You Live In My Memories

Rucker's POV

It was the night of my twentieth birthday when I first laid eyes on her. A spark. That's what it was, and it claimed me for her. The feelings were unimaginable. Never have I ever once remotely felt my body and soul light up. How do I explain what I felt when even I couldn't comprehend the magic that ran through me when I first saw her.

People think I'm a very social person, and that I like to put myself out there in a crowd with my friends. No matter the number of acquaintances I have or those that wanted to be called my friends, there would only ever be two best friends. I smile at that thought.

I had a girl since I was a junior in high school and I thought she was the one. I felt that what I had for her was love, who knows? But there was a time she was included with everything we did together ow she's just a memory, one that I prefer to forget.

Gage Monroe and Everett Trenton, we three came into one another's lives at age eleven. We bonded and became cemented with each passing year.

We complemented each other and gor

along better than brothers usually do,

well in my case a lot better.

Gage is humorous. The happy go lucky kid with wavy blonde hair whose father transferred him to my school during the summer before the sixth grade.

His dad owns a mobile welding company, and since most of his jobs come out of Seattle, he packed them up and moved near me

His mom ran off with some man ten years her junior after. Fourteen years of marriage to his dad. Gage plays it off like he doesn't care, but I once saw him cry when he looked at a picture of his mom. He didn't know I was about to enter his room. I stepped back away from his door and slid to the floor against the wall listening to him cry. I never told him what I heard, and it would remain my secret. Right then and there, I promised to do everything I could to make sure he never cried again.

If you ever need to know anything about laptops, hard drives and phones, well you got the gist, hit up Everett, he's your man. The techie. He's a chick magnet with his rugged features, charcoal black hair and chameleon green eyes that shift to different shades of green depending on how he's feeling. You would never believe the things he could do with his skill that he learned from his parents. His parents work from home as freelancers building and maintaining online websites.

Gage and Everett, I would do anything for them. Anything

If Gage and Everett are everything that a best friend should be, then Dario is the bane of my existence. I despise him. But it wasn't always like that.

Innocence still flourishes among most at eight. The first note passed to the both of us in class from Layla, the cute girl with curly blonde hair the color of Miss Sherman's purse. "Do you like me? Circle yes or no. I like you and Dario. Passing the note to Dario, he read it and looked at me. I watched as he traced the hearts with his index finger. There was a connection between the two of us. We both knew we liked her, so he circled yes, and sent the note back to her. Little did I know, this would be the first of many girls.

At age eleven we entered middle school as sixth graders. Three different elementary schools combine their students and merge into one huge middle school. That's the first time Karlee Wilson, an eighth grade cheerleader, followed me to the outside of the boy's restroom during class time and asked, "Do you think I'm pretty? I couldn't speak. I think I must've been red in the face. She giggled and walked away, I kept my distance from her for the rest of the year. But, she didn't.

I started the onset of puberty earlier than my classmates. My growth spurt. I was now standing taller, facial softness now beginning to disappear as my voice began to take on a huskiness. I guess girls would notice something like that quickly. As I matured, the girls got more daring.

Turning fourteen was a tripping year for me. Everything about me developed, and I was filling out in more places than one.

My vocal tone lowered quite noticeably, and I was getting hard-ones with girls flaunting their cleavages in my face.

A senior girl propositioned me for the first time that year.

I always got more attention than any person should have. The adorations, the praises, the calls, the girls. Shit, they threw themselves at me. I was in demand.

Fifteen couldn't come soon enough. My features are getting sharp. I noticed that instead of looking at my eyes, 1 find the eyes of girls glancing down at that part of my anatomy that stuck out the most.

Girls were hinting and prodded me with all their flirting, but I wasn't buying into any of that, for now.

Sixteen was my coming of age, junior year. The girls swarmed my friends and me. The summer before school started I joined a gym specializing in MMA. My body transformed itself. I became more lean and muscular. My shoulders broadened, and my now defined ab muscles pulled my torso in tight which had the female population fixated on me. Gage said my walk changed. I exuded swagger without even knowing it. I'm now over six feet, a bit shy of my papa's regal six foot, tall.

Drake, my younger brother by two years, entered high school that year as a Freshman. The Laclan brothers, the most talked about people in school. The hierarchy. When we walked the halls or entered the cafeteria together, it was almost comical. People would stop talking and move on the side to watch us walk the line. The thing is, we never asked for any of this. They decided to put all of us on a pedestal and keep us there.

Me, Gage, Everett and Darie also lest our virginity that year. She was a senior, and she did the four of us at her house in the hot tub while her parents were at work.

Sex fuking rocks, but I learned from this experience that it's better if you're in love because I felt empty doing that shit with her.

Handjobs and blowjobs were almost an everyday thing for us now.

The same girls offered and we accepted.

Why would we turn them down? They knew beforehand we didn't return favors. They may have thought they were the privileged girls that could touch our package, and maybe get us to sex them, but that wasn't the deal. You want, you blow me, and you leave. No lingering, no talking.

Then I met Calista when her father moved with her from Nevada. Her parents divorced when she was five, and they decided it was in Calistarn best interest to live with her father in Nevada with his parents there to help take care of her.

Her mother is Principal McNamara of Seattle Lutheran Private High School, where we all attended. She's this gorgeous girl stepping out of her mother's car for her first day of school here. Her lustrous auburn hair with strands of dark mahogany reminded me of a deep red sunset. She would be my first girlfriend, and I fell in love with her. We did everything together, Sex with Calista was fucking unbelievable.

That same year my parents celebrated their twenty-first wedding anniversary. My papa worked hard as an electrician, and my mama stayed home and cared for the family. We celebrated at the Space Needle. My friends were Invited. I brought Calista with me, and Dario brought a date that I can't even remember. Gage and Everett tagged a couple of girls, and Drake asked his girl, Michelle.

Drake and his girl Michelle seemed to get along well until one day they decided to end their relationship. Their break-up core Drake apart.

That night was the first time I saw Calista's eyes roaming a male other than myself. She followed Dario's every move when she thought no one was watching her. I later found out that I was the reason for Drake and Michelle's break up.

As summer approached, I stepped up my training before entering my senior year.

Gage and I started working for his dad as apprentices over the summer, and I found that I had a knack for welding. I had a thing for rigging and welding together parts for a car. I loved the body shop side of soldering. And that became my goal to own a body shop.

The day of my seventeenth birthday came and went a couple of weeks before the new school year began.

To afford my body shop, I needed money. I trained hard to prove that I should be given a chance for a first fight, I had to wait until I was eighteen. 1 got knocked around and kicked hard, but I persevered and won my first ever MMA fight.

What little money I made from side-bets were thrown in my bank.

The training I did then can't be compared now. Calista and I were doing better than ever. I never saw her longing for Dario again. She didn't talk to him more than usual.

My training was kicking into gear. We all went to dances and did the prom things. When we graduated high school Everett and Gage were already eighteen. Dario and I would need to wait until the end of summer as usual.

My girl and I went on weekend getaways every other month. I took on extra hours of overtime work bopping in to save as much money as possible. Calista started college during the winter quarter: she had no clue what she wanted to major in. She didn't rush and declare a major. She did things at her pace. At nineteen Calista and I were together for over two and one-half years. I thought that Calista would be it for me. She only grew more beautiful over the years.

That Christmas Eve after over three years together. I heard her in bed with Gage and I had to go out on this last minute welding call. We didn't mind. The overtime along with holiday pay had me roaring to work that eve. It was supposed to be an overnight job, but when we evaluated the site it wasn't as intensive as initially thought, and we finished the work in under three hours.

So, ah yeah, we got back sooner than expected.

Dario had plans with a girl for the night.

My girl.

When we reached back home on Christmas eve, Calista's car was in my driveway. I pounded my steering wheel. Right then I knew what was going down.

We entered the door, the lights were low as Gage, and I walked through the front. We heard them together in Dario's room with music, loud moans and giggling coming through his walls. I didn't bother letting them know I came home. We went outside under the pergola, turned on the heater lamp and drank our beer in the dark.

They didn't see us out there sitting when they went to the kitchen to get something to eat. Her hair was in disarray, and she looked thoroughly fucked, with only his shirt on her and him in boxers. We watched as they kissed each other. He lifted her on the counter, laid her back and went down on her with her legs up in the air, spread wide.

Plans for my future squandering before my eyes. My mind flashes to the engagement ring that laid at the back of my drawer waiting for tomorrow, wanting to make Calista my wife. I planned to propose to her tomorrow on Christmas day.

Life was shifting in and out of the gray very fast for me.

When Calista was on the verge of an orgasm, I slammed the slider open, and we walked in. I didn't want to hear their excuses. We watched as they fumbled trying to straighten up.

"Calista," disgust evident on my face. "Grab all your shit and leave. You're NOT welcomed back here again!" I pounded the counter.

Then I eyed Dario. My face full of hatred, as I stared that fucker down. Making him shift eye contact away from me. "When. Did. You. Start. Fucking. Her?!" I yelled with venom dripping from my voice.

"We've been fucking for two years now." He shrugged like he didn't find anything wrong with what he did.

"The fuck!" I shouted out. Feeling the muscles in my body bristle, twisting and clenching. My hands fisted. I blew out a harsh breath that I was holding.

"She came onto me. What was I supposed to do when she slipped her hand into my pants, bro?! My dick did the talking. I'm sorry, okay? It meant nothing; she was just a constant fuck in my life, that's all bro. I swear."

Two wasted years. No fvcking clue. It felt like I was drowning, going down the black hole.

"I would've never thought that you, of all people, would betray me in the worst possible way!" My voice was sounding unfamiliar, strangled, even gritty. "I want you out of this house!" I demanded, yelling at the top of my lungs as I swiftly hopped over the island counter and shoved Dario against the wall jamming my elbow into his neck. I twisted his arm behind him and dragged him to the slider shoving him onto the frozen ground outside."Get your shit out of here before anyone comes home!" I shouted full of rage, my hands wanting to strangle, to pound my fist through his face.

Screaming my anger, and betrayal into the thick freezing night air. My heart was pumping the rush of adrenaline through my veins, making me breathe out in heavy breaths. Falling to my knees, as white and black morphed into blurred lines of gray.

I would never forgive Dario. And Calista would forever remain my past.

Gage flew us to Mexico late Christmas morning. Everett came down the day after. One week of fun in the sun. Clubbing, drinking, and girls. Who the fuck was I kidding? I was dead on the inside, only existing on the outside.

I walked away that night on Christmas Eve, and I didn't see Calista again for almost eight months. Until she showed up unexpectedly and uninvited at my party.

The night Summer walked into my life.