Torn (Torn Series)

Copyright © 2013 by K.A. Robinson
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Stephanie Rogers / FlowerGirl Photography
Book design by K.A. Robinson
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
K.A. Robinson
Visit my Facebook page at
www.facebook.com/KARobinson13

This book is dedicated first and foremost to my husband
for putting up with countless nights of me glued to my laptop, to my parents, who I wouldn’t be who I am today without them, to my son for bringing so much joy to my life, and to my Ninjas and my Cougars. You ladies know who you are. Love you all.

Table of Contents

Chapter One – First Sight

Chapter Two – Falling For You

Chapter Three – I’ve Got Your Number

Chapter Four – Drunk Men Talk Too Much

Chapter Five – Confessions

Chapter
Six – My Hero

Chapter
Seven – Welcome Home

Chapter
Eight – Surprises

Chapter Nine
– Inked

Chapter Ten
– Demons

Chapter Eleven
– It’s Coffee Time

Chapter Twelve
– Everything Changes

Chapter Thirteen
– The Cheat

Chapter Fourteen
– The Greatest Mistake

Chapter Fif
teen – Escape

Chapter Six
teen – Cleaning Out My… Car?

Chapter Seven
teen – It Gets Worse

Chapter Eigh
teen – Mommy Dearest

Chapter Nineteen
– And We All Fall Apart

Chapter Twenty – Picking Up
The Pieces

Chapter Twenty One – Second Chances

Drake – Three Months Later

Chapter One

First Sight

My friends often tell me that I would be late for my own funeral. As I heard someone knocking on my dorm door, I rolled over and glanced at the clock. My eyes widened at the time and I scrambled out of bed thinking they’re probably right. I ran to the door and threw it open, only to see my best friend Logan staring at me with amusement on his face.

“Good morning Chloe, I see you’re going to make us late as usual.”

Logan was one of the most attractive guys I had ever seen. With his sandy blond hair, blue eyes, and ripped body, he’s every woman’s wet dream. The fact that he was one of the sweetest people I knew just gave him extra points. I had no doubt that he would have several women chasing after him once they noticed him around campus.

“Oh my God, I can’t even be on time for our first day!” I shouted as I made my way around my room hunting for something to wear. I quickly found an ol
d pair of jeans and a black Stone Sour tee I had thrown down beside my bed. I ripped my pajamas off and threw them on my bed before jumping into my jeans and shirt.

“Well at least you had on underwear and a bra befo
re you did that,” Logan mumbled, staring at me with a devilish look in his eyes.

“Very funny Logan, it’s not like you’ve never seen me in a bikini. Underwear and a bra
are pretty much the same thing.”

I rushed over to my dresser and grabbed my brush, running it through my hair before pulling it into a low ponytail to keep it out of my face. It was a good thing I wasn’t the type of girl who messed with makeup much, or we really would have been late. With my blond
e hair, blue eyes, and blemish free fair skin, I was often referred to as a porcelain doll by my friends. Not that I was pretty, just average enough to blend in with every other female out there, at least that was my opinion anyway.

The only thing that could possibly make me stand out on a campus full of thousands of blonde girls was what my other best friend Amber liked to refer to as my “Blonde Rocker Chick Look”. While most girls around here wore the cute pink look or the
camo look, I preferred to take a darker approach to life. My wardrobe tended to lean toward the darker side, almost every shirt I owned had some kind of Rock band on the front and I had both my ears gauged out slightly. My hands were usually covered in rings and I felt naked if I didn’t have at least five rubber bracelets on each wrist. I liked my look, but Amber had always insisted I scared more men away with it than she could count.

I grabbed my bag off the desk and headed out the door, locking it behind me.

“Seriously Logan, I am so sorry. I was sure that I would be up on time today, I guess I didn’t hear my alarm clock again.”

H
e looked over at me and grinned, “I wouldn’t expect anything less of you. The fact we managed to end up in the same dorm is probably a blessing. Without me as your unofficial alarm clock you really never would make it to class.”

I linked our arms together as we stepped out of our dorm and headed across campus to our first class. “What would I ever do without you as my hero?”

“Hmmm, I’m going to guess you’d be late every day.”

I elbowed him in the ribs. “Thanks Logan, you’re the best.”

We made it into the building and found our classroom with only a moment to spare. Glancing around the room we found two empty seats in the last row and quickly sat down, hoping the professor at the front of the room wouldn’t notice our almost late arrival. As I sat my bag on the floor, I glanced at the guy sitting next to me and my heart nearly stopped.

I had never seen a man as gorgeous as he was in my entire life. Where Logan was all light and sweet, he was the physical embodiment of the stereotypical bad boy. His hair was so dark it could be considered black,
and it hung down into his eyes and around his face in a shaggy yet attractive mess. I couldn’t see the color of his eyes, but they looked as dark as his hair.

I noticed that he had
piercings in his eyebrow and his lip, as well as a few tattoos poking out of his shirt sleeves on both of his arms. As I stared at the tattoos, I wondered if he had any others hidden under his shirt. Not that I was the type to fall for the body modification bad boy type, despite my own appearance, but this guy could have worn his hair dyed pink and in pigtails and pulled it off looking hot. 

     As
if he somehow sensed my eyes locked on him, he glanced up at me. I quickly looked away, blushing furiously that I had been caught staring at him. I chanced another glance and saw he was still watching me, which made my blush deepen. He must have noticed it from the smile appearing on his face as I quickly turned away from him again.

             
The rest of class, I refused to even look in his direction. I listened to the professor go over everything, taking notes when I thought I needed to. Before I knew it, class was over and I was putting my books into the bag sitting at my feet. As I threw my bag over my shoulder, I noticed my hot neighbor already walking out the door. I stood and headed out of the building with Logan by my side.

As we made our
way down the stairs I saw him standing only a few feet away from us smoking a cigarette. I noticed him smirking at me out of the corner of my eye. I kept my focus on the conversation I was having with Logan as we made our way past him, refusing to give him the satisfaction of catching me staring at him again.

“Hey, do you know that guy?” Logan asked when we were out of earshot.

Lost in my thoughts, I looked at him confused, “Who?”

“That
guy standing back there, he keeps staring at you.”

I glanced over my shoulder to see him referring to the hot guy still standing there smoking,
still staring at me with that damn smirk on his face. 

“Oh, I have no idea who he is,
” I said as I turned away from him before he could notice that I was blushing from being caught yet again.

             
Logan and I finished the walk across campus with an easy silence. It had always been this way with us, I always felt comfortable and safe with him as long as we had been friends. He transferred to my school our freshman year of high school and was assigned the seat next to me in Mrs. Jenkins English class. We had instantly bonded over guessing whether her hair was real or a wig and the rest was history.

We had spent every moment of high school attached at the hip, which had caused problems with some of his old girlfriends. They were convinced that we were secretly together or
that he had a crush on me. We had always laughed the rumors off, but I had felt guilty more than once about ruining some of his past relationships.

             
Our next class, Spanish, went much like the previous one, except the hot guy was nowhere to be seen. I actually felt kind of relieved, seeing as every moment I was within a mile of him my cheeks were permanently red.  I had no idea what my problem was when it came to him. I did not get flustered around men, yet with one look he could almost bring me to my knees. I needed to get a grip.

Once the professor dismissed us, we headed across campus to grab some lunch. Logan and I had
nearly identical schedules on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but our Tuesday and Thursday schedules were totally backwards from each other. My only saving grace was the fact his first class on those mornings were at the same times as mine, so I knew he would make sure I was up and out the door on time.

I glan
ced up at him as we grabbed our food and headed toward an empty table to eat. He really was gorgeous, even as his best friend I had noticed this. Truthfully, when I had first met him, I had a slight crush on him, but after getting to know him so well, my feelings had changed from a crush to friendship. Without him around, I really would be lost.

When the
time came to apply for colleges, I had flipped out for weeks until I knew if we would be going to the same college. I had kept up a perfect 4.0 GPA all through high school so I had several options available, but Logan was determined to attend WVU and I wanted to be with him. When we both received our acceptance letters in the mail on the same day, I had rushed to his house and tackled him with excitement. I knew college would change us both, but I hoped that we would always remain best friends. I don’t think I could handle it any other way.

“What? Do I have
food on my face?” He asked as he wiped at the imaginary food on his chin.

“No,
why?”

“Well, because you have been staring at me for the last five minutes.”

I grinned up at him, “Sorry I was just thinking about how I would be lost without you here with me. You know that right?”

He pulled me into a tight hug,
“Don’t ever worry about that Chloe, you will always have me. We will be old and gray and still together.”

I hugged him back,
“I’m glad. Hopefully my future husband and your future wife won’t mind us being permanently attached to each other.”

His face grew tight at my words a
nd I looked at him in confusion, “What’d I say?”

His face quic
kly relaxed and he smiled at me, “Nothing, I was just thinking that you will never find a guy good enough to be your husband. Speaking of guys not good enough, what was up with that guy who was sitting next to you this morning? He was staring at you like he wanted to eat you alive.”

I rolled my eyes,
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. He wasn’t staring at me. He just happened to look up when we did I’m sure. There was no way a guy like that would ever be interested in me.”