A Readers Guide to Romance

Chapter 1

Friday, May 19:

Spoiler alert: Avery Montgomery was still not a reader. She did however feel a little bit closer to that sentiment. Throughout the rest of highschool she kept reading, but never found something quite as good as that one book. So, yes, she did keep reading but lacked a bit of the same motivation and enthusiasm as those other readers. As her optimism dropped and workload rose, Avery spent less and less time reading new books and spent the majority of her reading time simply re-reading Better than the Movies, highlighting, annotating and acting out the best scenes until she lost time for reading even her favorite book.

When Avery moved out and all the way to North Carolina for vet school, that book that once occupied her thoughts now fell into the background, unable to compete with college courses, a new job, and going out with friends when she wasn't doing one or the other. The book that had once been open in her hands at least once or twice a month, now lived in her desk drawer, waiting to be opened again.

It had been only a few months since Avery came home to visit her parents, but years since she's stayed longer than just a week, eager to get back to school and further along her plans of being a veterinarian. This summer that would be different. For the first time since she started at NCSU, Avery isn't taking any courses over the summer, spending that time instead back in her hometown to help care for her father.

The diagnosis came out of nowhere. It had just been a routine check up, he had mentioned having some issues with remembering things, just little things like where he had put his keys or what day of the week it was. Sure these things were common, normal even, but not for him. From there it developed quickly, now, only five months later he's gone from forgetting the little things to bigger things. According to her mother, Avery's father is beginning to forget what he had said not twenty minutes earlier and again, he's forgetting his stories halfway through telling them.

So as soon as finals were over and done with, Avery packed up and stuffed her car with all the things she could possibly need, and set off on the journey back to small town Mississippi. Once she was about 30 minutes away from her destination, Avery switched the radio to the local station, listening to the end of a song that was vaguely familiar before the talk show host came on, the familiar voice filling her ears and bringing a smile to her face - Avery had grown up listening to Jenny Groves drone on about musicians and celebrities she never really cared about - she was home.

Avery was only half listening to the words coming through the speakers until something caught her attention. Turning up the volume, she paid closer attention to Jenny Groves' voice, "-they're holding auditions in a few weeks and rumor has it filming is to take place in Mississippi's very own town of Ackerman. So if you've been waiting for your big debut, this is your opportunity! You know, I still find it very ironic that the title is 'Better than the Movies' and they're actually making a movie out of it! Anyway, go online to find more audition details!"

***

By the time Avery made it home, it was late. Her father was already in bed and her mother half awake on the couch as the old grandfather clock in the living room chimed eleven o'clock. Avery quickly unpacked the car, moved her stuff back into her old bedroom, and said goodnight to her mother. She went back up the stairs to her own room, which was still decorated purple and pink - the colors she'd chosen when she was little - and plopped down onto the twin sized mattress in the middle of the room.

Rather than unpacking the bags stacked by the wall across the room she pulled out her phone, unable to stop herself she looked up the details for the auditions. They started next week, just like the radio had said, and there was a very convenient "sign up here" button underneath all the information about date and location. Just out of curiosity, Avery pressed that big blue button and her phone screen immediately filled with a form, which was surprisingly formatted to be very easy to go through and fill out. Which she did - just out of curiosity.

At the bottom of this page was another big blue button which said "submit" and without really thinking, Avery pressed that button. Only once she received the email saying "thank you for your submission, we will contact you shortly with the time and date of your audition!" did she really process what she had done. Then came the question of why did I just do that? And then how do I undo it? And finally should I undo it?

Avery deliberated that final question for some time, or what felt like a long time when she was tired and laying in bed, when she ultimately came up with a question that put a damper in her stress - at least for the night; what's the harm in auditioning?