The Country Boy and The City Girl

Every Superman Has a Kryptonite

Kent's POV

I really didn't know what to do about Daniella. She wasn't the same San Diego girl I knew before, lively and spontaneous. The Daniella that stood before me now was worn and weathered, broken like a tamed horse. I loved her....That's what drove me to her. Every part of her was a part of me but I should've seen the cracks in her smile over summer...She was "happy"...but I knew that she was trying too hard to hide that she wasn't.

"Will you come down from there? You'll break something."

Danni tightened the straps of her black and white cheetah print bikini and giddily hopped around on the edge of the outcropping cliff over the lake. We had a lake not too far from the house but she wouldn't set foot near it for some reason, said it had painful memories or something. She insisted on driving out to this one...

"Don't be such a baby, Kent!" she laughed. "If you don't take risks, you'll never have fun!"

"Never have injuries either!" I called back to her with a worried shake in my throat. This was crazier than the Daniella I used to know...It's like that awful Twilight:New Moon movie but in reality...

I stood on the ground, vigil as she threw her body off the edge of the jagged rock over the glittering water below. The wind rushed up over her, long blonde hair thrashing and blowing straight up above her as she plummeted closer to the lake.

In that moment, time slowed down. I studied her tanned silhouette, tensed up and braced for the leap, and realized how much she had changed. Her eyes were bright and alive with the adrenaline, the same baby blue they had always been but somehow completely strangely new. And then there was her smile. Yes, sometimes it was genuine and warm...but there were times when she smiled that another girl was screaming and fighting to find a way out from the inside. Every whim if crazy plans, every distraction, and every laugh were all a cover up. She was in pain. She was torn. She wanted to be in two places at once. All for him.

As she broke the surface of the lake, her figure became engulfed in the open waters. I knew when she surfaced that the adrenaline would be gone, her distraction would evaporate, and she would look for a new one. If she wasn't doing anything, she would think about everything and she had convinced herself that thinking was out of the question.

Part of me wanted to believe I could change her, bring her back to the old us. The other part knew that I was in way over my head and the old us was long gone. But I loved her. That's all I really had to drive me...

"Kent..." she said as she waded out of the water and came up to me.

"Hmm?"

"Do you really love me?" she played with my dog tags from my last swim championship.

I steadied her hands, still quivering from the rush of the jump, and took them in mine tenderly. "More than anything."

She searched my eyes and found the certainty I knew they had, not answering or saying it back. I knew why. I knew how she felt about telling someone they loved them. She only said it when she knew for sure that it was true. But...Right now, I don't think she was sure of anything..."It's okay," I whispered as the tears filled her eyes. "I understand..."

"Come on," she steadied as she wiped away the tears. "I think I saw a higher rock down a ways to jump off of."

The memory faded away as reality set back in, filling my vision with the dark blue walls of my dorm room once again. I never see my roommate due to his excessive partying, so it was just me. Alone. Hoping Daniella was thinking about me as much as I was thinking about her and wondering what crazy thrill seeking adventure she would try next...