If There's Something

Chapter 1

  The end of senior year was what I was waiting for. The end of high school. The end of fake friends, rumors and cheating boyfriends. The end of having to hide who I really was behind a façade of a popular girl – a cheerleader with a quarterback boyfriend and a posse of friends who went around school together, attended all the parties thrown by the most popular people, bullying the so-called outcasts. The end of pretending that I liked any of it. The end of pretending that any of that was actually me.

"Pack up, princess,"

I was sitting on the stairs of the porch, watching the wind rustle the leaves in my front yard, watching people and cars pass by. I had the whole summer ahead of me before I had to go away to college. I had time to spend with Tucker – my quarter back boyfriend and Monique, the head cheerleader of the Hawks before we all went our separate ways to colleges in different cities.

Tucker had gotten the scholarship of his dreams thanks to football as had Monique for being the head cheerleader for four years. I had rejected the idea of using cheerleading to get a scholarship so I worked hard to study and keep up my 4.0 GPA, while none of the cool kids were watching that is.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to study so my major was undecided. But there was one thing I was sure about – I wanted to swim. So I applied to all the colleges which had swimming facilities that I could use.

The wind was strong enough to make the front door close with a loud bang, making me flinch. I looked over my shoulder to scowl at my older brother who had come home just for my graduation, probably only because my parents had been too busy to attend it.

"Pack up for what?" I asked him as he towered over me. "And don't call me princess."

Wes had obviously been working out in the two years he had been gone off to college in Chicago. He now had the perfect muscular build while still managing to be called 'lean' and I swear he had grown a few inches. As if he hadn't always towered over my five foot seven. He probably even had a six pack now. I bet all the girls in Chicago drooled all over him and swooned when he walked by.

I wasn't jealous though. I mean, why would I be? I was popular through high school. I had inherited the clear blue eyes from our mother while Wes had gotten his hazel eyes from our father. Both of us had blonde hair but mine was a few shades lighter than his, setting off the color of my eyes even more. I had guys drool over me through high school, too. Not that it mattered since I always had Tucker's arm around me.

Tucker had to be the one thing all the cheerleaders, popular girls and even Monique hated me for. Star of the football team, quarterback, team captain and the hottest guy in school – those were the words used to define Tucker. Tucker had the perfect body – muscles, abs, messy hair and the perfect brown eyes which made him seem easily approachable – which he wasn't. Tucker also had talent and the perfect family which he never failed to mention and the perfect house which he never failed to show off. But I didn't date him for any of those things. I dated him for the same reason I joined the cheerleading squad – I was acting out. Because I felt like a nobody in school and at home.

"We're going to Nashville," he said simply, as if hearing him say that would make a jump up and readily get into his car.

"You're joking, right?" I asked him, staring out into the front yard again. "I'm not going to Nashville."

"Not even when Rush and Levi are home?" he asked and I felt my heart throb painfully just by hearing their names.

Rush and Levi were family friends. We used to spend all our summers together in their farmhouse in Nashville, Tennessee because our mother and theirs – Mrs. Hayes used to be best friends through high school and college. But Mrs. Hayes was no more. She had died in a car crash years ago and we had attended her funeral but never visited Rush, Levi or Mr. Hayes again after that. It had been too hard on our mother to go back there without Mrs. Hayes and to be honest, I couldn't do it either. Mrs. Hayes had treated me like her daughter, even more than my own. Not to mention Rush who I had been in love with forever. I hadn't seen him at the funeral because he had been in the hospital, recovering from some surgery that no one ever told me about. I had tried to call him, even after we had come home after the funeral but he never spoke to me. It had been years since I had spoken to either of them.