Afterlife

Chapter One-The Flashback

A bright flash overtook my vision like one strobe of light in a pitch black room. Then everything became foggy. Clouds danced around me as I was rested motionless on the ground of the white-walled room. I peered around me through the haze, noticing everything was white. There were white curtains covering the windows, white carpets, and a white doorway. I lifted my head up slightly and saw that I was not at all lying down on the floor, but placed on the comfort of a soft white mattress of a white iron bed frame. A faint buzz sounded at the side of my ear, but I quickly tuned it out.

                My eyes felt heavy once again. I didn't have time to question further where I was before falling in to a deep trance. My eyes drooped closed, and I was then pleasantly and bitterly reminded of everything I had left behind.

                It was the ninth grade: my freshman year of high school. I was at a new school, meaning new friends and new teachers, but nobody knew me. It wasn't difficult to make friends. At Easton High, it was so small town that there weren't a lot of options, but when someone new came, people jumped at the opportunity. I didn't exactly like the attention, but I also didn't mind being the new girl.

                However, my reign was cut short. I still grew up in the same town as everyone else, but just transferred schools during my freshman year. Someone actually moving in from out of town, and furthermore, from out of state, was almost always unheard of. It made Harris James' case very rare.

                His family came from the south, with the sole purpose of buying out and running a large corporate farm that needed a new sense of leadership. Harris' dad signed the deal, and moved the entire family to Arlington, Iowa. The family looked perfect from mine and the rest of the town's outside perspective. The mother was beautiful: a true and pure southern lady. She raised three boys in to the most ideal kind of gentlemen: Clayton and Trey were the oldest. And then there was there third son: Harris James.  

                Harris, being the youngest child of the three brothers, was also in the same grade as me. He started school on the first day of the second semester. It was no secret to who he was when he walked through the walls on that very day.

                His family had bought the largest property in town. The gorgeous hundreds of acres their house rested upon made every other house look like a sad excuse. Not to mention, the estate was beautiful. It had white paneling with black shutters, and a stunning red door with a glass mosaic. Harris came from wealth, and that made him all the more appealing to every girl in my high school.

                He wasn't beautiful though, not at first. He grasped the attention of others because of the impact his family made when moving in to a small town, but he was still just a boy. His glasses were slightly too big for his face. He had broken his nose a few weeks before moving to town, and wore a pale bandage across the bridge at that time. He was cute, but only cute compared to his brothers.

                It was the fifth day of April. We were in the same class but we never spoke a word to each other. I had a small group of friends at my school and we really only talked to each other. That's how it was in small towns. You stuck together, and only together.

                It wasn't until a fateful day that I had ever became acquainted with Harris. We had an English project due for our final quarterly grade. As she called out names of who would be working together, mine was coincidentally paired with Harris'. I sat across the room from him and looked over at him from the other side. At the sound of his name, he perked up from an obvious daydream and glanced towards me. When our eyes met, he did a modest half-smile and winked. I would never forget that moment even though it didn't seem like anything but playful at the time.