------first touch-----

Jeremy Sherwood had just got home from basic training and was running with the other enlisted recruits on base, when Emmalin Holden spotted him. Her book bag, filled to the brim with the day's assignments, was gathered over her shoulder and her recently dyed hair was pulled back in a quick, messy ponytail. Emmalin was on her way home from school and was dreading it, home hadn't felt like home since her sister, Amanda, died but if anyone asked she'd smile and pretend to be okay.

Emmalin's face lit up with a genuine smile, the first in a long time, as she sprinted her way over to his tall frame. She quickly greeted him, asking how he'd been, and how basic training went. The petite army brat hadn't been this excited to see anybody in forever and hadn't even realized she missed the Army Private until she saw him again.

While she asked questions, Jeremy gave monotonous one-syllable answers, his dark eyes never once leaving hers, studying her. Wordlessly, his warm, calloused hand gently grasped her wrist, commenting that she'd lost weight. Jeremy's touch was tender and his fingertips only lingered for a few brief seconds, igniting sparks everywhere they brushed against Emmalin's soft skin. Her sun-kissed flesh tingled as if brushed by electric bolts.

"How can you pretend your happy?" Jeremy's deep voice asked, breaking the silence, her eyes widening at the question. He wasn't angry with her, he was telling her he understood, he realized how miserable Emmalin was, despite her efforts to appear happy. Her parents were a train wreck since Amanda's passing and Emmalin was doing everything she could to keep the remains of her life from falling in the trash can.

Later, when she thought more on that wonderful electric feeling Emmalin laughed that it could've been that 'lover's feeling' hopeless romantics always talked about. The feeling true love gave you whenever they touched you, the one that left you weak in the knees and gave your stomach butterflies. Too bad she didn't believe in any of that junk anymore, since Amanda's death the world seemed a whole lot darker and love just wasn't something she could take seriously. She wondered silently if falling for her dead sister's ex-boyfriend was wrong?