Love, Anxiety, and Hidden Waterfalls

Chapter 1: The Rock

Bella's POV

There is one thing I live by, that is that if you were truly in love you never "get over it". I feel like people who claim they were so desperately in love but then break up and act like the other person doesn't exist, were never truly in love. I may have the appearance of someone who doesn't read books but I'm a secret book lover, and I've read enough love stories to know that there is a love that takes up your entire life and you will never get something like it again. Then again those stories never happen in real life, it's always that the nerdy girl turns the "bad boy" into something softer and they fall in love. Yeah, like that would ever happen.

I know that I've never truly been in love because I've only had one real relationship and it broke me. Not in the way that I can't exist without him, it broke me in the way that I wish I'd never met him then I wouldn't have all these problems. The him I'm referring to is none other than Dallas Carter. Even thinking of his name sends a shiver down my spine.

As I get up from my bed, I look at the clock. Oh look, it's 1pm, great, fantastic I've basically wasted half of one of the final days of summer before school. I head to my makeup room to start to get ready for the day, and when I say makeup room I really mean a tiny room that connects to my bedroom with a mirror, desk, chair, and all of my makeup in it. I might have a small obsession with makeup. I hate how in books the girl always just wakes up, brushes her hair and teeth, then she gets dressed and leaves. For me it's a long process.

Since it's still hot outside I do less makeup than usual, but I make sure to add my signature winged eyeliner. I don't feel like me without it. Then I just straighten my hair because it's too much work to try to do anything with my short hair. Once I'm done with my hair and makeup I struggle with what to wear.

I walk out into my mess of a room and look at the floor. On one side of the room there is a pile of clean clothes and on the other side there is a pile of dirty clothes. I walk over to the clean side and sit down, I scan through the pile of clothes and after about 15 minutes of debate I land on what to wear. Basically the same thing I wear every day, black capri leggings and some vintage band shirt that I've cropped.

I'm too afraid to wear shorts because I hate the way my legs look, but I have just enough confidence for a loose crop top. I always have to look in the mirror at least ten times before I leave the house even though each time I hate the way I look more and more.

I walk downstairs and as usual I'm the last one home. Mom and Dad are both at work. My brother, Trevor, is probably out with his football buddies bonding before the season officially starts. And my sister, Megan, is either at the library trying to find a good book or at the diner with her little group of friends.

I'm quite envious of my siblings. They both make friends so easily, I really only have one friend, my best friend, Taylor. The two of us have always been best friends since childhood. She thinks she knows the real me, but she only knows the image of me that I put out into the world. Me, but with fewer problems.

I just decide to grab a donut from the counter before texting Taylor telling her to meet me at our spot. I grab my purse, put my phone and keys inside it. Then I put on my converse that I wear everyday and my leather jacket, and then I walk outside. While it's hot I would rather be sweating from my leather jacket than get in a crash and get road rash all over my arms since I decide to take my motorcycle today because it's nice outside and I love the feeling of the blowing wind. I check my phone and I see it's now 2:45, so I don't have much of the day left. I put my helmet on and pull out of the driveway to head to our spot.

"Our spot" is a little hidden area in the small woods behind the diner in town. I live in a small town that basically consists of the diner, the store, the one neighborhood, and the two schools. Although one of the schools got closed so now they are combined. Which means that there are going to be even more people at our school to bother me. Not that many people know about our spot, Taylor and I discovered it one day when we were younger and feeling adventurous. I'm surprised that most people don't know about it, but I'm glad because it's our little escape.