Fighting

Liz: I’m an 18-year-old high school graduate who has just experienced my first...well, everything. I would give anything to hold on to Cooper, but we made a decision. After 30 hours of falling in lust, we’re parting ways. I’m starting college and can’t be distracted. Besides, he has his own life to get back to.

My mom once said, "Love isn't concrete. It's an emotion, and emotions are abstract. They change. You don't make decisions based on something abstract because if you do, you’re setting yourself up for failure." I didn't understand her words at the time. I was young and in love, and if you had asked me to define what I was feeling, it would’ve consisted of words such as affection, warmth, happiness, butterflies, happily ever after. Now, after experiencing heartbreak firsthand, my definition of love is a bit different. It consists of words like messy, heartbreak, waste of time, unrealistic, fake.

As a teenager, I learned firsthand how untrustworthy and cruel a woman could be. She destroyed me from the inside out and took everything from me. The first chance I got, I ran and have been running from my past ever since. Until I met Hayley. She's a complete game changer. She's everything I never thought a woman could be. She's honest and sincere and completely selfless, and by some miracle, she's fighting for me. I'm learning, if I want to keep her, I'm going to need to find the courage to fight for us.

I fell in love once and it was amazing. Until it wasn't. I swore to protect her. Until I didn't. I swore to love her forever. Until forever came too soon. After I lost her, I swore I would never fall in love again. Until I met Ashley.