Instantly

A wise man once said "When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny." His name was Paulo Coelho. These words struck me completely when I met her, and I only had about a week to accept it. My name is Jadelyn Elizabeth West and this is the story about how I loved her.

We live in a world dominated by the idea of love at first sight. It is said to be a magical, pulling, gravitating experience that changes your outlook on life forever. It is not uncommon to date people while you are still in the search for who you're "meant to be with", but people just find it to be a waste of time. I like to think that I am skeptical about this idea, how is it even possible to walk around and suddenly see someone's face and feel like you already love them? How does that even work? I'm the most closed off person on the planet, how dare fate think that with naught but a look I will open up to a complete stranger? Deep down, I feel like my life was built to screw me over and I am just scared that I was meant to end up alone.

When I was younger, dad always told me that I should not date until I find my person. That the experience will be more intense if I wait. Him and my mother met in high school. They were both seniors in a small town in Iowa. My mother had lived there for most of her life and my father had just moved there due to my grandfather's company obligations. Dad said he walked in the school door, still sulking and muttering about how ridiculous the move to "the middle of fucking nowhere" was, and then he just saw her passing by with her friends. He fell hard and fast, one look and he was just gone. He tried to follow after her but he really needed to get to the principal's office to make sure that all of his paperwork was in order. My mother was a different story, she didn't notice dad until lunch time when he was walking around looking for a place to sit. She always told me that he was just the "cutest little bad boy she had ever seen", but seriously speaking, she saw him and that was it for her. She felt complete and her search was over.

She walked over to where he was sitting and said: "Hi, I'm Elizabeth Marcellus, and you are?"

He looked up speechless. "West. I mean, James. James West, pleased to meet you."

"Well, James West, I guess we have a lot to talk about if we are going to spend the rest of our lives together."

This used to be my favorite bedtime story. My mother would narrate it whenever I couldnt sleep, and I dreamt with the idea that maybe my story would be the same.

I don't know much about love. not romantic love, or familiar love, or anything to be honest. I seem to know a lot about hate, though. I know what it feels like to have a burning passion in your heart for the destruction of another person. I know what it's like to not accept anything around you because you're afraid that the second you do, it becomes your reality. You must accept it. My mother died when I was younger and my father was forever changed. He no longer looked like he could love anything again. Our social laws claim that "a person only falls in love once in their lifetime" so they must treasure the small moments they have. I have always thought to myself how lonely it must feel to be one of those people destined to be with a person who died before you met. I have always feared that this person couldve been me, but again this all changed when I met her.

I live in Los Angeles, California. Heart of Hollywood, The City of Angels, The Land of Dreams, whatever you wish to call it. Hollywood Arts is the number one school in the country for performing arts and one is practically guaranteed a career in the show business, if you are lucky enough to graduate from here. Admissions are early, nobody has ever been admitted after the 6th grade. The only exception being Natalie Portman, who transferred during her 9th more than a decade ago. I've been around the same group of students my entire life, from the time at about 8 years old when I attended Junior Hollywood Arts. At the young age of 17, I have already acted on Broadway shows, minor roles in TV series and I've submitted (and been accredited for) writing scripts for some horror movies like The Church Awakens and The Remake of The Shining. So, you must imagine my surprise when a rumor goes around about how we have a new student joining our junior class. She was set to start on Monday morning and the school was buzzing with excitement at the prospect of a new student joining our institution at such an advanced stage in our education program. To be accepted this late, one needs to be a protege at the very least in whatever subject you are being accepted for. Nobody here is sub-par, and nobody accepted under these special circumstances was going to be either. I was actually excited to meet this overglorified person who was intruding our little society.

Monday Morning rolled around and everybody was waiting for her. I got an email from Principal Dickers that I was assigned to show the new girl around and take her to all of our classes, which just so happened to be the same. I walk in and the hallway is packed with people at 7:15 in the morning, which usually never happens. You could tell that people had made an effort to even show up early for school and wait by their lockers awaiting her entrance. To be honest, so were all my friends, including myself. I was by my locker surrounded with my little gang of friends.

We have all known each other since we were young, with the exception of our latest addition, my boyfriend Beck Oliver, who transferred from the Hollywood Arts branch school in Canada to the one here in Los Angeles. Him and I are absolutely not matched, but we do get along and we both feel the same way about this whole "love at first sight situation". At the very least he was just someone to be with, so I can close my eyes and pretend that he is the one for me. We started dating because his status as an actor on some tv shows for ABC has gained him unwanted attention, and my scary persona drives all those wild girls away.

Caterina Valentine and Robert Shapiro are my strangest friends, they were matched at the age of 11 and it is considered an oddity amongst our school. They are the youngest matched couple I have ever met, and I'm pretty sure that I will never meet anybody who matched that early in my life. Some people argue that they are only doing it for the publicity, since Cat has been in some Broadway shows already and Robbie has some Blockbuster Comedy films on post-production, but we all know the truth behind their love.

Andre Harris is the last member of our group, who basically claims to be matched every single week of the year. He always has a girl on his arm, so we don't bother trying to associate with the weekly prospects. He is the youngest music director from Neutronium Records with 2 Grammy nominations below his belt, he hasn't won yet, but everybody knows that he will soon.

I look down at my watch "7:27 am and still no sign of this girl. Where the hell is she?"

"Ohh Ohh, Jade. Watch out. Someone might think that you actually care about something." Cat breaks away from Robbie's embrace to smile at me.

I quickly defend myself and shove some things inside my locker. "I'm just curious as to what makes this girls so special, after all I'm the one assigned to show her around, which makes me think she is in the show business. Maybe it is someone we already know! and if she is in the showbusiness, then I just don't want some blonde stereotype bimbo with a nose job to think that she can get all her roles handed to her."

I feel Beck put his warm hands on my cold shoulders. "I don't know, Jade. You know how rare it is to be accepted this late. She must be really talented to be even considered. I think you actually might be outmatched here."

"You're definitely not helping, Beck." I can see his smile starting to break through his serious face.

"Jade, you're a wonderful actress and script writer. You forget that you were the first person accepted here from our class. You are just as much, if not more, talented than whoever it is that shows up. Besides, how known can she really be? The tabloids would have been all over it"

I feel slightly better now that my worries seem to have been appeased. Whoever that boy really does get matched with is very lucky.

While I listen to my friends talk about meaningless things for the next couple of minutes, I almost miss the door opening and Principal Dickers walking in, with an actual smile on his face, talking to someone behind him who is not clearly seen. He catches my eyes and calls me forward.

"Jadelyn, come over I want you to meet somebody!"

I roll my eyes at how much of a big deal he seems to be making this, and then he moves to the side and exposes the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.

Is that my heart beating? I can't hear anything over the sound of this surreal pounding in my head as I stand there looking at this girl. She seems to be staring at me as well, wide eyed and nervous all of a sudden. My entire body feels warm, like if I've been living in my cold basement for my entire life and I have just stepped out into the summer sun. Her eyes are the most marvelous color of freshly ground coffee. Her cheekbones so prominent on her naturally tanned latina face. Her lips caught between her teeth and her glasses framing her face beautifully.

I seems to have tuned out Principal Dickers and I don't really care what he is saying right now. It was natural to just lean forward and caress her face, and watch in awe as her eyes close and she sighs.

"Jadelyn." She whispers, as her eyes open and she looks at me expectantly.

My hand falls from her face. "The name's Jade. Jade West. and you are?"

"Vega. Victoria. I mean Tori. Tori Vega." I smile at her. This feeling she provoked in me reminds me of a long lost bedtime story.

"Well, Vega, I guess we have a lot to talk about if we are going to spend the rest of our lives together." She laughs, while nodding.

"I guess we do, West" Her eyes twinkle with excitement and I can't help but think that this is it.

A minute ago I couldn't believe the idea of someone loving another person in the blink of an eye. Now, I don't think I can imagine a life without her. In that one second it was all over for me. Passionately. Unabashedly. Irrevocably. This is how I loved her. Instantly.