I wish I Didn't Love You

Hi. I'm Layla. Seventeen, still in school, and trying to escape the Bronx before it swallows me whole. I work at Hooters (no, not in that outfit), I have a six-pack I earned through sweat and tears, and my best friend Kara is the only thing keeping me sane. Life in the hood is a warzone, and my generation is killing each other over nothing. Every day, I wonder if I'll make it out alive.

Then he walked in.

He was everything I wasn't supposed to want. Tall, with dreads and hazel eyes that shifted from warm honey to cold steel depending on his mood. Handsome enough to make you forget your own name-and dangerous enough to make you remember it forever.

I couldn't stay away. I didn't want to. I fell so deep into him that I forgot where I ended and he began. Now I'm addicted to a love that burns instead of heals. Everyone says you have to let go of the people you love to grow up. But what if he's the only thing keeping me alive?

And what if I know-deep down-that he's the one thing that will break me?

This is the story of how I met the man of my dreams... and why I wish I never did.