Page 1 of Neverland

1

MELODY

I’m never getting out of here.My eyes stay locked on my phone screen. There is a picture of Easton and me at prom together. One great thing about young love is Easton and I will have all of our firsts together.

He is older than me, but he isn’t like the other boys in our fancy private prep school. Some might have thought him to be stuck-up with a side of aggression. But once I got to know Easton, I knew it was far from that. Easton knew what he wanted and would never settle for less. One of those things he wanted was me. He made that very clear from day one.

The minutes drag by at a snail's pace. A girl should never have to go to school on her birthday. Especially one I’ve been counting down the seconds to.

I bet Easton is already waiting for me out in the parking lot. God, I’ve missed him. I smile. That’s all I’ve ever done from the moment he stole my heart and made me believe in life again. Believe in me. That I could lean on him, and he’d always be there even when my dreams and life felt scary.

Since Easton came into my life, so many more things seemed possible. Even during my darkest of times. I hate that we have to be away from each other.

That’s the thing that sucks about going and falling in love with a senior your sophomore year of high school. I only got one year with Easton before he was off to college.

Thankfully, the university he chose was somewhat local. I questioned if he picked it because of me or because it was what he wanted. It wasn’t the traditional college his family went to. Their legacy dated back well before the Civil War.

Honestly, it didn’t matter. Easton always did what he thought he needed to do. It was something I admired in him. I wasn’t going to fight him on it even if it was selfish on my part.

He’s never quick to back down to anything, so it wouldn’t have mattered if I’d tried to get him to go somewhere else that might have been better suited for him. He said whatever major he took would lead him back to his family business.

The whole reason my family moved here was because my father was escaping memories of my mom. Her passing was hard on all of us.

Easton filled a hole in my heart. I clung to him, even if I did try to resist him at first. I was sure he had heartbreak written all over him. I’ve never been so wrong in my life. He was the opposite of what I thought. That man took his time luring me out of my grief, convincing me to be open to letting someone in.

Easton sucked me right into his world when most of the prep school wanted to reject me. I was the new girl. An outsider to all of them. It didn't matter to them how much money my father had. They were all rich. I learned when I lost my mom that money means nothing. In fact, it can cause more problems.

It doesn’t buy time or things the things that are really important. I was happy when we moved. It was a chance to find new friends. The ones I thought were mine slipped through the cracks when I needed them the most. You really find out who stands with you when the darkness creeps in. Too bad I still had no idea how dark times could become.

Then after years of grief, a touch of lucky love hit me. One of the most popular boys in my new school wanted me. I wasn’t the normal pretty girl that made the cheer team. I always kept to myself even before I came to Bradford Prep.

I got a lot of heat from fellow female classmates in school, but Easton at times had more pull than the freaking principal. His word was law, and he decreed that no one was to mess with me.

He made that clear to everyone the day we met. That rule still stands, even though Easton no longer walks these halls. People may not outwardly say or do things to me, but many of the girls here give me the cold shoulder. I don’t let it bother me. I’m here to get an education. High school is but a blip on the radar of life. That’s what I keep telling myself. When you lose a parent, a lot can be put into perspective for you.

Now I’m counting down the days until my senior year is over. Everyone says I need to focus on school and my future, but Easton is my future. The rest is whatever happens around us.

It takes Easton almost two hours to come home, but he does it almost every weekend. All that effort just to come and see the girl that he hasn’t so much as kissed.

I run my finger across my bottom lip. I’m hours away from Easton claiming me in every way. I both hated and loved how steadfast he could be in what he thinks is right and wrong. I mean, of course, it’s frustrating because I want to be connected to him in that way, but I respect him for it as well.

I was barely sixteen when Easton Ledger came barreling into my life. I suppose you might say swinging into my life because that’s what he was doing the first time I laid eyes on him as he knocked the hell out of Bobby Young, who had me pretty much cornered in the hallway. It was my first day at Bradford Prep. I was the new girl. But Fresh Bait was the nickname I’d heard some of the male students refer to me as.

I’d gone from fresh bait to untouchable in a matter of seconds. Too bad when Easton made it known I was off limits he applied that same rule to himself as well. The most Easton ever did was put his arms around me or hold my hand. I get a kiss on the top of my head more often than not. He stopped aiming for my cheek when I started turning my head to try and steal a kiss.

Before Easton, I was shy around boys. When my dad moved us across the country, I went from a private all-girls school to a private coed one. With all of Easton’s non-touching, it made me start to touch him more. Even tease and try to bait him. He pulled me out of my shell in more ways than one.

Well, that’s what my plan was until two months ago when he groaned and begged me to stop. He sounded so pained in his plea that I gave him mercy. I don’t know why I was torturing the both of us. When I teased and tried to lure him to do more, it only made my body ache too.

I should count myself lucky. I’ve seen some of the boys burn through girls in Bradford Prep. That was never something I had to deal with. Not even when I first got here. Easton didn’t have a line of past girlfriends.

Some of the girls try to toss in my face that I have no idea what Easton is up to at college, but he has never given me a reason to doubt him. I shamelessly broke once and asked to use his phone, pretending mine was dead, and he handed it over without missing a beat. Not before telling me it’s not safe for a girl to be running around with a dead cell phone. When I asked what the code was, he shook his head at me as though my question was ridiculous and said,”Your birthday.”

I have no clue if Easton knew what I was up to that day, but I handed his phone back quickly and never questioned him again. Easton is a good man. Sometimes I wonder if he might be too good to be true.

Other times, I wonder if he was the gift I was given after the heartache of losing my mom. I like to think it’s the latter. That she somehow had a hand in placing Easton in my life.

The bell rings, finally breaking me from my thoughts. I’m up and out of my seat in no time, my bag already packed up. I ignore the rest of the world as I rush outside.

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