Chapter 1

It all started out with a text message...

[We are through Jayden. I am going to date Aaron.]

With that Jayden's world seemed to literally crash down around him. Melodie, the girl he had been dating since the beginning of middle school, was dumping him on the first day of their sophomore year in high school. Jayden was sitting on his bed with his cell phone in his hand thinking of every mistake he ever made with her. He knew his friend Aaron Young was in love with her. Aaron was almost 6 feet tall with a strong manly figure. Jayden intellectually couldn't blame Melodie for dumping him over for Aaron. While Aaron had been working his way into Melodie's heart, Jayden had become distant about their relationship, thinking that he would always have her to fall back on. Now it seemed that he was thoroughly dumped, and more important, alone to face high school.

Aaron and Jayden were both what you would call handsome jocks, but they played different sports. Jayden played basketball, while Aaron played football. Aaron had generally been single for a long time. Even after losing Aaron as a friend Jayden had other friends he could call upon. Trevor Pace, Talia Vega, Stefanie Grace, and Chad Hollander were available, but at the late hour of midnight, Jayden knew not to call any of them.

"I can't believe she dumped me..."

I said to myself as I flopped back on my king size bed, looking at the text on my phone absently. I heard a noise at my door, and looked up to see my little sister Kiara. I was extremely protective of the 12 year old. Not to the point of overbearing obsession, but in the typical big brother way. She looked at me and could instantly tell that something was off about me; we had a close enough connection for that. She was looking worried as she approached my bed.

"What's wrong Jay?"

"Nothing, seriously, go and get some sleep."

I said it a little too hurriedly and dismissively for her to believe me. Instead, she sat down on my bed with a frown and leaned in to check my forehead like our mother always did whenever one of us was feeling down.

"You're hiding something from me and lying. You promised a long time ago to never lie to me ... about anything Jay."

I sighed to myself in resignation as I briefly remembered the conversation. I still really didn't want to talk about it now or worry my sister, who actually should be asleep by now. Still, I did promise her and I usually made good on my promises.

"I'll tell you later alright? Now please get out."

I loved my sister to pieces, but like any other 16 year old, I wanted privacy in my own room.

I watched her walk out the door, to go sleep and be ready for school. She closed the door behind her as she exited the room. I was in turmoil with my warring emotions. Some told me to simply move on and try to find a new girl. Those thoughts were pushed away quickly by another consideration. Being with her for so long, put me in a place where I didn't have much experience with other girls. And even though I had made love with Melodie before, it wasn't as great as I thought it would be. Yeah ... my life was about to go through some changes. With that self revelation, I turned off my room light. The light brown walls and dark brown furniture made my room eerily dark. With a sigh to myself, I embraced my pillow and fell asleep.

I woke up to the blaring sounds of my radio alarm clock. I was welcomed by the sound of Y100. Y100 is one of the best radio stations in Florida. I live in the Pembroke Pines area. It took me over an hour to get ready for school. I was wearing my favorite tank top which defined my well toned muscles and some blue Tommy Hilfiger jeans and a blue jacket over my tank top. My shoes were a pair of black and blue Nike dunks; in short I was dressed to kill on my first day of being single.

"Jayden! You better hurry and catch the bus ... I'm not driving you again." My mom yelled at me from the bottom of the stairs.

I grabbed my bag and went down the steps. While I was sure my mom would drive me, I tried not to put so much pressure on her. Raising two kids by herself is no easy task. My Dad left the family shortly after Kiara was born promising he would come back after he 'found' himself; needless to say we haven't heard from him since. After, running out to the bus and barely making it on time, I slumped down in my seat and waited till the bus arrived at school.

Thinking about school lead to discouraging thoughts about what was going to happen at school today.

What's going to happen when I see Aaron and Melodie together? I don't think I will be able to stand it at all. I thought Aaron was a true friend and he steals my girl like this? Nah, it'll make me seem stupid if I fight him, Melodie chose him and there is nothing I can do about it but try to move on. I guess for now I can try to ignore them until my feelings for Melodie disappear. Yeah, I have to do this, plus it's high school and who wants to be tied down anyway?"

With this in mind, I was able to lean back and merely look ahead as I thought of how the day would play out. I was pretty sure I could just ignore them. I didn't think that Aaron and Melodie would be within our group of friends anymore.

After being dropped off at school, I walked over toward the most inner part of the school, called the box. The box was where most people came to hang out with their respective groups in the sunlight of a typical Florida day. The box had three palm trees, with lush green leaves that at certain times of the year produced delicious mangos. I noticed that Stefanie and Chad were already waiting on the steps to a higher area of the box. I smiled faintly, still kind of shaken at the prospect of being alone.

They easily welcomed me saying, "Hey Jayden, we heard about you and Melodie. Are you gonna be alright?"

I winced at the use of Melodie's name slightly, and shrugged after the question was asked. I knew I wasn't in love with Melodie, heck how did I know what love really is after only having one girlfriend. This I knew intellectually, but then something occurred to me. I wasn't feeling bad because I had lost Melodie but I felt bad because I was alone. These thoughts were cut off when I realized that I had been silent for too long.

"So how did you find out? She just texted me last night. Did she put it on facebook or something?"