Teaser Tuesday: W.I.P.

The teaser today is from my most recent work in progress. I actually already have a title for this book and I've written over thirty pages within the last few days. I'm really liking this book and the direction it is heading in. It's way different than my other series.  It's going to be a lot more emotional than anything I've written before. I've already had a few moments where I've had to stop writing, because I was about to cry. 

This teaser is a little longer than my previous ones. I have a lot of tests and quizzes coming up this week, so I won't be around as much. As I get farther into book two edits, I'll start posting more of those! Don't worry, I won't leave you all hanging for too long. 

This is going to be a mature YA novel. I hope you like this teaser!

*This is unedited, so there are probably a few errors in it*

Prologue

Bryce Aarons

Today’s the day. I’m going to finally tell her.

I finish tying my tennis shoes and grab the daisy’s that I had bought earlier and head out the front door. Lainey lives just around the block, so I can walk there.

Lainey and I have been best friends since we were thirteen. We made it through middle school and high school together. In the fall, we’re both going off to college together. We’ve been inseparable since the day I punched a guy on the middle school playground who wouldn’t leave her alone.

I got suspended, but I made a best friend.

At that time, Lainey was beautiful. Long light brown hair that curled at the ends and big bright blue eyes. As she got older and started getting noticed more, she started to hide beneath herself. I thought she was just self-conscious. I thought she dyed her hair because she wanted to express herself. I thought she wore the dark clothes because she wanted to hide in the shadows.

There so many things that I should have caught onto back then.

Now, I know different.

That jerk she lives with is always hurting her. That bastard of a step-dad is always laying his hands on her if she doesn’t do something the way he plans it.

I remember when she came over to my house one night during our sophomore year and she was helping me cook dinner for my parents and I accidentally spilled water on her sleeve. I grabbed a paper towel and grabbed her arm and started cleaning it up for her.

She tried to pull her hand back, but I kept drying it. The sleeve of her shirt moved up a little and I saw it—the deep black and bruise completely wrapping around her whole wrist. She stopped trying to fight me and stilled, watching me silently. I pushed her sleeve up a little further and found a few more bruises on her pale skin.

“Who did this to you?” I asked as I looked away from the bruises and into her eyes. She bit her lip and looked out at the window above the sink. “Lainey, who did that?”

“Gregg,” she whispered at last.

Her step-dad? “Gregg hits you?” She didn’t give me an affirmation, but I could tell based on her posture that it was true. I turned her wrist over and saw a few long scars on her skin. Self-inflicted scars. “Lainey, please talk to me.”

“You can’t tell anyone.” She turned and looked at me as he pulled her sleeve down. “You can’t say anything to anyone.”

“Lainey, you’re cutting yourself,” I said as I took a step forward. She’s hurting herself, because her step-dad is abusing her. I had to tell someone. I had to do something. “I have to tell someone.”

Lainey took a step forward and grabbed onto the front of my shirt. “You can’t. Swear to me that you won’t say anything. I’m not eighteen yet, they’ll take me away. I don’t want to leave. Promise you won’t tell anyone.”

“But…”

“No buts, Bryce. Promise me,” she said. When I continue to just stare down at her, she takes a step forward. “Please just be here for me,” she whispered as she rested her head on my chest. “Just be here.”

I wrapped my arms around her waist and placed my chin on her head. “I’ll always be here, Lainey. I won’t tell if you promise to stop cutting yourself.”

I felt her nod beneath me. I heard a car door shut outside, meaning that mom was home, so I forced myself to release her. “I won’t cut anymore, but you seriously can’t tell anyone. Ever.”

And I never have. Soon we’ll be going off to college and she won’t have to deal with Gregg anymore. I turn into her driveway and step onto her porch. I can hear yelling on the other side of the door.

I can’t hear anything that is specifically being said, but I can tell that her mom and Gregg are arguing. Where’s Lainey? I knock twice on the door and the yelling stops. Lainey’s mother opens the door and I freeze when I see the tears streaming down her face. Lainey’s mother is tiny. Barely over five feet tall and thin as a rail, she couldn’t hurt a fly. Gregg is a different story. The man is intimidating. I can see him pacing in the background.

“Lainey’s not here,” her mother says with sadness ringing out her voice.

“Do you know when she’ll be back?” I ask her.

Shaking her head, her mother disappears for a few seconds. I’m left standing in the open door. Gregg looks at me and I can’t help the glare that I give him. He knows that I know what he does to both of the girls living in this house. His gives me his signature cocky look and turns away.

Lainey’s mother reappears a minute later and hands me a piece of paper. Without saying anything, she closes the door. I look down at the paper and see my name written in her perfect handwriting. Lainey's perfect handwriting. My heart plummets into my stomach. Without even opening the note, I know what it’s going to say.

I drop the flowers and turn around. I can’t read this here. Not caring who sees me, I run to our spot. I take the shortcut through the field. Lainey loves sitting beneath the tree at the back of the field. The large one at the entry line of the woods. The woods scare her, but for some reason, she always loved sitting at this tree. Through the years, it became our spot.

I stop beneath it and try to catch my breath. Though it’s almost summer, there is a chill in the air. I lean back against the tree and look at my name on the paper.

Lainey left.

Taking one deep breath, I unfold the paper and start reading.

Bryce,

     I’m sorry that I have to tell you this in a note. If I could do it any other way, I would. I couldn’t risk you talking me out of this. I need to do this. I need to get away. I can’t take it here anymore. I’m scared all the time. I’m scared that Gregg is going to get so drunk one night that he’s not going to know what he’s doing. I’m scared that he’s going to hit me in just the right spot that I’ll never wake up from it. I don’t want the last thing I remember to be his fist coming towards me. I’m been beaten too many times by him. I’ve broken bones too many times because of him. I literally cannot take any more of it.

I want to be set free. I want to spread my wings and fly away from this hell-hole. I want to find my own little piece of heaven in an otherwise dark world.

I know that we had all these plans we were going to do. All these dreams we were going to accomplish together and I’m sorry that I’m ruining everything, but I have no other choice.

Thank you for being my best friend when no one else would. Thank you for staying by my side even after you found out the truth. You’ve always been there for me. You never left and I can’t return that. I’m so sorry.

I don’t know where I’m going to go, but I’m eighteen and they no longer have any control over me. They can’t tell me what to do anymore. I’m not going to let him hurt me anymore. I feel horrible about leaving my mom because I know that she’s just as much of a victim as I am, but I have to. I have to Bryce, please understand that.

Someday I might come back, but please don’t count on it. Move on. Forget I existed. You are destined for big things, Bryce Aarons. Despite the joking, I do see a successful career for you with a beautiful-wife and two kids. You’re going to make it. You have it in you. Don’t stop fighting because of me.

I won’t stop either.

You were my guardian angel, Bryce. I don’t know how you did it, but you brought me out of my dark cloud. You made me stop cutting, which probably saved my life. When I was around you, I felt alive. I didn’t get that feeling anywhere else.

You’re my best friend and I’m sorry that this is how we end. I wish things were different, but as I’ve learned over the years, wishing is pointless. Some things in life can’t be changed. The only way to cause change is to do it yourself, which is what I’m doing.

Go to college and get an education. I seriously do believe that you have greatness ahead of you.

Lainey.

Please keep an eye out for my mom. I don’t want anything to happen to her.

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