Page 1 of The Broken Beginning: Part One

1 - Just a Dream

Tiger Lily

“Isn’t it time you gave up on your little crush?” Madeline – who refused to be called Maddy – sniped at me in an acidic tone that had me bristling. It wouldn’t be until much later, and far too late, that I would understand she also had a crush on the same man.

“I already know he doesn’t see me like that,” I whispered while turning away from watching Damon flirt with one of the cheerleaders – Brinley – who only wanted to walk on the wild side with him for a minute. There was no way she planned out her wedding to him the way I started doing when I was twelve. Her dad would never allow that to happen anyway.

“More like he doesn’t see you at all,” Madeline jeered, my narrow-eyed gaze not bothering her in the least as she stood to leave. “I’m getting another beer, and maybe I’ll go fuck your crush while I’m at it. I stand a better chance of getting somewhere anyway.” She glanced back at me after two steps, as if what she’d just said shouldn’t faze me, and I should be following along like a good little dog. That would happen over my dead body! She had just proven, once again, that she was a shitty friend, and I didn’t think staying at the party with her was in the cards any longer. Madeline rolled her eyes as she continued off in the opposite direction looking for her next drink.

I swiped at the traitorous tear that slid down my cheek because there was no going back from this. I’d just lost a friend. Even if she had proved to be a shitty one, and my dreams about Damon were crushed once again. I kept telling myself that I was barely 16, and a lot could change. It was the beginning of my junior year. Just two more years, and I’d graduate and move on to college. My dream was to move to some place new and shiny where people might actually see me. It probably wouldn’t happen though. My parents weren’t exactly rich enough to pay for school on the west coast. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure California was far enough from South Carolina to run from my eventual heartbreak where Damon Donovan was concerned.

I dropped my half empty cup onto the bed of someone’s truck and started for the road. Madeline, who had failed third grade, was seventeen, already had her driver’s license, and had been my ride to the party. Garret Branson held these parties in the field on the back side of his dad’s farm. It was the only place where no one ever complained or called the cops to bust up the party, so everyone always trekked out there. Unfortunately for me, it meant that the walk back home was going to be a long one. Luckily, I had worn my sneakers because I didn’t have anyone to impress by breaking an ankle while marching around the field in high heels like some of the girls did.

Just the dirt lane to get out to the highway was almost a mile long. Halfway down the damn thing, headlights lit up the path from behind me, so I moved over to the side. I couldn’t get too close though because there was a ditch on either side that always seemed to be filled with water. I shivered at the thought of what else might be lying in wait in those ditches. Water moccasins were always a possibility, and that was enough to make me want to take my chances at getting hit by some drunken teenager leaving the party rather than a venomous snake bite.

Yeah, it was unlikely, but still snakes were known assholes and I didn’t trust a single one of them, especially the ones that I couldn’t see lurking in the dark, murky waters that were barely lit by the sliver of moon in the sky. Instead of going around me, the truck stopped. I glanced up to see the familiar rusty red beast that normally sat across the street from my house. My heart rate ticked up exponentially at the sight.

“What are you doing down the lane by yourself?”

His voice was almost enough to bring me to my knees. I never heard it directed at me, so to hear that voice – all deep and sexy in the middle of the night – had my knees quivering.

“Walking home.”

“What the fuck? Home is twelve miles away, sugar.”

I guess the snakes would get a feast tonight, because I had to have been knocked out, dreaming on the side of the damn dirt lane because there was no way I heard that correctly. Damon had just called me sugar. Somehow, I managed to play it cool though, despite the fact that the endearment made me go wobbly on the inside.

“Come on,” he insisted. “Get your ass in the truck. I’ll take you home.”

For the first time, I peeked inside his truck. Honestly, I’d expected to see the cheerleader inside. Brinley Jacobs had been all over him all night long. There was no way I’d ever sit next to her for even a second, let alone a twelve-mile ride back home. She had never been kind to me and being a senior this year just seemed to make her behavior worse.

“Don’t have all night, sugar. In or out, but I gotta go.”

“Fine.” I moved quickly and grabbed the handle on his truck and then yanked hard because the door wasn’t budging with a gentle pull. He chuckled as it released and flung backwards causing me to stumble a bit. I hauled my butt into his truck and shut the door with a rusty creaking sound before I finally turned to look at him.

“You wanna tell me why you were planning to walk all the way home?” My shoulders bobbed up and down again as Damon shook his head. “You know what kind of people are on the road this late at night, sugar?” He asked and when I didn’t answer he proceeded to tell me. “Besides all those drunk idiots back there, who will be driving home sooner than it’ll take you to walk the distance, there’s all kinds of freaks and perverts who would love to pick up a sweet young thing like you.”

I rolled my eyes at that. “No one would even notice me walking,” I argued.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the way Damon’s head turned in my direction, and then he slowly allowed his eyes to drift over my body. “You’re barely wearing clothes. Short as fuck shorts and your tits are hanging out your shirt.”

I gasped at his ridiculous description of my outfit. I was wearing some cutoff denim shorts. Maybe the pockets hung down a little lower than the actual shorts, but everything was covered, and it was more than I could say for what Brinley had been wearing tonight. Her skirt barely hid her ass cheeks from view. And my tank top was an older ZZ Top band shirt that my dad had lying around. There was nothing wrong with it, so long as I didn’t lean forward too much. Then, my bra-covered boobs might be noticed. Granted, you could see that bra on the sides, thanks to the over-large armholes since it was a man-sized shirt.

“The only sensible thing you did tonight is wear tennis shoes,” Damon grunted, and I wanted to kick him in his teeth. Seriously? My years-long crush finally notices and talks to me, and he was speaking as though I was an idiot.

“You know what? Why don’t you pull over and just let me out since I’m so awful?”

“Already told you, there’s all kinds of bad people out there who would pick your ass up in a heartbeat.”

“So what! Let them! I’m not your problem.”

We had made it to the highway by then, but Damon took the next exit off Highway 17 and pulled us into what looked like a deserted driveway that went straight back into a cluster of trees that was too thinned out to be considered a forest, but still thick enough that someone might get lost in the woods if they weren’t paying attention. Once the truck was out of view of the road, Damon slammed it in park and then did the craziest thing ever.

He reached across the bench seat and grabbed hold of my leg, sliding me closer to him. That didn’t suit him though, so he manhandled me until I was sitting between him and the steering wheel with my legs straddling his.

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