Before Us

Prologue

DANI

June 2013 — 14 years old

"Calm down, please. He didn't mean it." I tried to coax my twin brother, Cameron, off the edge of what was no doubt the next big meltdown. I fiddled with the bracelet on my wrist. Cam and I had similar ones. We made them a few months prior. I had gotten a new jewelry kit and begged him to play with me.

"Yes, he did. He always means it. You're too blind being daddy's little princess to notice it." Cam stomped off in the opposite direction towards his room. He went to his closet and pulled on his hoodie before facing me.

"That's not true. Dad just.... You know he's under a lot of stress with the new building contract and..."

"Yeah? And what will be his excuse next time? I'm fourteen, not eighteen. I have my whole life to figure out what I want to do. I don't need that kind of pressure right now." Cameron sighed as he picked up his bag and walked over to his desk.

Cam and our dad had always butt heads with each other. I could see it from his point of view though. Dad rode him a lot about getting serious, his grades, and to start learning about the family business. I guess since I was mom's focus, I never got the bad end of the stick when it came to dad. Ballet was my life and dad had Cam's life already mapped out. I never thought of what would happen if he didn't want to follow in my dad's footsteps because it was just what the plan was always meant to be.

"Where are you going?" I asked as he shoved a flashlight and a few books into his bag.

"The site." He shrugged and walked past me.

"What? Why?" I trailed closely behind him. Our dad never let us on a site unless we were with him and even then, we weren't allowed near the buildings. I sighed and quickly grabbed his hand. "You can't go there."

"Oh yeah? Says who?" He jerked away and started for the stairs.

"Cam!" I tried to plead with him.

"Look, I just need to get away from him. I'm not hurting anyone; all I have are books. I'm just going to lay around and read. Come with me."

"I don't know..." My eyes ping ponged between him and the floor, weighing the pros and cons of what this entailed exactly. The fear and anxiety of doing anything that my parents didn't know about was always there washed over me.

"Live a little, Dani." He smiled at me as I fidgeted with the bracelet he made me. I took a deep breath and nodded. We headed to the garage and grabbed our bikes before peddling off to one of the sites my dad was working on.

* * *

"Took you long enough." We laid our bikes down next to the fence where my brother's best friend, Logan, stood waiting for us. "I was beginning to think you chickened out." He pushed my brother.

"Me? Never." Cam laughed as he reached into his pocket and unlocked the gate that closed off the construction site.

"You stole dad's keys?" I crossed my arms and furrowed my brows..

"How did you think we were getting in?" Cam rolled his eyes as he pushed open the gates and walked up toward the partially collapsed building. Dad had said they were tearing it down to make room for condos or something. I wonder if the new owners knew that this place used to be an old shoe factory. I mean, of course, they did. I'm sure they did their research when purchasing this land.

"It'll be fine, Dani." Logan ran his fingers up and down my shoulder, smiling down at me. Logan Mariano may be the only boy I have ever loved. His dark honey hair full of curls—blew effortlessly around, scraping against his forehead. My eyes drifted to his deep ocean eyes and his nose which was littered with a light layer of freckles. Then, my gaze dropped to his lips. Those gorgeous plump lips that I had been dying to feel against my own since the first night he kissed me a few months ago. When he kissed me, he told me he wanted to be my boyfriend. I nearly died. I wanted it to be true so badly but insisted we wait until I could find a way to tell Cam. He looked over his shoulder back at my brother who was too busy searching his bag for the flashlight he packed earlier, to notice what was going on between the two of us. Logan leaned in quickly and kissed the side of my cheek before walking toward my brother.