There was a boy, no older than most when they first find interest in the opposite sex.
He spent most of his days by himself. Part of it was by choice. Part of it wasn't.
There was a girl, a bit younger than the boy.
She was a troubled spirit, free and yet simultaneously chained down, unable to overcome the hardships she faced by herself.
The two met one day.
No words were exchanged, at first. Just a locking of their eyes, and two small, shy smiles.
The pair found common ground, and began spending their time together, more and more each day as time passed.
As the days turned to months, it seemed like they were inseparable. Nothing would come between them, as long as they had each other.
And then the day came.
The girl's family moved away. She had to go with them.
It hit the boy like a sidewinder, revealed out of the blue. He couldn't understand it. Why did she need to leave?
The days turned bleak, after that. Darkness seemed a permanent fixture in the boy's mind, and his schoolmates noted that he seemed increasingly irritable and distracted.
He needed an outlet. Something to pour his heart and soul into now. He settled on a combination of music and literature, hoping it would fill the void left behind by her absence.
It did, for a time.
As the months passed, he could feel her sliding further into the back of his mind.
But fate was not so kind.
Two summers after she had left, the girl reappeared in the boy's life.
He was confused, understandably. When asked about her return, the girl replied that she wanted to see him again. The boy... could scarcely believe his ears. In a single instant, all of his thoughts, feelings, memories of her, came crashing back into his head. As much as he wanted to tell her that he didn't feel the same way... he couldn't formulate the words.
And so they spent the summer together, knowing that it would end in heartbreak and disappointment when the girl needed to leave again at the end of the summer. Despite that, the boy would recall that summer as being the best few months of his high school years.
As his final year of high school began, the boy found solace in the fond memories he would always have of his time with the girl. He was amicable, jovial even, a rock for his friends in their times of need. But he always knew, somewhere deep in his mind, that he would never forget the girl.
Months passed. The boy's family began falling apart. He graduated, but was left aimless by the situation an ailing father and an absent mother presented him with. He wanted a direction. He needed something, or someone, to guide him.
And so he went to the girl.
She had never forgotten him. She had always been there for him.
