BRAVO - PEACH JELLYBEAN DREAM a spectreverse short story [book B]

Chapter TWO

Avalon Walker

I'd be lying if I told you I hadn't been looking for trouble when I walked into the downtown pool bar..
I have been looking for anything to give me a thrill lately..

To take back my power.. To reclaim myself from the wreckage of my own body..
Anything to make me feel alive..

Because whatever it is that I have been doing for the last six years.. Well..
It wasn't living..

It was hell..

Whoever coined the phrase: 'Beauty is pain', must have been a principal dancer..
Because my time as prima ballerina with the most prestigious Ballet company in all of Europe was torture..

Beauitful torture..

"I'll play your game, Peaches.. What are the rules?" Axle grins a satanic smirk across the table at me..

How is it possible he has gotten even hotter since graduating?..

God, he was always a bad-boy.. One I avoided throughout school, since my father would have very literally murdered any boy I dated, I avoided everybody..

But ever since I was hospitalised for dehydration, malnutrition, exhaustion and a whole mess of other things twelve months ago, my parents had insisted on flying me home and now it seems nothing I do is wrong..

Dad has been treating me as though I am made of glass, and that has meant a serious lapse in his typical disciplinarian attitude.. Meanwhile, mom is constantly worried about the insane pressure I've been putting myself under trying to achieve the impossibly high standard of perfection..

I don't want to be perfect anymore..
I am so tired.. And I feel as though I've been tired my whole life..

Now that I have quit the dance company, I just want to be me.. Whoever that is..

So maybe almost dying on stage was a blessing in disguise..

Because it brought me a whole new perspective and reconnected me with the two people who have always loved me and been there for me.. My amazing, generous and loving parents, Killian and Aisling Walker..

Still.. I'm not entirely sure how Dad will feel about his old Marine buddies son, Axle Paxton.. When we were younger, Axle definitely had the reputation of a bad boy, a real rebel without a cause, and everybody knew he was trouble..

Honestly, I had kind of hated him back then.. His cocky arrogance and the way he got away with anything and everything.. The way he fought with other guys.. The amount of girls he left broken hearted..

Axle was just bad news.. So even though our mother's have always been good friends, Axle and I absolutely never were.

Oh but my god, I swear he is all man now.. All muscles.. Dark caramel eyes like molten toffee and ashy blonde hair that is short and spiked in roguish, militant style..

In his sexy dark denim jeans and fitted crisp white t-shirt.. Yes.. He will do nicely for a thrill..

And I have to admit, I had always wondered if Axle lived up to the hype of his notorious name..
The party boy.. The good time guy..