A Fox's Love (Sample)

Paper Route

Have you ever experienced one of those life-changing instances? An event so momentous that, years later, you're still marveling at how it changed your life?

Kevin sat there, on the floor, his hands behind his back, acting as support so he didn't fall over. He stared up at the person before him, dazed, shocked, and on the verge of freaking out.

She stared down at him from beneath a curtain of shimmering hair. It was reminiscent of fire. A vibrant red that glistened in the afternoon sun. Beautiful. That was the only word he could think of, yet even that word seemed incapable of truly describing the gloriousness of her hair—or, indeed, of describing her at all.

I had one of those. It happened a while ago. Even to this day, through all the changes that have happened, through all the experiences that I've been through, I still can't believe how this one moment changed my life forever.

Her appearance would have made angels rage in jealousy. It wasn't just her hair, which was long enough to descend past her thighs. Vibrant emerald eyes gazed upon him with a joy that took his breath away. Lush red lips, the kind that any hot-blooded male would have loved to claim with a kiss, curved in delight, making his arms wobble. Her body, which seemed to have been crafted by the devil himself to represent lust, threatened to steal Kevin of his consciousness.

No matter what came after, our first meeting is something that I'll always remember.

Her Cupid's bow lips parted, and from that deliciously shaped mouth came a single word, one laced with so much sweetness that Kevin could've sworn he was in an anime; one of those romantic comedies where the female falls in love with the main character at first sight.

Especially since, at the beginning of this tale, I thought she was nothing but an ordinary fox with, unordinarily enough, two bushy red tails.

"Beloved..."

Life; it hits you when you least expect it to.

***

The Swift residence was situated inside of the Le Monte apartment complex located in Phoenix, Arizona.

It was a nice place to live, all things considered. It wasn't very ritzy, but the grass was green, there were two well-maintained swimming pools—among other amenities—and all of the apartment buildings were clean, modern-looking structures with red roofing and white stucco walls. There were definitely worse places to live.

The apartment belonging to the Swifts was modest in size, possessed two-bedrooms and two-bathrooms, contained a moderately sized kitchen connected to a living room, and an office near the master bedroom. Despite not being very large, it had all the comforts one would expect to find in a well-loved home.

Lining the walls were pictures within frames of various sizes and styles. The images were of a pretty young woman who didn't look a day over twenty, and a boy who grew throughout each picture. In one, he was a small baby that looked like a tiny ball of fat and pudge, as all babies do. In another, he was a young boy no older than one with a head full of peach-fuzz hair. In another, he was a preteen with short, spiky hair and a large grin, holding a soccer ball in his hands while standing next to an equally grinning girl with boyishly short blond hair. All of the pictures showed the boy as he grew up, and the young-looking woman, who was obviously the boy's mother.

The apartment was mostly empty of inhabitants, save for one bedroom where the boy in the pictures peacefully slept―

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

BE—CRUNCH!

―Or at least, where he was sleeping, until the alarm clock went off, ruining a wonderful dream. Couldn't it have beeped just ten seconds later? He had been just about to share a romantic kiss with Lindsay!