THAT FIRST BREAK (Broken Redemption Prequel 1)

Chapter 1

Lucas
1 Year Earlier

For the first time in months, I can finally relax. With the stress and pressure of junior year behind me, I feel lighter. Free.

This year was an important one. The year to impress colleges not just on my academic merits but on my extracurricular ones. I had to maintain my perfect GPA while leading the team to victory and working my ass off to impress the scouts that attended every game. Scouts who hold the key to getting a full ride to a Division 1 football college program, which is what I've wanted my entire life. In the end, I accomplished everything I set out to do, and with any luck by this time next year, I'll be weeks away from attending my top choice school. All that hard work having finally paid off.

Smiling, I release a contented sigh. Finally, I have time to go out and have some fun. After all, this is my last summer as a carefree high school kid. My last chance to have a good time, and make bad choices under the pretense that hey, I'm just a teen doing what teens do.

Ha! Yeah, right. As much as I'd love to kick back and chill, it's not how I'm built. No matter how hard I try to let loose, this little voice inside my head always reminds me of my commitments and responsibilities.

Working hard and doing what's right in honor of the sacrifices my parents made is important to me. They've surrounded me and my sister with opportunities they could only dream of when they were kids. Opportunities that opened the door for us to become people they could be proud of. It's why I've never given in to teen rebellion or the hormone-laden impulses that seem to occupy my every thought.

Thoughts like what Embree's warm body would feel like if I let my fingers explore. What her plump lips would feel like as we kiss, or what she would sound like when I...

God! What the hell is wrong with me?

Disgusted, I shake my head and stand from my bed to go find my phone.

I don't have time for this, much less for the ramifications of what could happen if I let myself go there. Emilia Barrett, or Embree as I call her, is my kryptonite. Just having her in my periphery is enough to obliterate my tight control. She's like an addiction I can't kick. Though my mind knows I shouldn't touch, that I should never chance a taste, it's like I'm fighting the inevitable. The ever-present threat of the rock bottom that will lead to my demise isn't enough to force me to stay away. She is the only thing in this life that makes me want to let go of the self-imposed control I need to exist. Which is precisely why I need to stay away from her.

Damn it! Forget about Embree and focus on Becca.

"Hey Luc, you ready?" My best friend pants into my ear as he answers my call. Ben Chelsey and I met in kindergarten. We bonded over our love of earthworms, our distaste for broccoli, and our mutual annoyance at having little sisters who were only a year younger than us.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Running," he huffs between words. "We're at Emilia's. Got Jen on my back. We're racing and beating the pants off Parker and Emi." Then the fucker laughs as if Embree's sexy body hanging on some other dude's back is some kind of joke.

"What the fuck?" I snap into action, throwing on my sneakers, before launching myself down the stairs. Everything in me demands that I go break Parker's face for daring to touch her.