Chapter One

A Chapter by

Currently a work in progress :) More chapters soon!

Sometimes I feel like I’m not myself. Like I am acting like a girl named Iris Hart, but I am truly someone else.

I wandered through our school’s library searching for a book for my next reading project. I pulled a book from the shelf with a bright red spine and golden letters. It was titled loveless I opened it up and flipped to the story’s description. It was a tragic love story between a boy and girl. It sounded very average, but I took it with me anyways. Romance was my favorite genre and I read all the time.

I checked out the book and grabbed my backpack before leaving. I walked the three blocks home, since it was a beautiful summer evening. When I came home there was a bit of a commotion outside. The house next to mine had been sold recently and the new family was just moving in. My parents and older brother, Chris, were outside helping them carry in furniture. I thought I should help to so I dropped my things inside and headed over to them.

“Hi guys. I’m back.”

“Great, honey. Do you think you could help me with this couch?” My dad asked, lifting one side of a tan, leather couch.

I nodded and went over and lifted the other side. We carried it up the porch and squeezed it through the doorway. I had never been inside our neighbor’s house before and it was much larger inside than it appeared from the outside. There was a large family room when you walked in with a triangle ceiling and skylights. We set the couch down in the middle of the room beside two matching chairs and I wiped my hands on my jeans shorts. Someone peaked around from the hallway and came toward us.

“Holly, this is my daughter Iris. Iris this is your new neighbor Mrs. Holly Riddle.” She smiled at me and I shook her hand.

“Please just call me Holly.” She said sweetly. She had short blond hair and a smile so big her gums showed. She looked like one of those people who were overly caring and sweet to everyone.

“Nice to meet you, Holly.” I replied awkwardly. It felt strange calling her Holly, given she was probably in her 40s and I was only 16. Her husband Rob came to greet me too and we shook hands. He also requested I call him by his first name.

“We have a son, Jack. He’s your age, but I’m not sure where he got off too.” She glanced around and then faced me again. “I’m sure you’ll meet him soon, he’ll be going to school with you too.” She said. She gave me another too-big smile and left to gather more boxes.

I followed my father outside and we spent another good hour unloading brown boxes and classy furniture. Their white, paneled house started to look like a mansion next to our small, brick one.

We finally finished sorting and I sat on the grass to catch my breath from all the lifting. Jack had still not shown himself and my dad invited our new neighbors to a barbeque at our house. I led them through the wood gate to our back yard and pulled up some lawn chairs around the small, wood table.

While my dad grilled some burgers and chatted with the new neighbors I decided to take a walk. The sun was just setting on the orange sky, but it was still bright out. I walked around our block and stopped when I spotted someone collapsed on the ground beside a red bike. He laid uncomfortably on the concrete parking lot in front of an abandoned restaurant. I looked closer and noticed blood coming from a deep cut in his calf.

I rushed over and bent down beside him, he looked about my age and had soft, black hair with bangs. “Are you alright?” I asked him and he looked up at me. He had the most beautiful caramel, brown eyes I had ever seen. They were flooded by tears and showed horrible pain. He choked back the tears and tried to sit up.

“I don’t think I can walk.” He said in a hoarse voice. I looked closer at his wound and it was bleeding heavily. Not bad enough to go to the hospital, but he still must have been in a lot of pain. I put his arm around me and helped him up.

“I’ll take you to my house and my mom can fix you up, she’s a nurse. And we can call your parents to come get you then, too.”

He nodded in agreement, but pointed to his bent, red bike lying on the ground. “I got it.” I said and in my other hand grabbed it, struggling to balance him on my shoulder and roll the bike beside me.

He limped on one foot resting some of his weight on me while we walked slowly to my house, a block away. We didn’t talk the whole way, but it wasn’t awkward. I think he was in too much pain to say anything. By the time we got to my house his bleeding had slowed, but his leg and shoe were covered in it. We went around back, but my parents had moved inside since the weather had cooled down. I helped him into a lawn chair and went inside to retrieve my mother. I explained the whole story to her and she rushed outside with a first aid kit, followed by my father, our new neighbors, and myself.

“Jack!” Holly exclaimed as she saw the boy. She bent over him inspecting his leg as my mother cleaned him up. Robert also rushed to his side, looking shocked.

I was still a little confused though. “Jack?” I asked. Though no one answered me. All attention was on Jack. Holly and Robert started throwing questions at him and I slowly put the pieces together:

This was Jack, their son and my new neighbor. He had been riding his bike home when a branch got tangled in the front tire of his bike. Before he could stop, the bike snapped sideways and he was thrown off. He hurt his leg and couldn’t stand up. He was going to call for help, but his phone had broken when he landed and no one was around to hear him, until I came by.

My mom finished addressing his wounds, saying he would be fine, and retreated inside to put the first aid kit away. Before she even came back out though, the Riddle family had disappeared to their own house, Jack walking with his arm around his father.

It was only eight-thirty, but I was already exhausted. I fled to my room, skipping dinner, and collapsed on my bed. I hadn’t meant to, but as soon as my head hit the pillow I fell asleep.

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