In my younger and more vulnerable years—

Just kidding. Whatever that was about to be sounds boring as hell. But I guess that my story starts very similarly. Because I was young and I was vulnerable. My story begins right when I graduated High School, back when I thought I knew everything. Of course, I was 18 and I was stupid and in reality I knew nothing. I thought that my opinions were the only opinions that should be expressed and that you had to use a façade to be someone well- liked. I thought many things—I thought I was in love.

My parents truly believed that James and I were cute together. And I guess we were okay, although "okay" covers a few too many things about our relationship. Never was anything better than okay—but nothing was any worse, so that was something to be said. We were sixteen, seventeen, eighteen—High School sweethearts, steady for three years and flirting for the preceding half year. Even then, we weren't supposed to last.

My parents supported me just as parents are supposed to, up until I came home for summer break with a sparkling engagement ring on my finger. The summer was just beginning to stew in the cool Minnesota air. The sun brushed my skin, tears stung my eyes and my dress fluttered around my knees. They shook their heads, thinking of my Jamie and his scholarship and said, "Rich girls don't marry poor boys."

And this was how I found myself boiling in my own sweat on a train to Long Island. The air was so thick—hotter and wetter than I had ever known. I could smell salt evaporating from my skin. Little sweat stains formed where my legs were draped over my suitcase. Nearby, a child cried. Economy class. My first time not in premium seating. I shifted uncomfortably, the leather straps of my sandals digging into my ankles.

Back in Minnesota, we got maybe two weeks of summer in the dead of July. This was May, on a train that should be air conditioned. I felt like was dying. This has to be hell on earth, I thought. I fanned myself with my train ticket as best as I could.

I suppose that I didn't know that the summer would get hotter. I didn't know what was waiting for me once I got to my nanny's family's beach house on long island. How could I have known about blond hair, sweet smiles, lies and lies and lies and a smirking smile and a voice that drew a million dollars a concert?

Waiting for me was a cast of Long Island characters—Danny, Tara, Joey, Marcus, and…. And Jayden. I may have loved Joey. I may have been related to Danny, and I may have known Tara for years, but Jayden was the one who stayed with me long after that boiling summer.

I may have been hot on that train, heading towards my future, but the summer was bound to get a hell of a lot hotter.

hello! So this is going to be a VERY romantic story. Our heroine, Nicole, will get some lovin' as well as all the other characters briefly mentioned in this chapter. I promise that future updates will be longer!

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