Hayden
She was my best friend.
She was the one I would have done anything for.
I thought we would have been friends forever.
But things change.
Betrayal happens.
And that’s when my blood turned to ice, and made me heartless for any woman, because one way or another, they will hit you so fucking hard, you don’t even see it coming.
She took my life from me.
She broke me.
She hurt me.
She’s the one person I thought would never burn me; however, she’s the one who lit the match.
One
Hayden
10 yearsold
My brothers are annoying me today; they took my cookies. Mason is the main offender when it comes to eating all my stuff, but I think Declan is as bad. I’m sneaking cookies out of the house just so I can eat them without my brothers trying to take them off me.
I walk to the tree. My tree. It was the one thing I asked Dad for, a place that was just mine, and he always said no. That was until Declan was born, then he built me a tree house. My tree house. He told everyone that no one else was allowed in there unless I said they could.
No one is ever allowed in there.
I stop and scrunch my face. There’s a girl leaning against the tree, reading a book. Who reads? No one reads. Who is she? No one is allowed near my tree.
I walk over to tell her to get away from my treehouse. As I stop in front of her, she looks up. I tilt my head, ready to tell her to get away from my tree. But then she smiles, showing the gap between her teeth, and it makes me laugh.
She gets up and puts her hand out. “Hi, I’m Olivia Banks.” The cute smile gets bigger, and I take her hand in mine.
“Hayden Crawford.” Her smile gets even bigger, and she looks over at the man who’s cleaning our pool.
It’s been about five minutes of her talking, and she hasn’t stopped once to give me a chance to say anything. Yet seeing her smile and listening to her talk is enough to make me forget I’m angry with my brothers.
“That's my dad, he’ll be working on the garden and pool.” She waves to him, and I look over at him, then back to her. “We’re new here.” She continues to talk about how they don’t know anyone in town yet, but hasn’t told me which house she lives in.
The moment she stops talking, I go to say something, but stop when she starts again. “You want to join me? I don’t have friends here.” She looks up at me with her big green eyes, and I smile.
“I’ll be your friend.” I sit next to her, leaning on the tree, and I have a look at what she's reading. I don’t read. I prefer to spend my time playing video games.
“It’s Harry Potter, Dad finally got me a copy for my birthday. I had to wait, because we needed to save some money, but it was the best present ever.” She shows me the cover, then opens it to the first page.
To Olivia, my baby girl.
Have the best birthday.
Love Mom and Dad, xo
“When’s your birthday?” I ask her.
