Heterochromia.

January 13th 2008. Period 2. Mr Treller’s science lab.

That’s when he first saw her.

‘Class, this is Mia. She’s new here, she just moved here from Toronto.’ Mr Treller stood at the front, he could have grown two heads for all Justin cared. All he could concentrate on was the beautiful girl who stood next to him. She had glowing olive skin, shoulder length black hair and the most gorgeous smile he’d ever seen. She looked around the class shyly and her eyes rested on him. As her lips stretched over her teeth revealing the smile once more, Justin’s breath caught in his throat.

He had no idea why, but she began walking over to him. His brain clicked into gear when he saw that the seat next to him was the only empty one in the class. He thanked God that Ryan was sick that day and hadn’t taken his usual seat beside him.

After Mr Treller had finished droning on about autotrophs and pyramids of biomass, he set the class a task – fortunately, they had to work in partners.

‘Hi, I’m Justin.’ Justin smiled at her, holding his hand out in her direction.

‘I’m Mia,’ she said quietly, her hair falling over her left eye. As he looked her couldn’t help but look at her eyes. They were intriguing; one was deep blue while the other was green.

‘Wow, your eyes are different colours!’ he exclaimed, looking back and forth between each of her eyes.

She smiled knowingly, he realised it obviously wasn’t the first time that someone had pointed this out to her.

‘It’s called heterochromia of the eyes.’ She said softly.

‘Hetero-what?’ Justin asked, the long word going in one ear and out the other.

‘Het-ero-chrom-ia.’ She said slowly, syllable by syllable, giggling softly at Justin. ‘It basically means both of my eyes are different colours.’

He smiled at her; her laugh was musical, almost too perfect to be called a laugh. He was completely aware that if any of his friends could hear his thoughts they’d be laughing at him; but he didn’t care.

‘So, Justin, is there anything fun to do in Stratford?’ Mia asked as she twirled a length of her wavy hair around her finger.

It was so mesmerizing he found himself staring at her carry out the simple action for a few seconds before he could conjure an answer. ‘Erm, not really,’ he said, a small blush stained his cheek. ‘But there is a really cool skate park near my house.’

‘Skate Park? You’ll have to take me there some time,’ she smiled that mind blowing smile at him and he forgot what they were talking about.

At that moment, he knew she was something special.

After almost three months of innocent flirting, sideways glances and cheeky smiles, Justin couldn’t take it any longer.

When he was on his way out of 3rd period English, he took Mia to one side. He fidgeted trying to find a way to say the words that had been floating around in his brain since he met her. After some deliberation, he decided just to ask, not to sugar coat it, what was the worst that could happen? (Well, she could say no, but he didn’t want to think about that.)

Are we an item? Girl, quit playin’. We’re just friends, what are you sayin’?

‘Um, Mia, I was wondering…if you wanted to…maybe, be my…girlfriend?’ Justin asked, wringing his hands, not making eye contact with her for fear of blushing.

She bit her lip delicately, ‘Your girlfriend? Justin…I thought we were just friends?’

‘Just friends? Well, we have been, but I want to be more than that…’ he trailed off as realisation dawned on him. ‘Do you have a boyfriend already?’ He asked timidly, slightly afraid of what her answer might be.

‘No, no I don’t.’ she stated simply, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

‘Well, then why can’t we be together? I know you like me; I can see it in your eyes.’ Justin said shyly.

Slowly, but surely, her face lit up and Justin was almost sure he saw a smile. ‘Okay.’ She said triumphantly.

‘Okay what?’ he said quizzically.

‘Okay, I’ll be your girlfriend!’ She said gleefully.

He wrapped her in hug and in his delight, he picked her up off the floor and spun her around. Her giggle caused his stomach to twist in knots. When he placed her back on solid ground, he was about to reach for her hand, when she pulled it away. Justin cocked an eyebrow at her and she just smiled in return before lifting both her hands up and placing one on either side of Justin’s face and slowly moving closer to him. She pressed her lips against his, and he could swear it was like there were fireworks going off around the heads. He was aware he sounded like a walking cliché, but it was the only way to describe how he felt.

Mia sat comfortably on Justin’s bed, her legs folded beneath her, Justin sat next to her and took each of her hands in his own and intertwined their fingers.

‘Mia, I have some great news. I could tell you over the phone, that’s why I called you over at 10am!’Justin laughed, knowing Mia hated waking up early on a Saturday.

‘What is it Justin?’ she asked, lazily laying keeling over and resting on Justin’s bed. As she looked up at him, she realised his smile was barely contained and it was so wide it was threatening to spilt his face in half.

‘I got a record deal!’ Justin proclaimed.

Before she could even stop it, tears sprang to her eyes and her vision became slightly blurred. ‘I’m so proud of you Justin!’ she smiled, wrapping her arms around his neck.

‘Usher heard me sing and he wanted to sign me! And now he wants me to move to Atlanta to record my album.’ He spoke excitedly. ‘My album. Can you believe Justin Bieber is going to have an album?’

The tears slipped from her eyes, she was happy that Justin was achieving his dream, but she knew him leaving would leave her almost lost. She depended on Justin, she saw him every day, her life wouldn’t be the same without him.

‘Aw, don’t cry baby.’ He wiped away the stray tears with the pad of his thumb.

For you, I would’ve done whatever.

‘I’m going to miss you so much,’ she said with a hiccup.

‘I’m going to miss you too…do you not want me to go? Because if you don’t, I’ll stay here with you.’ He said seriously, looking deep into her eyes.

‘No, Justin. Don’t be stupid, you have to do this, it’s your dream. Plus, your Mom will kick your ass if you don’t take this opportunity!’ Mia joked, leaning her head on Justin’s shoulder, trying not to think about his now inevitable departure.

Over the next few weeks, Mia slowly but surely distanced herself from Justin. If he asked her to come over to his house, she’d say she had homework; if he asked her to go to the movies, she’d say her mom wouldn’t let her out; if he asked her to go shopping, she’d say she had no money. Justin couldn’t help it, but he was beginning to feel sad about the way Mia was treating him.

On the way out of school one day, Justin and Mia were holding hands. They were alone because they’d come out of school late after going to the library.

They reached the road where they had to part ways, Justin leant in to kiss Mia, but she moved her head so his lips landed on her cheek.

I wanna play it cool, but I’m losing you.

‘Okay, what’s going on? Why are you being like this?’ Justin asked, trying hard to keep his voice at speaking level.

Mia didn’t say anything, but she suddenly found deep interest in her shoelaces and wouldn’t stop staring at them.

‘Mia, what’s wrong? You’ve been off with me for weeks…’ Justin said.

‘It’s nothing,’ she said quietly, which reminded him of the first day he met her. How quiet she was and how she was adorably shy, but this time, her uncommunicative way was just rubbing Justin up the wrong way.

‘Mia! Don’t lie to me, I know something’s wrong! I’m leaving next week; do you really want to leave it this way?’ Justin exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air.

She still said nothing, looking over Justin shoulder, an evasive look in her eyes.

‘Mia, how am I supposed to make this better, if you don’t tell me what’s wrong?!’

‘You want me to tell you what’s wrong?!’ she near enough screamed. ‘Well Justin, my boyfriend is moving to another country to become a pop star! And I don’t want him to go, but who am I to stand in the way of his dreams?! I can’t ask him to stay because I’m not that selfish. I just don’t want to be left in pieces when you go to Atlanta and become a superstar. When you come back, you won’t remember me, I’ll just be “that-girl-you-used-to-know”!’ Mia said, more tears gushing from her eyes.

‘Mia, I’ll always remember you; you’ll always hold a special place in my heart. You’re my first love.’ Justin said softly.

My first love broke my heart for the first time

‘I’m sorry Justin. I can’t do this anymore; I just can’t. I don’t want to be left in a million pieces when you leave. I want to end this on fairly good times.’ Mia said, lowering her voice so it was only vaguely above a whisper.

Justin couldn’t believe it. Mia was breaking up with him.

‘Justin I don’t want to hold you back. When you move away, if you meet another girl, I don’t want you to think that you have to be with me still. I want you to be able to go and have fun, not to be tied down by me.’ She said stroking her thumb across his cheek.

He slowly put his hand in his pocket, and pulled out a small ring from his pocket.

He walked toward Mia and held it out to her. ‘Would you wear this?’ he asked, presenting her with a simple silver band. ‘It’s not a promise ring, not a proposal, just a reminder. That even though I’m no longer your boyfriend that I’ll still always be there for you.’

Mia nodded with teary eyes, taking the ring from him and threading it on to her necklace.
Justin placed a kiss to her forehead before turning around leaving her to go about her life.

Now, I’m all gone.