In Love With A Tomboy

Joey's POV:

Izzy and I have been going out together for a while now and I just loved her so much that I couldn't even go a second let alone a minute thinking about her. Every night, we were going out and spending as much time together as we could and everyday I found myself thanking my parents for moving us to California.

All my life, I thought I'd find my one true love in Canada - which was why I wasn't so happy to be moving away - but now it turns out that I was wrong; I happened to find my one true love in California instead!

I've liked a few girls back in Canada, but none of them were as great as Izzy and even though I've never had a real girlfriend before for some reason I just happen to have so much experience all of a sudden. Maybe it's because Izzy's such a tomboy and doesn't really expect all those other things that most girls do or maybe it's because Izzy just loves everything that I do.

Man, I don't have any idea what I'd do if I lost her or anything happened to her. Every night - I swear to God - I would pray to Him, which was something that I've never done before, but just recently started to and always pray for the same thing: Please, please, please, God, keep the love between Izzy and I strong - strong enough to not let anyone or anything come in between and wreck our beautiful and perfect relationship.

For a long time, I got my wish, but our relationship didn't make it through the end of the summer. Someone ended up coming in between us and that was enough to put an end to our relationship - permanently.

It all began one day at home, when I received a text message from unknown number. It had the weirdest thing written; it wasn't in text talk, but instead in bright red font and all in capital letters. It read: THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE WILL DIE SOON - UNLESS YOU DO AS I SAY.

My first thought was of replying back 'what the hell' to it, but then I figured it was probably just someone playing a joke on me or like one of those stupid chain messages. And when I looked out the window, I found Izzy grinning and staring at the phone in her hands. So, I walked over to my window and stuck my head out through it.

"Hey, I got your message!" I called out to her.

"What message?" Izzy asked me, staring at me with confused eyes.

"You know," I urged. "The message that you just sent to me."

"But, that's just it, Joey, I didn't send you any message; in fact, I don't even have my phone on me."

Now it was my turn to stare back at her curiously. I squinted my eyes and it was then that I noticed that Izzy was right, she really didn't have her own phone in her hands but instead had a white Blackberry that I've never seen before. I stuck my head back into my own room and began to think over this, but then I thought why the hell should I, when people get all over the world get these kinds of messages.

So, in the end, I just decided to play along and pretend that nothing was wrong; it was all just a big joke. But, I turned out to be wrong. So wrong. Dead wrong and it ended up costing me a lot.

On that same day, Izzy and I went out and much like it has been like for the past few days, we were accompanied by her friends, so I ended up being the only guy there. We were headed towards a small park, which happened to be right next to this huge cemetery. To get to the park, we had to cross through the cemetery, which I wasn't too cool with, but I didn't want to seem like a wimp, so I went along with it. The gloomy sky above us only added to the creepiness of everything.

Izzy and I were walking side by side, holding hands, and walking past this huge leafless tree that looked like it was on its last roots, when I got a phone call. I answered it, but couldn't hear anything.

"Hello? Hello?" I said into my phone.

Whoever was on the other end stayed silent; there wasn't even the sound of breathing. So, I did went with the only other option I had - I hung up. But, it wasn't even two seconds before my phone began buzzing again. I held the phone up to look at it and noticed two things. One: I was low on signal, which was probably why I couldn't hear too well. And two: The call was once again from an unknown number.

I figured since this person was actually calling me now, I might get some answers on who exactly they were and what they wanted. So, I slipped my hand away out of Izzy's grasp - causing her to look up at me in surprise, so I just picked up a finger and told her I'd be right back - and walked back towards the front entrance of the cemetery and walked until I found at least some signal.

By then, the ringing had stopped, so I went through my phone and found the unknown number at the top of all my calls and called them up instead this time. They answered on the phone ring and immediately I regretted my decision.

In a sharp, raspy voice, whoever was on the other end of the line said, "You should've listened.... There's still time, go, go and save her - while you still can!"

Then they just hung up. I had to admit I was left a bit breathless and taken back from that, but I shook my head hard and began treading over the autumn leaves towards the gate.

"Some freaks there are in this world these days," I muttered to myself as I went through the gate. "Fuckin' retards, I swear."

I normally didn't swear, but the phone call had really pissed me off. As if texting me wasn't enough, now they had to call me in the middle of my date to ruin my whole day.

For a split second, I began to wonder, really wonder what if this was all true and something horrible was about to happen. I couldn't help it, I stopped walking and dropped my head to look down at my phone in my hands. It was still flashed on and I could see Izzy's sweet smiling face staring back at me. I had clicked a few pictures of us together a few days ago and saved them on my phone, setting the best one as the background on my phone.

Something in my heart fluttered; she was just so goddamn beautiful. God, I would just die if something happened to her and that too on my watch. I pulled in a deep breath and tried to cool my head.

"Stop it, Joey," I told myself. "You're only making yourself more stressed over this than you should be."

I had just started walking back towards the group when I heard the very loud sound of a snap, crack and pop noise. Now, it wasn't cereal I was talking about, it was the sound of something collapsing and falling over. I started running and while I was trying to push myself to go faster, I heard an even louder shrill voice scream out, which was enough to give me that crazy adrenaline to get there in a speed that probably would've shocked me if I weren't so hell bent on getting to Izzy.

When I got there, I was so shocked at what was about to happen, that I almost stopped in my tracks. Izzy was completely frozen where she stood, her eyes wide and staring up at the sky where the giant leafless tree was only inches away from falling right on top of her and her mouth was open in a scream that ended a long time ago, but was unable to close itself.

I knew I had to act fast and that's exactly what I did. I pushed myself so hard I could feel my lungs getting ready to burst and my knees to wobble and bring me down, but I couldn't let that happen. I practically pushed myself onto Izzy and shoved her out of the way. I fell right on top of her and the tree fell in the spot where Izzy stood just seconds ago.

I heaved out a huge breath that fell over on Izzy's face. I looked down at her, she still had her mouth and eyes wide open; she was still frozen. I pulled her up and soon enough she was moving. Izzy was practically shaking with fear and there were bright tears streaming down her cheeks as well as beads of sweat swept across her forehead. I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her in close to me, holding her tight.

"T-thank you, Joey!" she sobbed in my chest. "Thank-thank you for saving my life."

"Shh, shh," I stroked her wet head and wiped away her tears, saying sweet things like, "It's fine. You're alright. Don't worry. Shh."

"Oh my gosh, Izzy, are you alright?" Spencer cried out.

I looked up, I had completely forgotten about everyone else. The rest of the girls seemed to have awaken from their trance and rushed over to us. They all patted Izzy on the back, trying to reassure her and get her to stop crying and congratulating me about my little heroic way.

"God, that could've killed you, sweetie!" Bobby commented, which caused me to snap my head up and jerk it towards her.

All of a sudden, every one of the girls around me looked like a certain suspect. It was possible though one of them or even all of them had gotten together to plan this. But, but, no, no, why would they do that? Why would they try to hurt Izzy like that for no reason? Every killer has a motive and though Izzy may not be dead - nor did I ever want her to be - there was someone out there that really did though.

"We should get out of here now," Dani said then, shaking me out of my thoughts. "Before who knows what happens next. The trees here aren't very stable at all and we might be next."

Izzy nodded her head at that, but she still clung on to my shirt.

The sound of buzzing filled my ear and it took me a little while to realize just what is was. My phone, it was once again from an unknown number, but it was another text this time. It read: NICE JOB - THIS TIME!

My eyes widened and I looked around frantically, trying to find the person who had just sent it. There had to be somewhere around here to know that I had managed to save Izzy, they had just had to be!

"What's the matter, Joey?" Dani asked me, looking worried.

Izzy looked up at me then and stared into my eyes with that same worry in them.

"N-nothing." my voice cracked, so I cleared it loudly.

"Alright girls, we should really get out of here now, I'm seriously getting crept out," Spencer cut in. "I'm sure we all are."

The girls began walking out of the cemetery with Spencer leading them, all except for Dani who hung back to help me with Izzy.

"Come on, sweetie, let's go." I kissed her on the forehead and gave her one last squeeze before Izzy pulled away from me and began walking herself. Dani walked on the other side of her with one hand on her shoulder.

As soon as we were out of the cemetery and walking back towards our house, I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. It rang on and on, endlessly, but I refused to pick it up and answer it.

"Aren't you going to get that?" Izzy asked me when she could speak right again.

"No." I told her bluntly.

Izzy didn't ask me or say anything else after that and just continued on walking while holding onto my hand tightly. I waited until Izzy was safely in her house with her mom and up in her room, before walking into my own house and going up to my own room to see who it was that had called - even though I already knew, but I just thought I'd double check. And by that, I mean, seriously curse whoever the hell they were out and see just what they wanted exactly.

What the hell do you want from me? I wrote back angrily.

I received an answer back almost immediately as if whoever they were actually just sitting there waiting and anticipating for my answer. They probably knew that I had a weak spot for Izzy and that she was something I didn't want to lose. I wondered who exactly they were; it was possible that it was some guy, because there in most cases like this, it mostly happened to end up being some stalker girl. But, it could also be a girl because they also happened to have the most dangerous and conniving mind.

My mind could only think of two people who would have something against me and Izzy; Ben, my cousin and Spencer, Izzy's friend. But, that was stupid - could they really go as far as killing Izzy for a little jealousy? But, then again there was also Izzy's cousin-in-law, what's-his-name...Jeff, that's it, Jeff Manors!

Beep! my thoughts were interrupted as I received another message from the unknown caller. It was a continuation from the last message they sent me. As I looked through them both, I realized that it was a huge list of things they expected me to do. Each one happened to be worse than the one above it and it killed me just reading it, I wondered how I was possibly going to be able to actually do them for real.

But, it was mandatory for me to do it if I wanted to keep Izzy alive.