[Teen and New Adult Romance]
"Life as a trailer trash kid is nothing short of shitty, especially when the love of my life pretends that I don't exist."
River wants two things: to get out of Gladstone and to be with the boy from her childhood. With h...
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My art teacher congratulated everyone who entered their painting into the county contest. First place would win five hundred dollars. I looked at my painting that hung on the wall of the art room.
It was a small sailboat parked on a private beach near a rock cliff. The two lovers who had sailed to the private beach were lying on a blanket as the sky threatened an awful thunderstorm. It was supposed to represent love and chaos in the face of death.
I glanced over the other entries in the contest, and none of them made me feel any emotion, which had been the assignment. I hoped I'd win the five hundred dollars.
As I started sketching a new assignment, one guy from the football team came over to my table. "Kaleb wanted me to check on you, River. Are you okay?"
Surprised by his gesture, I nodded at the guy, trying to remember his name. Was it Theo? I didn't know, but that was the only name I could come up with.
My brow bunched in confusion as I nodded. "I'm fine. Why?"
"The entire team knows what happened to you, and we all got your back. Kaleb told us all to take you under our wing, well, except for Randy." Theo glanced over my sketch. "You're really good. You're going to win that contest."
"Thanks," I glanced over at my painting on the wall.
"If you need anything, just holler." Theo winked at me before he went back to his seat.
After class, I went straight to my locker without seeing Kaleb or Travis in the halls before I left. I was glad that Travis had decided to give me some space. After learning about his history with Tanya, I didn't want to be with Travis anymore. Walking to the bus, I was actually looking forward to going to work today. I just wanted everything to go back to normal.
Lyla was already on the bus once I got on. When my eyes met with hers, she began glaring. How did she always get here so fast? I averted my eyes before I sat down in my regular middle seat. Jordan boarded next as he glanced at me. He didn't say anything before he passed me up for Lyla.
I missed having him as a friend, but we both knew that Lyla would aggravate the fuck out of both of us if we were to be friends again.
Tanya and Remmy's group suddenly walked past my window, and I was immediately reminded of how Tanya had repeatedly punched me in the face. My hands began to tremble. I wasn't scared of her. I was experiencing PTSD from what happened to me.
Five minutes later, the bus finally started moving, and I sighed in relief. I wanted to get as far from school as possible. Tomorrow, the principal was going to catch a bunch of girls smoking under the bleachers. For their sake, I hoped it was only tobacco that they were smoking and nothing else.
Once the bus dropped us off at the Truck Stop, I walked straight into the store to clock in.
"Hey, girly," Roxy greeted me as she looked me over from head to toe. "Feeling better?"
