The Heartbroken Heart-Breakers

Chapter 1

Winter was coming. This, Thea knew for certain. Fall had passed with only a few spoken words the night before, as her boyfriend of three years had ended things with her.

His chosen words went something like: "It's not you, it's me."

Sure, Thea was going off to college a few states away and he was staying behind in the small podunk town they had both been born and raised in for his senior year, but that didn't mean that they couldn't have tried a long-distance relationship first, right?

If Thea was being honest with herself, she knew that over the past few months, their relationship had begun to hit the rocks, but there was a small twinge in her brain that still bothered her that she had been the one to get dumped.

So all in one night, the trees had turned from green to fiery shades of red, to brown. Her relationship and past life had all fallen at her feet and now, as Thea sat in the car with her mother driving and her sister, Mary, in the backseat, she felt a frost slowly settling across her heart.

The sign thanking them for visiting Skyville Falls whisked in and out of Thea's vision, and the reality of what was happening slowly sank in.

She was leaving Skyville Falls forever. Sure, she would come back to visit, but it would never be her permanent residence again. She would always be floating between states, never knowing where she truly belonged until she found a life and a man of her own.

As if reading her thoughts, her mother reached out and grabbed her hand, giving it a squeeze. "You'll find what you're looking for at college. I did," she said encouragingly.

"Hey, so now that you're gone at college can I date Nick?" Mary said from the back seat.

"Mom!" Thea yelled, swinging her purse wildly into the back seat hoping to blindly find her target.

When she heard her sister let out a screech, she knew that her purse had hit Mary. She looked back to see Mary wiping the foundation off of her face, as the bottle had flown out of her purse and had burst open on impact.

"Damn you, Thea!" she yelled, wiping more of the liquid off of her shirt, which was beginning to stain fast, "This was my favorite fucking shirt!"

As she reached out to smear some of Thea's clothes, their mother yanked Thea back into the front seat, keeping one hand on the steering wheel.

"Both of you stop!" she yelled. "Mary, how dare you ask your sister something so offensive a day after her break-up? You're too young to date anyways. And young lady, if you think of using that language one more time, your ass will be out on the street and you can walk home."

Mary opened her mouth to speak, but he mother cut her off. "No," she said and turned to face Thea, "And you. That was totally uncalled for, but I know how hard break ups can be, so I'm going to let this one slide."

Thea felt her face burning with anger. Her mother had no idea what it meant to be dumped. She had never been dumped a day in her life. She had consistently bragged to Thea that she had never given a man the pleasure of ending a relationship with her. She didn't even let Thea's dad end the relationship, as he was served with divorce papers from her mom right in a big business meeting.

Thea did have to give her mom credit though. Her mom knew exactly how to go out with a bang.

The next few hours in the car was spent with Mary in the backseat singing along to the hideous songs that her mother so adored during her "young years," and Thea trying to block out the sound and focus on the soothing music she had on in her ears.

Thea never got panic attacks, but sometimes when she got very stressed, her mind would just go into a shut down mode and she wouldn't be able to focus on anything. Her vision would get kind of blurry and she would feel as though she was going to pass out.