Blurb: reminisce ˌrɛmɪˈnɪs/ verb indulge in enjoyable recollection of past events.
Lost in deep thought, she smiled to herself. But the smile on her face didn't mean she was happy. She couldn't possibly be happy when she woke up every morning remembering the one thing she'd been trying to forget. It seemed that was all she'd been doing lately, remembering .
"Everything okay? Anything you want to talk about?"
She wanted to speak, but knew she couldn't express herself without giving it all away. All she wanted to do was cry, but she'd cried enough already. So she fought back the urge to talk and shook her head no. But what she wanted to say was...
"I was insecure and wanted love more than anything in this world. Then Coby came along and I finally felt wanted.
Now he's gone and I'm nothing without him."
Chapter One: Laurie awakened, and for a split second, she'd forgotten about the dreadful events of yesterday afternoon, and simply enjoyed the comfort of her bed. That was, of course, until the realization that yesterday had not been something she'd dreamt up. Coby Reagan was dead . The deep, throbbing pain inside her head and the heavy sags that lined her eyes only added to the mix of emotions plunging at her stomach and pulling at her hair.
She groaned, rolling onto her side. In less than a few hours, her perfect day, the one she truly thought had been incomparable, turned into a day she wanted to erase from time itself. Pulling the duvet over her head, she let the tears fall down like rain.
Coby was her secret and she was his. Nobody knew. Nobody got in the way. He made her feel special, like the time they'd spent together, holding hands, cuddling, kissing one another. It wasn't just a fling, but love.
She wiped her dampened eyes and let her body slowly slip from the sheets. Lightheaded and dizzy, she steadied herself, stretching out her arms as she dragged her feet toward the bathroom. Above the basin, a mirror hung from a thread of ribbon. Too scared to glance at her own reflection, Laurie avoided the mirror and turned the tap, fingering the flowing water that rushed out. She imagined herself looking rather fatigued, her narrow, oblong face, pale at the cheeks, her brown eyes clouded, circled with dark bags and her hair a mangled mess from tossing and turning.
She splashed lukewarm water over her face and remembered a fact she'd gotten out of a book in the library; It's scientifically proven splashing water into your face helps you calm down.
A line of stress pinched at her forehead. She wanted to be calm. calm kɑːm/ adjective 1. not showing or feeling nervousness, anger, or other strong emotions.
She could feel the tears again and fought them back. It sucks, you know, when everything is going fine, and then it all comes crashing down again. But this time around, it wrecked her only safety barrier; Coby.
"Did you know him well?"
"He lived across the road, but we never talked. I saw him in the hallways and on the oval at school. He seemed like a nice guy, very quiet though. He held the door for me a few times and offered me a drink at his mother's neighborhood barbecue. But apart from that, I barely knew him."
The words slid over her lips and passed through the air without hesitation. After all, Laurie was used to lying to people who trusted her. But it never failed to surprise her how easily people tended to believe even the most obvious of lies.
It was a cold morning with high wind. She put her hands in her pockets and stared across the pavement towards a park. It took her back to a day where she and Coby had
