Chapter 1
745 Words
I climbed to the top of the hill, a little winded. Audrey sat at the edge of the cliff, her feet dangling off the edge. She turned around and brushed her dark brown hair behind her ear. The orange glow of the sunset reflected in the face of her pink and gold watch. When the light hit her eyes just right, they looked like tiny emeralds. She flashed me a smile. "You're late."
"Sorry, I got stuck at work." I swung my backpack around and opened it. "But I got you this." I pulled out a sketchbook. I walked over to where she was sitting and handed it to her.
She eagerly grabbed it from me and started flipping through the pages. "You're the best!"
"I know." I smirked.
"At being egotistical."
I laughed and sat down next to her. "So, why'd you wanna talk?" I asked.
She put the sketchbook down and sighed. "My family's just being annoying." She laid down. "I swear they're trying to ruin my life."
"What'd they do this time?"
"You don't even want to know." She said. "Let's just say if you knew my family and what was going on with them, you'd want to break up with me. The moment I turn eighteen I'm going to run away to... Idaho!"
"Idaho? Why I daho?"
"I don't know."
She stared at the sky that was starting fill with the bright light stars. Those stars was what my mom told me drew her to Eastwood. She said she had stopped here on a road trip with her friends in college and she had fallen in love with the view. That's what she said, my father liked to claim that it had actually been him she had fallen in love with. Appaerently the morning after, my mom and her friends had gotten lost and they'd asked him for directions. Then when she first moved in she got lost again and asked him for directions and he asked her to get coffee.
Of course my father lied about a lot of things. Like that he owned a successful store. Successful my a*s. He was hitman and was laundering money through his "successful" store.
"Hey are you okay?" Audrey asked. "You seem upset."
While I was lost in my thoughts Audrey had rolled on top of me. Her face was a few inches from mine. My heart was pounding. What did I do to deserve you? I wondered. She was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. What did you do to deserve being killed?
"Seriously, what's wrong?" She asked.
"Nothing." I smiled.
She furrowed her brow and gave me a skeptical look. "You know you can talk to me, right? I'm sure you don't want to tell me everything, but you can always be super vague about it. I won't pry any deeper like you do."
"I told you already it's nothing. If it was something I'd tell you." I noticed how close she was to the cliff. One small push and I would be able to clear my dads debt. But I couldn't bring myself to do it. Not yet. She had so much she needed to do first and so much I needed to tell her. I still needed to tell her I loved her. I was in love with her and I didn't know why. I had only known her two months, and we'd only been dating one. She was my first love and I wasn't sure how to tell her.
Audrey placed a gentle kiss on my forehead before rolling back onto the ground.
"Audrey, what's one thing you always wanted to do?" I asked.
"I don't know, I've always wanted to be a fashion designer." She said.
I rolled onto my side and looked at her. "Not like that, like, what's on your bucketlist?"
She bit her lip as she thought. "Hmm... I'd like to see my dad. He's been respecting my moms wishes and doesn't try to talk to us, but I miss him."
"He's in California, right?" I asked.
"He was, I'd have no way of knowing if her moved though."
Okay, so I find her dad, she sees him, and then I'll kill her. I thought. I was dreading the killing part but I couldn't do anything else.
- Writer
