COLE HAD NEVER BELIEVED in love at first sight.

But that changed the summer of 1993, when she strode into Creekfall's cafeteria; her sublime face glimmering so brightly, she might've been the sun embodied in human form. She was the cynosure of all eyes, the envy of all women, and the monument to all men. But to Cole, she was none of those. She was hope. All his answers encapsulated in one being. He no longer needed to spend his entire life looking for the missing piece to the jigsaw puzzle of his soul, as there she was, alas, the perfect fit.

It was fate when their eyes met, an electrifying gaze that worked more efficiently than any numbing medication. Everything around became merely just a background prop, all revolving around him and this woman—whoever she was. She was definitely charmed, with the way his brain cells seemed to have vanquished at her aura. But before he could discover what it was about her that made him lose awareness of himself, she was gone, faster than the blink of an eye. And then it dawned on Cole, the repercussions of her letting her go. That his heart would never remain the same.

"Hey, chimp." Daniel nudged his elbows in Cole's side, entreating him to snap out of his reverie. Daniel watched him with a speculative eye, then traced his gaze back to the path Cole's mystery lady had traversed. It took a minute before he got the idea and burst into a fit of giggles. "Don't bother dreaming chimp. That's Jane. She something all right. But she ain't for you... way out of your league man."

Cole had laughed his friend's remark away, but in truth, those words alone had rubbed all his hopes from him. "You're right. " he took a swig of his beer. "But she's really beautiful."

"Yeah, too beautiful for you," Daniel laughed hysterically. "To bad she's dating that fresh band guitarist—what was his name again? Yeah, Lewis. Dad owns that academy down the street. Nobody ever goes there y'know. But this summer it looks like they're up in business. " He lit his cigarette. "I hear they're hosting some audition today, for musicians or some bull. Some say Jane's gonna show up."

Cole's heart throbbed. "We can go, you know?"

"It's strictly for musicians, real ones." Daniel expelled the cigarette fumes. "And we ain't got no chance of auditioning nothing."

"C'mon now. We have some experience in band-playing. we could—"

Daniel cut in. "You could, bro. It's not even about auditioning, you just Wanna see your Jane." he wiggled his eyebrows. "But for real, go alone bro, I have a date with my babe"

The same day, Cole decided to be the man he'd always wanted to be, the man his doctor-obsessed parents had never approved of—a musician. But Cole didn't care about his parent's niceties. He was twenty-four and should've attained some form of autonomy. He walked out on them that day and set his foot on the threshold to accomplishing his dreams. He was going be a full-time guitarist. He was going to rock stages and strum strings in such a way that would enchant people. He would be a girl magnet, and would be unimaginably famous—But the thing was, he had to start somewhere. And somewhere was Starlight Academy.

And that was where he met her, Jane. She was swarming amongst the throngs of animated participants, distinctive in her diminutive yet unmistakably conspicuous stature. For the few seconds their eyes met, his heart went inactive, and for the first time in his twenty-four years, he felt more boyish than he'd ever, alive and subdued, slave to a force that was beyond his comprehension, in love. But his heart shattered when a brawny- and ostentatious-looking man approached her and bent to kiss her ring-rimmed finger, the diamonds on it shedding a glimmer than screamed 'engaged'. Cole felt betrayed by a woman who wasn't even his lover, and jealous of the fiance of hers—Lewis Anderson.

So Cole focused on the auditions, and loved Jane from a distance, in silence. He continued to hone his guitar skills, all the while dating women—women whom he had no modicum of affection for, a superficial and flamboyant woman who only approached him for the wealth his parents had given him. But Jane, oh Jane, his heart fluttered every time he saw her upstage but sunk each time he saw her with Lewis. And every hope melted when he realised she seemed intentional about avoiding his gaze. So he did what every man would do in the despondency of an unrequited love. He told himself he didn't love, pushing his burning affection to the back of his mind and weathered it down with excess and tedium work, with reading romance books, as he gained an odd satisfaction from envisioning the romantic love of the characters were that of his and Jane.

But things changed one day, when Jane approached him during one of his practice sessions. Cole was strumming his guitar when something hit him, as though there was a sudden shift in the atmosphere, nearly with that same overwhelm that flooded a place at the presence of a deity.

"Cole." Someone touched his shoulder. He turned to see Jane, a twinkle in her eyes that could make the stars jealous time and time again.

Cole momentarily lost his ability to speak, but then regained his composure. "Yes, C-cole Trent—that's me." He nearly forgot his name.

Jane's eyes twinkled. She neared him and took his hand. Cole instinctively shut his eyes, anticipating a kiss, and internally screaming at the possibility of that happening, but Jane killed his hoped when she placed a sheet in of paper in his hand and furled his palm. "Call me,' her hot breath brushed his earlobe.

Before Cole could open his eyes and reply, she was gone, in that same stealth as she came in. Cole winced and unfurled his fist, smiling down at Jane's number.

He called her, twice, thrice, until it became frequent, until she became the one calling, until it became an inherent part of him, sown into his subconscious, something more intuitive than intuition itself. And before Cole knew it, his soul had become mended to hers, a nutrient tank that he depended to survive. They spent their time swimming in lakes, and kissing in the rain, enjoyed their nights in front of a bonfire; Jane singing-along as Cole played the guitar.

But such love couldn't reach its fullest potential amongst two people so at the different ends of the spectrum, a chasm that could never be bridged. Jane was of a higher status. Cole was just a nobody who lived off his parent's money, a rookie who could hardly fend for himself.

"We can't continue like this," Cole had said one day, freshly out of a kiss he shared with Jane in his truck, a kiss so passionate that the strings molding them together tightened, so much that he feared its snapping loose would imperil him. He held on tightly to it, to Jane, and with the fear of losing her, came a shocking realisation, that he'd never really had her in a holistic sense. Her heart was divided between two men.

Cole drew away from Jane. "You love him, don't you?" He tapped his steering.

Jane shot him a quizzical look. "I love you." She drew her hands alongside his face.

"Just me?" Cole yanked her hand away. "You're going to get married to Lewis in a week, Jane. And yet you have the audacity to tell me you love me. What kind of love is that?"

She breathed heavily and stared right out of the window. "A love without conditions Coley." tears began cascading from her eyes. She cried, deep guttural cries than marred his heart to this day on. But for the reason as to her tears, Cole was helpless.

"I don't love Lewis Coley—or better still, I did not know love until I met you. " She looked at him. "Do you think I want to marry Lewis Cole? In all his selfishness and self-conceit. It would kill me to!" She covered her face. "But what choice have I, when he's my only hope."

Cole burned with jealousy. Hope? She called her false love hope? Hope didn't arise from a love that was forced upon, from a love that was arranged and based on fickle foundations as familial matters and one's desire for wealth. And Cole could see that was what made up Jane's 'love' with Lewis. Was she delusion as to remain with him when she'd tasted a much more genuine facsimile of hope from the love they shared, one that was genuine and unconditional.?

"Marry him then. "Cole kick-started his ignition. "Since he's of higher importance than I am."

"No, he's not," Jane reached out for him. "It's—you just won't understand."

"Then for pete's sake make me!" Anger eluded Cole, one that he hand'd quote felt before, spurned from a fear of losing Jane.

Jane opened her mouth, but no words came. She shook her head. "Cole, I love you."

"So you say."

She stepped down from his truck. "But I-I have to go."

Cole said nothing. But her goodbye felt like a stab in his heart. If only he could've gotten himself out of the stupor of anger and return her goodbye. But no, he'd watched her walk away, watched her leave him with nothing but goodbye—one that was really, in truth, a painful farewell.

He attended her marriage with Lewis still, a marriage that was really a burial to their love, the harbinger to everything disastrous. But Cole watched Jane get married to Lewis Anderson, the disaster embodied in human form. She saw her in her regal white dress that day, ever-glamorous and beautiful, with her hand's locked in her soon-to-be-wed devil husband's. Though she was all smiles that day, Cole knew sadness when he saw it. He recognized her fake smiles, the one she always put on when trying to create the mirage that she was happy. She deserved to be happy, and her marriage with Lewis would make her anything but that. Cole was meant to be the one marrying her, and the realisation of that never happening had caused him to walk out of her marriage ceremony that day, his stained with tears that were anything but spawns of joy.

He went on to make a life for himself, established a band that came close to the famous he'd been dreaming about. He would date women and attempt to fill the gnawing emptiness in his life with the transient ecstasy of one-night stands. He would watch Jane become a renowned violinist, would watch starlight Academy become a global organisation. But he would also drink and do nothing. He would try to forget Jane and deny the sadness of her smiles when he saw her on banners and magazines.

He would give up on love, because his only love had too given up on him.

If only Cole knew as he did now, he would've chased her down.; He should've forcefully pulled her out of that fake marriage and knocked some sense to her. But deep down he couldn't, as love asn't possessive. It wasn't selfish and self honoring. True love honored the other's decisions. And this was Jane choosing the path to unhappiness, a path that eventually led to his.

A few years down the line, Cole was hit with the most gory news of his life. His Jane had pushed herself off a cliff. His world rocked that day, the walls he'd been building for years coming down in rumbles. He too felt pushed to throw himself down the same cliff, in the same Romeo-inspired hope that he would join her wherever she'd landed in the afterlife. But another alternative caught his appeal, to go over to Lewis and kill him off.

But the fool ran off in time

Cole reached a dead-end. He wanted to kill himself, and he would've if not for the hope Jane had left—a letter.

Dear Cole,

I'll be dead by the time you're reading this. But I felt this was necessary considering how crushed I know you'll be when alighted with the news of my death. Coley, don't worry. I'm fine, somewhere wrapped in God's arms—or in Satan's pot of fire. Whichever, I'm finally free don't you see, free from the afflictions of this life, from Lewis's hold.

I won't lie, I waited for you Coley. But you never came, and in a weird way, thank you for never coming, because then I wouldn't have uncovered one of the truths about love. That love is about honoring the other's decisions. It's never about forcing your will upon another. It's a decision, yes, and for teaching me this, I love you more.

I was tired, Cole. Life had lost its essence, and life with Lewis was no better either. As you can guess, he was brutish, selfish and had a bestial definition of love. But nothing I never saw coming.

Suicide has always been on my mind since I left you. Even my love for you, Coley, wasn't enough to convince me to return to you, for the fear that you would not accept me after what I did became unbearable, paralysing.

But there is hope. I made sure I would give birth to my child before taking my life, and Coley I want you to have her. Lewis shouldn't be a problem, anyway. He hates babies, and I'm ever-grateful for shunning his suggestions to abort my little jewel. And now she's yours, a mirror of our love, and a little me to look upon when you feel like we're too far apart.

I loved you since the first time we met.., and I still do. But now do me a favour... move on.

Until we meet again,

Jane.