Prologue

"Kaden!" I called loudly ahead of me. "Kaden wait up! You're walking to fast, whats the rush?"
In front of me, Kaden Michaels slowed his pace so I could catch up with his long, quick strides. He muttered something under his breath.
"Whats that?" I asked with a smile as I matched my pace with his.
"I asked why you need so much stuff," he mumbled and gestured to the countless bags in his hands. "Why can't we just come back next week? The mall isn't going anywhere."
"Because," I answered quickly. Kaden's bright green eyes focused on my hazel ones. "We only get to visit the mall once a week! You never know, they might not have what I want when we come back next week. I'm just beating them to the punch."
"You are a total girl," he smirked. I pulled a few bags from his hands.
"But you loooove me anyway," I replied in a taunting voice. Kaden smiled a 'yes' in response.
Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Krista Miller. I'm your average seventeen year old girl. Well, I'd like to think I'm average. Besides the lightest hazel eyes that you have possibly ever seen, I'm pretty normal. I just turned seventeen a few days ago, to top it all off. This shopping trip is an excuse for me to spend all my birthday money, and to torture Kaden, my boyfriend.
Kaden Michaels is my best friend, my boyfriend and just an all-around cool person. We've been together almost a year, now. I guess you could call what we have serious, but I love him, and that's all that matters. Kaden is only older than me by a month, and has the most gorgeous green eyes ever!
"Alright," Kaden sighed and divided the remaining bags equally into his hands. "Lets get out of this place of evil."
"Its Saturday!" I exclaimed. "Whats the rushed?"
"Its a Saturday we could be spending not here," he groaned. "A Saturday we could be spending at the movies or at the lake."
"But this particular Saturday is one that we are spending shopping, so toughen up and take it like a man. Plus, I need somebody tough to shop with."
"For what?" he asked with a side-glance. I smiled.
"For when the going gets rough," I replied. "And you're my tough guy, there to fend off all the crazy estrogen-fused hysteria when it erupts." Kaden smiled his off-set, crooked, 'signature smile', as I called it.
"What?" he asked when he saw me looking at him.
"Oh, nothing, just your smile, I think I'm in love!"
Kaden chuckled. "So what if I decided to stop smiling one day?" Kaden joked. Always the joker, he was. Its one of the many things that the two of us have in common, we're always joking around and laughing. Its what we do, and if I do say so myself, we're pretty darn good at it.
While I was conjuring up a reply, Kaden got restless and tugged on my black "My Imaginary Friend Doesnt Like You Either," shirt to make sure I was still with him.
"If you were to ever stop smiling," I began as we turned the corner by the 'Hollister' clothing store and made our way towards the exit. "I would have to permanently duct tape and/or superglue the corners of your mouth into their respective areas so, that way, you would haev no choice but to smile."
Kaden laughed and shook his head. "Very creative," he commented. "Alright, to save you time and money, I'll just keep smiling of my own free will."
When we finally reached the exit doors, Kaden tried to pull a chivalrous move and hold the doors open for me with his back and paused to let me through. Just to annoy him (which is something I do really well, apparently I bent down and began to tie the shoelace on my left, black, ripped converse.
"Oh come on! Cant that wait until we're in the car?"
"Nope," I replied simply. "Don't you know that untied shoelaces are chocking hazards?"
"Thats why you wear slip-ons like me, Krista." I shrugged. maybe I don't want to wear stinky slip-on shoes like him. Although the green and black checkerboard pattern on them is pretty badass... wait... no.
"Okay, okay, Mr. Impatient Pants. I'm done," I stood up, grabbed the bags and preceeded to walk out the door.
"Took you long enough!" he exclaimed. I didnt have to look at him to know that he had a smile plastered to his face. I just know him so well. I shielded my eyes with my free hand from the blinding sun that glinted off every single car in Ashford Mall parking lot.
"Good golly Miss Molly," I groaned. "At least there are some clouds in the sky."
"Come on, our car is this way," Kaden reassured me as he led the way to his car. Finally, after what seemed like years later he finally found his green Volkswagon Beetle (of whom he fondly named Christina). The two of us got in the car, and strapped ourselves in.
"Alright lunch," Kaden said once he got the car started and the A.C. on. "Where would you like to go? My treat."
I scowled. That was Kaden for you, the chivalrous one. I thought about it for a moment before finally answering:
"Taco Bell."
Kaden was silent and gazed at me for a long moment. "What!" he exclaimed. "Out of the hundreds of restaurants in all of Ahsford, you want to go to Taco Bell?" I dont know what Kaden is so upset about. He knows he wants tacos, too.
"Yes, Taco Bell. My tummy is hungry and I listen to my tummy all the time. And my tummy wants TACOS!"
"Alright, alright," Kaden groaned as he pulled the car out of the parking lot and drove it onto the freeway. "Tacos it is. Today, Krista gets what she wants," He smiled at me, and I returned it.
Fourty-five minutes later, Kaden and I were back in the car and on our way home. It only takes us a few minutes to eat, and soon, we were speeding down the highway until Kaden made the turn to the off ramp and on the road that would take us home. Kaden and I live in Ashford in the state of Trent. Its a nice place, the people are very accomodating and dont abate you very much.
"Hm, I didnt notice how bad the clouds were before," Kaden murmured glaring at the quickly darkening sky. Inwardly, I groaned as I looked at the clouds, too. The sky looked like it was going to turn homicidal. By 'homicidal' I mean a giant thunderstorm. They're not regular in Ashford, but when they do show their ugly faces, they're huge... and loud. You see, the thing with Kaden is, he doesnt really do well in thunder storms; this is strictly due to one specific night when he was seven. His step-dad forced, yes forced, him to watch very realistic zombie movies while it was storming like mad outside. And everytime the lightning would flash, his step-dad would make the scariest faces he could possibly muster (and professionally speaking, he didnt even have to try, that man is scary enough). The thunder would crash and Kaden would get scared to death because his step-dad would scare the crap out of him each and every time. So, Kaden hasnt coped well with the storms throughout the years. Poor guy.
The rain began to fall, hard.
"Slow up, Mario," I warned him. He sighed heavily and eventually let up on the gas. "Thanks," I muttered. He grunted.
BOOM! The first roll of thunder shook the sky. My head shot over in Kaden's direction. He was staring straight ahead, calm expression on his face and everything... then I looked at his hands. He was clutching the steering wheel tightly, with white knuckles. A blinding flash of white light streamed across the sky followed soon thereafter by the loud crash of the thunder. Kaden's jaw was clenched tightly. I reached over slowly and put my hand on his shoulder. Kaden jumped and nearly lost control of the car.
"Oh, God, I'm sorry!" I apologized with a hasty tone.
"Its okay, its okay," he managed to breathe. Soon, he started to talk to himself, I guess to keep his sanity while he worked to ge the two of us home, safe. "Dave, I'm gonna kill him for doing this to me. How could my mom marry a jerk like that? What was she thinking?" Dave is his step-dad. He went on mumbling to himself and I turned my head back to look at the road when I saw a pair of bright lights... right in front of use.
"Kaden look out!" I screamed as my arms shot down and my hands clutched the seat.
Kaden gasped sharply and jerked his hands to turn the steering wheel in an attempet to avoid the oncoming car which, thankfully, swerved the other way. Unfortunately, Kaden lost control of the car due to the slick road thanks to the pouring rain outside.
The car began to spin and twirled straight off the road where i preceeded to drive out of control down the steep hill. Kaden was cursing and trying his hardest to regain control of the car. 'We're gonna die' I thought to myself, over and over and over. I screamed and clutched the dashboard. A bright light flickered in the sky and disappeared as quickly as it came. The thunder roared loudly all around us as the car flew down the hill that only got steeper and as Kaden's car wrapped around a tree. I hit my head on the dashboard and heard a loud crack before I felt red-hot pain shoot up my right arm. I cried out and Kaden grunted loudly beside me.
The rain was coming down with a mighty force as i tried to look at Kaden but... the edges of my eyes were going fuzzy and I felt a wet substance run down the side of my head. I couldnt move and my world was fading.
"K-Kaden," I whispered so low that even I could barely hear it. His head thrown back and his chest rising and falling with each shallow breath was all that I saw of him before the darkness finally overcame me.

Author's Note

Enjoy

Reviews

[mirui]

This is amazing, I cant wait to read more. keep it up.