Bound Together

Bound Together

Copyright © 2012 by Marie
Coulson

Published by Marie Coulson
at Smashwords

All rights reserved. No part
of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without
written permission from the author, except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles and for review
purposes.

This book is a work of
fiction. Names, characters, places and events are products of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be
construed as real. Any resemblances to actual events, locales,
organizations, or persons living or dead, are entirely
coincidental.

The use of artist and song
titles throughout this book are done so for storytelling purposes
and should in no way been seen as advertisement. Trademark names
are used in an editorial fashion, with no intention of infringement
of the respective owner’s trademark.

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Cover Design by:

Sarah Hanson

Okay Creations

http://okaycreations.net/site/

Editing Provided
by

Annatassia
Parchment

[email protected]

For the man who has held my
hand and my heart for the past seven years

Table Of
Contents

Chapter 1 - Empty
Space

Chapter 2 - Amy

Chapter 3 - An Apron and
an Adonis

Chapter 4 - Playing the
Game

Chapter 5 - Money, Money,
Money

Chapter 6 - You Spin Me
Right Round Baby

Chapter 7 - Mel, Dinner
And Daddy

Chapter 8 - Toot, Toot.
Beep, Beep

Chapter 9 -
Propositions

Chapter 10 - You’ve Got A
Friend

Chapter 34 - Party Like
A Rock Star

Chapter 1

Empty Space

I looked around the empty
room. Big, brown cardboard boxes now replaced my once bright and
junk filled bedroom. I couldn’t help but feel a little sad for the
room. We’d been through a lot together over the past nineteen years
and now I was abandoning it for a cold, lifeless, pre-used living
space.

College dorms weren’t
exactly renowned for being spacious or luxurious, and from the
fractional amount of information I’d received, I was also not going
to be living alone. Mom had urged me to opt for a shared room.
“It’s best to have someone else with you Layla. If you don’t come
home one night because something awful has happened to you, then at
least your room mate can alert the authorities. Safety in numbers
dear. Besides, won’t it be nice to have someone to talk to and
connect with on an intellectual level?”

My mother was delusional.
She was constantly worried for my safety to the extent that she
bought me a ‘stranger danger’ kit. Equipped with a pepper spray, a
personal safety alarm that could burst an eardrum and a book on
self-defense, I was definitely the most lethal teenager in my high
school…probably the state.

She obviously had no idea
what college was like. I was fairly confident that if I didn’t come
home one night, my roommate would just assume I’d either: A) gotten
lucky, B) passed out drunk somewhere or C) decided to move
out.

Having a roommate didn’t
automatically guarantee that you had someone else to look out for
your wellbeing. People sharing a dorm didn’t always become best
friends these days and in most cases, you would be lucky if you
could even tolerate each other. I was healthily pessimistic about
the entire situation but I couldn’t help wondering what my new
roommate would be like. We’d be spending the best part of a year
trespassing through each other’s personal space and I was a girl
who needed her own little territorial bubble. I liked my privacy
and perfectly peaceful existence. The most unruly person in my life
was my best friend Mel and even she understood my need for
distance. I hoped this wasn’t going to be an issue with the girl I
would soon be sharing my room and my privacy with. And if it was,
realistically, what could I do? Could I get a new
roommate?

“Ready to go Lay?” Dad was
standing in the doorway. His silver hair was shining in the
sunlight which was pouring through the hallway window. He never
bothered to color it, saying that he was more than happy wearing
his age as a badge of experience. He was wearing his faded denim
jeans and his usual flannel shirt; which made him look like he was
more suited to a career as a lumberjack rather than a
mechanic.

Holding his car keys in his hand, he scanned
the bare walls of my room and let out a long sigh.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.
These are the last boxes. I think I’ve got everything I’ll need,” I
gestured to a couple of large boxes stacked next to my desk. “Those
two are the heaviest. So if you can carry those, I think I can
manage the others.” Dad smiled but I could see that this was
difficult for him. He grabbed one of the boxes off the floor and
took it out to the car. I took one last long look at my room. Yep.
It was time to move on. Picking up one of the smaller boxes, I
gripped it tightly in my hands and followed him out.

When I reached the car he
was leaning against the passenger door, gazing at me with a pained
expression. “You know, you can still change your mind. Go to school
somewhere local and live at home.” I heaved the box that I had been
holding into the trunk and went over to him. Standing on my tippy
toes, I kissed him on the cheek. I didn’t need to say anything.
We’d had this conversation a million times and by his admission, I
was going to the best college in the state. California State was
exactly where I wanted to be. And in just a few hours that’s
exactly where I
would
be.

* * *

The drive down was very
quiet. The radio was the only sound that filled the silence. He
never said it but I knew dad was struggling not to let his emotions
show. I tried to reassure him for weeks that I would be home as
much as I could but it seemed to just make him more upset. At one
point I thought he would cry. I was sure I’d seen him swallow a
lump in his throat.

It had been just the two of
us after the divorce. Mom had moved across state to San Francisco
and I wasn’t willing to leave my school in Pasadena to follow her
there. It had been bad enough that my parents were breaking up and
that my mom was leaving. I wasn’t ready to leave my friends behind
as well. When they’d sat me down to discuss the living
arrangements, I’d pleaded my case and dad told me it was fine with
him as long as it was fine with mom. Considering
she
was the one who
wanted the damned divorce in the first place, I would have been
furious if she had said no and I think the guilt of tearing our
family apart had convinced her to let me stay.

We talked on the phone a
lot. She’s a nurse so it was easy for her to get a transfer to a
new hospital. I visited her two weekends each month. It was an
arrangement that worked for everyone and it didn’t interfere too
much with mom’s work schedule. But, that was going to have to
change now. With all the school work and going home to visit dad as
much as I could, it was going to be hard to make the trip to see
her twice a month. I hadn’t mentioned it to her yet, but it was
only a matter of time before she would figure it out.

Dad wasn’t good with these
sorts of things. As his only child, he’d put all his paternal love
and energy into raising me. After the divorce, I think he felt
guilty that I didn’t have mom around full time anymore. He seemed
to step his parenting up several notches, almost to the point of
suffocation.

We spent every weekend
doing something together and we always made time to share a meal
every evening. Discussing how our day had been over dinner was
dad’s favorite time, he told me. Once I got older, my weekends were
spent with my friends, but dinner was still always
our
time.

Now it was just going to be
him and the empty house. I felt a sudden stab of guilt. Maybe
I
should
have
stayed near home, but this was
my
future. Plus dad had always been the one to tell
me to never settle. He’d be ok. He still had his work buddies and
our neighbors were great.

Pam, Eddie and their
daughter Mel had lived next door since we moved in. Mel and I grew
up together and we knew each other inside out. She was my guardian
angel. Supporting me through the divorce and defending me whenever
I needed her. Her flame red hair complemented her fiery temperament
perfectly. She had a lean figure and pale white skin with a few
freckles spotting her cheeks. I thought she was a real, natural
beauty; though she had always struggled with her self-esteem and
always ignored compliments with a roll of her big green eyes. She
was fiercely loyal to her friends and family and had a mean right
hook to back it up. I could even remember the first time I’d seen
it and it still amazed me how a girl of her build had packed such a
punch.

When we were in high
school we’d become friends with a guy named Chris. He was fun,
smart and super cute. He was even my first kiss. We were close
right up until tenth grade.

That’s when he met
Rebecca. She didn’t like him hanging out with us and gave him an
ultimatum. Naturally, he chose the bimbo. To this day, I still
don’t know how she knew, but she’d made my life hell when she found
out he’d been my first kiss.