Prologue

She made it a known fact that day that she wanted nothing to do with him. Everyone knew about their bitter breakup, and even if they didn�t know, they had an idea. All they had to do was look into her cold, lonely eyes and figure out what had happened. That she obviously wasn�t happy. That behind the small, simple smile was an ocean of cold and dark emotions. Her broken heart was like an ocean. A cold, dreary ocean that had endured far too many storms. Deep inside herself she feared this ocean was only a raindrop away from drying up for good.

It was a breakup heard all over school. She had come to school the next day crying and terribly upset, and didn�t seem to mind that once her friends had heard about it, they had told everyone they knew. By two-thirty that day, she had gotten more sympathetic looks, hugs, and encouraging words then she knew what to do with.

He was fairly popular in his years past at Central Wayne High School. If the people at the high hadn�t been his best friend, they had heard his name. It was a common name around the school, considering he had a younger brother who was only a freshman and his parents were teachers. People who didn�t even know her knew they had broken up, and could only imagine her sadness. He was what most girls at Central Wayne would call a heartbreaker.

Her eyes did not dry completely until almost a year after he was gone. He wasn�t even fully gone from her life, either. Every so often he emailed her from college, or he�d give her a ring. And only weeks after they had first broken up, they bumped into each other at a party. He came over and visited a couple of times after he had left, but it was never the same. What they had shared could never be recaptured, and they both knew it. It saddened both of them, but they knew it.

The entire six months they had actually shared magic between them had been the best six months of her life. She had never met anyone like him, and never thought she would again. He was of a different breed, that was for sure. He was nothing compared to what she had experienced in her life before him. Men before him had thrown themselves at her feet, and practically begged her to step on them so she wouldn�t have to get her shoes dirty in the mud. It was nice, the first couple of days. After two or three days of worshipping the ground that she walked on, she would become tired of it and only want normalcy. None of the guys she had dated previously gave that to her.

But then she met him. It wasn�t one of those cosmic meetings where she just looked at him and knew it was fate. It was a mutual meeting. She had seen him walking around the halls of school but never even thought twice to look at him. He was just another unknown face in the sea of many people who were new to her that year. She was only a freshman and he was a senior. The only people she knew at that high school were in her own grade. But as her days went by in Central Wayne she grew to know more and more of the upper classmen every single day.

It was halfway into the year when finally, mention of his name by a close friend of hers was made. Still not knowing (or caring) who he was, she simply threw aside the name altogether. Besides, at the time she had a boyfriend. A boyfriend she had even been invited to prom with and someone she was starting to become quite weary of.

It turned out that this boyfriend she had and this unknown guy were very good friends. They shared some classes together and talked on occasion, but her boyfriend never really gave it more than that thought.

Some time later, this good friend of hers introduced her to him. She never even suspected he was going to be the first man she truly and deeply fell in love with. With other men, she had lost interest, and quickly. He never gave her the chance.

So, after seeing each other a little more and being able to talk some, they began to see each other outside of school. They talked on the phone for what seemed like days on end. The conversations they had had always gotten so intense. They never really put a stamp or a label on it, but only four or five weeks after they began talking, interest in each other spanned from friendship to something more.

Within months, they were in love. Within weeks of that, they were talking about the future. They talked about getting married, they talked about having kids, and they talked about what would happen after she graduated from high school and where she would go. She always thought she would just go to Michigan State (where he was accepted), buy an apartment with him and thus their life together would begin. He was coming to prom with her. They had so many plans.

Then one day, it all crashed down on top of her. He told her what he felt and she couldn�t understand why he felt that way. But nonetheless, when it came right down to it, it was over. Nothing she could do to stop it. It was gone.

She felt as though her life would never again be the same. She didn�t want to live without him. She fell in love so truly this time that she couldn�t just let him go. It wasn�t that simple. Everything reminded her of him, everything. The entire school illuminated with his very existence. Her house, her bedroom, her family, her friends, her friends� houses, certain streets, certain buildings, certain words, certain pictures, particular songs, and different movies. Her world had revolved around him and it wasn�t as easy to just stand back and watch him walk out of it. She had gone to great lengths in their relationship to make sure she never lost him. He had promised her forever, but apparently, forever in his eyes only meant a few months.

It never got any easier. Friends tried to help, but some just didn�t understand, and they never would. They knew how important he had been to her, but some just didn�t get how much she had really loved him. Because she had, more than anyone could ever know. And she didn�t stop crying over him until the middle of her junior year at Central Wayne. Over a year after they had actually broken up and close to two years after she had met him. That�s when she knew that she was fully over him. One day out of many that something happened and she just knew he was out of the picture. For good this time.