I looked up, locked eyes with him, and felt the weight of what had been left unsaid for the last three years hit me all at once. His face was one that I could recognize no matter how many years had passed since we last talked. His name is Hunter and I met him at summer camp. There was a musical production that some kids from camp created and performed at the end of the summer, Hunter and I were the lead roles. Ever since we ran through the scene where our characters kissed for the first time, it was like something inside of us was awoken. We couldn’t stay away from each other all summer, so leaving him to go back home at the end of the camp was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. We told each other that it could never work between us because our lives were too different and we had to move on. I’ve never felt the same about love ever since. But a few years passed and I was a senior in high school. It was supposed to be the greatest year of my life, but somehow it wasn’t turning out that way.
You see, I lived in Alabama and was content with my life. Everything was going great until the day my father told my brother and me that we were moving to California. Naturally, all I knew about California was that the people there are supposed to be blonde and beautiful and fit, and I admit I was a bit intimidated. But what really got me about this whole situation was that I had become so used to my life in Addison, Alabama. I had friends in Alabama, I had teachers I liked in Alabama, I had my boyfriend in Alabama. I didn’t know how anyone expected me to be able to uproot my life and move to Los Angeles. I was excited because it’s a dream to live in Beverly Hills, but I was also upset because I freakin’ loved Alabama.
“We’re moving WHERE? You cannot do this to us” exclaimed my younger brother Luke, clearly upset by this whole moving situation.
“We’re moving to California, Luke, it is final. I’m sorry, but this is what needs to happen. I got a job offer I just can’t turn down” my father said, exasperated by my brother’s attitude towards the move.
“Fine. I guess I’ll go start packing then” he announced as he rushed out of the room.
There was a long pause filled with awkward silence after he left. “Well, I’m tired” I said, in shock from the conversation I’d just had. “I think I’m going to go to bed”
“You don’t want to talk about the move at all honey?” My mom asked, concerned.
“Not right now. I need a little time to think about this. Alone.” I told her.
So I went up to my room and immediately called my boyfriend, Justin. We talked for three hours about our lives and where we thought our relationship was going to go. We ultimately decided that we loved each other enough to stay together and make it through the long distance relationship.
So now flash forward a month later and there I was in Los Angeles, California attending Beverly Hills High School. Amongst all the preppy and rich kids I felt like a fish out of water, just some weird hick from Alabama. I walked into my first period and right on cue, as if I were in some sort of cliché high school movie, I dropped my books all over the floor. Only unlike the movie, no cute California boy offered to help me clean up my stuff, they all just laughed and watched me pick up all my things by myself. Just as I was grabbing my last dropped book, I see him. Hunter. Gorgeous as ever, he was standing there, looking at me.
“Teagan?” He questioned, as if he’d seen a ghost.
“Hunter!” I exclaimed, clearly more excited to see him than he was to see me. “How have you been?”
“Uhhh good” he said with a coy smile. “Just surprised to see you I guess.”
“Sit down everyone, sit down!” My new teacher, Ms. Green, interjected. “Class is starting now. As you may have noticed we have a new student. Teagan, please introduce yourself.”
“Well, I’m Teagan” I stood up. “I’m from Addison, Alabama, my favorite color is sea foam green, and I like peanut butter on my Oreos.” Hunter was the only one who laughed.
Ms. Green looked at me like I was insane. “That’s great Teagan, thank you.”
I couldn’t pay attention for the rest of the period, or the rest of the day for that matter, after my encounter with Hunter. I was so excited to see him, but he didn’t seem so excited to see me. Then I started to think about my boyfriend Justin back in Alabama. I loved him, but he just didn’t make me    feel the way Hunter did. After a week of being in school with Hunter, I realized that my feelings for him just wouldn’t fade. I called Justin and we broke up that night. I was upset because Justin was my world back in Addison, but this was Beverly Hills. I had a new life there and it was time to live it.
As the weeks went by, I hadn’t really made any new friends. That was until a beautiful girl named Tori Parker saw me and decided to make me her newest project. I walked into the bathroom one day and saw her looking at herself in the mirror. We were the only two people there.
“Oh my god, I love your shoes, where did you get them?” She asked me.
“Oh thanks! They’re from Nordstrom” I told her shyly.
“Well they’re super cute.  Are you the new girl from Alabama? I heard you were pretty, but I didn’t expect you to be this pretty!” She looked surprised. I couldn’t tell if she was being fake or not, but I was in need of some sort of friend so I went along with it.
“Thanks…I guess” I laughed.
“We should definitely hang out sometime. We can go shopping!” She proposed, clearly very excited. I agreed to go with her after school that day even though I’m not really the type of girl to enjoy shopping with a person like Tori. But as I said, I really needed a friend and Tori was the only option I had going for me.
Later that day, I met Tori in the school parking lot filled with BMWs and Audis and her car was no disappointment. She pulled up in her black Range Rover and my jaw dropped.
“C’mon girl, get in!” she urged me as I stumbled around with my things and hopped into her car.
We got to the mall and shopped for a little bit, making dull, mindless conversation until eventually she asked me the question that changed it all.
“So, are there any boys that you think are cute?” she pried.
“Well…Do you promise not to say anything?” I asked, my cheeks showing my embarrassment by turning a bright salmon-pink color.
“Of course!” She insisted.
“So a few summers ago, that really cute guy Hunter and I sort of had a thing at summer camp and I really want him and I to pick back up where we left off” I told Tori.
As soon as I had said this, she spit out her sip of Diet Coke. “Who exactly did you say was really cute?”
“Uhhh Hunter? Are you friends with him?” I asked hesitantly.
“Oh honey I’m more than friends with him. He’s my boyfriend” she said, her face turning red with anger.
My face went blank. I didn’t know what to say other than a stuttered “I’m so sorry Tori, I-I didn’t know.”
“Yeah no s*** you didn’t know. You just might as well never show your face at school again. Oh yeah, and you can find your own ride home” she spat before storming off and charging down the food court away from me.
So there I was, left alone in the mall without a ride home, feeling hopeless. I walked 5 miles home to tell my mom about the mess I was in with Tori and she told me about her high school experience in California when she was my age.
  “I’m so sorry sweetie, high school in California really has not changed since I was in it” she consoled me, thinking back to her own high school experience.
“What do you mean? Were people really this mean to you for simply taking interest in someone you didn’t even know they were dating?” I asked.
“Well you know that your father and I met in high school. However, I haven’t ever told you about how mean some girls were to me after he and I started dating simply because they had little crushes on him. It took a lot for me to realize that they were just jealous of the fact that I ended up with your father and they didn’t” she reminisced.
“How did you get over it then? Them being mean that is” I asked.
“I just kept my cool and continued to treat them with kindness even when they didn’t treat me with any. That’s the best way to show someone that their words don’t hurt you, you just keep your chin up and have a positive outlook on life. Either say something nice or don’t say anything at all” she smiled at me.
I thought a lot about what she had just told me. I felt as though I had enough anger built up in me about Tori’s reaction that I might have snapped the next time she talked to me. But ultimately I knew that what my mother had told me was true. So I decided to listen to her and tough it out. I mean, it had to get better soon, right?
Or so I thought. It definitely did not get better the next day because Tori went crazy. She made signs that had my picture on it with the word “s---” plastered across the front that every student at Beverly Hills High had a copy of. If that weren’t embarrassing enough, she then confronted me in the courtyard at lunch.
“Hey w----” Tori greeted as she approached me eating alone at a table.
I took what my mother had told me about saying something nice or saying nothing at all into consideration and decided that it was best for me to keep my mouth shut. So, I ignored Tori’s snide comment.
“Wow, you’re trying to get an attitude with me? You’re the one who is trying to steal my man.”
“I am not trying to steal your man Tori, I didn’t know he had a girlfriend” I told her calmly.
“Yeah, fat chance. I’m so glad I made all those posters of you so that everyone knows just what kind of girl you are” She sneered, right as Hunter was walking up behind her.
“You’re the one who did this Tori?” Hunter questioned, genuinely appalled.
“No, of course not sweetie!” Tori exclaimed nervously.
“You know what, it’s known around school that you’re the mean, popular girl, but I didn’t know you were capable of doing something this mean. It’s unbelievable” he said. “I think we should break up.”
“You’re not serious are you?” She asked, her voice stone-cold.
“Never been more serious in my life Tori. Goodbye, for real this time.” He then started walking 
over to me and my heart skipped a beat. “For the record, I know you’re not a s---” he winked at me.
  “Oh really?” I laughed sarcastically.
“Yeah, but I could be wrong. I mean, it has been three years since we last really talked” he joked back. “So…I know that you still like me, Tori told me. I think I still like you too Teagan, but a lot has changed since we were at that camp.” My heart was beating out of my chest and time seemed to be at a standstill as he prepared to say his next piece. “I just broke up with my girlfriend and you just came here to California. Just like back then, our lives are still so different from each other. I’m sorry” he sighed.
So for the same reason as three years ago, we decided that it was not our time to be together. Once Hunter broke up with her, Tori started to back off with her attacks on me, something I think was caused by the fact that he wasn’t “hers” anymore so she really didn’t have any justification for her mean actions. For the time being, I knew that what Hunter had said about our situation was true, but we held out the hope that someday we could be together again.
That just wasn’t going to be the day.