Allow me to tell a story, a simple one at that. I promise to you it won't take all that long. The story is that of an average girl with frizzy, auburn hair and curious, sad, blue eyes. In her mind she was always alone and curious to what life might have her.

Her name was Anne. She had friends and boys that she had crushes on just as any sixteen year old girl did, but the thing that set her apart from the rest were her unconfident and curious ways. Anne questioned everything in her life from herself to her friends, and from life to death. She was an easy person to like but a hard one to love.

In her last summer she met a boy, whose name is unimportant, that she knew would never love her and probably didn't like her either. He was cute and seemed nice, but looks can be deceiving. Anne started dating the boy in hope that he would be kind to her and that maybe he would fall for her, though in the end he never did. She always questioned why she stayed with him or why she tried to even please him and make him happy, but of course she could never supply an answer to herself or anyone. That same summer though Anne met another boy, one way more important than the one she was dating. This boy's name was James and he was the man of her dreams, literally. Anne could remember when she would tell people about the man of her dreams. She would tell them that he would have stern, memorizing, emerald eyes with black hair that wasn't short but didn't fall past his shoulders. Over and over people had told her that a man like that didn't exist, that is until her best friend, Lindsey, introduced him to "him". Though James and Anne never met in person and only talked over the phone or computer, Anne fell for him, and hard. To Anne James was like an imaginary person that knew all about her and could make her smile and laugh when it seemed no one else could. He could only become real when she could finally meet him.

The boy Anne was dating that summer treated her poorly. He used her and dragged Anne through hell. He was always putting Anne through heart break and when he got his chances he made her feel worthless, ugly, and completely unwanted, but she was okay. The only reason she was okay with all of it was because James was there to help her through it and to tell Anne how wrong her boyfriend was about her. Each word uttered by James to Anne made her fall even more in love with him and made her want to meet him all that much more.

It was sometime into the school year, near the end of it to be exact, that James had come up to visit. When Anne discovered this she became overly excited. Each day she walked around with a large grin and a new sparkle in her eyes. Whenever she was around Lindsey all she could say was "James is up! I really can't believe he is up! Do you think I will finally get to meet him?" Lindsey was always telling her hopefully grinning with the satisfaction that Anne was truly happy for once. Those were the last times that Anne had that sparkle locked in her eyes.

It was during one of one of those many Sundays in which James was visiting that Anne yet again asked if she could meet him. Lindsey gave her the same answer as always and then went on to tell her that Sarah and her had hung with them the night before. This news did make Anne a little mad for the fact that Sarah was a newer friend and that she got to meet James before her, it was Anne's jealousy coming out a little. But Anne soon lat that go when Lindsey told her that James had sent a message to Anne on the computer. Anne quickly rushed to the computer, for she loved to read his messages of love to her, opened it and began to slow as she read. Anyone watching her read it could see the light drain from her eyes, like the life draining from a fish out of water. What replaced the sparkle was a sad dullness as she read of what James now believed who she was. He said quite clearly that he did not want Anne if she was to use Lindsey and be two faced. Anne did not understand, she had always tried to be there for Lindsey as Lindsey was for her.

In a rush of panic Anne called back Lindsey to discover that the night before Sarah and James had a private talk. Lindsey had no idea what was said between the two and in a way Anne didn't want to know. In a rush Anne searched her mind to see if she had done anything to Sarah to make her do this to her but she found nothing. Anne was there to help Sarah and was a true friend to her, but yet she still did this to Anne. In all of these thoughts Anne's anger had risen to a tremendous height, as lava does before breaking through the crust of the Earth. To prevent herself from hurting anyone Anne grabbed her fathers switch blade, which he left home, and plunged it deep into her wrist shredding the flesh wide open.

With this she calmed down and then it hit her, the notebook. Anne wiped the blade, put it back, and headed to her room, still on the phone with blood running down her arm. When she reached her room she placed her arm under the dresser and removed the piece of wood hiding her notebook. This notebook held all of Anne's friends' dark secrets and thoughts; it was her way of dealing with things. As she flipped through it to find Lindsey's chapter she discovered that it was missing. Infuriated Anne told Lindsey she had to go, hung up, grabbed the notebook, and headed out of her house.

When out of her house, Anne began to walk to the stream that ran not too far from her house. As she began to near it she could smell the fresh water and hear the trickling of the water, next she saw the bridge.

Still bleeding, but now only a little she stood atop the bridge, she ripped out a blank page of the notebook. Nest she leaned over the bridge and dropped the notebook into the running water below. She watched the notebook as it hit the water with a plop causing the water to disperse in rings, and then slowly sink to the bottom, washing all of her friends' secrets away with it. Anne then sat down and holding the last page of the notebook and began to write. I began to write my final story in hope that maybe I would be remembered and not forgotten like my friends secrets being washed away with me down the stream to whatever may be ahead.