Laying here, knowing I'm about to die makes me think back to my youth, before I got involved in this conflict. I should have listened to my best friend. She told me this would happen. Now with this gun to my head, I'll go back to the forgotten summer where this all began.

                 ------------------------------------------------------------

"Aliiza, get in the water." My best friend Sky said, trying to convince me.

"Sky, No." I crossed my arms. 

Public pools were filled with germs and little kid piss. I was not getting in. The only reason I'm here is to lay in the dead grass and tan while all the boys drool over my body. I have what they call the 'perfect body'. Skinny, but not too skinny, something to grab as my friend calls it. Short, standing at a whole five-foot-four. My black hair piled messily upon my head, sunglasses hide my eyes. 

"I swear on all that is summer, I will throw you in." Sky threatened.

I opened my mouth to say something when Alec, the hot lifeguard I had a thing for cut me off.

"No you won't or you'll be removed from the pool." He warned her, then turned to me.

"I got your back Eliiza." He whispered as he leaned close to my ear.

"Is that so?" I laugh, pulling away.

"Yes, that is so. What do I have to do to prove it?" He looks me straight in the eyes, although his we partially hidden by his hair.

"When you figure that out, lemme know." The words roll of my tongue, alluring.

He looks at me as I walk away, I know because I can feel his eyes burning into my lower back, almost as if he was trying to convince himself not to look at my filled out ass. I smile to myself, thinking what it would be like to have his hands... I stop right there. I'm not like this. 

"Surprise!" Sky yells as she hugs me from behind, soaking me in disgusting water.

"SKY!" I scream, pushing her off of me, giving her a dirty look.

She looks at me with hurt in her eyes, shit, I haven't been the same and I know it, I hate it when I hurt her without meaning too.

I sigh, "I'm sorry Sky, I didn't mean to yell at you.

"I know." She says, head down. 

She walks away from me, wrapping a towel around her, picking up her things and slowly walks out of the pool area. I watch her get in her car and drive away, leaving me with no way home. Sitting down in the grass, I put my forehead against my knees, trying not to cry.

I feel a gentle hand on my shoulder that sends an electric shock coursing through my body. I pull away, looking up right into the face of Alec. 

Shit. "What." I say in a dead voice.

"What's wrong?" He asks, he sounds sincere. 

I glance at the clock on the wall, the pool closes in ten minutes.

"I don't have a ride home and my best friend is mad at me. My mom will kill me if I'm late and by the looks of it, I will be." I put my head back down, trying not to imagine what my mom would do if I was late again, it was bad enough last time.

"I can give you a ride if you want." He says softly, comforting.

"I'll be fine I suppose." I whisper. 

I'm startled by the sense of his arms wrapping around me, picking me up off the ground. I wrap my arms tightly around his neck, scared to death he would drop me. He chuckles as he pry's my legs from around him, cradling my like a princess, I look at him. 

"You can't leave yet, the pool's still open." I say, trying to get out of his arms.

He ignores me and continues to walk through the pool building, holding onto me tighter as he tells his boss he's gotta take care of some stuff and that he'll be back early tomorrow to make it up. 

He sets me down next to his car. 

"Wait right here. I have to grab our stuff."

Ours. As in, his and mine, or ours, as in stuff that belongs to both of us. I shake my head, of course he meant my stuff and his stuff. I feel stupid for even letting the thought cross my mind. Looking back into the pool area, I see he has his back to me, picking up my towel and sunscreen. I turn and take off down the street in nothing but short shorts and my bikini top. 

Half way across town, I take a drag off of my cigarette. My mom hates the fact that I smoke, after all I'm only 17, but she gave up after grounding me multiple times just to find me smoking anyways. A car pulls in front of me, it's Alec. He rolls down his window.

"Didn't I tell you to wait?" He asks in a chiding voice, almost as if he's talking to a child who wandered off in a store while their mother went back to get something she forgot.

"You might of." I say, thanking god that I had my aviators on so he couldn't see the pain I hid in my eyes.

I start to walk around his car, I hear him throw it in park  as he jumps out.

"Just where do you think you're going young lady?" He looks down at me.

"Home." I say curtly.

"You're not walking." He states, putting his foot down.

"Watch me." I say, walking around him.

He grabs me by the waist and turns me around, walking me towards his back seat, Opening the door and coaxing me into the cool interior of his car. he shuts the door just as I turn to get out. I pull on the door handle, it won't open. He points down to the label on the window. Child lock. Damn it.

"Alec, if you don't let me out of this car, I will call the cops for kidnapping." I hiss through the closed window.

He holds up my phone against the glass, shaking it slightly. I can tell this is going to be one long car ride.