It was one thing having an extended layover at the airport on a major holiday. It was another thing to have searing-hot coffee spilt all over my white shirt. And maybe it was another thing to get stuck in an elevator with an arrogant college student when the power goes out due to a snowstorm -- but all of that together was more than just a "thing". It was a bad day raised to the fourth power. #15 in Short Story on August 27th, 2017 [ Featured Book in Wattpad's "Home for the Holidays" Reading List, December 2017 ] ❤️ Completed February 23, 2020 ❤️

FIRST THREE CHAPTERS Just breathe, Kacey. Ten tiny breaths. Seize them. Feel them. Love them. Four years ago Kacey Cleary’s life imploded when her car was hit by a drunk driver, killing her parents, boyfriend, and best friend. Still haunted by memories of being trapped inside, holding her boyfriend’s lifeless hand and listening to her mother take her last breath, Kacey wants to leave her past behind. Armed with two bus tickets, twenty-year-old Kacey and her fifteen-year-old sister, Livie, escape Grand Rapids, Michigan, to start over in Miami. Struggling to make ends meet, Kacey needs to figure out how to get by. But Kacey’s not worried. She can handle anything—anything but her mysterious neighbor in apartment 1D. Trent Emerson has smoldering blue eyes, deep dimples, and he perfectly skates that irresistible line between nice guy and bad boy. Hardened by her tragic past, Kacey is determined to keep everyone at a distance, but their mutual attraction is undeniable and Trent is determined to find a way into Kacey’s guarded heart—even if it means that an explosive secret could shatter both their worlds.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover, a new novel about risking everything for love—and finding your heart somewhere between the truth and lies. At age twenty-one, Auburn Reed has already lost everything important to her. In her fight to rebuild her shattered life, she has her goals in sight and there is no room for mistakes. But when she walks into a Dallas art studio in search of a job, she doesn’t expect to find a deep attraction to the enigmatic artist who works there, Owen Gentry. For once, Auburn takes a chance and puts her heart in control, only to discover that Owen is keeping a major secret from coming out. The magnitude of his past threatens to destroy everything important to Auburn, and the only way to get her life back on track is to cut Owen out of it.

Enter the house of horrors.

We hope you'll be inspired, shocked, amused, and touched by this selection of letters from the DearTeenMe.com website. 'How awesome would it be if authors wrote letters to their teen selves?' A year and a half later, you can pick up DEAR TEEN ME from Zest Books, read more on the website, or just kick back and enjoy the selection we'll be posting here. Co-curators: E. Kristin Anderson and Priya Chand. The individual letters are property of the contributing authors. We can't guarantee your head won't explode from the mix of angst and excitement, but you *will* enjoy the ride.

"I'm distracted from the boy I've bumped into when the world around me begins to change. The grey and white I've seen ever since I was born into this world slowly begin to bleed away, like rain drops sliding down a car window, being replaced with bright, bright pigments. They cover everything, bring to life the world around me. The gravel underneath my feet is no longer a dull grey, the sky is no longer white, the bricks of the buildings no longer black. They're different, beautiful, bright, extraordinary, breathtaking. Colors, I realize. These are colors." x Natalie Grayson has lived her whole life in black and white. She's been waiting to meet her other half- her soulmate- who will make both of their worlds burst in color. It's what she's been dreaming of ever since she was little. She wants to know what color is, how it feels, what it looks like, if it's really as amazing as everyone claims it to be. On her seventeenth birthday, while walking back home through a sketchy part of town, she bumps into a stranger. Before she can even apologize, the last thing she expected happens: the black and white of her world begins to bleed away and is replaced with something else. Colors. When she looks up, Natalie isn't expecting to lock eyes with a rebel. But she does. She also doesn't expect him to run away. But he does.

The demons that haunt Elliott are turning him slowly insane, and the skeletons in his closet are begging him to play their sick little games. With an abusive mother breathing down his neck and horrifying secrets threatening to spill from his lips, Elliott is trapped. He knows he isn't allowed to love, but suddenly the thought has sparked his interest. Love may save him, but only he can decide who will help fight his demons. (highest rankings) #6 in Mystery/Thriller #1 in Horror *FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER: https://twitter.com/UWbooks