Part One: Chapter One

This is not a happy story. It will not leave you filled with hope about love, or with that giddy feeling you get after watching a romantic movie. It will leave you feeling cold and heartless. Like you have just witnessed something beautiful become ugly.

This is a story about love, the truth about love. There will be no sugar coating in this story because I like to tell things the way they are. Or the way they were. This is a story about two friends and how it became so much more than friendship. For possibly both, or maybe just one. So, I'll clear my throat, take a sip of tea, and begin telling you the story of my heartbreak that left me so cold inside that I listened to hipster music for one entire year.

It all started during the summer between third and fourth grade and I was feeling hopeful about the world. I was one year closer to being one of the oldest people in my school and that also meant being closer to middle school. Although I was an awkward child, relying on my more talkative and outgoing friends to cheer me up and help me. I went to a private school while all my neighborhood friends went to the big bad public school.

At my school I was a loner; I was shy, naïve, scared, silent, and smart. But even though I was smart I never spoke out. I kept my smarticle particles to myself. But at home in my neighborhood I was outgoing, cheerful, nice, full of life, and excited about everything. I was that kid who tried to be nice to everyone and everything, but on the inside harbored dark feelings about the girl who had prettier Barbie dolls than I did. I was that kid who enjoyed life so much it hurt.

During the summer I spent my days with my best friend Jackie. Jackie was…different. She was weirder than I was and, even though I did not know it at the time, I was a strange kid. She chased squirrels, ate cat food, sucked her thumb, and rode with training wheels on her bike until she was in the sixth grade. But I did not think she was weird, I though she was a lot of fun to be around!

We would spend the normal days in the woods where there was shade, digging around in the dirt and using water from the streams to make mud pies. We would make forts and pretend that things were attacking it. That would call for defenses like rocks, spears made of sticks, and water guns filled with muddy water that was suppose to be acid. We were quite the creative pair.

When is was extremely hot outside we would play with Barbie dolls or Polly Pockets in the pool, pretending their cruise ship crashed and they were being attacked by sharks. Some days we would even take the tiny pool balls and stick them in our swim suit tops and pretend like we were the ditsy teenage girls who lived around the corner. Like I said, we were creative.

When it was raining we would play Barbie's inside or we would run around in mud puddles and then track dirt into the house like good children. But even though I had fun with Jackie all the time, I could not handle the nagging and teasing I received from the other kids in the neighborhood.

"Jackie is so weird, why do you hang out with her?" Says the ditsy teen that baby-sat me some nights. Although I called it hanging out. For I, a mere almost fourth grader was no baby.

"Jackie sucks her thumb, only babies do that."

"She chases squirrels, that isn't normal!"

"You are to cool to play with her," Says a person who is later important to the plot!

"If you want to play with us she can't be with you." Says another important character.

I knocked all of these comments aside. Replying that I knew she was strange but once you got to know her she was really fun to be around. She was annoying sometimes but that was a small price to pay for how much fun we had together.

One day, after walking down to her house in the humid July heat, I noticed something different. Why, a strange house I never noticed before was being filled with boxes, a trampoline rested in the yard, and moving trucks were all around. To say I was curious was an understatement. But being who I was I did not think anything of it, figured it was just some more old people moving in. At the time I did not realize that the people living there would change my life.

As I continued down to her house, sweating like a pig parched and tired. I looked up at the sky and saw how clear the sky was; it was beautiful and perfect. A perfect day to contrast the not so perfect beginning.

Arriving at her house I rang the doorbell, dogs barked and they ran to the window. I never liked their dogs; they were all big and rowdy. They were also crotch dogs so I always had to protect myself while around them.

She came to the door and greeted me happily, shouting my name and stepping outside. A short girl with long brown hair and dark brown eyes followed her. Who is this strange girl? I asked myself. And why the hell is she over at MY best friend's house without my permission?

"This is Carly, her family just moved here from...?" She trailed off and looked at the new comer named Carly.

"Across the bridge" Carly finished. I introduced myself and then examined her out of the corner of my eye as Jackie talked to us.

I was not paying any attention though, for this new girl was far too interesting. She was tan. Something most of the people in my neighborhood were not. I was pale and awkward and so was Jackie. I decided I did not like her one bit.

"So, do you want to go play out in the fort?" Jackie asked us. Wait, OUR fort? I thought angrily, mortals shalt not enter OUR fort! I shook the crazy thoughts out of my head and begrudgingly agreed to show Carly the fort that Jackie and I worked on for weeks and weeks.

We went into Jackie's backyard, jogged down a slope, zig zagged in between some trees, crossed a bridge we made, and then swung on a vine to get up a slope. Carly was not at all amused by our routine we had to do to get back to the fort.

"Why didn't you just make it over there? Then you don't have to worry about this vine braking."

"Well what is the fun in that?" I replied, placing my hands on my hips to make a point.

"Well for one it is a whole lot easier." She said back, placing her hands on her hips as well. She was mocking me! This girl I had known for all of five minutes was already mocking me! I did not like her one bit.

"Easy is boring." I said fatly, and then marched towards the fort as the determined leader of the group. Jackie stayed back and walked with Carly and I watched them talk as they walked.

I entered the fort and had a mental battle with myself over weather I should throw a stick at Carly or accidently get mud on her shirt. My acts of evil were not nearly as horrible then as they are now. When they entered the fort I could tell Carly was neither impressed nor entertained. Her face was blank and the only emotion that showed was boredom.

"So this is it!" Began Jackie, happy to show off our work, "What do you think?"

Carly shrugged her shoulders, "It's all right, you should really move those sticks to make the roof a little taller."

I rolled my eyes, "It's a fort attached to a tree, it doesn't even have a roof."

"Well then what are those sticks for?" She replied back in a sassy tone. She pointed to some sticks that were placed across more sticks that were in the ground. The sticks that were placed across the others formed a shelf that we used to store our tools for mud pie cooking.

"That is a shelf," I thought it was obvious what it was but apparently I was wrong. I do not know if my tone offended her but I am pretty certain it did. She spent the next ten minutes critiquing our work and trying to understand our methods of playing.

"So you play kitchen with mud and leaves?" She raised an eyebrow and looked at one of our concoctions.

I nodded, "Yeah, it is fun because we have the stream to get water from. It is pretty cool back here. It is like our own world."

She grunts, "Yeah. I prefer riding bikes myself."

"But who doesn't like mud?" Jackie asked her, unable to believe the thought of riding a bike over playing with mud and dirt.

"I don't enjoy it. Or the woods either." She walked out of the fort and stared at it with a sour look on her face.

"Well I guess we could ride our bikes around the neighborhood, we can show it to you."

"I don't have my bike with me." I said, but they ignored me as they discussed their plans. Once they were certain what they were doing they set off and I followed angrily. Making sure to kick as much dirt around as possible.

We made it back out to the road and Jackie got her bike out we then made our way up the hill and back into the main area of the neighborhood.

Our neighborhood was three streets long and three streets in width. Jackie lived on an added street that was built years after the original neighborhood was. The reason Jackie lived so close to the woods was because woods was all that her street was until it was torn down to make room for some new homes. Here is a map of the neighborhood,

Jackie lived on the point that sticks out like an erect, lopsided penis.

We ventured onto Elm Street and I had to speed walk to keep up with Jackie and Carly. They peddled up to the house that had the moving trucks and stopped, I jogged up behind them and glared at both of them.

"This is my house," Carly said, pointing to the house in front of us. It was two stories and had a big garage and a petite front porch.

"Cool! We live so close to each other!" Jackie said happily. "We can play together all the time."

Carly turned to me, "It's a shame you don't live closer, then we could all play together."

I wanted to slap the bitch but at the time I was innocent and I told myself I would spit on her handlebars when she was not looking. That would teach her a lesson.

"So are you an only child?" Jackie asked her. Jackie was always the nicer one of the two of us. Even though I tried. She was accepting of people even if they did not like her best friend. But, in a way, I was the same way.

Carly shook her head, "I have two brothers. I did have a sister but she died when she was born." It turned out that I had the same name as the dead sister. So from then on out I was associated with the dead sister.

"How old are your brothers?" I asked like I was actually interested in her life. Which I could have cared less how old they were. After being told that my fort was not good enough, being ignored, and then being tied to a dead sister, it was the nicest thing I could say.

"The oldest is thriteen and the youngest is nine."

"Oh cool!" Now I was interested, a boy who was close to my age! Praise the lord! At the time I was eight and about two weeks away from nine. "I am about to turn nine."

"Cool," She still was not interested in anything I had to say. She just wanted to talk to Jackie; I was just the awkward friend who tagged along now.

"Do you want to ride around some more?" Jackie asked after a few more minutes of discussing Carly's house.

"Yeah!" Carly was thrilled at that idea.

"Can we stop by my house so I can get my bike?" I asked and I figured Jackie would say yes but I was wrong.

"Oh, well that will take to long. You can keep up can't you?" Jackie was hopeful that I could and I probably could have. But that was not the point. I wanted my bike and I wanted my best friend to wait for me while I got it.

"Plus, it'll be dark soon and we want all the time to show me around, don't we Jackie?" Carly asked. For the record, it was around four o'clock and the sun did not go down until eight thirty. No time my ass.

"Well," I pursed my lips, holding back my screams of frustration and my tears of hurt, "Fine."

"Great!" Jackie said and then they took off on their bikes. I ran behind them, then walked, then ran, and then walked. I eventually gave up and walked all the way. Admiring the sky and the beautiful lawns. Jackie and Carly riding their bikes in front of me while Jackie showed Carly the neighborhood.

"I'm going to go on home!" I shouted behind them. They did not stop to say goodbye, they did not ride their bikes past my house to make sure I got home all right, they did not even wave goodbye. That day, Jackie and I's friendship began to fall apart.

For the next week or so Jackie and Carly were two peas in a pod. I would spot them riding around the neighborhood together, enjoying the summer days while I rotted inside or swam alone in my pool. I became lonely and the loneliness lasted a few weeks.

Then, an angel called out to me and rang on my doorbell, awakening me from my slump. She knocked on the door and was excited about something. My mom called me to the door and I ran out of my bedroom and skidded to a halt at the door. My dear friend Olivia! Her normal pale skin, short brown hair with high lights, a pointy nose and dark brown eyes! She stood before me and invited me outside.

"Do you want to walk around?" She asked me, "Some new people moved in and they are all over at Max's." Olivia was two years older than me and she was going into sixth grade.

My hope deflated for a moment, "I've already met Carly."

"Who's Carly?" She asked, "I'm talking about the brothers, they are all over at Max's and we are playing volleyball. It's really fun."

I smiled brightly, called goodbye to my mom and headed out the front door. Not even bothering to wear shoes.

I lived on the end of Oak Street and Max lived across the street, on the corner, next to an alleyway. Next to his house was a huge field filled with corn that grew taller than me. He had a really big side yard and every summer they had a different set up over there. That summer it was volleyball, the next two it was a moon bounce, and then they settled down with a nice tetherball.

After looking both ways and ran across the street to his house. When we got there I was surprised to see how many people were there. It was filled with teenagers; people my age, and middle-aged young folks. That meant ten, eleven, or twelve.

I recognized a few people but I was clueless as to who most of them were. I saw Max but I did not see anybody who looked remotely similar to Carly.

"They'll be here soon," Max, explained, "They had to do some chores and finish unpacking some stuff." Max had short, curly black hair that could make a fine Afro if he let it grow far enough. He was dark skinned and I had known him since I was about five. Max had a learning problem, he could not read very well or learn very well. But he was very nice and I never thought that anything was wrong with him until people started pointing things out. But I will get to that later.

We took out a ball and hit it back and forth over the net. I thought I was amazing when I dove for a ball but it turns out I just looks ridiculous when I hit the ground and a cloud of dirt puffed up around me. I would stand up and brush the dirt off of myself and then hit the ball again. I did not care what other people thought about me. I was having fun.

We played like that for a while, Olivia, Max, and myself. The other teenagers, including the ditsy teenage girls who lived around the corner from me but next door to Max, stood around and socialized about god knows what. I figure they were waiting for the newbies to arrive.

We stopped playing and started goofing off, getting tired of waiting for the newbies. Finally they arrived. They had cut through the alleyway that led from their street to Max's house. I saw the older one first, he was tan too, but unlike his sister he had curly dark hair and was taller. He immediately went over to the teenagers after he said hi to the three of us. I watched him walk over to the teenagers and they embraced his presence happily. They had obviously met already.

Then I saw him: the most beautiful boy to ever walk this planet. He approached us and my heart stopped beating. He was so cute! My legs went numb and I felt a strange feeling in my chest, a fluttering feeling that made me feel sick. My entire body went fuzzy and I felt warm and cozy. I felt like everything was going to be all right.

"Hi, I'm Erik." He introduced himself, "You've met my sister haven't you?" He asked me. He was talking to me! I was speechless.

"Yes," I managed to choke out. Olivia was concealing a smirk. My cheeks turned red and the fluttering in my chest got worse.

"Sorry, about that. We aren't all like her, you know." He smiled, "She is the mean one in the family. Just ignore her."

He was nice too!

I smiled a crooked smile, "Err okay?"

You know that feeling you have when you eat something sweet? It gives you that warm feeling of comfort, of peace and it makes you feel like everything is all right in the world? That was how it felt when I first met him. All the troubles in the world melted away and it was just the two of us.

From the first moment I laid eyes on him, I knew I was in love with him.

A/N: What do you guys think so far? R&R!