This Is What Happens When Love Meets Destruction

Some people may say that when you're young you could never possibly fall in love. They say that when you're young, whatever feelings you may have for someone else, however strong they are, no matter how great they make you feel, certainly isn't love. Though we may like to think it is, it isn't.

Simply because they say it isn't. They say that it's just lust, nothing more, nothing less.

But, who are they to tell us whether or not we are, in fact, in love with someone else? Love strikes everyone differently, and how love makes one person feel can be completely different from how it makes another person feel.

The fact of the matter is that love is different for everyone, which brings me back to my main question: who the hell had the nerve to claim that young people could never fall in love?

In my opinion, one could never put an age on love. Love doesn't care how old you are, what your family background is, how stable your finances are ... when you fall in love, you simply fall in love. It's not something that you can help; it's not something that you're supposed to help.

True, when we're young, our cognitive development isn't fully developed, and we have yet to complete our psychological maturation, but, your thinking process and mental reasoning has very little to do with your true feelings, and your true emotions. You know when you're in love. You don't have to be mature to understand it, or explain it, all you have to do is feel it in your soul. It makes you feel different in some way or another.

And most of the time, this 'difference' goes noticed not only by yourself, but by your friends, family, sometimes even your teachers. They may comment on a newly formed bounce in the way you walk they noticed, or the happy smile that always seems to adorn your face even when no joyful words were being exchanged at the moment. Hell, they might even catch you humming a tune that sounds a bit too similar to Bryan Adam's smash hit, sappy love song 'Heaven'.

I remember when I fell in love with a boy I knew, and wouldn't you know, I fucking fell hard for him too. He as a sweetheart, with charming good looks, and a joyous smirk that sent the butterflies in my stomach into a wild frenzy. He knew me well, and confided in me about many things. Different aspects and troubles of his life that he didn't trust to tell any one else. And, seeing that I had gained his trust, I opened up to him, telling him things about me that not even my best friend knew.

Funny how it seemed like I could tell him almost anything in the world, but the most important thing about myself was something that seemed like I would never be able to tell him. And what was that? Simple. My feelings for him.

Alex Gaskarth.

The boy that sent me head over heals at the mere sight of his brown eyes. The boy that knew me inside and out almost as if he had slipped into my mind and read my life story like a book. The boy that made me as nervous as a guilty criminal getting ready to receive his verdict. It's crazy to even try to explain all the ways the boy made me feel.

Yes, I had fallen for him, and I had crash landed on a distant planet where I was the only one who knew how I truly felt about him. I was stranded alone, surrounded by a love struck storm that whipped about my heart, causing it to ache with a sort of pain I had never quite felt before.

Some would think it obvious to just admit my feelings, and get it over with, but, there were other complications that arose.

My name is Victoria Isabella Nava, but I'm known to most of the world as Vinnie. My wise ass older brother, thinking my full name to be a bit ... well, to use his words, 'retarded sounding', he took it upon himself to take my initials and form an entirely new name. As the youngest of four children, and the only girl, my parents named me probably the most princess fitting names, thinking I was going to be one of those girls who insisted that she'd be treated like nothing short of royalty.

Instead, what they got was a girl who befriended anyone and everyone; a girl who brought home a different pet every other weekend and beg her parents to let her keep it; a girl who would rather play softball than play with barbies'; a girl who was constantly getting into physical fights with her older brothers; and above all, a girl who wouldn't be able to make heads from tails as to the mental reasoning of boys.

At the age of twenty-one, I still have no idea how the hell guys think things through, and how the fuck they arrive to some of the conclusions that they do.

In high school, Alex was the boy that caught my eye, and the boy that would end up walking away with my heart clutched tightly in the palm of his hand without either of us really knowing it. As we got older, everything around us seemed to change. We dated different people. He took off with his band to travel the country, while I stayed in our hometown, working at a hair salon.

In high school he had told me that he liked me, but instead of settling down right then and there, his confession led our friendship to a seat upon a rollercoaster, and strapped us down tightly, holding us in for a wild ride that still hasn't seemed to stop yet. Every time I think we're approaching the finish line I find that we're hanging upside down on yet another loop in the track, and from where we are now, I don't see any end in sight.

But, before you come to the conclusion that I'm just a stupid girl who just needs to get over this boy, and find someone new, why don't you take a seat, strap yourself in, and listen to the story from the beginning?

**********************************

Overhead, the bell rang loudly, causing some people to jump in surprise, while others groaned in annoyance, protesting their need for a longer morning break. Although I didn't have any verbal protests of my own, I wrinkled my nose and turned to my group of friends I had been standing with, telling them goodbye before I set off across the lawn and made my way through the labyrinth of hallways, heading to my next class.

Around me, the excitement of summer still clung in the atmosphere as I overheard lively conversations as to what others had done during their three month summer vacation. I knew that it one weeks time, however, the refreshing calm of our vacation would fade away as the wrenching duties of school, and also for some, sports, began to weigh us down.

Finally, after turning around one last corner, I spotted the industrial wing of the school up ahead of me. Already having known the teacher from a class two semesters prior, I recognized his figure standing outside the entrance of the classroom, a welcoming smile on his face, and most likely even a few good spirited jokes hidden somewhere up the sleeves of his overalls.

As I started the slight climb up the little hill to the classroom, my teacher let out a little laugh and shook his head.

"I have to put up with you again, Nava?" He questioned, crossing his arms in front of his chest as I approached him.

"Hey, I'm not any more pleased about it as you are." I joked, patting him on the arm. "How was your summer Mr. Loncar?" I asked.

"Not too bad," He laughed, "not bad at all. I trust that you managed to keep the trouble down to a minimum?"

"You know I'm not one to start trouble, sir." I grinned, stepping past him and into the room.

The room in all actuality was a large garage, or the auto shop. I wasn't the type of girl who was into taking a trannie apart and putting it back together, but rather cutting up pieces of metal and welding them together to make tables, or pot racks, or barbeques. Mr. Loncar taught both auto and welding, but since the welding shop didn't exactly have enough room amongst all the arc welders and plasma cutters for tables, we were always forced to meet in the auto shop to take roll and go over any sort of announcements Mr. Loncar wanted to share with us.

Upon walking into the auto shop, I took a look around and saw that I was the only girl; the rest were all little freshman punks, with the exception of two juniors who I got along with, but didn't necessarily know all that well. I came to a stop next to an empty table, dropped my backpack to the floor, and made a move to sit down when I felt someone playfully pinch me in my side.

I quickly swatted their hand away and turned around only to see a familiar face smirking back at me. Almost immediately, my stomach did an involuntary jolt and a smile spread across my lips.

"Alex, you punk ass." I grinned. "Pinch me again and I'm gonna have to punch you in your pretty boy face."

"Do it." He said smugly, turning slightly and pointing to a spot on his cheek. "Right here, let's see what you got."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "I can't now that you're expecting it." I said simply.

Alex grinned as he watched me take a seat. "I honestly don't think you could ever hit me." He said, pulling up a chair beside me to sit down as well. "You're too much of a sweetheart." He added.

"Alex, you know that I can be a real bitch." I said, reaching into my back pocket to pull out my class schedule. "And you know that I have anger management issues." I added with a soft laugh.

"Anger management issues my ass." He said, raising an eyebrow. "Nothing that a good back hand wouldn't fix." He added with a mischievous smile.

"Alex!" I laughed. "How dare you talk to me like that!" I grinned. "Seriously, why the hell do I even hang out with you?"

"Oh, because you know, deep down into I'm the biggest sweetheart you'll ever meet." He said in a sing song voice, flashing me a little wink.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head, suppressing a smile as I unfolded my schedule to examine what the rest of my day looked like.

"What class do you have after this?" Alex asked, tugging the paper down slightly so he could see as well. His eyes swiveled back and forth as he read through my classes and then he nodded his head. "Composition fifth period, huh? I'll make sure to save you a seat, babe, since I know you're probably going to be late getting there."

"Class with McKuchen? Of course I'm going to be late, so I can spend as little time as possible with her." I sighed. "You know McKuchen and I tend to butt heads ... a lot."

"Oh yeah, I know." He grinned, nodding his head. Without a doubt, I knew that at the very moment he was recalling the incident last spring when the notorious English teacher and I got into an argument about a controversial paper she had asked me to write.

During the slight silence that had taken place between us, the second bell rang, meaning that any students who were to show up to class now would be marked as tardy. Beside me, Alex snapped himself from his memories and turned his eyes back up to mine, sighing softly.

"So how was your vacation, Vinnie?" He asked.

"Pretty good." I replied. "Although I broke my wrist, I finally beat my brother at Mortal Kombat, and got my drivers license." I grinned. "So, I'd say that overall my summer was pretty good."

"Geesh, sounds like you were extremely busy." He said sarcastically. He laughed quietly before he cleared his throat. "Were you able to make any time during your demanding schedule to find yourself a sweet boy who would pamper you with love and affection?"

"Alex, you know that boys aren't interested in me." I said dully.

"Are you kiddin' me? You've got boys lined up around the block for you, babe." He said. "See, look right now at all these little freshmen boys who have a boner for you already." He grinned, nodding to them.

"Alex, in case you haven't noticed, I'm the only girl in the class. Of course they're going to be preoccupied by me."

"Oh, I just love how you're always so negative." He smirked. "But seriously, you're a pretty girl, my lovely Miss Victoria Isabella Nava, who would be able to get any boy she wanted as long as she believed she could." He said sweetly. "And plus, it's your senior year. You need to relax, have fun, find yourself a boyfriend, and rule the school like seniors are traditionally supposed to."

I chose not reply, and instead gave him a little smile before I turned toward the front of the shop where Mr. Loncar was shifting through his piles of papers, probably looking for the guidelines and rules for the welding shop. Sure enough, about a minute later he pulled out a handful of paper and handed them off to one of the freshman boys.

"You there, hand these out and you'll get an A for the day." Mr. Loncar said simply.

The boy, whose expression lost a big of its color, stammered an 'okay' in response and got up to distribute the rules. When he got to me, I gave him a soft smile and thanked him, causing him to blush deeply and then hurry along to the tables behind me and Alex.

"I told you," Alex said, the sound of a laugh etched in his soft voice, "you send all the boys into a frenzy."

"Shh." Was all I whispered before I turned my attention to the paper sitting in front of me.

Beside me, Alex sighed heavily and out of the corner of my I saw him look down to his own paper.

Somehow, at that moment, I knew that this school year was going to be the start of a hectic relationship. However, I didn't realize just how hectic it would become.