could have had it all. They could've had it all.

How could she have been unhappy? He thought he knew everything about her, he never saw it coming. That day was one of the worst memories he owned but it never stopped him from loving her. He moved on, he couldn't wait around for her if she didn't want to be with him.

"Alright then, if you're sure," she said unconvinced but not wanting to push him any further. She bent down and gave him a kiss on the forehead. "Bye…"

He was vaguely aware of her departure. He looked around at his room and then at his life. They both seemed abandoned and empty without her. The thing that bothered him the most was the question of whether she loved him. He had never questioned their love before that day. They were supposed to have gone the distance but apparently she had other plans. That's what ate him alive from the inside out. He'd always thought that they were just perfect, too perfect. He understood her and he understood how insecure she was about herself and her powers but he wasn't going to judge her. She knew that. Didn't she? Who cared what the rest of the world thought? They would've been happy…wouldn't they?

That night he surrounded himself with memories of what they once had. How they once were before things got too complicated. Way back, when they were happy…

iHer teeth had miraculously been straightening on their own, which he found a little odd but when he was with Mary, everything seemed to work like magic. Her perfect teeth only increased her beauty though, he'd always thought she was beautiful. From the moment he met her. He turned to her, squinting as the sun blared in his eyes. "Do you remember?"

"Remember what," she asked, directing her attention away from the rippling rings forming in the pond from the last pebble she had thrown. She played with the next one between her finger tips, rolling it back and forth. Her dark locks, all curled and dancing on her shoulders as the afternoon sun began to set.

"The day we met…" he said smiling at the memory. From that day on they had become inseparable. Each day Burt would walk home with Mary and they would do their homework together and afterwards they liked to go to the park. It had become a routine, everyday and on the weekends they'd go for ice cream or go on long walks. They'd learned a lot about each other. Burt learned that Mary had been brought to live with her uncle Albert when she was five, her parents saying that they would be back in a month or two once they had enough money to make sure she was well taken care of. They never came back. Burt figured that this was one of the problems that led to the many faults she found within herself. She never felt like she was good enough, always just falling short. Burt had been trying his hardest to convince her that she deserved the tower of London and Buckingham Palace. She was one of the realest people he'd ever met, once he broke the shell. She was gorgeous inside and out and she didn't even know it nor did she have a big head about it like most of the other girls did. She deserved the whole world and more. She would laugh a little but sometimes he wondered if she really understood how much he meant it.

Mary was learning that Burt was more of a free spirit. It was exciting to be with someone who had so little and couldn't care a wink about what anyone thought of him. He went on through life, head held high and she admired him for it. He seemed to admire her too, for what, she couldn't understand. Sure, she wasn't as awkward looking as before, actually she was becoming a little fonder of her appearance. But still, she couldn't understand what he saw in her or why he became interested in her in the first place, for that matter.

But they'd both become new people since them, each bringing out the best in the other. When Mary was with Burt, she was nobody but Mary and when Burt was with Mary he was nobody but Burt. They'd seemed to be the most unlikely of friends in the beginning but with Burt's great sense of adventure and living in the moment and the order, which Mary brought with her everywhere…it seemed to work. Neither could be happier.

"Oh, gosh! I must have seemed so bizarre…" she said laughing at herself. She was so insecure about herself back then… she still was, it just didn't show as much. Her insecurities were something that had to live with everyday and it often kept her from letting people see her, letting her see people. But Burt was different, her insecurities about herself never kept her from him. "And ugly too, I'm sure."

"Naw, Mary..." he paused for a second. Wondering if it was out of line. It was the truth, after all. There was no reason he shouldn't if that was the way he really felt, right? He'd never told any other girl that before though. But, then again, Mary wasn't just any other girl. He shook his head. "Naw, Mary. You were beautiful." Her squinting eyes kept him from seeing her expression and his heart beat fastened a little. Everyone had been talking about it, they just ignored them, there was nothing really going on. Maybe there should be. "You still are, Mary."

There was another pause in which she tried to think of something to say. What was going on? "Do you really think that, Burt," she asked. She knew everyone had been suspicious of their relationship, even herself. Sometimes she found herself wondering if they would ever be something more…She convinced herself that they were nothing more than the best of friends…maybe she was wrong. A cloud moved in front of the sun and he could see the stars dancing in her eyes with a hint of fear.

"Of course, I do," he said looking directly into them. He offered her nothing but honesty in that sentence and she knew it. She was beautiful, inside and out, even if she couldn't see it. They would have to fix that.

That was the first day he ever kissed her. They were fourteen. /i