- Caleb -

After all of the deeds were signed over to myself, I now held my mother's keys, had her money in my account, and I didn't want any of it.

"Is there anything else, I gotta get ready for work." I said a little more brash than I had intended.

I'm sure these people suspected I only desired my mother's possessions and now that I have them I couldn't be bothered to dwell on her any longer, the evidence was in my trying to run out of their office.

This couldn't be further from the truth though.

"We're all done Mr. Gibbons." My mothers attorney announced with a sad smile.

"Caleb, please...it's just Caleb."

He nodded and shook my hand, I always hated to be acknowledged by my last name, that is my father's last name, he was Mr Gibbons, not me.

After I left his office I pulled open my truck door, I got in, put on my sunglasses and began driving toward work.

I took a more scenic route and noticed all of the various differences the town now held.

A few people noticed me and smiled, who they were? I couldn't tell you. Simply friendly passerby's I suppose.

I was almost to work when I did notice a familiar face.

I pulled my truck to the side and parked it next to the curb.

She saw me and her face told me that she wished she hadn't. I watched as she gathered her bags and held them in front of her just a little more tightly.

"Jessica."

She pasted in a friendly smile, "Caleb, long time no see."

I nodded, then that awkward silence grew as I now stood face to face with the girl who had made me fall in love the first time...she would later be the same person who broke my heart as well.

"So um, s-sorry about your momma."

I shook my head, "please don't be, she was sick."

"I talked to her on a couple of occasions, she talked of you often...told us how you were doing really good down in Hollywood."

I remained silent, despite how much Jessica had hurt me, and I knew I didn't need her like I once thought I did, there was still something there, maybe there always would be.

"So you asked about me?" I smirked.

This time she shook her head, "no, Paul did...we ran into her when we were registering for our baby shower and he couldn't help but ask about you."

Her confession had my head spinning, I was being given too much information all at once and I was finding it hard to digest, it was suddenly getting a little harder to breathe.

"Caleb, are you okay?" Jessica asked in a panic, she dropped her bags and I could now see that she was using them to shield her growing belly.

I recoiled from her touch and looked at her as if she were a stranger.

"Caleb?"

But there was nothing to say as my eyes remain glued to her pregnant form, memories from years ago bombarded me, memories that were ours, and now I was looking at her once more...Paul has the life I should've had.

I shook myself out of my mindset and kept moving back away from her and soon I was back in my truck.

"Caleb!"

I peeled out, my tires screeching in an attempt to get as far away from her as possible.

I completely drove past the bar and just continued to drive on.

I wasn't quite sure where it was I was trying to go, but I finally stopped when I saw water.

I hadn't paid attention to any signs but knew I had arrived at a lake, one I wasn't familiar with at all (perhaps I had driven out of town completely). I killed my engine and got out of my truck.

The vast lake and open air were exactly what I needed.

With my chest still tight with emotions threatening to spill over I did the first thing I could think of.

"!"

I screamed, over and over again I let out my aggression. I could feel the hot tears stinging my cheeks from my pent up sorrow, my throat growing raw with ear deafening roars of anger and sadness, and finally I fell to my knees and just let my head fall forward as the last of it escaped me.

Once I couldn't cry anymore I wiped my nose on the back of my hand and used my shirts sleeve to dry my face. I looked up and just stared out at the lake for a while, it was calming in an eerie sort of way.

It was eerie because nobody in the entire fucking world knew where the hell I was...I mean, I didn't even know where I was.

I realized that I had stayed out there longer than anticipated and knew I had somewhere to be, Janet didn't have my number so she couldn't call me, and given the fact that it is Friday, I knew she'd be swamped.

With a final glance out at the open body of water I begrudgingly got back into my truck and headed to the bar.

Once I arrived Janet looked at me, she didn't ask me where I was, she didn't bitch me out for being late, with one nod she had both acknowledged my presence and silently told me 'don't do that shit again.'

I helped her serve the bar goers, like usual, people walked in while others walked out, everybody drank and had a decent time.

Then a girl I had never seen in the bar before entered.

She was attractive for sure so she caught my eye. She looked around the place before finally taking a seat at the bar.

"Hi" she sighed before her head snapped up and she locked eyes with mine.

"Hey, what'll it be?"

Silence.

I waited a minute, the girl was straight up staring at me and I was beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable, now I looked around, no one else seemed to notice.

"Hello?!" I asked a little louder.

She visibly shook her head and even in the dimly lit bar I could see a blush now tinted her cheeks.

"Sorry." She nearly whispered.

I shook my head, "what'll it be?"

"Oh, just a water please."

Once more I looked at this girl as if there were something mentally wrong with her...who in the hell walks into a bar just to have some water?

I didn't question her though, if she wanted a glass of water then so be it.

I grabbed one of our larger glasses and filled it with ice before pouring in her requested water.

"Lemon?" I asked out of formality.

"Y-yes please."

I nodded and added a slice of lemon right in the top. I handed her the glass watched her as she took a sip. She looked a bit on edge, and she kept twisting around every so often to look at the door and then back at me.

In an attempt to avoid making that awkward eye contact with her again I moved down to the other side of the bar, Janet was only too happy to help her. The two fell into easy conversation before some guy approached her.

She hugged him, she suddenly seemed relieved. It was strange...as odd as the girl had first given off, I couldn't help but wonder who this guy was?

With one final look back at me she exited the bar alongside the random guy.

There was something intriguing in her innocent filled face, her large brown eyes, so doe like, had ingrained themselves into my head as I recalled the way she had looked at me.

__________

A/N:

This is the first story in which I will not be "casting" many characters with the exception of two : the main guys. So for this book use your imagination for the characters, hell (if you have dark hair and dark eyes) imagine yourself as Everest and become even more submerged into the book.