Out of Tune

Thirty-One Letters Sneak Peek

Take a peek at Brenna's beach-filled romance. If interested in reading more, the completed book can be found on her profile.

"You can do this," Hadley muttered to herself. "You can totally do this."

She was standing at the entrance to the Wrightsville Beach fairgrounds. Through the gates, Hadley could see the bright twinkling lights advertising game booths and carnival rides. The Ferris Wheel, the same one she'd ridden every year with Tanner from the time she was a child to the previous year's fair, was turning idly and paused every so often, giving those at the top a perfect view of the coastline.

Somewhere in the crowds of people, Casey and Ian and the rest of Hadley's high school friends were walking and laughing, their lives undisturbed and joyous. They were completely unaware of the internal debate she was going through. The last time Hadley had been to the fair, Tanner had been with her.

She took a few moments to compose herself and then forced herself into motion. She bought her ticket and passed through the gates. All around her were faces she recognized. Classmates and neighbours shop owners and surfers. People from all aspects of Hadley's life were at the fair. She even thought she saw Braden and Adam from the Good Mourning Group walking together towards the line of food trucks.

Hadley had no interest in food. She felt sick to her stomach as if even the smallest bite to eat would cause her to be violently ill for days. Everywhere she looked, she saw her brother. She saw him smiling and happy, waving her towards him from the other side of the grounds. He was by the food trucks that Braden and Adam had just walked towards where they sold deep-fried Mars bars and soft drinks. He was by the Ferris Wheel, waiting for her to join him in line. He was by the carnival games where they'd wasted so much of their money on crappy prizes, all for the rush of the win.

He was as real to her as anyone else in the fairgrounds. His blond hair blew in the wind. His blue eyes, the exact same shade as Hadley's sparkled with life. He was wearing some sort of graphic t-shirt, the sort with a cheesy slogan that he'd picked up from one of the cheap local shops for tourists. Tanner could have been a person, as strong and solid and alive as anyone else in the fair.

Except, he wasn't. And the startling truth brought Hadley back to reality as he suddenly disappeared from view. She turned in a slow circle, her eyes scanning the throngs of people, looking for any trace of him but he was gone. A ghost in the wind.

Hadley felt her chest tighten as she came to a stop facing the ring toss booth. It was a game she knew well. Just last year, she and Tanner had wasted over thirty dollars trying to win the top prize—a cheap-looking red guitar that Tanner had wanted to win so that he could hang it up in his room. The fact that he hadn't known how to play the guitar hadn't been a concern.

And where Tanner had been just a year earlier, there was now another guy. He was likely a few years older than she was, Hadley thought as she watched him a moment. He was tall and dark-haired, so dark that it was impossible to tell whether it was brown or black. His skin was naturally tanned and she could see even from twenty feet away that his nose was crooked. The man had a strong jaw and prominent cheekbones and, she saw — as his gaze passed right over her — odd gray eyes.

His hands were stuffed in the pocket of his blue jeans and his long-sleeved navy blue shirt. The thing that stood out the most to Hadley wasn't his appearance, it was the way he seemed completely and utterly lost. He wasn't a local, Hadley knew that, because she didn't recognize him.

It was while she was watching him, Tanner's voice whispered in her ear, "Do it, Had. It's really not that big of a deal."

What's not? she wanted to ask but she couldn't find her voice. And then her fingers brushed across the envelope in her pocket and she knew what he was saying.

"Just one kiss," Tanner's voice continued. "If it's terrible, you never have to see him again. Think about that. One kiss and you can move on forever."

Just one kiss, Hadley thought. What's so hard about a kiss?

Suddenly, it seemed stupid that she'd wasted four days on this task. Before she could talk herself out of it, she was moving forward towards the man. He didn't notice her coming — his eyes were shifting about the fair as if looking for someone — until the last possible second. It was only in the final few steps before she reached him that he seemed to notice her. Hadley watched as his strange eyes lit up slightly in confusion as she came to a stop in front of him.

"Hi," she said.

He raised an eyebrow. "Hi?"

"I know this is weird," Hadley said and her voice hitched. "But I was dared to kiss a stranger."

"Okay...?"

Hadley steeled herself, forcing back the panic and awkwardness. It would have been much easier to walk up to him and just kiss him but Hadley was pretty sure that could technically be an assault. So she asked, "Can I kiss you? For this dare?"

Gray-eyes cocked his head to the side and took half a second to read her face and her nervous twitching. What he saw there, she didn't know, but after a moment he shrugged. "Sure, I guess. For a dare."

That was all Hadley needed to hear before she reached up and pressed her lips against his.

The kiss wasn't long or passionate or really remarkable at all. It was short and odd. Hadley was being guided by some invisible force. She didn't know what gray-eyes was feeling but she could tell that he was still surprised that she'd gone through with it. He stood very still. For a very short moment, Hadley kissed him and then the moment passed and she tore her lips from his and left.

Hadley could feel his eyes on her retreating figure but he said nothing. Not a word or a breath. He just watched her go. She ducked into a crowd of people and made her way behind the line of food trucks, far away from the man with the gray eyes.

"What did I just do?" she asked herself. She started laughing at the absurdity of it. It bubbled up and out of her in short little bursts and it felt so good to laugh that she just kept doing it.

Hadley was certain that she must have looked crazy to passersby but she didn't quite care. At that moment, she was absolutely and completely free.