The Story of a Tattered Mind (ongoing)

Chapter 1 - Freshman Year

Fuck yes. I loved snow days. It was one of the very few positives of living in the Midwest, more specifically Michigan.

But nothing beat waking up on a cold, winter's morning and looking out of your bedroom window to see it was an absolute blizzard. Then, when you checked the news and saw the name of your school scroll across the bottom to inform you of its cancellation, you could crawl back into bed with the comfiest pair of fuzzy socks and your dad's hoodie you claimed as your own.

Ahh... Snow days.

My room was my heaven. I had white Christmas lights hung on my wall secured by clear packing tape. Posters of One Direction were stuck to my walls all over the place. My bed had the fuzziest pink comforter you could ever think of, and my pillows - Oh, my pillows! They were so soft and plush, welcoming you with open arms to lay your head onto them and dream soundly.

It was what excited me most about snow days. I could stay in my bed and hibernate like all of the other animals that were fortunate enough to do so.

Or I could just read fan fictions all day.

Which was what I was doing on the morning of January 11th, 2013. It was a Friday and that meant the snow day that was so graciously bestowed upon us made our regular two day weekend a three day weekend. Hallelujah!

My phone never alerted me when someone texted me, but that was because no one texted me. My group of friends I had grown up with randomly ditched me right before we started high school, and the friends I had acquired since then weren't necessarily my friends, per-say. They were just acquaintances I spoke to in class. My phone notifications were dryer than the Sahara Desert - aside from the notifications I'd get for my fan fiction updates. So, when my phone vibrated in my hand to alert me that someone texted me, I dropped it on my face.

With my nose pulsating, and possibly broken, I swiped out of the current fic I was reading and pulled down my notification bar.

Facebook
1 New Friend Request

I rolled my eyes. I had gotten a lot of those, but they were really just from spam accounts or people pretending to be the celebrities I liked. And yes, I was a victim of being catfished by them.

My golly, was I a gullible teenager...

I opened the request to delete it immediately and clear my singular notification, but before I did, I stared at the request with my thumb hovering over the "delete" button.

Benjamin Eaton sent you a friend request!

Who the hell is Benjamin Eaton?

Out of curiosity, I clicked on his name to open his profile. He was cute. His dark brown hair was short and combed down. His eyes were also brown, but they looked warm and inviting. His cover photo was one of the car he had. It was white, that's all I knew. I wasn't a car buff so I couldn't tell you what the model was even if you had a gun to my head.

He had over 100 mutual friends with me, and the information he displayed on his profile seemed to check out. He worked at Razz's - our small town's diner. He went to the same school as me, and he was single... That Benjamin Eaton guy seemed legit.

So, I accepted his request.

Then I went back to reading my Niall Horan fan fiction like I hadn't been momentarily distracted; however, I was interrupted by another vibration. That time, I didn't drop my phone on my face. If I did, it would have likely fallen onto my eye. A black eye did suit a broken nose, after all.

1 Message from Benjamin Eaton

My heart raced. I had only just accepted his request. How was he so fast?