-I wrote the following novel nearly two decades ago. In the years between then and now I've honed my craft, and my perception of this world; my thoughts and ideas; have changed dramatically. However, I still enjoy the premise and have decided to do an overhaul of revisions and rewrites, though likely not until sometime next year. (Though I'm sure I'll do a little as I post chapters)
For now I hope you will enjoy a glimpse into my book writing beginnings...
They are the closest of friends though they have never met in waking life.
Prologue-PT1 Prologue-PT2 Chapter 1
Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10
Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13
Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16
Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19
Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22
Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25
Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28
Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31
Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34
Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37
Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40
Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43
Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46
Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49
Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52
Chapter Fifty Four
Aliyah and Amy went back over to Janie to make sure she danced some more before the event was over. Afterwards they sat down with her again and Aliyah impulsively decided to invite her to the party.
“Party? With who?”
“I don’t know, a bunch of people in a cornfield.”
Janie looked at John who shook his head emphatically. “Not me.”
She made a face at him, obviously getting annoyed with his lack of interest in anything fun.
“I would love to go to a party,” she stated.
“Do you think you could get away with sneaking out?”
“That won’t be a problem, my parents are gone for the night.”
“Really?”
“Yup...why don’t you call your parent’s and see if you can stay at my house, then you guys won’t get in any trouble either.”
Amy got up abruptly. It was 10:30, she would have to be quick. She and Aliyah ran out of the gym and up the hall to the pay phone, this would be ideal!
“Hi mom? Janie wants to know if we can stay with her tonight. Her parents are out of town and she’s by herself.”
She was gripping the phone tightly. “Yes, Aliyah will call her mom too. So it’s okay? Thanks mom! I’ll call you in the morning.”
She gave Aliyah the thumbs up and Aliyah made her call. Piece of cake, her parents’ wouldn’t care whether she stayed at Amy’s or Janie’s. She got permission, told her mom that the dance was really fun, hung up the phone and said “Yes! This is perfect!”
“Let’s go tell the guys they’ll be picking us up at Janie’s.” They rushed back into the gym excited.
“Janie’s coming?” Dave asked in surprise.
“Don’t worry, John isn’t.”
“I wasn’t worried about that, I was just wondering if we have the room.”
Greg waved his hand grinning, “No problem, Amy can sit on my lap.”
“What time are you coming?”
“Well now that you have the whole night free, how about 11:30?”
“Sounds good.”
“Janie’s parents out of town, that worked out well,” Dave mused.
“I know.”
The dance ended and they found Janie. They didn’t have to worry about a ride home since Janie’s house was on a side road five minutes walk from the school.
They talked excitedly all the way to her house.
“Is John mad at you?” Amy asked once they were inside.
“Yeah, but I don’t care. I like John a lot, but I think I made a mistake when I decided to be more than friends with him. I know we seem like the perfect couple- in band together, both book worms, but lately I’ve been thinking there’s more to life than that. I mean, I can be in band and read a lot, but that doesn’t mean I have to be a boring geek. Jared Ryan’s in band, you know the drummer, and he’s popular. Plus he’s really cute.”
“Do you like him?”
“Kind of. I guess I do! Do you think he’ll be there? He was at the dance but he didn’t bring a date. He was just dancing with everyone.”
“He’s in tenth, right?”
“Yeah, I know he’s older, but a girl can dream.”
“Why don’t we go to your room and find you something else to wear.”
“I was thinking that exact thing.”
They ran up to her room and put together an awesome outfit, then worked on her hair and make up. When they were finished she looked really good.
“Wow Janie, look at you!” Aliyah exclaimed. They had straightened her hair with an iron, took her glasses off and forced her to put in the disposable contacts her mom had bought for her but she’d never tried. She was afraid to stick stuff in her eyes, but with a little urging she managed to do it. Normally she wore clothes that were too big for her, coupled with frizzy hair and glasses it was not a sexy sight. But with her new ensemble, straightened hair and contacts, she was really cute.
They barely managed to take their own hair down and fix their make up before the guys pulled in. Luckily it was unusually warm otherwise their present outfits would have made for a chilly evening.
They pulled into the cornfield by a long driveway that circled around to a clearing. There were already a lot of cars. Luckily they were in the middle of nowhere so they could be as loud as they wanted.
“Do you want a beer girls?” Greg asked.
They all shrugged. “Okay.”
He pulled three out of the cooler in his trunk and handed them around. His brother Travis told them that his mother bought him a couple of cases the day before.
“Your mom?” Amy was shocked.
“Yeah, she’s cool, she doesn’t care if we party. Well, she doesn’t care if I party, little Greggy here she might get upset about, of course she’ll never know. She wouldn’t wake up if a train drove through our living room.”
“Valium,” Aliyah said, “we heard.”
“Well, help yourselves whenever you need another one, I’m off.”
Dave asked Aliyah if she wanted to take a walk with him before heading over to people.
“See you in a bit girls,” Dave winked at Greg and led Aliyah away.
They found a place away from people to sit and Dave wasted no time. He pulled her to him and kissed her long and deep.
He pulled back and smiled at her, then cracked open his beer and chugged it. He finished in less than a minute, crushed the can with his hand and tossed it to the side.
Aliyah was taken aback. “Since when do you drink?”
“Oh you know, since hanging out with Greg.”
“So a month?”
“Yeah. They party at his house all the time.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wasn’t sure if you’d be okay with it.”
“That’s not a good reason.”
“Sorry Aliyah, but you're so straight edge most of the time, I didn’t think you’d like it.”
She realized she didn’t exactly have the right to chastise him about honesty when she had never told him about the yacht and getting drunk. She cracked her own beer and tried to chug it, then spit a mouthful on the ground. “Ughh, that’s awful.”
Dave laughed, “You get used to the taste.”
She tried again. She couldn’t chug it- she had to keep stopping to burp- but she finished it pretty fast anyway, letting out a long loud belch. She grinned.
Dave whistled, “Not bad, not bad at all. Do you want another one?”
She nodded. He ran back to the truck and shoved four in his pocket then came back. They drank the next one fast again, laughing at each other’s burps.
“This is fun, I should’ve told you I drank weeks ago. You could have snuck out and come over to Greg’s.”
“Better late than never.”
Dave gulped down a third but Aliyah just took a sip. He told her to tip it up and she shook her head. “Two in a row was plenty, if I keep it up I won’t be leaving this log.”
“You’re right, first timers should definitely take it easy.”
The beer was loosening her tongue, “Who says it’s my first time?”
“Come on, you’ve never drank before.”
She raised her eyebrow and took another swig.
“When?” he asked.
“On Long Island with Amy.”
“Seriously? Did you get drunk?”
“I sure did.”
“At her aunt’s house?”
“Nope, on a yacht.”
She stood up and stumbled backwards a few steps laughing.
“You’re messing with me.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Okay, you have to tell me more.”
“I met this guy and he…
“Wait...you met this guy?”
“Not like that, he was like in his twenties- anyway I was admiring his boat and we were talking about life and then next thing I know he tells me that I could bring my friends to the boat whenever I wanted that weekend.”
“Sounds like a pervert.”
“No, silly, he wasn’t using the boat that weekend.”
“Okay, so who else went with you?”
“Oh a bunch of people Amy knows. Mike, you’ve heard about him, and his friends.”
“So what did you do, sit around and drink?”
“What do you guys do when you party?”
“When we party it’s just a bunch of guys from the football team.”
“Okay. Fine, we made drinks at the bar and we danced.”
“With who?”
“With each other.” She drank a few more sips willing herself not to say anymore.
“You and Amy.”
“Yes, me and Amy.”
“No one else.”
“Oh jeeze Dave, what are you asking me?”
“I’m asking if you danced with a guy.”
Aliyah looked at the ground. Why did she have to go and tell him about this?
“I take that as a yes.”
“Oh come on Dave, I wished it was you.”
“Sure you did.”
“I did, ask Amy.”
“Yeah, like she would say anything you didn’t want her to say. Did you kiss him?”
“No!”
He shook his head and stood up. “But you did dance with him. Fast or slow?”
“I don’t know, both I guess.”
“Don’t you think you should have told me this?”
“You’re one to talk, you’re living a double life I’m just finding out about!”
“Well no girls are involved in my “double life”!”
“It didn’t mean anything, I was just seriously drunk and having a good time. I don’t like Chris or anything.” Crap, she said his name.
“Chris.”
“Yeah, that was his name.” Why did she say his name?!
Dave licked his lips and started walking towards the party.
She ran up to him. “Dave come on, it was nothing.”
“Nothing named Chris.” He pulled his arm away from her and kept walking.
“I could understand you being mad if I kissed him or something, but I just..
“If you kissed him, or something, I wouldn’t just be mad, we would be done.” He stopped at the cooler and grabbed another beer. “Go find your friends, I need some space.”
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