1 Chapter 1- The Box

*beep beep*

*beep beep*

I groan and turn off my alarm.

I sit up, rubbing my eyes then look at the time.

7:30am

Great.

At least I managed to get up in time.

The next hour, I spend having breakfast, taking a shower, getting dressed etc.

Its the summer holidays in schools, and due to me being a teacher, I get to have this time off.

At least I dont have to suffer through dealing with all this during school.

My parents passed away in a car crash.

I got their house.

I had no family other than them, so I'm quite alone in life I do believe.

I only have one friend, Damian, who I met at uni, although he lives miles away.

*ringggg*

I hear my phone, which made me scramble up the stairs to get it.

I fell over a few boxes before I actually reached my room and then the ringing stopped.

"Darn it!" I cursed myself, looking around for my phone.

To my surprise, note the sarcasm, I couldn't find it.

Yes people, this is me. Bella Simons, 22, who loses her phone.. more than once.. daily.

Luckily it started ringing again. Turns out it fell under the bed at some point in time.

"Hello" I pick it up, not looking at the caller.

"Hey there Bells" a soft but deep voice answers. Damian.

"What's up Dam?"

"The sky, Doll. I was calling to see how you were." I smile at my nickname, Doll.

At Uni, we met in the restaurant I worked at part time. It so happened that he ended up working there too, but at first we didn't get along. We were called in one day by our boss saying he needed to reduce the number of workers and we both were part time so it had to be one of us. He said we needed to prove ourselves to see which one of us he'll keep. From then, we were rivals for a good three weeks. Thinking back, it was honestly hilarious. We tried to make each other look bad by playing pranks. All the staff had quite a laugh most of the time, and I think the customers enjoyed it too. There was this one prank Dam did, where for a whole day, with all my orders he put a note saying "Without questioning, please thank this beautiful Doll who delivered your meal today". That day, when I gave the receipts out, everyone said "Thank you Doll." I know I was raging at the time, but that was actually a turning point in our relationship as we became really good friends since then. And the nickname stuck as well. Oh, and turns out, due to our pranks on each other, we increased the positive atmosphere of the restaurant and gained more customers, so none of us had to be fired!

"Bell? Bella?" I blink at the voice talking in my ear, coming back from the memory.

"Huh? Sorry what were you saying?"

"Earth to Bella. Thank god your still here. You worried me for a minute there. I asked, how are you?"

The conversation with Damian lasted a good hour and half, then I decided that I need to be productive and go through my parents' belongings.

Just thinking of that brings tears to my eyes. But I have to be strong.

I walked into their room that has been abandoned for a while, but still smelling of Mom's perfume and Dad's cologne. Their double bed was nicely made as Mom made it everytime after waking up, and the carpet was spotless as she hoovered thrice a day. I think she was a bit OCD, but personally I loved that about her and so did Dad. I decided to start with the wardrobe, as it probably only has clothes in but I was so wrong.

Under the hanged up clothes, I found a medium sized brown cardboard box with "To Bella" written on it in Mom's swirly handwriting and "Love from Mom and Dad" in Dad's curly handwriting.

That's when I broke. My heart literally broke to pieces.

And I was yet to know the sadness and pain the box even holds.