Chapter 1

She slowly woke from her perch on the couch as she heard her phone faintly vibrating. Obviously a sign of an incoming call. She then quickly jumped up once she figured out what had woke her up from the deep sleeping state that she was in.

She was worried about her parents and grandparents; they were supposed to be home hours ago. She was of course hoping to hear one of her family members voices when she answered the phone, but was disappointed to find that it was not her family calling to say that they are just running late and will be home soon. Instead she found herself talking to Dan, and was not in the mood to take him seriously.

“Hello?”

“Jen?”

“Yeah?”

“Hey, I have been trying to get a hold of you all day!”

“All day?” she interrupted hi, just then she glanced around and noticed that it was in fact daytime. It even seemed to be in the late afternoon…how strange, she thought.
She must have stayed up to till the early hours in the morning waiting for her family to get back…

“Yes, well I need to ask you a question, Jen?”

“Alright, shoot.”

“If you had to pick anyone to live with, who would it be?”

The question made no sense, what an odd question for him to ask her. Dan was so much older than her and was married with kids. She shouldn’t be looking so far into the question. I’m sure it was meant to be harmless. Unless of course he was asking for Jon.

Jon.

They had not talked in years. He always found a way to make her feel better. Especially when they were toddlers. They would just watch cartoons, and even play Barbie Dolls with her and his sister. Jon would call her beautiful even when she looked and felt her worst. They had been so young and carefree, if only it could still be like that...Jen thought to herself.

Jen had always enjoyed his company but somewhere through the years…their friendship had fallen out.

Even though they did not speak anymore they had each others back in high school when they would get picked on, even if it were for the silliest of reasons. And one day as Jen was defending Jon she caught his eyes and lost herself in those deep, deep blue eyes of his. It was then that she realized how truly beautiful her (ex?) best friend really was. That was the first time in what seems like forever that they had caught each others eyes. When she finally broke their locked eyes apart she felt something deep inside of her and walked away not knowing what to do because she was in love with a guy that had once been her best friend…she wondered if he felt the same.

“Jen?”

“Uhm” she said coming back to reality “I’m sorry, what?”

“Who would you want to live with if you could pick anybody?”

“Seriously?”

“Yes”

She thought about it for a minute and smiled as she said “Mike Rupp”

“What?”

“Mike Rupp, you know the Pitt—”

“I know who he is!” He snapped “I said to be serious!”

“Who said I wasn’t being serious?”

She knew why she had said it…she had always had a soft spot for Mike. She knew that he was married and had a couple of kids, but she was always in Pittsburgh for the Penguin games and she found herself talking to him more than anyone else. They had a nice friendship going on, he even knew her name…And its possible that she said Mike because Jon and him may just look a lot alike.

“Fine” Dan huffed “I’ll talk to you later”

Before she got the chance to ask why he would be talking to her later he had already hung up.

As she let the silence fill the house she glanced down to look at her small little dog named Brooks. He was looking up at her with those big brown puppy dog eyes looking like he was begging for her forgiveness, so she knew that he had went to the bathroom in the house. She sighed, got up to let Brooks outside and then would go find the mess that her dog had surely left her to clean it up.

After letting Brooks out she found the mess got down on her knees and began to clean it up. While she was cleaning she thought about how she ended up with this mess…and then it hit her, she should not have this mess. Her Family should have been home by now and they would have let him outside. She stopped what she was doing, got up and went outside to see if any of their cars had magically appeared with her family in them. They hadn’t.

As she was walking back to the house she went to check on Brooks first to see if he was enjoying his freedom out of the house after being cooped up for so many hours.
She began to think of her conversation with Dan earlier as she walked and froze. She remembered what his job was. He was the one that set up her parents wills. He was the one that knew who she would take care of her if her parents should pass away. HE Just asked her who she would want to live with if she could live with anyone that she wanted.
HE knew something that she did not.

*Jens POV*

I dropped to my knees, something was seriously wrong. I cant help but to think the worst has happened to my family. I feel numb as I see Brooks prancing up to see if I am okay, nudging and licking my hands to get my attention, he eventually gave up and just plopped down beside me.

********

It didn’t seem like very long but the sky soon turned dark, and I flopped on my butt and leaned onto the grass to look upon a now cloudy sky. It is going to rain. I don’t care and don’t move.
A few minutes later I saw some headlights make their way the driveway. If I had not already lost hope in seeing my family again I would have jumped up with joy to see their smiling faces. But I knew better than that, something was seriously wrong and I was in no hurry to find out what exactly that was.

I listened as the driver got out of the car and close the car door, as if on cue the rain finally started to fall from the sky. The driver began to walk towards me, and I closed my eyes. I heard as the driver stopped by my head. I can feel the driver just hovering right above me…I slowly open my eyes to face the driver.
I was not expecting to see one of my family members above me, but I certainly didn’t expect to the person that was now in front of me. I felt the tears begin to fill my eyes.