Chapter Text
I still remember how we met; I was stuck in the traffic with my motorcycle when I saw her, she was beautiful, brown hair, green olive eyes, killer smile; so I did the next logic thing that came into my mind. “Hey Ugly!” I shouted when she was about to get her head into the car again. She looked at me and I suppose she thought I wasn’t talking to her. “Yes you! Ugly!” I was sure she was just another rich girl, somebody who will never get the real world. Her name is Christen Press.
“Nobody knows her name they say something really bad happen to her so she decided to change it, everybody calls her A, and some people say it’s from amazing, other ones say it’s awesome, but we really don’t know. She is like a local hero on a motorcycle” Christen little sister was animatedly talking about the person who just called her sister ugly in the traffic jam.
“Whatever, she looks like trouble”
And hell I was trouble, my brother Chris always had problems with me and my attitude. Actually, the second time I saw her was after one of many illegal races I’ve made, my best friend invited me and the gang to a party in the uptown part of the city. A fancy house with a pool and the complete deal, there she was, beautiful as always, having some troubles trying to get out of an uncomfortable situation with a guy. I had to save her so I did the logic thing to do: I jumped with her inside of the pool. That night she almost kissed me, it was the first time in my life I fall in love.
“So, what’s your real name A?” Christen asked, looking right in the blonde’s eyes.
“Ashlyn Harris, but don’t make me repeat that again.”
I started searching for her at her school; all of her friends always asked me things about me they’ve heard around in town. I always knew people used to hear bad things about me, but they didn’t know me. Three facts that were actually true were: first, something did happen to me, but I was the one who did something really bad about it; second, I used to be a top student, straight A’s but I dropped school and started hanging with the guys now I call my friends, and last but not least, yes I used to sleep around with all the girls I knew.
Not that much has passed when her best friend and my best friend started a relationship; apparently Kelly and Hope really liked each other even if the moment they met was when Hope tried to steal Kelly’s money from the pockets of her jacket. I’m not going to say I’ve never liked the relationship, because it was the complete opposite, I loved it. I always thought they were perfect together and I could bet Christen supported me in my opinion.
As always we had a race, Hope wasn’t ridding this one but I was, and this one was special; we have to drive with another person tied, back to back with us. The fun in this race is the fact that the position not only makes you uncomfortable but also really difficult to keep the control with the bike. I was the best. That day I was driving with a girl I used to sleep with, I don’t even remember her name or maybe I’ve never asked her, she also had a boyfriend I really didn’t care about.
That night we kissed, the police was persecuting everybody and I took Christen to run away with me. We ended up in a high way, and just when the police was about to catch us I throw her into a lake that was near there. When I returned back to get her home, she was really pissed but I tried to mend things giving her my jacket, she thanked me with a kiss.
“I can’t believe I’m A’s sister in law!” Christen sister was really excited about the news she just heard, she immediately called her friends and told them her sister was dating the coolest motorcycle girl around town. Christen just smiled, she was in love.
I stopped hanging out with my friends; I just only talked to Hope. A few weeks after we started dating I went to the beach with Christen, she looked so beautiful I just wanted to tell her I loved her. That day in an abandoned house we made love, I was her first… but she asked me to be her last. I wanted to keep that promise, I was feeling three steps above heaven and nobody could bring me down.
“I am happy” Christen told Ashlyn when they were lying on the sand, later that afternoon.
“I am happy too, Christen”
“How much?”
“Three steps above heaven”
Not much passed when we had our first fight, she was pissed by my attitude but I can’t help it, she didn’t need to know my past and I already changed for her, I didn’t know why I wasn’t good enough but I still loved her, so the only reasonable thing to do was to declare her my unconditional love: I wrote a graffiti on a bridge that I hope It stills reads “You and Me 3SAH”. Yes, I was a lovesick girl.
And there we were, living the love we choose, the most perfect feeling a person can experience, something you wish you will forever feel, because you’re three steps above heaven and nothing will bring you down. You are the master of the world. Before her I’ve never thought I will find a person that from nothing became everything, I adored her and I also respected her. She made me a better person because I wanted to be a better person for her.
But we couldn’t be in the honeymoon stage forever, Hope invited the gang to a party she dropped at her house, they stole her mother’s ring, If I wanted to get it back I have to win a race, the problem was, I didn’t wanted to run that race I couldn’t if I wanted. But she was really pissed; she didn’t even answer my calls. I was focusing on her and just her I didn’t care about that stupid race about a stupid ring but I should have.
The race was the same day she was going to celebrate her birthday, so I asked my best buddy to run the race, stupid me, stupid ring thief. I prefer going to her birthday and win her back, I just let Hope run the race for me, I am not an oracle, I couldn’t have predicted the accident that killed her in that race, I hated myself and of course I hated her, Kelley hated her.
We fight, I said things I didn’t mean, and she also said something too, but I don’t care anymore, she broke up with me. What was broken we couldn’t fix it; we were flying so high that the fall was abrupt and hard. She stopped talking to Kelley and me. Her sister tried a couple of times to make things be as they used to be, but we couldn’t. My best friend’s dead was hard and really painful to me. It brought back my past, when I punched a guy out of pure rage and beat him almost to dead I ended up in jail when I was freed Hope helped me to control my anger. She helped me dealing with my past, and also my worst mistake. Christen didn’t get that.
She said goodbye like nothing had ever happen and that’s when I realized. There is always a time when people’s ways got separated, and you kept thinking “I will find her again” but the truth is, that almost never happens. When you continue your life you start looking back at your memories and see the other person get tiny, so tiny you barely see her. But you keep telling yourself “nothing is wrong, we will find each other at the end”.
Suddenly you realize it’s over. There is no turning back, you feel it, and just then you try to remember when it all started and you discover it all started earlier than you thought. Long before and that's just at that moment when you realize that things just happen once, no matter how hard you try, and you'll never feel the same, you'll never have the feeling of being three steps above heaven ever again.
“And, what happen to Christen?” The old lady next to Ashlyn on the plane looked at her; she was raising an eyebrow and kept looking at the blonde as she stopped telling the story to just get lost on her thoughts.
“She started dating some guy from her school and I went to Germany and worked there for four years, now I’m back in the country, awesome right?” The blonde said before she looked back at the lady.
“But where is the point of telling a story without a happy ending?” Ashlyn heard the question and started laughing.
“There is no such thing as happy endings.”
“I will wait for you to tell me the end of this story, it just can’t end like this” the lady kept telling Ashlyn, she just laughed again.
“Really, that’s the end.”
“She was your first love, right? Dear let me tell you something, after the first love, there will come another one, stronger, deeper, truthful, and real; she will love you with all your faults, she will make you dream, she will make you love life and most important she will make you love her.” Ashlyn just looked at the woman, she just moved her head ‘no’ and snorted just before she started laughing again. “Well, if you ever saw me again just tell me the end of this story. And girl, I demand a happy ending.” The lady finished her speech with that and Ashlyn just closed her eyes and tried to sleep the rest of the flight. ‘This lady is crazy’.