How I met you.

Part 1

JAYDE

I had been walking around for almost two hours now, just trying to clear my head. I kept trying to reassure myself that what I had heard this afternoon was wrong.... My parents were absolutely not discussing matters of divorce. It. Just. Could. Not. Be. Not them, they'd been happily married for 18 years now, and had always seemed to be in love, so when I had overheard their conversation this morning, it didn't hit me as being real life. It just didn't seem true, I hadn't seen the signs, there weren't any, how could this even happen? Nothing made sense and I felt like my life was about to go up in flames. I don't think they even heard me enter the house with all their yelling, and because they hadn't heard me I was able to run straight out and not return home.

My phone had been ringing the past half an hour, I guess it would be them calling me wondering why my car was in the driveway at home when I was 1) Nowhere to be found inside and 2) I was supposed to be at dance practice. Truth be told I skipped out on dance practice to run home and tell my parents that I had won an internship interning for Portman and Miller, one of the country's largest entertainment companies. Little did I realise that returning home early that afternoon was a bad, bad mistake. What would happen to our lives if my parents were to split up? What would happen to my our family, our friends and our home? What would become of us? My mind was completely and utterly clouded with thoughts about insane possibilities, scenarios and outcomes.

So, to escape the paranoia in my mind, I continued walking, I knew where I was headed and before I knew it I had reached the base of Sullivans Hill. Usually I came here with my oldest brother, Frankie. We tried to come at least once a month but lately we'd been so swamped with school that we hadn't been here in three months. Usually I needed a lot of encouragement and bribery to make it to the top and Frankie usually bribed me with shopping trips. He hates shopping but shopping was a great incentive for me, and now that I'm here alone, with no incentive I sort of felt more determined to make it up on my own, just to prove to myself that I could do this willingly. I hated how it took me this long to realise how unhappy both my parent had been lately, mum was not her bright and cheery self, and she hadn't been in months. Dad was now away on so many 'business' trips the past few months and I didn't give these things a second thought. I can't believe that I hadn't paid enough attention to these signs, to our family. I was angry at myself, and now my plan was to make it to the top and scream, I needed a release and I knew screaming at the top of the hill would be just the release I needed.

Rounding a corner on the hill, I was startled to see something else up here, more specifically, someone else. Whoever they were seemed to be making themselves right at home. From what I could see, there was a small tent set up underneath a canopy of trees, a small campfire was burning and they seemed to be enjoying the view. I stood staring for a while trying to figure out why someone would want to camp out in the middle of nowhere but right then as if on cue, the figure sitting down turned around. First thing I noticed was that the figure was a he, and he had piercing blue eyes, brown short yet shaggy hair and a tattoo that trailed up and around his bicep. He was pretty damn attractive and oozed the whole bad boy vibe. A vibe I should definitely not be intrigued or entertained by.

"What are you doing here?" he asked warily. His voice was so husky, and I was frozen in place with a stupid, stumped deer in the headlights look on my face.  I admit I probably looked and smelt horrible. I knew I was covered in sweat, this uphill walk was not easy and my hair was probably flying all over the place but, before I could even muster up a reply he stood up. 

He was tall, wore a black form fitted tee that showed off his very defined torso, his jeans hung loosely around his hips and he had on a pair of black combat boots. He looked vaguely familiar but I knew he certainly did not go to my school. A boy like that could not go around unnoticed. 

Being on the top of nowhere, with one hell of a stranger where no one knew where I was, was all the reasons reasons I should be running right now, but for some reason my feet stayed superglued to the ground. He seemed guarded, mysterious and all of a sudden I wanted to know everything about him. Unable to move, I was blatantly staring at the guy in front of me, I was being so obvious it was embarrassing but I just couldn't look away. As much as I was staring, he was doing the same when suddenly, vulnerability flashed across his eyes. He quickly composed himself,  turned his chair my way and sat down... seemingly waiting for my answer.