Shatter Me

[2] Different From The Rest

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Jason Cruise. I knew I'd heard the name before. And I was pretty sure it was the guy everyone had been talking about.

Jason's introduction caught me off guard; mostly because of the fact that he was actually taking the time to help me and to talk to me.

And now, standing in front of him, I felt very awkward. I would much rather be heading inside. But for some reason I felt the need to introduce myself.

"I-I'm Serenity..." I began, not wanting to continue talking. But I just had to know if I was right about his name. "I'm sorry, but...you're new aren't you?"

He smiled. "Yeah...I just moved here with my family. It seems like a nice little town."

I nodded a little bit. "Yeah, it is..."

Alright. I introduced myself. Now I could leave.

I didn't want a conversation to start. And I had two very valid reasons. Number one -- because I hated getting wet and I would just get all the more wet, standing out here. And number two -- because I just didn't like talking to people. Talking was the first step in building a friendship. I didn't want a friendship. Friendships never last. And I never wanted to grow even the slightest of a bond with anyone because I knew that if I did, I would end up being let down.

"I'm sorry, but I've got to get inside right now..." I said, awkwardly. "Maybe I'll see you around sometime." But I inwardly hoped that I wouldn't see him around.

And with that, I turned and left-- leaving him behind, probably wondering why I had gone off so fast.

I sighed as I turned the hall corner. This was how I was with anyone who tried to talk to me. Which wasn't many people...but when they did, I turned them away. I didn't just not like talking to people. I didn't like people.

Sometimes I wondered what it was about people that I didn't like so much. I wasn't scared of them. I just...I couldn't trust them. I had been broken so many times growing up. When my parents died when I was only seven years old, I had gone into several different foster homes. All of which had taken my trust and thrown it away.

I tried to like people, I really did. But people were just cruel. So, I finally decided to stop trying. I stayed away from as many people as I could and only talked to the ones who were absolutely necessary to talk to. I stayed in my apartment, alone. Just me. No one to love me. No one to care. Just me and my thoughts.

I wasn't angry with anyone, although it seemed that way. I figured, what's the point in being upset with people? It was just a waste of my time to be mad.

So maybe I was scared. I was scared that my trust would be broken again. My heart would be broken again. I would be broken again. I figured if I just kept to myself then I wouldn't have to risk anything.

I arrived at the door to the theater. Flipping on the lights, I began looking around the empty room for my phone.

As I searched, I thought about that young man I had bumped into. Jason Cruise. There was something so different about him that I just couldn't put my finger on. What was it? What made him so different from everyone else that I had ever been acquainted with?

When I got back outside and into car, I noticed Jason talking to a group of people that consisted of mostly girls, but there were a few guys. His first day here and he was already so popular. I watched him, trying to find out more about him and trying my best to find out what was so different about him. I didn't want to talk to him that much, because even though he may seem like a nice person, he was probably just like everyone else. Cruel. Even though there was a small feeling deep down inside of me that said that he wasn't.

As I watched him talking to the group of people that surrounded him, there were two things I noticed.

The first thing was his smile. He had a smile that was so...different from anything I'd ever seen. It was very...genuine. It was kind of weird seeing that. Most people I'd ever met just put on a smile to make it look like they were happy. Just like I did. For me, smiles were hardly ever real.

The second thing I noticed was this: I pretty much saw the world around me in black and white -drab and boring- through this glass case I was stuck in. But I saw this young man in full color.