The Donut Shop ✔️

EXTRA SCENE #1

Hello, everyone! I bet you guys thought I wouldn't share any more of my writing with you in this book, but do I have a treat (or rather, treats) for you. See, when I was writing and rewriting this book, I amassed about a million ideas for scenes that never made it into the final cut and scenes that I had to scrap because they didn't fit with my vision. The following scenes are those. Enjoy!

Mara and Tweed

When Mara first stepped onto the street, she had no idea which direction to turn to look for Tweed. Seeing how angry he was, she knew she had to find him, and fast. She was slightly terrified to think of what he could do with his unchecked rage.

"Tweed!" she called out, glancing up and down the slick roads, but finally choosing to head left, up the road. Her shoes were drenched from puddles of rain, and she felt numb, cold, but she pressed on.

"Tweed! Where are you?" she shouted again, feeling her voice growing hoarse. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a head of blonde hair dash into an alleyway, between the Travel Burger and BuildSquare.

She broke into a sprint, dashing to catch up to him, and when she neared the alley, she sighed relief that Tweed was there, his back turned to her.

"Tweed, I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"Stop. Just... stop," he ordered, his head slumped. His shoulders were dropped at an angle, and he didn't seem to sense the rain that soaked his clothes, that dampened his hair to stick onto his forehead.

Instead of speaking anymore, Mara trod over to where he was standing and placed a hand on his shoulder gingerly. He shoved her hand away and took a few steps forward, away from Mara. She took a different approach and walked directly in front, standing before him.

"Please listen to me," she pleaded. His head lifted up, and his eyes focused on her shoes, but he did not look at her face, nor her eyes. She took his small notion as a sign to speak. "We both have problems, I get that. It sucks, about your family. I'm sorry, I didn't consider that others might have gone through more than I," she admitted. Tweed's face finally lifted to meet hers, and his hand trembled from the cold as he raised it to swipe a damp piece of hair from her face. She caught his hand before he could touch her.

Her doll-like eyes watched him curiously. "How are you so cold? C'mon, your clothes are soaked, let's get you cleaned up, yes?" she offered sweetly, giving him an encouraging smile. He nodded, his head tilting down once more.

They both began walking toward Mara's Jeep, and she drove in silence until they reached her house. She parked and clicked off her seatbelt while Tweed cocked his head to the side, confused that she hadn't brought him to his own house, above the bodega.

"This is your house?" he questioned, observing the grandiose of the structure. The lawn was adorned lavishly with a verdant army of grass, he could see, even in the dark, and decorated with fancy rocks and various other things.

She beckoned him as she got out of the car, coming around to his side to open the door for him. He got out, eyeing Mara.

"Don't you have super-strict parents? I'm not trying to die today," he warned her, and she chuckled, grabbing his wrist and dragging him behind her into the house.

It was rather dark, so Tweed couldn't see the decor of the house well, but he knew by the way that her voice echoed, and how long it took to get to a set of stairs, that her house was just as massive as it appeared on the outside.

They trekked down a lengthy hallway, stopping in front of a door. She glanced back at him before opening the door and tugging him in. He stumbled onto the shag rug and everything passed him in a pink, wispy blur.