A.C. McAnelly

I'd have to decide if I liked it or not.

Aunt Lydia pointed me to my bedroom.

It was bare with only a twin-sized bed tucked in the corner, but it had its own sliding glass door that led out to the ocean.

Thanks, Aunt Lydia.

Maybe after I get what I do have unpacked and feel settled in.

I'll give her that.

But part of me really didn't care about it.

The move.

Being hundreds of miles away from where I was raised.

Just like the new smiling faces didn't matter.

Not really.

Nothing felt real.

Except for the emptiness that my parents' death engulfed with me.

Aunt Lydia was trying not to push herself on me too quickly, but the space she gave me ended up being the space the grief needed to swallow me whole.

When I started school, I wasn't rude to the girls and guys in my classes who made a point to introduce themselves to me and attempt to become my friend, but the smile I put on my face wasn't real.

At least, not until I met Bailey and Morgan.

Bailey was the first person here to make me genuinely laugh.

Morgan was there laughing right along with me, but the first time I saw him, it was the first time I'd felt anything since arriving here.

I took that as a good sign, but tried not to think about it too much.

Until he decided to ask me out.