Freeing Reese (Tremont Lodge Series Book 3) (10 page)

I drive back to my two bedroom apartment. It has everything I need: a couch, a kitchen, a shower, and a toilet. I bought the couch and a coffee table at a garage sale when I drove into town last week. The old guy who sold it to me took pity on me when he saw my small Toyota Camry and drove the furniture to my new apartment. I don’t live in seedy downtown, but it’s not exactly suburban living, either. It’s the kind of neighborhood where no one asks questions about a young girl securing a month-by-month rent on her own, over the phone no less. All the landlord wants is the rent paid on time. I’ll keep them out of my business by paying them early. I don’t know too many seventeen-year-old girls who could live alone. But a lot of eighteen-year-olds do it, so why not one year younger? I don’t have a choice. It is what it is. Such is life.

I lay on the couch that acts as my bed to look over the school handbook. There are only 200 kids in the whole high school. Maybe I should have chosen a larger school, but I wanted to be within an hour of home this time but not so close Mom will know I’m here. That’s one reason I chose a private school, less chance of running into kids that may know me from track or cross country meets. Other than electives, most of the kids in my first period English class are going to follow me from class to class. When the same group of kids shuffle through the hallways to lockers and back to the same classroom, there’s a lot more opportunity to get to know people. And this is something I definitely don’t want to do. When I decided to run away at the end of my junior year, I vowed I’d never let anyone get close to me again.

I look over my choice of electives: band, chorus, fitness, wood shop, home economics.
I choose fitness and chorus. Dad used to say when I started singing that the angels stopped what they were doing to take notes. Now Dad’s my angel. I killed him. I didn’t
literally
kill him, but I might as well have. That’s what guilt does to you. He and Mom used to fight all the time…about me and what I did. They couldn’t agree on how to handle the situation. So one day Dad just moved out. Mom was pissed.

“So that’s what you do when things get tough? You leave. Nice example you’re setting for your girls,” I remember her screaming at Dad’s truck as it backed out of our driveway. But at night I could hear her crying through the bedroom wall. I knew how sad she was that Dad was gone. And if I hadn’t done it, if I’d made a different choice…none of this would have happened. Two weeks later I was helping Dad hang curtains in his new apartment when he lost his balance on the ladder and fell through the glass kitchen table underneath him. He didn’t die right away, but after being in a coma for a week with a head injury, Mom pulled the plug. He died in about forty-five minutes. It was all my fault.

The Lexie and Rhett Chronicles Trilogy
http://amzn.to/12jasER

Prom for One
(Short Story 1): 
http://amzn.to/11mQbxc

One senior girl without a date + One perfect boy…with a girlfriend =Prom for One

Seventeen-year-old Lexie doesn't care that she's dateless for her senior prom. Sure, her dream boy has a perfect 10 girlfriend. Sure, her best friend has a serious boyfriend. Sure, the school cad can't stop ogling her. Sure, her Dad's still in Afghanistan. But what could go wrong on such a special night in a teen girl's life? Plenty! While most of the evening is a nightmare worth forgetting, Lexie finds that sometimes when you least expect it, life gives you memories to hold onto forever.
 

Please note: This is a short story (approx. 9800 words).
**This short story is not intended for children under the age of 14.**

Graduation for Two
(Short Story 2)
http://amzn.to/1asFUkk

One graduating senior girl in love with One graduating senior boy = Two uncertain futures…In Graduation for Two
Graduation for Two
continues the love story of Lexie and Rhett from Prom for One. Only weeks into their relationship, graduation and the promises of new love beckon from their future while trouble looms all around them. Lexie and Rhett must decide whether taking a chance on their uncertain future is worth the potential heartbreak.
Graduation for Two
is a short story following the main characters from the short story
Prom
for One
. While this story can be read alone, it makes the most sense to read the introduction of the characters in
Prom for One
first.

Please note: This is a short story (approx. 10200 words).
 

Test for Three
(Short Story 3)

One heart + One mind + One body battling the odds in a quest for love = Test for Three

Test for Three
is the final short story in
The Lexie and Rhett Chronicles
trilogy. After a serious accident leaves Lexie in the hospital fighting for her life (and with Rhett away at basic training), she struggles with memories of the past, desires for the future, and the pain of the present.

Test for Three
is a short story following the main characters from the short story
Prom for One.
While this story can be read alone, it makes the most sense to read the introduction of the characters in
Prom for One
first.
 

Please note: This is a short story (approx. 6000 words).