The Love That Never Ends

The Love That Never Ends 

Their story wasn't complicated at all, the girl liked the boy and the boy loved the girl. The girl's name was Erica. She was beautiful, kind, and smart but all the guys in her school overlooked her until the new guy Colton rolled in. He had blue eyes, dark wavy hair, and a too-cool-for-school attitude. Not usually Erica`s type at all but when a guy comes up to you with flowers and a devilish smirk and asks you out do you say no? Erica didn't. 

It was fall and the perfect time for couples. The hay rides, pumpkin patches, scary movies, Disney movies, and Erica`s favorite carving pumpkins. Of course, Colton knew this and surprised Erica with a pumpkin carving date. they had already been dating for a while and Erica knew Colton loved her but the question was did she love him? She knew she felt something for him but wasn't sure. All of her friends loved him; they would talk about him all the time and get her to talk about him too. They wanted to live their fantasy through her. It may seem weird but who doesn't want a boy to love them more than the simplest things in life?

Erica and Colton's new relationship brought a lot of unwanted attention to Erica. Everyone knew her now, so the once-unpopular student was now the most popular and Colton wasn't a fan. All the guys who never looked at Erica now looked. they noticed her dark black hair and the pink money piece that she loved so much. All the guys knew Erica and Colton were “the power couple”. They loved their relationship and lived for it. They wanted to find someone who loved them the way Colton loved Erica.

After a long three months, Colton finally asked Erica to meet his mom and he wanted to meet Erica's mom. Erica agreed and decided that they should all have lunch together. Erica was feeling more confident in their relationship. She was beginning to love him, which was new to her; she never felt this way. Colton was her first boyfriend and the whole thing was scary. But, Colton loved Erica and he supported her unconditionally. He loved the stories she would write while they hung out and supported her dream of being an author even though her stories always ended in heartbreak.

It has now been five months and they are on winter break Colton and Erica plan to spend every minute together. Erica loved Colton but he was very clingy. She thought that it was normal because she didn't have anything to compare it to. The first week Erica stayed at Colton's house. Everything was going great until Erica went into this shed where she noticed he would go into a lot. She walks into the shed and as the door creaks open she sees hundreds of pictures and drawings of her. There are pictures of her sleeping and pictures of their dates and even keepsakes like the knife she carved her pumpkin with and forks she would eat frozen yogurt with. As she keeps looking around the door opens and she sees Colton. “What are you doing in here,” he asked with a voice that sounded like he just ran thirty miles. Erica couldn't believe he was asking her questions. “What even is this Colton, it's not normal, this is weird”. “This is normal Erica You my girlfriend I get to keep things that when you are not here I can look at we are about to be seniors then you are going to leave me to go to college then what am I supposed to do” he yells in a hushed voice “look will you just come in okay your mom is almost here we gotta get ready.” he says in a calm tone but as the silence grows he asks “I'm still going to your house today right?” “ That was the plan,” Erica smiles. She just chooses to forget about the shed because maybe it was normal. Colton was right she plans to go to college and become a writer but she always thought they could make it work and maybe this is how they will.

Now they are at Erica's house and Colton is amazed as he looks around seeing all of her posters and CDs and all of her little nick-nacks. Everything seems like it's back to normal. They watch Christmas movies and she writes in her book. A few days pass and as she is brushing her hair she notices it's cleaned. At first, she thinks it is wired but then she just thinks that she cleaned it out at some point and just forgot about it. 

The winter break is over and they are now heading back to school. Before they knew it junior year was over and Colton and Erica passed all their finals they were officially seniors. They had one last summer of normal love before the senior year took over with college applications, the big question of stay or go or break up or not. Erica and Colton knew it was coming but for the summer they agreed to be blissfully unaware.

Their summer consisted of ice cream frozen yogurt lakes and all the beaches they could visit. Erica finally finished her book and sent it off to a publisher and to her surprise they loved it. They never wanted the summer to end but like all good things summer came to a crashing halt. Senior year was starting and so were Erica`s and Colton`s first anniversary. He surprised her with sunflowers and a diamond necklace that she had looked at in a store over the summer.

Colton was deeply in love with Erica but his senior year was going to be one he would remember and he was going to make sure of it. He went to party after party and had drink after drink but Erica didn't like this. She wanted him to be safe but he wanted to have fun. He didn't think those two words could co-exist. This started many many fights so when winter break came around Erica wanted to spend it alone. “I just need a minute” she would say in every fight “Well fine but just know that I don't appreciate you treating me like this I just want to have fun why are you keeping this from me.” ``Whatever Colton you know I just would like it if you wouldn't die”. Then she walked to her house and hoped that he would forgive her. 

They quickly made up and started their second semester of senior year as the perfect couple again. Now all they worried about was prom and Erica had to worry about telling Colton her secret. She was pregnant but when she was setting their date to tell him she didn't know that he had a secret too. At one of his parties, he hooked up with a different girl, and telling her didn't go as planned. “Seriously you want to compare me being pregnant to you hooking up with a different girl.” “Look I messed up but are you not going to try and forgive me? I mean you are having my baby.” Erica didn't know what to say. She agreed to forgive him because she didn't know what else to do. They go to prom and pretend like nothing ever happened and like Erica wasn't pregnant. 

Finally, graduation comes around and Erica is in her cap and gown waiting for Colton. Then Jonathan goes up to her, which was Colton's best friend, “Hey Colton not coming he said that he wished you the best of luck but you were just drama he didn't need” Erica felt the tears burn in the back of her eyes. So after she walks at graduation she goes to Colton's house she checks his room and he is not there. She decides to check his beloved shed but to her surprise, he isn't here either. But what she finds shocks her even more. She sees a doll that looks just like her and as she closely examines the doll she finds out it is her real hair. Then she finds photos of her even before she knew who Colton was.

She was freaked out of course and thought maybe it was a good thing he left because this was not normal. She didn't want her baby to grow up like this so she goes to college with a baby and without the man she grew to love. She thought Colton was gone but every August on their anniversary Erica would get a photo of her and a letter reminding her that Colton would never truly leave no matter how much she wanted him to.