One Second. That’s all it took for my life to change. It started with a new student, and then we met. We had a fast friendship; he seemed like a decent person. A few bad decisions later I found myself living a life I never thought could happen to me. Then there was the unexpected death. God knows I didn’t see that one coming. My life was perfect I had life in the palm of my hands. Popularity, the beautiful girlfriend, a loyal yet annoying best friend and my family was happy. I was perfect. I always did what my mamma told me, I had the best grades in my class, and I still had time to lead the football team to state championships. Nathanial Stevenson was the epitome of perfect.
The truth is, perfection is impossible to reach. I am not perfect. Never have been and never will be. We all make mistakes, my mistake just so happened to be fatal. I was too far gone to come back. Death was banging on my door, and I was going to answer it with a big fat smile on my face and my bags packed.
One week earlier
“Ahhhhh” the people in the stands were loud. The sound of the crowd cheering my name was my motivation. I knew we had to win this game in order to make it to the play-offs, and I didn’t plan on letting the people down. I was dodging men left and right, my game was on point tonight. As I ran into the end zone, I jumped into the air and slammed the ball to the ground. I then proceeded to blow a big fat kiss to my girlfriend in the cheerleader section. Stephanie Wilbraham is the most absolute beautiful girl I have ever seen. Her long brown hair was tied back giving me a clear view of her hypnotizing dark green eyes. She had on a long sleeve shirt underneath her uniform and her long legs were on display. She gave me a smile and a wink, and then proceeded to go talk to her coach.
We won the game 46 to 10, and this had me hyped. We were so close to the championships and this victory felt like we were one step closer. After the game my best friend and I were going to take our girlfriends out on a double date. This was more to benefit my girlfriend and my best friend though. My best friend, Zach and my girlfriend, Stephanie, are twins and today was our first time meeting his new flavor of the week.
As I drove home to shower and get dressed, I thought about how long it took me to tell Stephanie that I had a crush on her. We were in the eighth grade and I was jealous because Bobby Tanner had asked her out and she said yes. To my surprise and great joy, the date ended badly leaving Stephanie covered in gummy worms and other unmentionables. By that Monday she had dumped Bobby and Zach was telling me it was the time to make my move.
After my shower and a fresh change of clothes I hoped in my car and made my way to the Wilbraham’s. When I pulled up I got out and Rung the doorbell. Looking at my watch I noticed that it was 7:00 on the dot perfect timing.
“Well look who it is, Nate I haven’t seen you in a while.” The sound of Ms. Wilbraham’s voice brought me out of my thoughts.
“Hello Kate It nice to see you too.” I gave her a smile. Kate was like a second mom to me. She was there for my dad and me when my mom passed away from cancer. If it hadn’t been for her and her family I think my dad and I would be living in the streets somewhere and we wouldn’t even know it.
“Come on in, the twins will be down in a second.” She told me, and then proceeded to yell for her kids to hurry up. When Stephanie walked down the steps, my breath caught in my thought like it had done so many times before. The dress that she was wearing was a royal blue color. The top was tight but didn’t show too much of her chest, and had some type of sparkly beads at the top. The bottom of the dress was puffy but not too puffy like a prom dress and stopped at her knees.
The moment was ruined when Zach came running down the steps almost knocking over his sister before stopping to make sure that she was okay. He may not admit it but Zach was very protective of his sister. I think the only reason he let me date he was because we grew up together and I’ve never really been the played type of guy (though I think he has that job handled for the both of us).
