*Author's note

Hi, thank you for choosing this novel, it means a lot to me. Any means of support will be greatly appreciated but I especially like feedback the most.- Lauren the author

Side notes:

-This novel is the sequel to Our complicated love story
-This novel works as a standalone
-This novel is not MPreg. It only has mentions of it as Our complicated love story is Mpreg.
-For those who wish to read Our complicated love story to better understand the story of some characters that will appear, you can.
-There is sexual content but only in the later part of the novel.
-Episodes are divided into 2 parts, ~1500 words each
-Updates: As of 18/08/24, frequency may vary due to the author's limited time to write but a new update schedule may be confirmed in the coming weeks. 

Enjoy the read!*

Prologue p.1

Carson's pov

I used to have a best friend. Well, I do have one now but I mean like a childhood best friend.

We were inseparable, we did everything together.

His name was Emerick Cortez.

I met him in kindergarten on the first day. I'll never forget that day.

It was recess and I was playing all alone in the sand pit while my twin brother had everyone playing with him. Yeah, I have a twin brother and it complicates things for me all the time.

I was sad that I was playing in the sand pit all alone but I was too shy to go talk to my brother and his new friends, so I stayed put.

Then a little Latino boy my age with brown skin and his hair as dark as his brown eyes came to join me.

When I first saw him I was mesmerized by him, I thought he was so beautiful.

He was shy too but so entranced by his beauty, that I talked to him first.

And it's then we started playing in the sand pit together.

Emerick could've become friends with my brother but instead, he chose me. I've always been grateful that he chose me that day. He was never interested in becoming friends with my brother, he used to say. For a long time, I didn't believe him but I was still so happy because I had him all to myself. I thought it was so cool that someone could possibly not like my brother.

After that day, we played in the sand pit together every day and eventually, we played other games together but it was always just us the two shy kids.

While my brother made tons of friends and was popular, it was just me and Emerick, no one talked to us nor did we have the guts to talk to anyone else.

Emerick was my first friend and he would be for quite some time.

We were the kind of friends that did everything together, it was next to impossible to find me without him by my side, well except when we weren't in the same class which was only 3rd grade.

Emerick wasn't only my friend at school, he was out of school too. He did not live necessarily in my neighbourhood but he wasn't that far either.

He would come to my house often and my parents liked him a lot. They always found him quite calm, he wasn't chaotic unlike my brother, so we had sleepovers often.

Even our parents got along together but they weren't necessarily friends either but they definitely talked.

We were so close Emerick and I that sometimes he came with my family to some places and family events, and sometimes it was me who assisted to some family events of Emerick's family.

Let's just say that I definitely know his extended family and he does know mine too but it did not matter much because we were young and friends.

Despite it all, he meant it when he said he wasn't interested in becoming friends with my brother. Whenever he was at my house, he actually never got along with my brother. I don't know what it was but they just did not get along. I know it must be mainly my brother's fault because he's so annoying.

Otherwise, everything was perfect, well it was but it did not last forever.

Everything changed towards the end of 4th grade, Emerick started to distance himself from me. I used to know everything about him but for the first time ever, I did not and it hurt me. I didn't like that.

Then it all got worse by 5th grade. It was still just us two but we weren't as close as before. Sleepovers were less and less frequent and sometimes he did not want to see me which was shocking to me, as it had never happened before.

I always begged him to come play with me, but no matter what it seemed like he wasn't interested in me anymore.

I did notice that he seemed distant and troubled about something whenever we were together the last few times but I didn't take it seriously. I only realized that as I got older.

I tried to do everything to keep him with me and it worked at first but eventually, I just lost him, he was no longer by my side.

When I lost my only friend, it was towards the end of 5th grade, right before middle school. He got himself some new friends and I was left all alone. He really took the perfect opportunity.

The last of my elementary days were miserable, I would cry every night and I had no one else, not even my twin brother.

No, he used to make fun of me for losing my only friend.

That summer was awful too, I was so lonely and my parents tried everything to get me over the hump but nothing worked.

I never understood why he left like that. I always thought it was because he thought himself superior to me. Maybe I wasn't enough or just too weak. My papa used to constantly tell me to stop thinking like that but I couldn't help it.

Even if I was miserable, I still had faith left and honestly, I don't know why. I guess I still thought that it could change in middle school and Emerick would be back to his usual self but I was wrong.

On the first day of middle school, I recognized him and waved at him but he did not even look at me. My heart broke that day but at least that day was not absolutely horrible because I became friends with a girl, Ella McCall.

As much as it hurt losing Emerick, meeting Ella that day was a blessing. We shared multiple classes and we became besties. As we did, we started doing everything together. Of course, I was still sad but in a way in Ella I found comfort and she helped me get over my lost friend.

And luckily for me, we are still besties to this day, though we aren't nearly as close as I was with Emerick and that's partly because she's a girl.

Because of how close we are everyone assumes we are dating but we're not. I've never seen her in such a way and neither does she.

We seem like we have a story together but we don't. I've got no story to tell. Emerick is my story but it's all in the past.

Nowadays, Emerick is a loner. He no longer has friends and he's always reading books or studying all alone. It breaks my heart to see him all alone. Sometimes I want to talk to him but I know he doesn't care about me.

Regardless of Emerick, I badly wish I'd have a story of my own just like my parents do...