I run away from the building as fast as I can barely missing the main blow of the explosion. I fall to the ground and roll on the pavement before jolting forward again as if my life depends on it...which it might. I run faster and faster as if my high school self is guiding my body forward. I use every ounce of strength in my body but my thighs and calves are already aching. Being a track star in high school doesn't help much when you give up exercise for waitressing as soon as you graduate.
I only get two blocks further before I decide my body can't take it anymore and lean myself against a closed shop. Closing my eyes I imagine that the past six months are a nightmare and the man I love is sitting right next to me. But of course, that isn't true. I open my eyes to look at where I am and recognize the place immediately.
"You know what God you really have a funny sense of humor," I speak to the nothingness and let tears fall down my face as I head back to that time all those years ago.
My hair sits in a ponytail and my face is younger. Once again I'm air playing notes on my flute with my bible in my lap outside of a small run-down church. That's when you walk up.
"So I see you're a flutist, do you happen to have any other amazing talents," he asks with a small smile.
"I happen to be an excellent McDonalds worker," I grin.
He chuckles lightly and my heart plunges out of my chest. He's handsome and refined a true gentleman type. I have no doubt in my mind that if I see him again I'll fall completely and utterly in love. I pray that I don't.
"I have a strange sense that you have something you're hiding... you know behind the flute and Big Mac," he says with a certain light in his eyes. I had never been the flirty type but I couldn't seem to help myself.
"If that's the case then I leave it as your job to take a guess," I reply with slight sass.
"Let me see- what could a beautiful girl sitting outside a church be hiding?" He asks himself pacing slightly. "Could it be a secret romance?" He asks as I shake my head. He truly is clever. What a way to find out my relationship status, of course, I won't figure that out until years later. "A secret crush?" Nope. Well maybe at that exact moment but not lately. "Superpowers?" Nope. "Wait a minute are you a writer?" My head shoots up. How could he guess something like that? "So I see I made the mark," he said and it was at that moment I knew. I was already in love.
Of course, that's not how life works it stabs you in the back and twists the knife. I open my eyes and once again I am a twenty-five-year-old sitting in front of an old abandoned church but this time... without Damian and hair so dirty that my natural highlights could not charm him even if he was here.
Looking back it's a miracle I'm even here. I grew up in Detroit which is a miracle within itself. After Stella seduced Damian I've almost died more than once. When I walked in on the wedding I was almost blasted to bits but I think the worst was right after Stella seduced Damian for his company. A knife against my neck, me dangling in the air, a tinge of sickness from the rains around me. It was right after I started waitressing for the cafe. Everything was perfect. Damian was supposed to be my fiance soon. I'd finally have a mature job. But instead, I was being held by knife. That's when Dog saved me. She's my companion. The best cat I ever had. She bit Stella's leg causing her to drop me. I immediately fell to the ground and gasped for air in a coughing fit. The cat nudged me to move forward as Stella tried desperately to stop the bleeding. After that, I kept her and named her Dog. Since she bit like a dog and looked like a cat. Stella used something evil but I wasn't sure what to seduce Damian. I had known him for years. He was my life. There was no way I was going to let her take him.
But looking back my journey to save Damian was never truly about him, was it? For almost six months now I've been trying to figure out what she did to him. But in all honesty, I was more angry about what she did to me. This is my life. I am a girl who wants to be an author. I'm the one who quit her job at McDonald's just to look more mature. I am the one that Damian fell in love with. I was not going to let her take that away from me.
I let out a sigh as I think about how I just exploded Damian's company. It was something that he had worked so hard to built. He has several other building but this was his first and a sign to Stella that she can't take him from me. I know that's the only reason she wants him and I won't stand for that. My goal is to get Damian back. What will I, Jennifer White do for it? I am going to do whatever it takes. Even if it means killing Stella James.
