Until Embry Met Eli

the beginning

But, my naive and seventeen-year-old self was cheated on with another, naive seventeen-year-old. Talk about cliché.

"You're right. But he doesn't deserve my goodbye. And honestly, I'm moving thirty minutes up the road - not across the country. He'll be fine."

One of my few highlights in moving away for college was to get father away from Danny. Even if it only meant thirty minutes.

"Are you seriously going to take all these books with you? You do realize there's barely enough room for our two beds in our dorm, let alone your massive book collection?" I treasured her change in subject.

"I'm going to be an English major, I'd feel lost without them," I jokingly confessed, but only slightly. I took a long look around my room at the towers of boxes and piles of clothes spread out on the carpet. My bedroom looked stripped of my childhood and it's memories. But I was eager, at least, for the opportunity in redecorating a new space. I had plenty of ideas, especially those that involved displaying my novels.

"What the hell do you keep looking at?" Louise had been glued to her phone the second she got to my house, but not that much had changed. Continuous swiping and soft giggles kept coming from her direction of the room.

"I'm on the school's dating app, I already told you about this," she said, while waving her phone at me.

"What school?"

"Our new school. WPU? Ring any bells?" Our new school, I thought. That was weird to say. "I literally already told you about this."

The slightest recollection came to mind of Louise babbling on about this dating app while I began packing last week.

"Oh yes...I remember, I think," I respond.

"Ugh, Em, you're terrible. Promise me you'll at least sign up?"

"I don't even know what the heck it is," I continue to fold my clothes into the vacant room in my suitcase, all the while dismissing the idea of downloading this thing already.

"It's an app where you can talk to boys from our school and actually put yourself out there for once," Louise said with a grin painting the thought, "you have no choice."

"No one is gonna match with me on that thing, I mean look at me." I didn't think of myself as ugly, but I definitely didn't think of myself as pretty, like Louise. She had natural blonde hair and blue eyes, like every main character of fan fiction I had ever read. And to top it off, she had the perfect figure to go along with it.

As for myself, the only thing I had really going for me was my natural, red curls. And I wasn't even that fond of it to begin with.

"I will not take anymore self-slander, from this moment forward. And besides, the app keeps your identity anonymous. You don't even put up a picture."

"Well this seems legit," I laughed in doubt. What kind of dating app doesn't include selfies?

"The whole point is to get to know someone's personality and not judge someone by their looks. You and your fascination for novel-writing and character description, this should seem right up your ally."

She almost has a point there, I thought. But nothing good ever came from these types of apps. I've watched Louise use dating apps to find guys she thinks are into her, but then just use her in the end and leave me to hear about it - and of course, I've said "I told you so."

"Come on, Em, this is exactly what you need! To forget about Danny and find someone else, it's the perfect way to start your first year of college! Screw your books."