Twisting and turning all night, I haven't been able to sleep a wink. I had no clue as to why I couldn't sleep, putting my pillow under my head, sleeping on my right side, none of it worked like it usually did. You would think after spending the last two nights, barely being able to sleep in the back seat of a truck I would be fast asleep by now, but I wasn't. There were many reasons I could have been awake, but which one if not all I did not know. It could have been the tall, and eerie tree that stood outside my window, it's looming shadow dancing around my room as if it were alive. Or maybe it was the tree's branches scraping against my window, causing my mind to travel to memories I didn't want to remember, causing my mind to play tricks on me. It could also have been just being back in this small tourist town. The town that I had been attacked in... the town that caused me to need months of therapy after being attacked.

Truth be told, I didn't want to return here. Not unless it was just to visit my mother once every year, to remind her I didn't forget her. To- to remind myself not to leave those who needed me at their worst. Letting out a sigh, I took the pillow off of my face and accidently threw it onto the ground. Maybe it was this mattress, it was at least my fathers' age. And for a mattress that was old. Well it was also kind of old for my father too.

Staring up at the ceiling, I breathed in and out slowly, thinking of what was to come. I had one more year of highschool, my father told me he had left the marines so I would be seeing more of him for now, I now lived in the middle of the woods, no one close enough to hear my cries of help if I was attacked by another animal, soon I would have to start thinking about college, like if I were going to go like my parents wanted me to do or if I would just wing life with a highschool diploma. What I had thought about the most was how I was supposed to call this place home. Especially if my father was serious about settling down here for good. My father irritated me a lot, the latest being how the only reason he left the military was because my mother was dead. They got into so many arguments when they were home, my mother wanted both of them to and I quote, "get out of this line of business," yelling something about someone named Alexander and how he had already been forced to "Do what they do." But at the mention of Alexander's name, they went silent as if the name had brought up a dark and horrid memory, one that they wanted to forget.

Letting out what must have been my one-hundredth sigh and groan of the night, I sat up in bed. Falling asleep was no use. At least not when my mind was wide awake, and torturing me with old memories. Memories that I tried to bury, memories that seemingly didn't want to stay buried, memories that- I started to feel a burning sensation, my bones starting to ache. Not now. I groaned in pain. Ever since I started puberty, I started to get these pains that started whenever they felt like it. They happened at school, at home, at the store, in the shower, at the parties everyone was invited too that I decided to go to with one of my 'friends,' who probably doesn't know I still exist, even at the therapist who told me I was starting to have growing pains. But this was worse than ever. Choking on air, I stumbled out of bed, ruining the covers that were making me start to sweat. Stumbling to the bathroom, I ran into the door frame making me wince. I winced in both pain, and the hope that I didn't wake my father because knowing him he would yell at me without even knowing I was dying. Well dying wasn't what was happening to me, but it sure damn felt like it.

Making my way into the bathroom, falling in the process, I felt the walls with my hands, looking for the light switch. After only seconds of failing, the light flickered on. Hunched over in pain, I held onto the counter with one hand and the other held my stomach. Falling towards the bathtub, I felt like I was going to puke, but the feeling went away as I turned on the shower. Crawling into the bathtub, I let the cold water run over my body and clothes, instantly cooling me down. But it didn't take away all the pain. Feeling something move under my skin, I started scratching my face like a crazy person, as if something were trying to claw its way out. However, nothing did, but the burning sensation remained in my throat and face as my body continued to get soaked in the shower. A knock sounded on the door.

"Everything okay in there Taylor?" Although his voice was calm, I could tell he was mad, even through the door.

"Just feeling... sick is all." I replied not wanting him to know I was going crazy.

"Next time try not to wake me." My father said angrily, but sighed knowing he couldn't be mad at me for feeling sick.

Rolling my eyes, I spoke up, "Oh of course." I gritted my teeth before muttering under my breath. "Next time I feel like i'm dying I'll stop feeling that way and make sure that you sleep like a baby." Slowly, I peeled my wet clothes off until I was in nothing but my underwear and let them flop to the wide of me with a big, wet slapping sound. Looking at my arms, I noticed that they looked almost hairier than usual. But I'm sure that was just because I was wet. After a few more minutes, the burning sensation cooled down completely, as did the feeling that something was trying to escape. Sitting up, I shut off the water leaving me wet and almost bare naked. Leaning back, I shut my eyes, giving myself a second to relax.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

"Wha- wha!?" I sat up quickly, looking around to see my surroundings. Shit, I fell asleep in the bathtub.

"Taylor! I need you to run into town for me real quick and grab us some food." I grumbled in annoyance. Why couldn't he just go get something? Getting out of the tub, I stumbled and slammed myself into the sink due to my legs that felt prickly as they slowly woke up.

"God damn." I was winded. Going to reach for my inhaler, I realized it wasn't on my person. Great. Turning on the faucet, I splashed my face with water, breathing heavy. "Ahh!" I yiped in surprise at what I saw in the mirror. My face. It was covered in stubble that seemed to have grown over night. With no friends or even really a father I didn't know much about puberty, but I was pretty sure that you can't just grow a beard and mustache overnight. In all honesty as strange as this entire... change was, it didn't look half that bad.
"Taylor are you up!?" My father yelled from the kitchen. Wait. How did I know he was in the kitchen? It wasn't important, I was probably just assuming he was in the kitchen since he was talking about food. Shrugging it off, I walked out of the bathroom in nothing but my boxers that were just soaking wet a couple of hours before. Making haste to my room, I replied to my father.

"I am now!" I yelled loud enough for him to hear me, but not loud enough to give an attitude, I didn't feel like getting yelled at for showing the slightest emotion to a man who could seemingly give two shits about me. No thanks to you I wanted to yell, but kept it to myself.

Closing my bedroom door behind me, I reached for my inhaler that laid on the nightstand next to the bed I failed to sleep in. The sky was barely all that bright yet, telling me it was still early. Great, the one night I go through horrible burning like pain, and fall asleep in the bathtub I get woken up early. You would think with my father and I driving one thousand miles, and getting little to no sleep he'd at least let me sleep in. But no, he had to wake me up earlier than usual. Grabbing my phone off of my bed, I checked the time. Eight twenty- one. Huffing, I grabbed the suitcase I tucked under the bed before I failed to fall asleep. Pulling out a fresh pair of black ripped skinny jeans, a pair of blue boxer briefs, two black socks, a plain white shirt that had colorful strips around the chest, and a snug hoodie that was black around the waist, a thick grey line that wrapped around the chest, meeting in the middle in a V-shape, a light brown color from the shoulders up. It was probably my favorite hoodie, and one of the only things I own that my parents hadn't bought for me. My fashion sense had never been the best, but a couple of others had told me that the quality was impeccable. Quickly, I got dressed not wanting to piss my father off anymore than he probably was from being woken up last night. Putting on my shirt, I noticed it seemed smaller as it dressed my body tightly and firmly, as if it had shrunk. Shrugging it off, I didn't care seeing as it wasn't even one of my favorite shirts.

"What the hell is taking you so long!?" My father entered my room irritated in his voice because of how long it was taking me. Looking at him, I saw eyes dart from me to my bed. "Why isn't your bed made either? I've taught you better than that! You don't leave your bed messed up when i'm not around do you?" My father pressed me for answers.

"No, father." I basically spat. I don't know how you expect me to wake me up and expect me to be dressed, have my bed made, and gone in less than five minutes. Balling my hands into fists, and digging my nails into my skin until I felt it bleed, I tried calming down. "Like you said, you taught me better than that. I'll be down in a few minutes with my bed made. Now if I can finish getting dressed in privacy, I kindly ask that you leave."

"Don't give me an attitude boy." He said, standing and staring at me before turning around and heading back downstairs.

"Don't give me an attitude boy." I mimicked my father, irritated by him. The fact that he gave me little to no time to do shit and expects me to be done with the task he gives me was beyond absurd. God I wish I had a friend to talk to about my shitty father sometimes. After years of practice, it only took me two minutes until my bed was made so perfectly that you could bounce a quarter off of it. Grabbing my truck keys off of the nightstand, I made sure I had my inhaler and phone before heading downstairs to get money from my father for groceries.

"There should be roughly two hundred here, grab enough to last us the week and probably longer." he seemed to have calmed down. Handing me a thick pile of ones full of twenties, tens, fives, and ones, he stared at me as if I had something strange on my face. "There's something different about you... what is it?" He asked, eyeing me up and down.

"N-nothing I don't think." I stuttered, wondering how he had noticed something about me was different, but he wasn't able to tell what it was when it was literally right in front of his face.

"You're taller." I started to mentally roll my eyes when I noticed he was right. I was now up to his eyes. "And it looks like you've gained some muscle too finally!" My father lifted my left arm, and pulled back my sleeve to get a better look at it. Looking in curiosity, sure enough I had gained muscle. But how he had noticed underneath my sweater, I didn't know since even I hadn't even noticed. "How have you managed to keep this from me?" My father was puzzled as to how he hadn't noticed I had grown. Trying to keep in a snarky remark, I knew it wasn't his fault he didn't notice. Hell, whatever had happened to me last night must have been a growth spurt making me gain muscle, and grow taller. I almost smiled at that. Key word almost. But there was still the fact that I don't think it was possible for a growth spurt to make you grow over an inch, a mustache and beard stubble, and muscle in only the matter of a few hours.

"Hey do you know if there's a public library here? I wanna check it out." I said, slowly pulling away my arm from my father and pulling down my sleeve.

"And your voice is deeper! It's almost like you grew overnight." He laughed like it was a joke... but it wasn't. I really had grown overnight. My muscles and entire body still aching from my 'growth spurt' last night.

"Dad did you hear me?" I tried getting him off topic of growing in one night before he found out I did.

"Oh uh, yeah I believe so. I don't know where but I think I remember seeing it the last time we were here." My father said, taking his eyes off of me for the first time since I entered the room. "But uh, just don't take too long, I need to eat sometime today." My father said taking a glass from the cupboard and filling it with water.

"Okay." I responded blandly, just wanting to get out of there before he could talk anymore to me. Quickly, I got into my truck and left.

Two hours later, I had already grabbed all of the groceries and had been at the library, doing research on what was happening to my body. But so far there was no luck. Everything I read on the internet just told me that it was natural to grow taller, and mustache/ beard stubble... in weeks, and months not one day! I was starting to freak out. I had all of these questions, and no answers. BZZTTT BZZTTTTTTTT BZZZZZZTTTT. My phone started vibrating on the table. Feeling guilty for making such a loud disturbance in the library, I whispered sorry before turning my phone to silent, and answering the call not even needing to look at the caller ID to know who it was. "Yah?" I asked.

"Hey where are you?" My father asked, annoyed. Shit. I forgot I had to be home at a certain time.

"Sorry, I just got to the library a little while ago. Shopping took me a while." Whispering, I half lied. Shopping had taken a while, just not two plus hours...

"Well hurry up, i'm starving. If you want you can come home, drop everything off, put everything away, and head back out to the library." He hung up the phone. Well, not like it would matter I did enough research that has led me nowhere. Getting ready to sign out, someone sat down next to me.

"Is this seat taken Mon ami?" a french accented male voice asked from beside me.

"No. Sorry here, let me move my stuff." I said, grabbing my stuff from the desk.

"Merci beaucoup." The stranger sat down. Looking up to see who chose to sit next to me instead of at any of the other computers, my eyes met a set of beautiful Hazelnut pair. "I am James, and you?" He stuck out a hand for me to shake.

"Taylor." I said, my eyes never leaving his, and his never leaving mine.

"Nice to meet you Taylor. Are you new here? I haven't seen you around avant." He spoke something in french. "Er- before, pardon moi, I have a tendency to mix my anglais, et francais sometimes."

"Don't apologize, I like it." I smiled kindly at him.

"Ahh, after a while it annoys beaucoup de gens." I hadn't taken much french, but from the context, and using some of the common sense I kept bottled away for moments like this, I knew what he was talking about.

"Oh, I see." I frowned slightly.

"But don't worry Mon Ami, it doesn't affect me, not even un petite." He held his fingers together to show me how 'little' he cared. Looking at his fingers, I realized it was the first time I looked away from his eyes which made me blush.

"Sorry to stare, I just haven't met someone who-"

"Who was this cute? Why thank you mon ami." He laughed, winked, and wiggled his eyebrows. His actions made me blush. Had it been that obvious that I found him attractive? Looking at Jame's face for the first time, I noticed his nose was slightly crooked to the left, he had a lip ring piercing on the left side of his bottom lip which he played with with his top lip. His hazelnut eyes themself were spectacular, but they showed mystery, darkness, memories that he wanted to keep buried, scars that would forever be in his eyes. The sides of his hair were shaved while the top was short, but long enough to run your hands through, cut into a perfectly straight line about mid-forehead.

"I was going to say- french" I chose my words carefully. "But I guess that would have worked too." I chuckled nervously.

"I am sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." James said, noticing my nervousness.

"Oh no, you're fine trust me I've had more uncomfortable conversations than this one before." I smiled in reassurance.

"This conversation is uncomfortable?" He asked, a small frown on his face, turning into

"No-no I didn't mean it like that, I-" He started laughing hysterically.

"Are you harassing more people James!?" The Librarian walked up next to us, a playful smile on her face.

"Of course not Mrs. Fringe! You accuse me of such Indecency!?" James said dramatically.

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I decided to post this and two more chapters so that I can participate in book awards. I will however most likely not be updating much more for a while due to me needing to write more chapters first haha. But I promise I'll continue updating! 🥳❤️