The Locket, Chapter 1

All day today, Dominic, Paige, and I were walking around on the beach.

This vacation is the best! I can’t believe my parents actually let my two best friends come with us! I thought, happily.

“So where do you guys want to go?” I asked, but before they had a chance to answer I saw a huge dark cave! “Guys come here!” I yelled already running towards it.

“Brooke, slow down” Paige said laughing

Finally they caught up, looking at the cave in amazement.

“Wow, this is amazing!” Dominic said smiling, inspecting the outside of the cave. “Do you guys want to check it out?” he asked excited.

I was about to walk in and say “Uh, hell yes!!!”, but then I saw Paige’s face, and it stopped me from doing anything. She looked kind of sad, but she was trying to hide it.

“Um, you go ahead in. We’ll be there in a second.” I said to Dominic.

“Ok, just shout my name, I’ll probably be towards the back of the cave” he replied, not noticing Paige’s sadness.

Once Dominic was out of sight I asked Paige what was wrong and why she looked so sad.

“Nothing’s wrong, it’s just… never mind its nothing.” She said which wasn’t like Paige at all. She knows she can tell me anything, and she usually does.

“Please tell me?” I asked

“Ok fine” she said hesitantly “Well you know how I like Dominic? I asked him if he liked me back… and he said no” she explained sadly “So then I asked who he did like, and he said you” she said the last part bitterly.

I didn’t know what to say… I was stunned. I never expected Dominic to like me. I always thought he’d like Paige. Especially since Paige was so pretty and since she is tall, smart, funny, and she’d always be nice to you. Her hair always looked perfect, and she didn’t need make-up to look her best, although she refused to leave for school or the mall without make-up already on.

Me, on the other hand? I’m a mess, or at least to me I am. Paige and Dominic say I’m not, I know I am. I’m just barley five feet tall, with long messy brown hair, which was neither straight nor curly. Just frizzy and wavy. Plus I was goofy and dorky, not to mention I’ve only had one boyfriend and I’ve never had my first kiss.

In all honesty, though, I was kind of happy, but at the same time I felt guilty. I’ve always liked Dominic, since the first day Paige and I saw him, way back in third grade. Even then we could tell he was a perfect friend.

 

*flashback*

Paige and I sat in our third grade class, gluing together a puzzle the class made.

Someone knocked on the door, and our teacher Mrs. Reed opened the door and let in an “old” lady and a boy.

Paige and I starred at the boy in disbelief, both thinking “A cute boy? In our class?!” excitedly

“Class this is Dominic. He’s going to be in our class now. Can everyone say ‘Hello’ to Dominic?”

“Hello Dominic” the class said together, and turned back to their work.

The teacher pointed to our table, and Dominic walked over nervously and sat down at our table.

“Um, h-hi, I’m Dominic... W-what are your names?” he asked nervously, as all new kids were.

“Hi, I’m Brooke. This is Paige” I said politely and out goingly, and then both Paige and I blushed.

*End flashback*

 

I smiled at the flashback but I felt guiltier than ever because of Paige being all sad, and it made me feel worse smiling at that flashback, when she was sad. She had definitely fallen for him hard; harder than any crush ever, and to find out that he liked her best friend and not her had to have crushed her.  

“Aw, Paige I’m so sorry. Let’s just try forgetting about this until we get home, ok?”

Paige agreed still not looking completely ok but we walked into the cave anyways. Dominic, Paige and I started to explore around the cave for at least an hour, using our phones to see as we went into a darker section.

As cool as this was, my thoughts were racing.

Does Dominic really like me? That’s crazy…maybe Dominic was just trying to come up with a random person and thought of me or something. Ugh! This makes no sense!

Dominic interrupted my thoughts, “Hey Brooke! Come check this out!” he said excitedly.

I walked over to Dominic and asked “Where did Paige go?”

“Oh, she’s just around that corner. Look at what I found, though!” he said happily.

He held up a beautiful golden locket. Dominic had wiped away the sand and the design on the locket was so pretty! Smaller hearts went in diagonal lines, making X’s.

I noticed that it opened, so I reached out to see if there was a picture in side. Unfortunately the picture inside was watered down and in black and white, so I couldn’t see it that well.

Dominic looked at me nervously.

“It reminded me of you” he said, shyly but happy. “I think it’s pretty, that’s all.” He added.

My tummy got butterflies instantly, but my heart dropped down to my stomach thinking did he just call me pretty???

I felt so guilty for liking Dominic when Paige did also. Isn’t that supposed to be like one of the first rules in the fake best friends “rulebook” or something?

“It is really pretty” I admitted pushing away my guilty thoughts that I was betraying Paige. “Why does it remind you of me?” I asked.

“Well because you’re pretty too…” he said shy again. “Y-you should keep it. You know, as a gift from me… If-if you want to keep it of course”

I didn’t know what to say, so I just said “Are you sure? You could give it to Paige, or some other girl, or even your mom. She’d love this” I felt really lame and stupid for saying that.

Dominic shook his head “I-i want to give it to you… if you don’t want it, that’s fine too”

“Um, no it fine, I’ll take it. I was just making sure you wanted to give it to me.” I said

Dominic went behind me and put it on for me. The cold chain gave me goose bumps. Dominic noticed and gave me his jacket.

“Thanks” I said “And, uh, thank you for the locket too. It’s beautiful” but to me it sounded awkward.

“No problem” He said, and you could hear the huge grin he wore in his voice.

I gave him a hug and he hugged me back. I turned my face up, just to see him looking down at me.

He started to lean his head down, and I started to go up on my tip-toes… but Paige interrupted us.

“Hey guys! What are you doing?” she said, coming around the corner, but she stopped as soon as she saw us.

Before Dominic or I could say separate, she ran back around the corner with sadness on her face.

“I’ll go and get her” Dominic said, and ran after Paige.

I sat on the cold, sandy, ground hating myself, thinking How could I do that to her?! I’m the worst friend in the entire world! And several other (much harsher) things.

After around five minutes of this, Dominic and Paige came back. Paige’s eyes were red and puffy, like she had been crying.

“Um, can I like talk to you alone?” Paige asked me, in a quiet and hurt voice.

“Of course” I said, standing up

“Um… I’ll go outside” Dominic said, awkwardly, and waked out to the beach.

There was a long awkward silence, which had lasted for at least two minutes.

“Why?” Paige asked, sounding more hurt than ever, but also very pissed off. “Why would you ever do that?”

“Paige, I don’t know what I was think-”

“But you know I like him! And you knew that I be hurt if you too kissed!” she yelled. “And then you just think to yourself ‘oh well, I like him so let’s just forget about Paige and kiss every guy she likes!’”

“I’m so, so sor-” I tried explaining how sorry I was, but Paige would not listen.

“Sorry isn’t an answer! I can’t believe you!”

Now I was getting mad (and if you knew me I didn’t get mad often).

“You are the worst friend ever!” she yelled

Excuse me! I thought

“Ok, you know what? We BOTH like him! If he likes me that’s not my fault! And by the way we didn’t kiss, but even if we did, you should be happy for us! But instead your stopping me from liking a guy that likes me back!” I yelled back.

Paige and I said nothing. Looks like both of us got a lot off our chest…

“I’m sorry…” Paige finally said after a long awkward silence. “Your right, you and Dominic should be together. And you’re the best friend in the world. I don’t know why I said that…” She sounded sincere

“I’m sorry too” I said “I shouldn’t even have hugged him, and then we wouldn’t be in this argument”

“Brooke, you’re always sorry for stuff that’s not your fault! Don’t be sorry, you have no reason to be, I was the one being the bitch” Paige said.

“No you weren’t!” I said “You should never, ever say that about yourself”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! Whatever.” Paige said “So, go ahead! Do it!”

“Go ahead and do what?” I asked

“Go ask Dominic out! Duh! Come on, You have to!”

“No, I don’t-“

“Brooke just go and do it! I know you want to!” Paige teased.

“Ugh! Alright, alright! Thanks Paige” I said, and gave her a hug

As we walked out of the cave together, I told Paige how she should ask out this cute guy that likes her in our math class.

Dominic was outside the cave, tossing a rock in the air. Once he saw us he smiled.

“I’ll ask him out later” I whispered to Paige

“Is everything ok again?” Dominic asked hopefully

“Besties forever! Duh!” we both said together.

Dominic smiled at us and gave us a hug. The rest of our day was spent talking and hanging out at the beach.

 

 

This is a chapter from a book that I am working on. Was it descriptive enough? Did you understand everything that was happening? Were you sucked into the story? Anything suggestions for what I should add?