First Chance : Rock Romance #1

More from A.L. Wood

MORE FROM A.L. WOOD

An excerpt from Last Chance: Rock Romance #2

Prologue

Layla

Just getting off from my eight hour shift at the hippest local bar in Boston, I'm exhausted and ready to hit my bed full force. Luckily, I had a day shift so it wasn't nearly as busy as it is when working the night shift. I can't get Nat out of my mind. In the past week, I have only heard from her once.

When I dropped her off she promised me she would stay in contact. This is the longest we will be away from each other since we've been alive. I also know this is way out of her comfort zone. The members of "Steele's Army" are daunting and I know she puts on a tough exterior act but she can only hold that facade up for so long.

I couldn't help but push her into this. After five years of seeing her live her life hidden beneath this shell, as her best friend, I refused to stop being her enabler. She ought to have so much more than what life has thrown at her, forced upon her. I know my parents; my father more so, feels extreme guilt.

I also know that since the tragedy Nat has never blamed my dad. I have never needed her confirmation; we have always been a family. The accident ruined my dad. He killed his best friend, his brother and his wife.

After that day, he could never keep eye contact with me; a big part of the reason I agreed and supported Nat's decision to leave New York. I was tired of my family not being able to linger around me for more than ten minutes. They thought that money could somehow substitute their absence.

Do I enjoy the money? Is it cold in Antarctica?

I enjoy not having to rely on student grants or loans to pay for college. I also enjoy not having to wonder where my next paycheck is going to come from and worry over how each bill will get paid. I like being able to help people, others that are not as fortunate as I.

I enter the apartment throwing my car keys down on the kitchen counter, too lazy to attempt at cooking something to eat, I throw ramen in the microwave. While my food is cooking I decide to go into Natalie's room. This week has been agony for me. Being without her here in this apartment isn't the same. It's lonely without her music jamming loudly at all hours of the day, hell it's just lonely without her.

I've probably slept in her room four nights this week. Finding comfort by enfolding myself in her blankets. Our lives were planned to be intertwined long before we were born. Natalie will always be my other half. A part of my being. She has always felt that I was her sanity, her reason to keep moving every day. She's always voiced her opinion on that.

What she doesn't know is that I feel an overbearing guilt at what my father did. Accident or no. If my dad had just suggested they call a taxi, her parents would still be here. She wouldn't be as closed off as she is now. She wouldn't be severely heartbroken trudging along in life. Sometimes I think she can see through me. See why I do what I do. She puts on the hard shell to her exterior never letting anyone in but me. I do the opposite. I have let people in all the time. But only for a few nights of fun. Those few nights allow me to feel alive again. But I am not deserving of feeling alive.

So when the guilt makes its way in, slowly creeping along my soul. That's when I kick them out of my bed. To be honest, they don't deserve it either. If I let someone in, and let them know how much I ache for Natalie, how much hate and disgust I have for my parents or how much these thoughts consume me, they would only look at me with indifference. No one could or would ever understand.

I open her bedroom door and straight away notice she's laying in her bed.

What the fuck?

Why is she here in her room?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A.L. Wood resides in Glens Falls, NY with her husband and daughter. When she's not writing she's reading and spending time with her family and friends.

A.L. Wood can be found on Facebook and twitter, both links are below if you are interested in keeping up with any new releases.

https://www.facebook.com/ALWood

https://twitter.com/ALWoodAuthor