The Good Girl's SECRETS (PUBLISHED)

Chapter 5 (Published Version)

I didn't know how much I would love going on vacation, but being able to do whatever I want in a new place definitely has its perks. I wake up early to make sure I have enough time for everything I planned for today. Snowboarding lessons, shopping, and finding the best-reviewed bookshop they have around here. The town is small but there are so many things to see since I haven't been here before.

I make sure to bundle up again since I'm most likely going to fall on my ass a few times given the fact that I have never gone snowboarding before. I have no idea if I'll even be able to manage to stand up with the thing attached to my feet. I guess we'll find out.

I slide my phone and my extra memory card into my pocket before heading down to the kitchen. No one is home, so I decide to go out for breakfast at the little café' I passed yesterday.

When I get to the café', I order the biggest cup of hot cocoa they have, a fried croissant and strawberries on the side. The hot cocoa came in a mug the size of a small boat. It's shaped like a log with a branch as the handle and topped with a mountain-sized pile of whipped cream. The hot cocoa is delicious and the food is so fresh, like it was just freshly baked, and the strawberries picked right from the garden. It's so good I can't help but to eat every single last bite and drink every drop of my cocoa before heading back out for the day.

After an entire day of being on the slopes and not falling nearly as much as I thought I would, I am exhausted. The instructor said I was a natural with how easily I caught on and I did have a lot of fun. I definitely plan on coming back a few times before we have to go back home at the end of the week. But before I go back for the night, I feel like spending some more of the guilt money Jeff gave me. It doesn't make up for all the arguments I had to hear over the last year between them, but I don't care, guilt money spends the same way, doesn't it? And if they're going to give it to me, I'm going to enjoy myself by buying whatever the hell I want for once.

 I decide to buy all four books I found and have been wanting for a while. 'The Lost' by: Natasha Preston, 'The QB Bad Boy' by: Tay Marley, 'Losing Hope' by: Colleen Hoover and 'With You' by: Jensen Kristyne. The amazing reviews they all have gotten has drawn me in and I cannot wait to sit down to read them all. But for now, I will pack them safely in my suitcase in my room and wait to have more time to read them when I get back home.

The street lights have all come on already so I check my phone and see that it's past eight o'clock. I don't care about missing dinner and no one texts me to see where I was, so they're all most likely still out doing whatever. I walk up along the icy road to the house and lugging shopping bags full of books in the snow up a hill sucks, but it's totally worth it. I spent a couple of hours after snowboarding in the town's bookstore. 

It's the only one around apparently, so it was easy to find. The name of it is called 'INKED'. I think it's kind of a clever name. It sort of reminds me of the one back home. It's small and quiet, and has an old cottage feel to it. No matter where we move to, I always find the best bookshops.

My stomach is growling so loud by the time I reach the porch steps. It sounds as if it is echoing off every surface out here with how quiet it is. I expected the house to be loud and littered with Nate's drunken friends again. The rental car is in the driveway, telling me that mom and Jeff are probably here so it wouldn't be ideal for Nate to have a party, I guess. 

I punch in the numbers to the keypad 217241 and the door pops open for me. I head straight for the stairs with my bags in my arms and start walking up the lengthy staircase to my room when I notice shouting coming from mom and Jeff's room at the top of the landing. Nate's door opens just as I realize who's doing the shouting and he ambles out of his room, shutting the door behind him harder than necessary.