~COMPLETED ~
After an accident that claims the life of her mother and leaves her father paralyzed, Erica Smith is never the same.
Erica has people around her but is incapable of really letting anyone in. She keeps her secrets, thoughts, problems and...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
BLURB
JARED
My greatest problems are my stutter and my mother — I take those two things has the two greatest banes of my existence. The two always seem to fight for dominance as the ‘true’ greatest but they would never triumph over the true one which is my abusive father who is literally the cause of both banes.
However, those problems are never the solitary things on my mind. Those problems didn't end up destroying me by drowning me in the sea of depression only because someone threw me a lifeline and pulled me out. That someone became my best friend not only because he always makes my family issues and my speech problem feel nonexistent or because he never sees them when he sees me but because he was the first that saw that I was drowning.
Chase Paisley is the name of the best friend that helps me want to live. Chase is always there for me. We have been best friends for close to eight years and are inseparable. We always support each other and try to help each other make their wishes come true. Except, we've had to spend our last three summers away from each other.
It's in those summers that Chase gets to see the one thing that he has always wanted, Liliana Boyce. The girl he sees every year in summer camp. The girl he always tells me about. The girl he loves but can't pursue because of the long distance between them.
The one summer when Chase and Liliana didn't go to camp and I went out of my town to my gran's, I met a girl. The first girl that I genuinely liked, a petite blue-eyed blonde named Arabella. I thought Arabella returned my feelings…
Until, the girl I met moves to my town and is introduced to me as Liliana Boyce, the girl my best friend loves.
Until, I learn that Arabella — no, Liliana — recognized me as Jared, Chase's best friend but had lied about her name to me. She stated her reasons but they don't matter because she lied.
The only trouble now is that even though I believe this, I still have feelings for Liliana and they somehow keep on growing but I have to watch as she dates my best friend. The friend I owe a lot to. The friend that is clueless to the tension between me and his soon-to-be-girlfriend only if she finally agrees.
I tell myself that she hasn't agreed yet because she wants me. I tell myself that even if it isn't that, I'm still happy she didn't agree to be with him. I'm sad though because I know her hesitance is hurting my friend and whenever he tells me guilt eats me up but that doesn't mean I still want her to agree.
So what do I want — for her to come to me and I forever lose my best friend, for her to be with my best friend and I'd hurt in silence and have to withdraw from him or for neither of us to have her.
I have to choose quickly because the side glances can't continue, the charged silence when we are alone can't continue, the envy when I see her with my best friend who has a bigger claim on her can't continue. I have to choose, her or him because I can't have them both.
