Broken Pieces

| Prologue |

My opinion on love had never been the best, possibly due to my lack of experience in the area, but mostly due to the fact that almost every relationship around me crashed and burned -- like my parents, for example. It was a subject that due to my belief in the fact that no one would understand, I never went into detail with anyone, not even my best friend, Brooklyn Richardson.

So as she stood next to me by my locker, the sound of her voice fading into the background as I exchanged books, I avoided expressing my opinion in her relationship with our mutual friend from elementary school, Jake Miller, not wanting to dampen her chirpy mood with my lack of belief in love.

"So, are you going to the party next Friday?" She asked, thankfully changing the previous topic, which consisted of her speaking of her allegedly perfect relationship with Jake.

"Hell yeah," I replied, excitement seeping into my tone as I sent her a content smile. "Maybe that will be my chance to finally lose it."

A sigh escaped Brooklyn's lips, her expression switching from chirpy to stern in a matter of seconds. "Skyler, we've talked about this before..." Her voice drifted off, light blue eyes shining under the light of the hallway as she looked at me, her gaze knowing, warning.

Instead of starting a pointless banter like we'd usually been doing each time the subject was brought up, I sent her a look, hoping that she'd understand that I didn't want her to dampen my mood with her motherly behavior.

"I just don't understand what's the rush." They were the same words she always told me, my mind drifting off to the dozens of times she had said that in one week, a headache already threatening to take over my head.

Regardless of how much I loved my best friend --who'd grown to be like a sister to me-- I simply wished she'd respect my decisions, understand where I was coming from. She had always supported my decisions, however this one, she wasn't anywhere near fond of. And if I saw it from her point of view, someone who was left unaffected by the way everyone seemed to get hurt by serious relationships, I supposed that I wouldn't agree with myself either. But for me, a person who knew how her own father left her mother while she was pregnant, the last thing I wanted was a relationship. One of my biggest fears was to be hurt the way my mother had been hurt, so instead of taking the risk to end up with someone as heartless as my father, I'd resorted in completely avoiding relationships -- which was a smart decision, in my point of view. I just wished my best friend would think the same way as me, or at least support me.

I sighed, banging my head against the locker once I'd closed it. "I just want to get this over with. I need to find someone like Ryan," I muttered, referring to Ryan Hawkins, known as the schools most popular playboy, who was also an acquaintance of mine since elementary school. "Regular guys are way to serious over this stuff."

She frowned, looking to be deep in thought as she stared at me questioningly. "Please don't tell me you're considering Ryan."

Ryan --except for being a playboy who slept with half the female population at school-- wasn't at all bad person, and I'd known him since we were kids, seeing as he was Jake's best friend. Him, along with Jake --who'd become my closest friend right after his girlfriend-- had begun hanging out with Brooklyn and I ever since she developed a small crush on Jake in elementary school, my best friend going to the lengths of even sitting with them at lunch, dragging me along with her. Although I personally never spoke to Ryan (Save for an occasional 'hey'), which left me wondering why him and I never dared to utter a single word to each other, instead settling for ignoring each other's presence at school, the action soon becoming that of an unspoken rule.

However, I found him very attractive, regardless of the fact that I found it disgusting that he was always making out with someone at school. And when I came to think of it, it wasn't that bad of an idea, my knowledge in the fact that Ryan Hawkins would never want anything serious making him the perfect candidate; just one night, no strings attached.