Mr. Clyde

1

My mother always told me, from a very young age, that love isn't something you go searching for. Lost things are always found in the last place you look and if you're always looking you'll never find it. Love is a magic thing that finds you when you least expect it. I never believed her until one day it snuck into my life right under my nose. However, this isn't a story about love. No, this is the story of a girl who found her place in this world with a little magic in unexpected places along that way.

An almost true fairytale if you will....

I can't really know where to begin, the beginning I suppose, but where exactly is the beginning in a lifetime full of memories? Let's try January, since it is the calendar beginning of the year.

It was too cold for comfort like it was every January in the good ol' state of Utah. The ground was covered in sheets of ice from the snow melting a little with the sun, and freezing all over again with the stars; the sky blanketed in grey clouds, depressingly void of color. It was, in my opinion, the worst month of the year and I absolutely despised starting the new year out on such an empty feeling every year. On this particular day, I was throwing myself one of my many pity parties I had throughout this season. I have what they call 'Seasonal Depression' and winter is always my trigger season when it comes to that department.

Side Note: The official medical term for Seasonal Depression is 'Seasonal Affective Disorder,' which would make the acronym S.A.D. Doctors have a very sick sense of humor.

Anyways, I was binge watching my list of sad romance movies, some of which included: Beastly, Forever Strong, Remember Me, and The Bridget Jones Diary, along with my entire collection of Nicholas Sparks movies.

"I'll never let go!" I sat, huddled in my mountain of fluff and feathers, tears streaming down my cheeks as I watched Jack sink into the bottomless ocean. I buried my face in my pillows in an attempt to muffle my over dramatic sobs over the death of the most perfectly charming fictional character that would spring back to life the second I hit replay. Attempt Status: Failed Miserably.

As the credits rolled across the screen, I heard my door creak open slowly. I peeked up from my pillows ever so slightly, stray hairs from my extremely messy, messy bun glued to my tear-stained cheeks. "Well aren't you a sorry sight," came a familiar chuckle of the one friend I still held close to my heart; Amber Jane. She, however, preferred AJ. She waltzed over to my window as I furiously wiped away tears in a desperate attempt to look somewhat sane. Her long legs made it a three step trip, allowing me only seconds to compose myself before she ripped back my black curtains, exploding my bedroom is a dull, grey sunlight.

"Come on," she teased, tugging on my blankets. I tugged harder, pulling them over my head as I collapsed back into my pillows. "Get up! We are so going to get some coffee right now and pull you out of the god damn funk you've got going on."

Funk: My current state of utter sadness and disappointment that my ex-boyfriend, who had also been my first boyfriend, left me in after dumping me a week prior to this encounter.

Traxton and I had only been together about three weeks when he texted me the cliche, "I'm just not ready. I don't want to hurt you," text I had heard a thousand times. Three weeks, no big deal right? Wrong. I was one of those girls at this time in my life, and I know you know the type. A hopeless romantic, I believe is what they are called. I was 18 years old during this occurrence, and my experience under the 'relationship belt' was... well about three weeks. I had waited and waited for years for my first boyfriend, with dreams that he would be my last, and that we would have the greatest relationship ever and get married and have babies. It has never dawned on me how inconceivably naive I once was; I know, major eyeroll right? Well, I was beyond disappointed that it had ended so quickly. It didn't necessarily put an end to my naive spirit, I'm sure I'll carry that with me for the rest of my life, but it certainly bruised my little ego.